He also began playing professionally in the American Basketball League (ABL) for Kate Smith's Celtics, but the team moved shortly thereafter and became known as the Kingston Colonials.
Team owner Ted Collins, who managed singer Kate Smith, picked the name "Yanks" because he originally wanted to run a team that played at New York City's Yankee Stadium.
She is best known for performing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "O Canada" prior to Philadelphia Flyers games, the team for which her father Gene Hart was the long-time television and radio announcer for 29 years, and also performing a duet of God Bless America with a taped version of Kate Smith on several occasions, especially big games, among them games in the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.
However, it was most popular when it was regularly sung by Kate Smith on her early 50's TV show as the closing
It has been a custom on WAMC to play two songs to mark the end of every fund drive: Kate Smith's "God Bless America" and Ray Charles' rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Will Smith | Kevin Smith | Adam Smith | Kate Moss | Smith College | Patti Smith | Michael W. Smith | Kate Winslet | Kate Bush | Kiss Me, Kate | Chad Smith | Ian Smith | Fort Smith, Arkansas | Anna Nicole Smith | Mary-Kate Olsen | Kiki Smith | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Alexander McCall Smith | Stan Smith | Tommie Smith | David Smith | Bessie Smith | Roger Smith | Maggie Smith | Kate Smith | Fort Smith | Al Smith | Paul Smith | John Smith | Charles Kingsford Smith |
Kate Smith performed "God Bless America" to a sell out crowd of 17,007 prior to the game.
The Flyers came into the series with their own good luck pre- game singer in the form of Kate Smith who sang "God Bless America" before home games at The Spectrum.
In its ten-year run, well-known actors and actresses, including James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Irene Dunne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Shirley Temple, Barbara Whiting Smith, Raymond Burr, Jane Wyatt, Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Gene Kelly, Kate Smith, William Shatner and Chuck Connors, appeared as announcers, narrators or stars.
The film ends with the appearance of the National Guard, who surround Lady Divine on the street and shoot her down, accompanied by the sound of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".
Among the other (racially integrated) performers were American concert artists Marian Anderson, Lawrence Tibbett, and Kate Smith, singing classical and light popular music; and folk performers Lily May Ledford and the Coon Creek Girls; Josh White; the Golden Gate Quartet; Sam Queen and the Soco Gap Square Dance Team, who demonstrated clog dancing; and Alan Lomax, singing cowboy songs.
On this program, the American listening audience heard many future stars for the first time, as it introduced such talents as Milton Berle, Burns and Allen, Alice Faye, the Mills Brothers and Kate Smith.
"When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" is a popular song, published in 1931, and credited as written by Howard Johnson, Harry M. Woods, and Kate Smith.
The Carters were on the first nationally televised network program to feature country music, The Kate Smith Show, and were among the first country music acts to tour behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia.