Kate Smith performs Irving Berlin’s ‘God Bless America’ for first time 80 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Nov 10 1938)

1930s


Video: 'God Bless America, First Radio performance, Armistice Day November 10, 1938, Kate Smith'

(Thursday, November 10, 1938, 8:00-9:00 p.m. EST) — Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on her CBS radio program tonight.

Written during World War I in 1918, Berlin, who was Jewish, felt, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, it was time to revive it as a “peace song” on an Armistice Day broadcast sung by Smith on her radio show.