Kate Smith

Singing patriot Kate Smith was born Kathryn Elizabeth Smith on May 1, 1907. As a child she showed a devoted interest toward singing and dancing, initially appearing in jazz nightclubs before opting for a standard music career.

Discovered by the famed singer/dancer Eddie Dowling, Kate made her Broadway debut in his musical comedy "Honeymoon Lane" in 1926.

She began making records in 1926 and over the years her best-selling hits would include "River, Stay 'Way From My Door" (1931), "The Woodpecker Song" (1940), "The White Cliffs of Dover" (1941), "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" (1942), "There Goes That Song Again" (1944), "Seems Like Old Times" (1946), "Now Is the Hour" (1947) and "How Great Thou Art (1965).

Double-chinned and exceedingly heavyset, she served as the plump, singing slapstick foil to the star, and continued in that same predictable vein with the subsequent tour of "Hit the Deck" and in "Flying High" the 1930 Broadway show headlining Bert Lahr. Unhappy at being made fun of in burlesque comedy and preferring to focus on her natural singing ability, Kate quickly joined forces with Columbia Records vice president Ted Collins who subsequently became her partner, protector and manager.

Pointing her in the direction of radio, Kate made her debut in 1931 and her stardom was secured by year's end. She went on to break the record for longevity at the renown Palace Theatre.

Her radio celebrity prompted a guest cameo role in the Paramount musical film The Big Broadcast (1932) singing what would become her signature piece "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" (she had co-written the lyrics). This, in turn, led to her first and only film vehicle.

In Hello, Everybody! (1933), Kate Smith literally played Kate Smith, a meek, plus-sized radio singer who unabashedly tends to her farm in between jobs while losing the man of her dreams (Randolph Scott) to her svelte-looking sister, played by Sally Blane. As expected, Kate's character finds true happiness not in the arms of a man but in the helping and caring of others. True to form, Kate never married. Realizing she was not at all film material, Kate wisely stuck with radio and recordings, appearing in a film only one other time--as a guest singing "God Bless America" in the Warner Bros.

Kate had one of the most popular radio variety shows with "The Kate Smith Hour", which aired weekly from 1937-1945. At the same time she fronted the top daytime radio show with the midday "Kate Smith Speaks," a news and commentary program.

Kate asked Irving Berlin himself for a patriotic song for her radio show, and he gave her "God Bless America" which was originally written by him in 1918. Berlin changed some of the lyrics from his original composition, replacing "from the green fields of Virginia / to the gold fields out in Nome" with "From the mountains to the prairies / To the oceans white with foam." After some other minor adjustments, he gave the song to Kate. She first performed it on Armistice Day, November 11, 1938.

Smith performed "God Bless America" every week on her radio show from 1938, selling nearly 400,000 pages of sheet music. On March 21, 1939, she recorded both that song and "The Star Spangled Banner" for RCA Victor, which also became an instant hit.

star-studded variety show This Is the Army (1943).

Television was also a successful medium for the singing star with a Monday-Friday afternoon variety show The Kate Smith Hour (1950) which ran four years.

The show proved so popular that NBC handed her the prime time The Kate Smith Evening Hour (1951) to host as well. A variety show favorite, she appeared for Ed Sullivan, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jack Paar, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Tony Orlando, and Carol Burnett. During her last productive decade, she gave live concerts and performed in clubs all over the country.

She made a grand and memorable entrance at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and performed for Arthur Fiedler and his Boston Pops in 1967.

Remarkably, the only two guest hosts of "The Hollywood Palace" television show's seven year series (1964-1971), Kate Smith and Joan Crawford - were the only two host-stars who "individually" and "personally" hand wrote a "thank-you" note to each individual member of the complete show's crew and cast members' appearing on their hosting of the television "Hollywood Palace" show.

An ABC Network Television "live presentation with an audience," - "The Hollywood Palace" (1964:2nd season.show #17, airing 23 January 1965) - a Saturday night music-variety hour television show, the Producers Nick Vanoff and Bill Harbach asked Kate Smith to host a Saturday night television show after she appeared as a guest soloist-performer. During on-camera-stage blocking rehearsals, where Kate Smith (as host) stood on the left side of the stage's portal-proscenium, Paul, the prop-master, would bring Kate an "un-opened aluminum can" of ice cold soda pop, handing the soft drink to host Kate Smith. Kate wanted "everyone" to see that the can of fizz was the pure thing, unadulterated by alcohol, to prevent any scandalous gossip implying she is alcoholic, or drunk, performing on the stage during the show's rehearsals and show-taping. The "Hollywood Palace - show host" (Kate Smith) always had the show's featured end spot to solo their talent closing out the hour-in-length program. The closing final segment featured a voluptuous Raquel Welsh dressed as a Las Vegas variety show-girl carrying a featured yellow colored printed 5" wide by 16" long printed type "bill-board" of the next week's named featured host and guest talent roster. When curvaceous Raquel Welch, dressed in her 'Vegas showgirl costume' entered from off-camera stage left, Kate remarked, "Well, aren't you a pretty young lassie" .....

Grammy Award Winner for Best Gospel Album, "How Great Thou Art" (RCA: 1966).

In her honor, The Kate Smith USA Friends Club was formed in 1967 to the acknowledgement of Kate herself.

She was dubbed "The Songbird of the South" and would be forever etched in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans as a true American symbol of World War II, especially after giving voice to Irving Berlin's classic song "God Bless America. " Her inspiring rendition went on to sell millions of war bonds and even helped a hockey team in the 1970s win the Stanley Cup.

Illness would intervene in the 1970s and diabetes forced her to retire, eventually crippling her and confining her to a wheelchair.

Kate became a singing good-luck charm for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team with her renditions of "God Bless America" helping to inspire them to two successive Stanley Cups (1974 and 1975). In 1987, the team erected a statue of Smith outside their arena in her memory.

In 1976 she was named Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Made her last public appearance in a surprise cameo at the finale of the the 1982 Emmy awards. The audience gave her a standing ovation and joined host Bob Hope in singing "God Bless America" in her honor as she sat in her wheelchair beaming and singing along although her voice was not heard over the crowd.

Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1985.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 788-790. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1999.

Pictured on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp issued 27 May 2010.