Jitterbug! has a scene set around a table in a Harlem tenement apartment circa 1931 where its characters get into a heated discussion over dinner about the Star Spangled Banner. Ripley, an internationally renowned American cartoonist with the hottest strip in the world-- at that time nearly 80-million people were reading it daily-- had recently ran a cartoon claiming the tune was NOT the official anthem of the country because there was no official anthem. Apparently Congress had turned it down 6-times as the official anthem and never got around to adopting one. Because of that, over 5-million Americans wrote letters to their congressmen demanding it (or another one) be adopted ASAP. Irving Berlin's God Bless America (written in 1918) is brought up as a suitable solution over the table because if nothing else it was at least singable. It's shot down by Candy, the dancical's angry common man, arguing that America would never allow a song written by a Jew to be considered for its anthem. That leads to an intense discussion on race and whether or not the black man sits above or below the Jew on America's racial totem pole.
Below is the second in a long line of Ripley's Believe it of Not! newsreels. Released in 1930, the clunky short has Ripley (in spats!) standing trial for all of the lies he's spreading. At 3:14 the "prosecutor" brings up the Star Spangled Banner. Ripley defends himself admirably explaining that the tune is from an old English drinking song and proceeds to prove it by having the foresight to bring along an all-male quartet to sing the original lyrics. Although this courtroom "stunt" has nothing to do with the charge brought against Ripley (except for maybe implying that there is no way under Heaven that Congress would ever give its blessing-- especially during Prohibition-- to a tune that encourages people to drink robustly), it does make you want to pick up a brewski and cheer the country on.
On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill that formally recognized the Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem. Antisemitism might have triumphed as Candy predicted and God might have lost out in the end, but Congress did show prescience by adopting a song that goes well with one hand over the heart and the other clutching a cold Budweiser.
Below is the second in a long line of Ripley's Believe it of Not! newsreels. Released in 1930, the clunky short has Ripley (in spats!) standing trial for all of the lies he's spreading. At 3:14 the "prosecutor" brings up the Star Spangled Banner. Ripley defends himself admirably explaining that the tune is from an old English drinking song and proceeds to prove it by having the foresight to bring along an all-male quartet to sing the original lyrics. Although this courtroom "stunt" has nothing to do with the charge brought against Ripley (except for maybe implying that there is no way under Heaven that Congress would ever give its blessing-- especially during Prohibition-- to a tune that encourages people to drink robustly), it does make you want to pick up a brewski and cheer the country on.
On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill that formally recognized the Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem. Antisemitism might have triumphed as Candy predicted and God might have lost out in the end, but Congress did show prescience by adopting a song that goes well with one hand over the heart and the other clutching a cold Budweiser.
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