Where's God?

let's revisit the song God Bless America

“Timing is everything.”

I’ve written a few articles on the song God Bless America. I’m intrigued. The composer Israel Berlin buried the song in a trunk. Create a visual. Irving hated it. It was a comedy song but didn’t have enough punch to produce the right amount of laughs. But with the rise of fascism Irving recalled the god-awful comedy song and retrieved it from his trunk.

According to the Library of Congress he handed a revised version to his musical secretary Helmy Kresa and the date on that version was October 31, 1938. Scary. Did all musical composers have musical secretaries? Not in my brief search, but Israel does. Should we get hung up on it? Too trivial? My intuition tells me there’s more, but I’m not going down that rabbit hole for Helmy. This article could get strangely weird, or weirder than I’m intending it to be.

“Timing is everything.”

While Israel was re-revising his song after he handed it to Helmy a radio singer / personality just happens to contact Irving asking for a patriotic song. Her name was Kate Smith. A very common last name in the United States of America. Why did Irving hand Helmy the final version of God Bless America on Halloween and then change it and release the final version two days later? Not funny enough?

If we follow the historical dates for the song it seems to sing like this:

1900-1918 God Bless America was written as a comedy

1918—Thrown into a trunk “too solemn for a comedy”

1918-1938—Sits in a trunk waiting for a solemn comedy moment to arrive

1938—revised October 31, 1938 fascism arrives pulls the song out of the trunk

1938—revised again November 2, 1938

1938—Kate Smith sings the song on US radio November 11, 1938

“Timing is everything.”

Halloween is known as the day of the dead celebrated in Latin American cultures from Oct 31-Nov 2. The same two days that are associated with the song. The day chosen to sing the song is Armistice Day Nov 11. Armistice Day is another day of the dead. There seems to be a real dead theme going on here. God like capturing coincidences lining up perfectly for us. Which god? God isn’t named. God is assumed to be the right god. What if it’s not the right god? Then what? Fast forward to 2020.

More god like coincidence. The largest fair in the US just happens to be scheduled as the song was released in New York city where Irving and Helmy were living. And where Kate Smith would sing the song and it would be broadcasted across radios throughout the US according to the Library of Congress.  Maybe not.

Strangely, I can’t find a New York World’s Fair in 1938 in November. Isn’t it rainy and cold in New York in November? Strange time to hold a world fair. My fast search has the first New York World’s fair on April 30, 1939.

President Richard Nixon adopted Irving Berlin’s phrase, God Bless America and started closing speeches with it. Every other president did the same except for Donald Trump, although I believe he has closed with it a few times. The date that President Nixon first proclaimed the words just happens to be the exact day of the New York World’s Fair—April 30, 1973.

November weather in New York.

One day before Israel handed the song God Bless America to his Jewish secretary Helmy, Orson Welles was on the radio and scared the shit out of everyone in the US with a radio.

On the Library of Congress website there is a rather eerie picture of Irving playing the piano. Why not a photo of him playing sitting upright smiling? Maybe he’s playing God Bless America. Don’t you love old black and white photos?