Hands Across America

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Hands Across America
Hands Across America - Philadelphia, PA (Benjamin Franklin Parkway / Philadelphia Art Museum - May 25th, 1986 (Photo By Sam Cali).
Location(s) Across the United States
Years active 1986
Founded by Ken Kragen
Date(s) May 25, 1986
Website Hands Across America

Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately seven million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Participants paid ten dollars to reserve their place in line; the proceeds were donated to local charities to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty.

"On the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, 1986, almost seven million people joined hands to form a line that stretched 4,152 miles (6,682 km) – from New York City's Battery Park to the RMS Queen Mary pier in Long Beach, California. This nationwide event, called Hands Across America, was intended to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness."

In order to allow the maximum number of people to participate, the path linked major cities and meandered back and forth within the cities. There were undoubtedly many breaks in the chain, but enough people participated to form an unbroken chain across the country if the path had been a straight line.

The Coca-Cola Company and Citibank donated a combined $8 million to fund the event.[citation needed] The event raised nearly $20 million, far short of its $50 million goal, and critics branded the event a failure, as production costs exceeded $17 million.[citation needed] The fact that nearly 7 million people participated and only contributed $20 million instead of $70 million meant that a substantial number of participants joined in without paying the requisite ten dollar fee.

scan of the Hands Across America t-shirt; shows logo

Cities along the route included the following:

The event was conceived and organized by Ken Kragen. Event implementation was through USA for Africa under the direction of Marty Rogol, the founding Executive Director. A theme song, entitled "Hands Across America," was played simultaneously on hundreds of radio stations at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time (noon Pacific time) to add to the festive atmosphere of the event.

The actual song "Hands Across America" that was playing while everyone was holding hands was written by Marc Blatte and John Carney for Look and Company, a music production house in NYC. Look and Company were trend setters during the 1980s creating music for Chrysler's comeback with "Pride Is Back" and Goodyear's "Goodyear Take Me Home" among others. The lead vocalists were Joe Cerisano and Sandy Farina who at the time were the top session singers in America. All the demo work was done in New York City at the Power Station then the basic tracks and final vocal were recorded in Los Angeles. The backing band was Toto.

Hands Across America was a project of USA for Africa. USA for Africa produced "We Are The World" and the combined revenues raised by both events raised almost $100 million dollars to fight famine in Africa and hunger and homelessness in the United States.

The date and time chosen for the event inadvertently conflicted with another charity fundraiser, Sport Aid, which was organized by USA for Africa on the same day. Since Hands Across America was much better publicized in the United States, only 4000 runners participated in New York City for Sport Aid.

Contents

[edit] Protests

Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey led an official protest over every New England state being excluded from Hands Across America. Political leaders in the south and Florida additionally weighed in against the route that was chosen to span the continental United States. Various protests broke out in the Upper Midwest, notably Minneapolis and Milwaukee, as well as northwestern cities such as Portland and Seattle. In Hawaii actor Tom Selleck and Sen. Daniel Inouye led a counter Hands Across Hawaii program that was held to remind mainlanders that "Hawaiians are Americans, Too!"

[edit] Pop culture references

  • In the comedy Beerfest, the characters recall having participated in the event.
  • In The Simpsons episode Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? Homer is seen watching the event on television as Marge, Lisa, Bart and other characters are holding hands through his living room. An unknown television announcer is heard reporting that "except for huge gaps in the Western states, Hands Across America is a complete success!"
  • In the comedy Mad About You, Ira claims that he had sex during the event.
  • In "Hiatus", an episode of American sitcom 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) remembers having participated in this campaign.[1]
  • In an episode of My Name Is Earl, the event is mentioned.
  • Rapper Dirt Nasty mentions the event in his song "1980's".
  • On July 21, 2004's episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, rapper P. Diddy presented a Top Ten list titled "Top Ten Ways I, P. Diddy, Am Getting People to Vote." The number three entry mocked the event, stating, "Remember 'Hands Across America'? Yeah, well we ain't doin' that."
  • In the music video for Something to Believe in, by The Ramones, the event is parodied with an event titled Hands Across Your Face.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ Episode transcript from tgswithtracyjordan.com


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