[fidelis]

Interesting bit of trivia:

The Bellamy Salute

The Bellamy salute is a palm-out salute created by James B. Upham as the gesture that was to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America, whose text had been written by Francis Bellamy. It was also known as the "flag salute" during the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance. Bellamy promoted the salute and it came to be associated with his name. Both the Pledge and its salute originated in 1892. Later, during the 1920s and 1930s, Italian fascists and Nazi Germans adopted a salute which was very similar, attributed to the Roman salute, a gesture that was popularly believed to have been used in ancient Rome.[1] This resulted in controversy over the use of the Bellamy salute in the United States. It was officially replaced by the hand-over-heart salute when Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22, 1942.

When I was a kid, my mom and I were watching an old movie where it showed kids in a classroom performing this salute while saying the Pledge of Allegiance. When I expressed my puzzlement at this, she confirmed that when she was a small child growing up in San Diego, this is what they did, but it changed during the War.

[z3n]

"...a gesture that was popularly believed to have been used in ancient Rome."

~~~

I have noticed in several movies and shows where Roman soldiers would pump the chest and then extend the air straight out, but they wouldn't leave the arm out. It was all in quick motion.

Regardless of the origins, the Nazi's co-opted it and therefor it will probably always have the infamous Nazi connotation, just like they say the symbol used for the swastika was co-opted from old asian cultures where it was a positive symbol, but no one will be taking that back any time soon because of the extreme baggage it now connotes.

[piasa]

Bellamy was a socialist.
And the pledge as originally written was an abomination, it was idolatry of an inanimate object.

His version of the pledge did not have the phrase “one nation under God” in it. That was added later.