Author Topic: Independence Day Celebration Thread  (Read 3056 times)

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famousdayandyear

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Independence Day Celebration Thread
« on: July 04, 2013, 02:26:45 pm »
I'll start with Paul Harvey:  Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgfknG8hhg#at=112
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 03:24:29 pm by famousdayandyear »

famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2013, 02:51:35 pm »




Although Benjamin Franklin helped create the American rattlesnake symbol, his name isn't generally attached to the rattlesnake flag. The yellow "don't tread on me" standard is usually called a Gadsden flag, for Colonel Christopher Gadsden, or less commonly, a Hopkins flag, for Commodore Esek Hopkins.

These two individuals were mulling about Philadelphia at the same time, making important contributions to American history and the history of the rattlesnake flag.

Christopher Gadsden was an American patriot if ever there was one. He led Sons of Liberty in South Carolina starting in 1765, and was later made a colonel in the Continental Army. In 1775 he was in Philadelphia representing his home state in the Continental Congress. He was also one of three members of the Marine Committee who decided to outfit and man the Alfred and its sister ships.

Gadsden and Congress chose a Rhode Island man, Esek Hopkins, as the commander-in-chief of the Navy. The flag that Hopkins used as his personal standard on the Alfred is the one we would now recognize. It's likely that John Paul Jones, as the first lieutenant on the Alfred, ran it up the gaff.

It's generally accepted that Hopkins' flag was presented to him by Christopher Gadsden, who felt it was especially important for the commodore to have a distinctive personal standard. Gadsden also presented a copy of this flag to his state legislature in Charleston. This is recorded in the South Carolina congressional journals:

    "Col. Gadsden presented to the Congress an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American navy; being a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattle-snake in the middle, in the attitude of going to strike, and these words underneath, "Don't Tread on Me!"

famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2013, 03:23:35 pm »
You're A Grand Old Flag
Steyn's Song for the Season

by George M Cohan
July 4, 2013
   

You're A Grand Old Flag
You're a high flyin' flag
And forever in peace may you wave…

My town band's repertory for the Fourth of July parade doesn't change much year to year and "You're A Grand Old Flag" is a staple. It's 130 years younger than the republic, but it seems to speak to a mid-to-late 19th century patriotic sensibility, the era when Old Glory and Uncle Sam and the Glorious Fourth established themselves as part of the seasonal iconography. The song was first performed in public at the Herald Square Theatre in New York on February 6th 1906, the first night of George M Cohan's Broadway musical George Washington, Jr. In the course of the number, he took a flag and, head cocked to one side, marched it back and forth across the stage, a routine the crowd loved so much he repeated it – to one tune or another – in many subsequent shows (and, via James Cagney, in his smash hit biopic). But this song was special. Cohan saw himself as the embodiment of the American spirit. His previous red, white and blue blockbuster, from 1904, was more or less a valentine to himself:

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle do or die
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam
Born on the Fourth of July…

Close enough. According to the birth certificate he was born on the third of July, 1878, though John McCabe, his biographer, made a strong case that the lyric is in fact more accurate than the vital statistics office of Providence, Rhode Island. He was in show business all his life, ever since the night his dad carried him on stage for a scene in a vaudeville skit called "The Two Dans". The family act soon expanded to "The Four Cohans" – dad Jerry, mom Helen (known as Nellie), sister Josie, and George. My old – very old – friend George Abbott told me once about seeing their show in Wyoming in the 1890s, and remembered George M Cohan doing his signature sign-off: "My father thanks you, my mother thanks you, my sister thanks you …and I thank you." That's when young Abbott decided he wanted to go into showbusiness, too. By 1906, Cohan was the first self-contained star of the American stage – actor, singer, dancer, producer, director, author, play doctor, composer, lyricist. The scholars are a bit snooty about his musical contributions but he was the first American theatre composer to find a real unity of text and music. He wrote big fat words that bounced off bright clean notes at the dawn of the new century and have remained in our collective memory ever since:

Give My Regards To Broadway
Remember me to Herald Square
Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street
That I will soon be there…

"You're A Grand Old Flag" started with a conversation – an old man to whom Cohan gave a ride one day in what was then an unusual sight on a country road: an automobile. Throughout the journey, the old-timer clutched a meticulously folded piece of cloth and began to reminisce about his Civil War days. He'd been at Gettysburg, carrying the flag at Pickett's charge, and at the end of his recollection he unfolded the tattered piece of material and revealed it to be the Stars and Stripes. "It was all for this," the stooped veteran told his celebrity traveling companion. "She's a grand old rag." Like any good songwriter Cohan banked the line. Usually, he wrote his plays first and then fitted the songs in. But, in this instance, he started with the veteran, the anecdote, the song idea, and then fashioned the play around it. George Washington, Jr told a somewhat improbable story about a snooty anglomaniac Senator (played by Jerry Cohan) who wants his son George to marry Lord Rothburt's daughter. George is in love with a nice American girl (Ethel Levey, the then Mrs George M Cohan) and is so disgusted by his father's un-American behavior that he announces that henceforth the only father he has is the father of his country and so changes his name to George Washington, Jr. There were plenty of Cohan jokes: Someone tells the story about Washington tossing a silver dollar across the Potomac to which someone else points out that that's a pretty wide river to throw a coin across. "Well," says the first fellow, "a dollar went a lot further then." That joke'd get a bigger laugh today. To Ethel went one of those maddeningly insistent Cohan songs:

I Was Born in Virgin-YUH!
That's the state sure to win-YUH!

But the night belonged to the recreation of that scene with the man from the rural Grand Army of the Republic post. A Civil War veteran shows George a tattered old banner and, as everyone admires it, says, "It's a grand old rag." And off Cohan goes with a rousing patriotic march:

You're A Grand Old Rag
You're a high-flyin' flag…

The crowd went crazy, most roaring their approval, many moved to tears. Cohan went to bed that night convinced he had his biggest hit since "Give My Regards To Broadway" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy". The next morning he woke up to a problem. Some gentlemen of the press and several patriotic groups thought he was being disrespectful in referring to Old Glory as a "rag". Fearing demonstrations and audiences booing the song off the stage, he acted quickly. He loved the Civil War veteran's affectionate word and he tried to keep it:

You're A Grand Old Flag
Though you're torn to a rag…

But Cohan was a businessman first and knew when he was beaten. He dropped the rhyme and settled for repetition (or, technically, an "identity"):

You're A Grand Old Flag
You're a high-flyin' flag…

The sheet music was already in New York stores. But he had the new version printed up and went around town snaffling up all the "Grand Old Rag" copies and burning them. (I believe there are six very valuable survivors still in existence today.) But the great tenor Billy Murray, the biggest record seller of the day (he had 169 chart hits between 1903 and 1927), had already cut his version of the song under the title "The Grand Old Rag". The allegedly offensive term didn't stop it going to Number One for ten weeks in May, June and July of 1906, and, indeed, it was the biggest selling recording of RCA Victor's first decade. Arthur Pryor's Band and other performers stuck to the new title and, under that name, it became the first American showtune to sell a million copies of sheet music.

Regardless of whether it's offensive, "rag" is a much weaker word than "flag" – the "r-" gets kinda swallowed, the "fl-" is much more forceful on the note. And after that it's plain sailing all the way:

You're the emblem of
The land I love
The home of the free and the brave…

Was it played in Fourth of July parades in 1906? I don't know, but it was certainly making a splash on Independence Day that year. James Metcalfe, the drama critic of Life magazine, had given George Washington, Jr a blistering review. Mr Metcalfe didn't care for the score:

These combinations of music are curious things, consisting mainly of several bars of well-known patriotic or sentimental songs strung together with connecting links of lively and more or less original musical trash.

That's a reference to Cohan's habit of musical quotation. In "Grand Old Flag", it's a line from "Auld Lang Syne":

Ev'ry heart beats true
'Neath the Red, White and Blue
Where there's never a boast or brag
But should auld acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand old flag!

I sort of know what Metcalfe's getting at there. But he then lets his review wander into all kinds of other areas, including a bizarre aspersion on Cohan's moniker:

One curious feature of his career is that his real name is said on good authority to be Costigan. It is not unusual for a Hebrew to exchange a patronymic which betrays his race for one which will conceal it, but for anyone bearing a good old mouth-filling Irish name as Costigan for a distinctively Hebrew appellation is strange indeed. However, Mr. Cohan is very shrewd in a business way and, considering present conditions in the theater in America, he was perhaps wise in his choice.

Ah, yes. Like Abraham Lincoln, who was born Fred Lincoln but changed it to something more Hebrew in order to placate the neocon lobby.

So how did George M Cohan spend Independence Day 107 years ago? Well, the cocky little Irish scrapper bashed out a riposte to Mr Metcalfe and published it in The Spot Light on July 4th 1906:

I write my own songs because I write better songs than anyone else I know of. I publish these songs because they bring greater royalties than any other class of music sold in this country. I write my own plays because I have not yet seen or read plays from the pens of other authors that seem as good as the plays I write. I produce my own plays because I think I'm as good a theatrical manager as any other man in this line. I dance because I know I'm the best dancer in the country. I sing because I can sing my own songs better than any other man on the stage… I play leading parts in most of my plays because I think I'm the best actor available. I pay myself the biggest salary ever paid a song and dance comedian because I know I deserve it.

But believe me, kind reader, when I say, I am not an egotist.

He was having a grand old raggin' of James Metcalfe, but for the most part he wasn't wrong. George M Cohan, the Yankee Doodle Boy born on the Fourth of July. "You're A Grand Old Flag", a song born for the Fourth of July and for over a century a staple of millions of patriotic parades from Maine to Hawaii.

Offline jmyrlefuller

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2013, 04:32:23 pm »
Sorry, but after the debacle that happened in November... this is not a free country. It is a shell of a nation dominated by morons, lemmings, and corrupt usurpers. Those that truly love our independent country are now outnumbered by those that love dependency, and we have no way to break from them. It is a true shame.

We are all imprisoned in the welfare state that is the United States of America. I, for one, will no longer celebrate Independence Day unless America wakes up.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 04:33:44 pm by jmyrlefuller »
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famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2013, 04:37:16 pm »
Sorry, but after the debacle that happened in November... this is not a free country. It is a shell of a nation dominated by morons, lemmings, and corrupt usurpers. Those that truly love our independent country are now outnumbered by those that love dependency, and we have no way to break from them. It is a true shame.

We are all imprisoned in the welfare state that is the United States of America. I, for one, will no longer celebrate Independence Day unless America wakes up.

Agreed, jmy.  I started the thread so I can remember what Independence Day is all about--whether Americans chose to honor the sacrifices or not.  And thank you for your post.  Liberty must prevail and it may require some of us to give everything to fight for it.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2013, 07:35:27 pm »
I'll start with Paul Harvey:  Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgfknG8hhg#at=112

~LOL~ you won't believe this... for some very strange reason I dreamed about Paul Harvey last night.... no rhyme or reason for it.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Cincinnatus

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2013, 07:40:41 pm »
From humorist Erma Bombeck:

Quote
"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."

Happy 4th everybody and God bless America.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 07:41:49 pm by Cincinnatus »
We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid ~~ Samuel Adams

Offline ABX

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2013, 11:46:13 pm »

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2013, 12:02:16 am »
The one here was a bust for me since the flyover was canceled by the "sequester."

Instead, getting ready to watch the one in Atlanta since my favorite member (former though she maybe) of Celtic Woman will be singing tonight.  I know she's doing O'America (caught it on the sound check earlier today), but not sure the other song yet, although I get the feeling it may be the Star Spangled Banner.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2013, 03:07:20 am »

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2013, 03:12:10 am »
Ha Ha Ha!  Love it.

Our local fireworks show just completely sucks.  I watched it online.  Never more than 1-3 fireworks fired @ once.  The one I watched in Atlanta and then in Houston is a million times better.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline ABX

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2013, 03:36:23 am »
We had the typical small town fireworks. Nothing fancy.








famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2013, 03:40:48 am »
Me....I like the small town fireworks.  To hell with DC and NYC


Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2013, 03:56:10 am »
Me....I like the small town fireworks.  To hell with DC and NYC

Yeah, but compared to what AB posted, ours still sucked.  "Small town" is one thing.  A badly done show is another and we always get the latter because every organization involved are a bunch of cheapskates.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline ABX

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2013, 03:57:44 am »

famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2013, 04:30:15 am »
Yeah, but compared to what AB posted, ours still sucked.  "Small town" is one thing.  A badly done show is another and we always get the latter because every organization involved are a bunch of cheapskates.

Understood.  Cheap sucks.  So does spite.  Obama cancelled the traditional shows here in NC for the families stationed at Fort Bragg (Fayetteville) and Camp LeJeune (Jacksonville NC) out of pure spite.  Private companies offered to pay for them--still no shows.  But he drops 100million crawling around Africa--I hate the SOB

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2013, 04:32:17 am »
Understood.  Cheap sucks.  So does spite.  Obama cancelled the traditional shows here in NC for the families stationed at Fort Bragg (Fayetteville) and Camp LeJeune (Jacksonville NC) out of pure spite.  Private companies offered to pay for them--still no shows.  But he drops 100million crawling around Africa--I hate the SOB

No flyovers for the same reason.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

famousdayandyear

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2013, 04:34:54 am »
Abaraxas - nice photos.  Hope you (and all) had a great Independence Day wherever you are.

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2013, 05:45:51 am »
Abaraxas - nice photos.  Hope you (and all) had a great Independence Day wherever you are.

My CA friends who have relocated to FL and have a home here's son, DIL, grandkids and another couple and their daughter came out for the weekend, I went over there for a BBQ and to watch the fireworks and the kids play with their sparklers.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #20 on: July 05, 2013, 06:00:38 am »
Glenn Beck Independence Day Message

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/04/heres-glenn-becks-independence-day-message/

"Hello America,

On July 3, 1776 John Adams wrote a letter predicting that July 2nd would be “the most memorable epoch in the history of America.”

His excitement after the Declaration of Independence was adopted was uncontainable. The words leapt off the pen as he foresaw a “great anniversary festival” complete with pomp and parade, shows, games, bonfires, and guns commemorating the occasion “from this time forward forevermore” in America.

He was right – all except for the date, of course. Because of revisions, the Declaration wasn’t officially accepted until two days later on July 4th, and ever since Americans have made sure to never forget the day of “deliverance” as Adams referred to it.

Adams was so overwhelmed with emotion he couldn’t possibly fathom anyone ever wanting to undo what the Founders had just done – so he predicted, without hesitation, that the day would be celebrated forevermore. What he couldn’t have predicted, and perhaps as a God-fearing man he should have, was the rise of those who preferred a controlled population over a free one.


In the last century, progressives have fought to diminish, distort, and smear nearly all the good the Founders achieved. Instead of being revered as visionaries and thanking them for leaving us the greatest nation ever known – the Founders are painted as racists, while America is blamed for nearly every problem in the world today. Instead of celebrating America, generations of youth are being trained to be ashamed of America.

In schools across the country, students are reprimanded for wearing American flag shirts in an effort not to offend foreign students. Others are reprimanded for chanting “USA! USA!” because it is considered “incendiary” language. These same students then turn on the TV and watch their President travel to foreign nations and apologize for all the mistakes America has made. No wonder July 4th has become little more than figuring out where the best fireworks display will be.

I believe this is intentional. For example, this administration has cancelled July 4th celebrations on several military bases due to alleged “sequester” cuts. The State Department spent $630,000 to get more “likes” on Facebook, the President spent millions flying to Africa alone – yet they deny our men and women in uniform the chance to celebrate the very freedoms they secure for millions?

It’s a disgrace.

There is a reason for all the pomp and parade, shows, games, bonfires (guns? not so much anymore – I’m sure Adams would be perplexed at that one) – and that reason is independence. July 4th deserves a grand celebration because freedom is the grandest gift of all.

On Saturday, we are staging our very first Independence Day event, “Man in the Moon.” We designed this program as a vehicle to undo the decades of harm progressives have done to American history and the meaning of being American. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been replaced with handouts, redistribution of wealth, and government mandated happiness.

“Man in the Moon” is the biggest event we’ve ever attempted, but, believe it or not, what we have planned for the future will dwarf this project. Ultimately, we want to host the premiere Fourth of July celebration in America. I envision an entire Independence Week of events, not just one show. I believe the market is starving for someone to not only put on a great celebration, but to provide real reflection and meaning as to why we are celebrating.


When people are reminded of how we got here and why we are (for now) free to do as we wish, they are overwhelmed with that same sense of emotion that Adams had the day after the Declaration was adopted. And that emotion will ensure July 4th remains the “the most memorable epoch in the history of America” from this time forward, forevermore.

We can no longer afford to listen to the voices shaming and blaming America.

We can no longer afford to listen to those who wish to fundamentally transform America into something it is not.

Those who risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to create the greatest nation in the history of planet Earth deserve better and so do the future generations of Americans who will live here.

Happy Independence Day, America. May yours be filled with freedom, fun, pomp, and parade.

Laus Deo,

Glenn Beck"
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Independence Day Celebration Thread
« Reply #21 on: July 05, 2013, 07:15:36 am »
President Reagan's Address to the Nation on Independence Day - 7/4/86


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ynIW7CN08sc
 
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776