A bronze statue of the famous singer Kate Smith used to stand at the entrance of the Xfinity Live venue in Philadelphia. Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” was played in the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers home games since the 1970s, and in her honor, they erected her statue on October 5th, 1987, a year after her death.
Kate Smith (1907–1986) was a renowned singer and a radio and TV star for five decades. Since December 11th, 1969, her rendition of “God Bless America” was played before Philadelphia Flyers home games, and was even performed live several times. The song was announced before the games by the Flyers announcer “Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we ask that you please rise and remove your hats and salute to our flags and welcome the number-one ranked anthemist in the NHL, Lauren Hart, as she sings “God Bless America,” accompanied by the great Kate Smith.”
The statue was created by Marc Mellon and originally was placed outside what was back then the Wachovia Spectrum. It was moved outside of “Xfinity Live!” after the arena was demolished in 2011. On April 21st, 2019, NHL announced that they would stop playing the song performed by Smith, and her statue was removed. The reason was because of a racist song she recorded in 1939 – “That’s why darkies were born.”
Many criticized this action and wondered how come 30 years after the statue was standing, and even more years of her recording playing, the Philadelphia Flyers suddenly took down the statue. No one knows where it is since then.
This post is also available in:
Español
This post is also available in:
Español
