This post features the USPS Kate Smith stamp and some of the controversy around her career. Stamps are political documents. The governments that produce them have ideologies. Stamps send messages through their imagery and the selection of a topic or theme. While I think almost every stamp has a political message, some are more overt than others. Often, composers stamps are highly political such as the American Composer Series of 1940, German composer anniversaries, and the Occide Jeanty stamps of Haiti. Instruments can also be patriotic such as the saùng-gauk of Myanmar and the Celtic harp of Ireland. Individual singers and musicians can also come to represent political ideas.
Today, I am featuring a postage stamp that was released just before Memorial Day in 2010. The stamp features one of the most successful singers in American history, Kate Smith, and the stamp ceremony took place on the reflecting pool steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America,” turned her into a national symbol, especially during the dark days of World War II.
However, she was also highly controversial. She first gained fame by appearing in blackface in the early 1930s and during that period sang several racist songs. Later, her radio shows often featured antisemitic humor. As with many public figures, her legacy is complicated and should be considered fully.
Kate Smith
Kathryn Smith was born on May 1, 1907 in Greenville, Virginia. She could not talk until she was four, but by the age of five was singing in her local church. As a child, she sang to entertain troops in World War I. Smith went to High School Washingon D. C. and then to nursing school. Her father discouraged her singing career, but she left the nursing program to pursue show business. She was on Broadway by the age of 19. However, her weight was a source of criticism, most notably in the New York Times. This and other comments made her self conscious as a performer, which she had to fight much of her life. As she became more famous for her big voice, she famously said, “I’m big, and I sing, and boy, when I sing, I sing all over!”
After her premiere on the Great White Way, she went on to perform in vaudeville shows. This led her to the show Hit the Deck where she sang the song “Hallelujah” in black face as a mammy character. Due to the success of this role, her career took off. She began singing on the radio in 1931, drawing popular attention, which led to record hits. Smith had big success with songs such as “The White Cliffs of Dover” (1940), “Rose O’Day” (1941), “The Last Time I Saw Paris” (1942), and “Now Is The Hour.” She would eventually record more than 500 songs.
Her biggest success came during World War II, sing the song for which she was best known, “God Bless America.” She became a national figure, eventually hosting her own radio programs, and appearing on television and in live performances for decades. She only slowed her performance schedule in the mid-1970s, and died on June 17, 1986.
God Bless America
Smith was most famous, however, for singing “God Bless America.” This famous patriotic number is by Irving Berlin and was originally a tin pan alley lighthearted song. Originally, he wrote it for the Broadway revue “Yip, Yip, Yaphank,” in 1918. However, he took it out of the show and would not return to it for decades. Then, in 1938, Kate Smith asked Berlin for a patriotic song for her radio show for Armistice Day, November 11, 1938. It was the twentieth-anniversary of the end of World War I, and she wanted to mark the occasion.
Berlin reworked the song to his satisfaction and gave it to Smith to use. At the last minute, Berlin made one more change, switching a lyric from “to the night,” to the now familiar, “through the night.” Berlin, who was Jewish, made this change as a reaction to the horrors of Kristallnacht, the pogrom against Jewish people perpetrated by Nazis against Jews in Germany on November 9-10, 1938. Read more about the introduction of the song here.
The song went on to appear in the 1943 move This is the Army, and became a megahit during World War II. Kate Smith became a national icon and a hero of the war effort, helping to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of war bonds with her performances.
Controversy
According to a friend, Kate Smith always was a bit controversial. During her lifetime, she was known for antisemitic comments made on her radio show appearances. When the Vietnam War became a major source of division within the country, “God Bless America,” became a reactionary anthem of the political right. In later years, she was politically most associated with right wing politics and that continued after her death.
However, in the twenty-first century, more was uncovered about her early career. For instance, in the early 1930s, Smith was in road production of Hit the Deck where she appeared in blackface and sang the song “Hallelujah!” This was not all, as in 1931 one of her first successful recordings was of the song “That’s Why Darkies Were Born.” Two years later, another of her recordings was the song “Pickaninny Heaven.” The titles of these songs alone are problematic, the lyrics are far worse. As late as 1939, Smith endorsed “Mammy dolls,” which were toy dolls based on racist caricatures of black women.
There is no doubt that during the 1930s, Kate Smith capitalized on racist stereotypes to build her career. Later, much of this was forgotten, but its re-emergence in recent years has had consequences. Several sports teams were known to play her recording of “God Bless America” during games, even decades after her death. Several have chosen to stop this tradition.
A Change of Heart?
However, to be more nuanced, many point out that this behavior from Smith all happened at the beginning of her career in the 1930s. Indeed, Smith gave a rather strong speech in 1945, following World War II, that explicitly called for racial tolerance. Does that single speech show a change in heart by Smith? What about the antisemitic comments on her later radio shows?
Like many white artists and public figures in American history, her legacy is complex. The entirety of her legacy must be weighed, from her early performances in blackface, to her success in raising funds for the war effort, to her later antisemitic comments. Unfortunately, in contemporary society, either bad behavior is covered up and excused, or it becomes the sole thing defining a person’s entire life.
The Stamp
United States, 2010
Scott Number US 4463
The Kate Smith stamp was issued on May 27, 2010, just before Memorial Day. The stamp was the design of Ethel Kessel of Bethesda, MD. It features a famous photo Smith in a sparkly blue dress with white fur cuffs. She appears with a backdrop of the American flag. This actually references the cover art for a CD by Smith, Kate Smith: The Songbird of the South.
Make sure to check out Kate Smith and her iconic rendition of God Bless America
