Swing Out, Sweet Land

For many years, the wonderful montage of each guest singing a line from "God Bless America" stayed with me. I managed to find a cassette of the show and got chills watching it again. They don't make shows like this anymore...I can't imagine a group of today's stars so large who I'd care to see at all. What would it take to get this special seen on TV again? In our post-9/11 world, it would be a nostalgic reminder of a generation that APPRECIATED where we came from, and what LIBERTY and FREEDOM are all about. To anyone reading this who may own the rights to this special, bring it back on video and you'll find a very receptive public.

Even those who aren't fans of John Wayne would probably still enjoy this series of vignettes that Wayne narrates almost like the Stage Manager in "Our Town," stepping from era to era through a few centuries of American history. Wayne had been burned in his earliest foray into television nearly two decades earlier: Making a guest appearance on a variety show in 1953 while his movie "Hondo" was in theatres, he was supposed to act like he didn't know why the audience was reacting, and then every time he turned around he'd press a button in his pants and a sign on his back would light up to say "Hondo." The indignity of the appearance embarrassed him enough so that, except for rare guest appearances on shows like "I Love Lucy," Wayne avoided television for most of the next 20 years. "Swing Out, Sweet Land" gave him a chance to show his unabashed red-white-and-blue sentiments and to feel far more comfortable in front of the television cameras.

Still, although it's an enjoyable and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek television special, sticking to many of the clichés of the American history genre, it's also very much a curio of its era -- when you could spend a couple of hours recounting those clichés as history, and also present them by featuring a raft of then-current celebrities often doing their own shtick as a counterpoint to the history -- Jack Benny (of course!) finding the silver dollar that Washington threw across the Delaware; Roy Clark as a banjo player at Andy Jackson's funeral; even Rowan and Martin as the Wright Brothers! You won't find the kind of insight that Ken Burns puts forth on his PBS series, certainly . . . and, as history, perhaps its most poignant feature is realizing just how many of the folks who were well-known at that time (like Wayne himself, Benny, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Greg Morris, and even Ricky Nelson) are themselves already gone.

This program is now available on professional DVD under the title "John Wayne's Tribute to America". The release date is July 31, 2007 but my copy arrived a few days early.

This video runs approximately 80 minutes. The only extras on the disk are the original sponsor commercials and a clip of JW on "What's My Line?". The picture quality is very good for a 37 year old show - crisp and clear (nothing like the faded, blurred quality of a VHS version I purchased on eBay a few years ago).

This is a production typical of the 60's & 70's musical comedy shows but that's what fun for anyone who regularly tuned in to watch Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, etc. It's hokey and as patriotic as a 4th of July special.

An internet search showed that several major book and/or DVD sellers have it. FYI, I have no connection to the company that put it out - I'm just happy to finally have it!

...and yes, it was theme park quality song-and-dance, variety show with a history outline. But it was not meant to be anything else. It was entertainment. PBS has done more "serious" in-depth, and well-researched history TV documentaries in later years as have the History channel, A & E, etc. But please note that these are just as much entertainment for audiences, otherwise the ratings wouldn't be there, the audience would not be there, and the motivation for the makers (at least enough money to live on) would not be there to make them. I remember this and others like it fondly, perhaps through rose-colored glasses of remembrance. But I also remember (and I don't know why this has stuck in my strange memory) that when it came to a Civil War section some mention was made of current racial unrest and the continuing themes of equality.

I would enjoy seeing it again if only for a glimpse of the celebrities that are gone and seeing a time when such did not hesitate to say patriotic things for fear of being hissed at.

The fact John Wayne comes out and says these tales are "tongue in cheek" goes a long way in these vignettes about America. He admits that some times settlers did not behave correctly, which is nice. Some stereotypes are hard to watch, but we need to remember that 50 years ago what was acceptable may not be acceptable today. The jokes are funny/corny, the tales are fun to watch, and the songs are good to sing along to.

I find it interesting that in 1970 there were people protesting (some of whom are on this variety show) but they still came together with the conservatives like Wayne, Ball, and Ann-Margaret to celebrate America in song, dance, and jokes. Today, it seems people are too firmly identified as "pro" or "con" to come together to celebrate the idea of America. Yet this shows it can be done, there is room for moderates in this world.

We can still be proud.