When I grew up, Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” was still heard now and then. We sang songs like this in school. Without them, we do not have a common culture. But more than that, the song brought the melting pot of immigrants into the culture. When schools stop teaching children of immigrants to love this country, and why, those children will be unable to defend our way of life. As I’m witnessing in my own neck of the woods, sadly.
”On the Avenue” made a lot of money for Fox, so in 1938 the studio decided to film an all star movie musical of Irving’s music, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” recycling decades of material. Irving wrote a few new songs for the movie, and this was one of them; it earned him an Oscar nomination.