The Americans (A Canadian's View)
Tex Ritter
Peaked at # 90 in February, 1974
Cover version of CFRB newsman Gordon Sinclair's on-air editorial from mid-1973.
Written by Gordon Sinclair-see how it came about at bottom.
(From:
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/news/unique/am_text.html )
And slightly modified to match Tex Ritter's exact words-he omitted a few references.
SPOKEN
INTRO: On June the 5th, 1973 during his broadcast over CFRB, Toronto, Mr. Gordon Sinclair,
one of Canada's most respected broadcasters, had some thoughts concerning his American
neighbors. These are his words:
The United States dollar has taken another pounding on German, French, and British exchanges,
hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971
and this Canadian thinks it's time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and
possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the
Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did,
that's who.
They've helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the
rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to
help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the
debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions
in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts
to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up
and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw
it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it's the United States that hurries into help...
Managua, Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American
communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy-- all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into
discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent,
war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United
States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the
Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar, or the Douglas 10 ? If so, why don't they fly 'em?
Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on
earth even consider putting a man or a woman on the moon?
Talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you
get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once,
but several times, and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put
theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not
pursued and hounded. They're right here on our streets in Toronto. Most of them, unless
they're breakin' Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Mom and Dad at home to
spend here in Canada.
When the Americans get out of this bind, as they will, who could blame 'em if they said "the
hell with the rest of the world. Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design
foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes" ?
When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the
Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went
broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name you 5,000 times
when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't
think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I'm one Canadian who's damned tired of hearing 'em
kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do,
they're entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present
troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. And another thing, recently the American Red Cross was
told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans that it was broke.
This year's disasters, with the year less than half over, has taken it all and nobody,. but
nobody, has helped.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.
(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN)
A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC.
578 HYMUS BOULEVARD
POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC,
CANADA, H9R 4T2
How it came about:
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/news/unique/american.html
News Broadcasting - "Unique Stories"
"The Americans" - by Gordon Sinclair
On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up in bed in Toronto and turned on his TV set. The
United States had just pulled out of the Vietnamese War which had ended in a stalemate - a
war fought daily on TV, over the radio and in the press. The aftermath of that war resulted
in a world-wide sell-off of American investments, prices tumbled, the United States economy
was in trouble. The war had also divided the American people, and at home and abroad it
seemed everyone was lambasting the United States.
He turned on his radio, twisted the dial and turned it off. He picked up the morning paper.
In print, he saw in headlines what he had found on TV and radio - the Americans were taking a
verbal beating from nations around the world. Disgusted with what he saw and heard, he was
outraged!
At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to prepare his two pre-noon broadcasts, he strode into his
office and "dashed-off" two pages in 20 minutes for LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am, and then
turned to writing his 11:50 newscast that was to follow. At 12:01 pm, the script for LET'S BE
PERSONAL was dropped on the desk of his secretary who scanned the pages
for a suitable heading and then wrote "Americans"" across the top and filed it away. The
phones were already ringing.
Gordon Sinclair could not have written a book that could have had a greater impact in the
world than his two-page script for THE AMERICANS. A book should have been written on the
events that followed. But, no one at CFRB, including Sinclair himself, could have envisioned
the reaction of the people of the United States - from presidents - state governors -
Congress - the Senate - all media including TV, radio, newspapers, magazines - and from the
"ordinary" American on the street. Nor, could have the Canadian government - stunned by the
response to what has come to be regarded as one of Canada's greatest public relations feats
in the history of our relations with the United States of America.
But, how did Sinclair's tribute to Americans reach them? It had been swept across the
United States at the speed of a prairie fire by American radio stations - first, a station in
Buffalo called and asked to be fed a tape copy of the broadcast with permission to use - both
freely given. Nearby American stations obtained copies from Buffalo or called direct. By the
time it reached the Washington, DC area, a station had superimposed Sinc's broadcast over an
instrumental version of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, and was repeating it at fixed times
several times-a-day.
Congressmen and Senators heard it. It was read several times into the Congressional Record.
Assuming that it was on a phono (33 1/3 rpm), Americans started a search for a copy. CFRB was
contacted. To satisfy the demand, CFRB started to make arrangements with AVCO, an American
record company, to manufacture and distribute it as a "single".
As they were finalizing a contract that would see all royalties which would normally be due
Gordon Sinclair be paid (at his request) to the American Red Cross. Word was received that an
unauthorized record, using Sinclair's script but read by another broadcaster, was already
flooding the US market. (Subsequently, on learning that this broadcaster had agreed to turn
over his royalties to the Red Cross, no legal action was taken).
Sinclair's recording of his own work (to which Avco had added a stirring rendition of THE
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC) did finally reach record stores, and sold hundreds of thousands
of copies, but the potential numbers were depressed by the sale of the infringing record.
Other record producers and performers (including Tex Ritter) obtained legal permission to
make their own versions. In Ritter's case, because of the first-person style of the script,
Tex preceded his performance with a proper credit to Sinclair as the author. The American Red
Cross received millions of dollars in royalties, and Gordon Sinclair was present at a
special ceremony acknowledging his donation.
Advertisers using print media contacted CFRB for permission to publish the text in a
non-commercial manner; industrial plants asked for the right to print the script in leaflet
form to handout to their employees.
Gordon Sinclair received invitations to attend and be honoured at many functions in the
United States which, by number and due to family health problems at the time, he had to
decline. However, CFRB newscaster Charles Doering, was flown to Washington to give a public
reading of THE AMERICANS to the 28th National Convention of the United States Air Force
Association, held September 18, 1974 at the Sheraton Park Hotel. His presentation was
performed with the on-stage backing of the U.S. Air Force Concert Band, joined by the
100-voice Singing Sergeants in a special arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
8 years after the first broadcast of THE AMERICANS, U.S. President Ronald Reagan made his
first official visit to Canada. At the welcoming ceremonies on Parliament Hill, the new
President praised "the Canadian journalist who wrote that (tribute)" to the United States
when it needed a friend. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had Sinclair flown to Ottawa to be his
guest at the reception that evening.
Sinc had a long and pleasant conversation with Mr. Reagan. The President told him that he
had a copy of the record of THE AMERICANS at his California ranch home when he was governor
of the state, and played it from time to time when things looked gloomy.
On the evening of May 15th, 1984, following a regular day's broadcasting, Gordon Sinclair
suffered a heart attack. He died on May 17th. As the word of his illness spread throughout
the United States, calls inquiring about his condition had been received from as far away as
Texas. The editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of May 28th was typical of the reaction
of the United States news media - A GOOD FRIEND PASSES ON.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan: "I know I speak for all Americans in saying the radio
editorial Gordon wrote in 1973 praising the accomplishments of the United States was a
wonderful inspiration. It was not only critics abroad who forgot this nation's many great
achievements, but even critics here at home. Gordon Sinclair reminded us to take pride in our
nation's fundamental values."
Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau: "Gordon Sinclair's death ends one of the longest and
most remarkable careers in Canadian Journalism. His wit, irreverence, bluntness and off-beat
views have been part of the media landscape for so long that many Canadians had come to
believe he would always be there."
Following a private family service, two thousand people from all walks of life filled
Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto's City Hall for a public service of remembrance
organized by Mayor Art Eggleton. Dignitaries joining him on the platform were Ontario
Lieutenant-Governor, John Black Aird; the Premier of Ontario, William Davis; and Metro
Chairman Paul Godfrey. Tens of thousands more joined them through CFRB's live broadcast of
the service which began symbolically at 11:45 - the regular time of Sinc's daily broadcast of
LET'S BE PERSONAL.
As Ontario Premier William Davis said of him "The name GORDON SINCLAIR could become the
classic definition of a full life."
(recalled by J. Lyman Potts who was "there")
See the script of the ORIGINAL BROADCAST here.
(and listen to the original audio if you have the REAL AUDIO plug-in.)
--
Compiled by Robin Hood
(
geocities.com/hollywood/academy/3225/Country) (
geocities.com/hollywood/academy/3225) (
geocities.com/hollywood/academy) (
geocities.com/hollywood)