Hands Across America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hands Across America | |
|---|---|
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| Location(s) | Across the United States |
| Years active | 1986 |
| Founded by | Ken Kragen |
| Date(s) | May 25, 1986 |
| Genre(s) | |
| Website | Hands Across America |
Hands Across America was a benefit event 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 a 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 a path were a straight line.
The Coca-Cola Company and Citibank donated a combined $8 million to fund the event. 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. It was believed that a substantial number of participants joined in without paying the requisite ten dollar fee.
Cities along the route included the following:
- New York City, New York (with Brooke Shields as well as Liza Minnelli, Susan Anton, Gregory Hines, and Edward James Olmos, Yoko Ono,and Harry Belafonte anchoring the George Washington Bridge)
- Trenton, New Jersey (with Dionne Warwick and Tony Danza)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Baltimore, Maryland (the first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland)
- Washington, D.C. (with Ronald Reagan at the White House and Tip O'Neill at the U.S. Capitol)
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Cleveland, Ohio (with David Copperfield)
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio
- Toledo, Ohio
- Indianapolis, Indiana (occurred in the rain, scheduled side-by-side with the Indy 500, which was rained-out that day)
- Chicago, Illinois (with Walter Payton . . .the longest unbroken section of the chain was allegedly in Illinois)
- Springfield, Illinois
- St. Louis, Missouri (with Kathleen Turner under the St. Louis Arch)
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Little Rock, Arkansas (with Bill Clinton)
- Amarillo, Texas (with Kenny Rogers and Tony Dorsett at the TX-NM border)
- Albuquerque, New Mexico (with Don Johnson)
- Phoenix, Arizona (with Ed Begley Jr., however desert areas were mostly empty, dotted with one-mile (1.6 km)-long chains of people. Truck drivers sounded their horns during the appointed time.)
- San Bernardino, California (with Bob Seger and Charlene Tilton)
- Santa Monica, California (with Jack Youngblood and Dudley Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, and Donna Mills)
- Long Beach, California (with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Reverend Robert H. Schuller, Kenny Loggins, and John Stamos, backed by Papa Doo Run Run [1]).
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.
Little known facts: 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 1980's 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 NYC 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.
