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Well, off we go with Flank Day, right?
You gotta love a patriotic song.
We got them.
Oh, we got
them.
Something
like a military march.
Tell you what, it's that nail.
If I told you that was Lawrence Welk.
You folks who don't like the Lawrence Welk show, and there are many, let's be honest.
His albums were pretty darn good.
And that's from one of his albums.
Little flag waving.
This is flag day and some thoughts along that line.
President Reagan had a radio address every Saturday.
This is from Flag Day.
My fellow Americans, today we celebrate Flag Day, the birthday of our stars and stripes.
This is 20 years ago.
Today.
Flag, we remember that the story of its early years was often one of hardship and trials, sometimes a fight for simple survival, such as the story behind our star-spangled banner.
It was two years into the war of 1812 when America seemed to be teetering on the edge of defeat.
The British had already taken our capital and burned the White House.
Baltimore was the next target and a grand design to divide our forces and crush this newly independent nation of upstart colonies.
All that stood between the British and Baltimore were the guns of Fort McHenry, blocking their entry into Baltimore Harbor.
The British bombardment lasted for 25 hours.
Through the dark hours of the night, the rockets fired and the bombs exploded, and a young American patriot named Key held captive aboard a British ship.
watched anxiously for some proof, some sign, that liberty would prevail.
You can imagine his joy when the next morning in the dawn's early light he looked out and saw the banner still flying, a little tattered and torn, but still flying proudly above the ramparts.
Fort McHenry and the brave men manning it had withstood the assault.
Baltimore was saved.
The United States, this great experiment in human freedom, as George Washington described it, would endure.
Thinking back to those times, one realizes that our democracy is so strong because it was forged in the fires of adversity.
In those dark days of the war, it must have been easy to give in to despair.
But our forefathers were motivated by a cause beyond themselves.
From the harsh winter of valley forged to the blazing night above Fort McHenry, those patriot soldiers were sustained by the ideals of human freedom.
Through the hardships in the setbacks, they kept their eyes on that ideal and purpose.
Just as through the smoke of battle, they kept a lookout for the
flag.
Yes.
The Music of the Stars.
Johnny Green wrote this for Rain Tree County, 1957.
Johnny Greene, I think it was MGM's greatest.
And there were plenty of greats for that Rolls-Royce of studios.
For the artist, the author, the poet, the performer, the composer.
At the time of our American Revolution, a gentleman named Francis Hopkinson was all of those things.
He'd studied in England under Peter Benjamin West, became proficient at portraits and engraving.
His poetry, both humorous and serious, was widely published.
A talented musician, friend Hopkinson, gave harpsichord performances.
He composed.
In fact, his was the first book of music published.
by an American composer.
Well, let's see, what else?
He served as chairman of the Continental Navy Board between 1776 and 1778.
For three years after, he held the office of treasurer of loans.
His creative contribution to the cause of freedom included revolutionary essays.
Terribly effective.
You know, only once did he regret having used his creativity to benefit the nation.
And here's why.
In 1780,
Hopkinson wrote a letter to the Board of Admiralty, reminding them of a particular service that he had performed as chairman, and considering it had been beyond the responsibilities of his position, he now asked that he be reimbursed.
He wanted to be paid for it.
For the Board of Admiralty, he referred Hopkinson's letter to Congress.
Congress passed it along to the Board of the Treasury.
Next thing you know, Hopkinson was being asked for more details.
in the form of a specific bill.
All right, said friend, so he produced a second document.
Forwarded that to James Milligan, the auditor general, who sent it to the commissioners on the Chamber of Accounts.
You're keeping track of this, I hope.
He returned it to the auditor general with advice for payment, and he returned it to the Board of Treasury with his endorsement.
And the Board of Treasury?
No, as a matter of fact, they objected.
on the grounds that no vouchers had been included with the bill and demanded a new one be submitted.
And now all that you've just heard was only the beginning and all a friend wanted.
A signer of our Declaration of Independence, all he wanted was to be paid for what he considered a significant service.
Where after all did it get him?
Got him a congressional investigation.
And that turmoil continued for more than a year.
There were summons and reports and tentative conclusions, and there were reevaluations and more reports and another investigation and resignations and resolutions and more reports.
And after all that was said and done, three things were apparent.
Fran had indeed rendered the service he had claimed.
Fran had enemies on the board of the Treasury.
Where did that leave him?
Here is where.
Fran Hopkinson was never, ever going to be paid.
You see, according to the board, the public was entitled to additional services now and then from government employees who already drew comfortable salaries.
And just maybe if Francis Hopkinson had been reimbursed for what he did, maybe we would have forgotten him.
But as it happened, a seems just named.
That's the Ross absolutely unjustifiably received credit for the accomplishment of artist Francis Hopkinson, which was which was Which was the design of the American flag and now you know The rest of the story
Howdy stranger is there anything I can do for you
Yeah.
Scratch my back.
Is that all?
Now, one other thing.
Let's get a little action in this joint.
Okay, stranger, if that's the way you want it.
Hold it, Jeff.
Hey, Sam, send out
the dancing girls.
I'm shouting, I'm singing.
Tonight, I'll do some flinging.
Time to start the show.
I'm laughing, I'm humming, because I know it's...
common things have been too slow
and now
How'd you like it?
That's fine.
Is there anything I can do for you?
Yeah, scratch my back.
Here's Bob Hope and Jane Russell.
As the seeds of turmoil flowered and grew, the hastily assembled American army craved a banner they could call their own.
To a certain Philadelphia seamstress came General George Washington one day.
in the icy winter of 1777.
Betsy, you in there,
Betsy?
Who is it?
It's
me, George.
Oh, boy.
Come on in.
Hey, hey, ever hear a wipe in your feet?
How's that?
You're tracking snow all over my early American rug.
I am sorry.
All right, let's get out of business now.
Have you got it finished?
Your flag?
No, no, my jacket.
Yeah.
But don't you want to see the flag?
The flag can wait.
I got a man outside from Esquire.
All right.
You want to slip it on?
Please.
Okay,
here we go.
Take a look in the mirror there.
Is that a darling blazer?
Yeah, darling.
Is it me?
It's you.
Now
how about we check over the flag?
Wait a minute.
You think the lace on the cuffs is too much?
No,
it's fine.
You really like
it?
I adore it.
Now
about... I wonder if I should have had the silk brocade instead of the...
Place.
Place, brocade.
Hey, these antique military buttons worked out real nice, huh?
Well, I'm
glad.
Or should I have taken the mother of Pearl?
We've been all through this, George.
You wouldn't want the mother of Pearl.
Once you had them on, you'd hate them.
Yeah, but on the other hand.
Look, I made you a spiffy little blazer there.
You got the lace on the cuffs and the antique military buttons and the gold epulets.
Just a minute, let me bite the thread off here.
Well, snap it up.
Spread it out in your lap there and
we'll...
You having a little fun at your country's expense here?
How's that?
You're kidding with these colors?
Red, white, and blue?
Well, those are the only remnants I had around them.
Wait a minute.
Stars?
I deliberately said polka dots.
Stars with stripes?
How does that work together, design-wise?
All right, you wanna be the big man and put on the symbol, huh?
No, it's just... Then how's about you let me run the flag department and you run the army like a nice father of our country, okay?
I know, but look at the colors you chose.
The best you could do, I suppose.
A peppermint stripe with royal blue, the same as the British colors, too.
Now, how will we tell whose side is who?
Look at the colors you chose.
Why couldn't it have been pews, lavender-over-sharps, rues, or possibly some exotic jade, the delicate orange-moe-verjade, instead of the choice that has been made?
Why couldn't it have been possibly cinnamon?
Everybody wants to be an art director.
Everybody wants to call the shots.
Yeah,
well.
Everybody wants to be a flag dissector, changing all my stars to polka dots.
How soon can you make one up?
Come on, there's your flag.
Take it or leave it.
All right.
Say, what's this little ticket here and just fell out?
Inspected by number 28.
That's me.
Oh, yeah.
You want it on a hanger?
No, I'll just run it up the flagpole, see if anybody
salutes.
Okay.
I guess it's better than don't tread on me.
Certainly.
Besides, a hundred years from now, what the heck difference will it make?
I guess...
sunshine lollipops and rainbows everything that's wonderful is what I feel when we're together brighter than a lucky penny when you're near the rain goes disappears here and I feel so fine just to know that you are mine my life is sunshine
Everything that's wonderful is sure to come your way.
Because you're in love to stay.
Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.
Lollipops and rainbows, everything that's wonderful is sure to come your
way.
Because you're in love.
You're in love.
And love is here to stay.
Now just up the street, different theater, another blockbuster show, and this time it's all done by one.
sophisticated lady here's her theme song
don't know why there's no sun up in the sky stormy weather
Life is bare, gloom and misery everywhere.
Stormy weather, I just can't get my poor self together.
Keeps raining over time.
No skis, what would I be living for?
Because everybody needs a rainbow A little something to believe in A little something to be working for Just over the horizon Everybody needs a rainbow
No matter who you are, higher or lower Everybody needs your rain
life is all about.
If everything just came easy, then we'd never know it when we'd won.
You can be what you want to be, but getting there is half the fun.
Because everybody needs a rainbow, a little something to believe in.
I believe in something to be working for.
Just over the horizon.
Everybody needs a rainbow.
Giving everything your reason.
No matter
who you are, high
or low.
Everybody needs a rainbow.
George
Burns.
Got a Grammy for that.
The music of the stars.
Here's Ken Nardin.
There should be a set of setting up exercises for the imagination.
A way to strengthen that muscle in the mind that lets us dream while we're awake.
Here's what you could do.
after the dark that you make for yourself of this squared up cube.
Simply by closing your eyes, you wait to see where the inner light will take you.
At first, there is nothing.
Only the feeling that you have turned off one light and stand as it were in a corridor of black.
impatient for another light to go on, and then somewhere behind your closed lids it begins.
The images come to light slowly, almost imperceptibly, and your eyes open to a new geography, a world within a world, and you move by standing still, since all things pass by you.
You look down now from some dizzy up where the crowds of raindrops bump and jostle and make ready to fall in a thing called cloud.
A liquid door opens and invites you in.
You sit down in a globe of warped rainbows.
Before you can adjust yourself, you are riding with raindrops through the glistening air.
blinded by silver and sun.
Now the colors break from everywhere, and you are bathed in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, all flashing one against the other.
And below, coming up to greet you, the arms of the grass.
You break apart on the open hand of green.
But there is only a delicious joy in you, as you watch part of your former self delude the laboring ant.
While another part of you rolls, head over heels in love with the long, curving loveliness of the green blade that bends under your weight.
Doors of chlorophyll open, and you walk quietly from cell to cell.
A maze of warmth,
that changes your watery identity.
And you've become a small member of an organization called a small blade of grass.
You've forgotten where the other part of you that washed the ant is now.
You see for the first time the bright green sun shining through the edge of a dark green cloud shape in the big green above.
Now walking across you and all your cellmates the ant the wet stranger
Night
comes around and I'm still feeling bad Rain pouring down blind in every hope
I had this pattern,
pattern, beaten and spli-
I just can't get my poor self together So weary all the time All
the time Since he went away All the blues walked in and met me
If she stays away
Rockin' chair's gonna get me
All I do is pray That the Lord above will let me Walk in the sun once more Can't go on Everything I had is gone Stormy weather
Since
Sign by for news on NBC.
The music of the stars will
continue.
I've got something on a birthday the guy who had the number one record of all time and you're never heard of him When we come back after NBC
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