The WAY to WOW Shows
Make Columbus Day Meaningful!
October 14, 2024
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:00] [Music] who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to the way to wow shows I'm your host Kevin bemel and today we're having a special edition of the way to wow shows in honor of Columbus Day um but before I get into that I have to ask how did you like the new opening so for those of you who are longtime viewers of the show uh when we

[0:35] when we pre-recorded um more like a traditional TV show you you may remember um that opening and uh the the music was created um by a friend of a friend of mine and I actually I was going to look up his name because I I wanted to give him uh you know proper uh um uh what do you call it proper credit uh uh Brandon McCulla yes um so uh BR I'm I met Brandon through my friend uh Michael uh Hartman um and this

[1:13] was during covid and uh Brandon is an enormously talented U musician as well as being a bartender and he was I believe the first guest bartender we had on on the very first episode episode of the way to wow shows so um Brandon wrote this wonderful theme it's it's a uh uh an original theme so I don't get ding for using it on YouTube um but I I I love it I've been and I would spent the morning playing around with uh how how

[1:48] to set up that intro now that restream has upgraded their platform so uh you know if if you have if you have a moment and you have some thoughts um I i' I'd sure love to hear them but today um October 14 2024 is uh Columbus Day um a holiday that um was completely uncontroversial when when I was uh a kid and and even a young man and um it has become so it has become controversial of of late

[2:23] unfortunately and and so what I thought I would do today is talk about um the origins of um of Columbus Day um what its importance has been historically because I think that um it's it's mischaracterized and um and then um as I typically do on these special editions do kind of a somewhat of an homage of some sort so and pull my notes up here

[3:01] so I can give you the the correct so you know for anybody who was a kid at least in my day um you learned the the uh little rhyme in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue um and indeed um Columbus uh and his ships the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria um uh arrived in um what um became known known as America on October 12th of 1492 and in fact um historically Columbus Day

[3:37] was was celebrated on October 12 the actual anniversary of of Columbus um and his crew Landing here in the Americas so um it's it's the first known celebration of Columbus Day was actually in 1792 three marking the 300 anniversary of uh Columbus's landing and it was a holiday that be that that started to gain um prominence um in the

[4:14] in the late 18th and early 19th century largely by Italian American immigrant communities so Christopher Columbus better better known in his native tongue I believe as Christopher col colbo um was an Italian explorer now he was sponsored by the Spanish monarchy um in fact there's a whole story about how Queen Isabella um gave Columbus some of her jewelry in order to finance his his expedition I don't know if that's

[4:50] historically accurate um but but in any event uh Chris Christopher Columbus himself was was Italian and um it's also surmised by the way that he was uh of Jewish Heritage um and that his one of his reasons for um for putting together this Voyage was to escape um the um um shoot I can't think of what it's called Uh the Inquisition um in in Spain and

[5:25] Italy and in in the Roman Catholic um in Roman Catholic Europe um where um you know people who did not follow um the strict doctrine of that time of the Roman Catholic Church um could be um imprisoned um censored in some cases tortured Etc uh again there's there's no hard evidence that that Christopher Columbus was Jewish although I can tell you that I first read about this as a a child so you know half a

[6:00] century ago um so so it's been floating around at least since then um the the push for it to become a national holiday increased in the 1800s and it was partly um as a way to push against anti-catholic Prejudice in this country so you know we tend to think of prejudice um against perhaps Hispanic Americans people coming from Mexico

[6:35] um um new Salvador El Salvador Etc um we we tend to forget that in the 1800s there were s it was primarily Southern Europeans coming to this country in particular Italians who were very heavily discriminated against um so you used to see you know signs up in places no dogs and no Italians things like that so uh and and of course italian-americans didn't like this why why should they and so the promotion of

[7:12] Columbus Day became a way for them to show pride in their Heritage and it it should be noted by the way that Italian Americans contrary to what was sometimes alleged about them that they had um split loyalty or their loyalty was really to the Pope in Rome they were by and large very dedicated Americans um if if you can imagine how difficult it was in the even in the 1800s to get to this country especially if you were rather

[7:49] poor which a lot of the Italian immigrants were um and and so to have the gumption to pull together the resources necessary to sail what was probably steerage on some boats steerage was the you know lowest class of of passage on a boat you were way down in in the hold um often times you had no access to um the outof doors um the food was uh marginal at best many times it was very very tough passage um whereas other passengers first class second

[8:25] class even third class passengers M You Know M much much more uh play passage but if you were poor you you did not travel for sure you didn't travel first class nor did you travel second class or otherwise you traveled steerage so um and and in particular the Catholic Roman Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus promoted the idea of Columbus Day again in order to show Pride among italian-americans in being Americans but also in their

[9:01] Italian roots and so it was really this this group of immigrants that looked to strengthen their um visibility in in America and and also show um I wouldn't call them Native Americans because they weren't we think of Native Americans as being the Indian population but but uh shall we say more established Americans the the English and German um Germans and Scandinavians who were here in this country um prior to um the larger prior to the um waves

[9:39] of of Italian immigration that that took place in the um Early N 19th century I'm sorry early uh yeah uh um 19th century right the early 1800s so it was really an effort for them to both become a more integral part of the United States as well as to express pride in in in their Heritage and so in 1934 U President Franklin Delano Roosevelt um and the Congress at that time established Columbus Day as a

[10:15] Federal holiday after heavy lobbying by um Italian-American organizations including again the the Knights of Columbus and the holiday was set for October 12th of each year in 1971 um the uniform Monday holiday Act was passed I remember this is I was I was around 11 years old um in 1971 and I remember all of a sudden holidays that had been midweek were moved to kind of the closest Monday to when

[10:52] the holiday was uh celebrated so um just for for example um we used to uh celebrate Lincoln's birthday on I believe it was February 12th or 14th and Washington meaning George Washington's birthday on I believe it was February 18th or something like that so they created a holiday called President's Day and it was the I think the second Monday of February or something like that and and and there was a lot of um dissatisfaction

[11:30] with that uh I I frankly was among them um the fact of the matter is not all presidents have um been of the quality of uh George Washington who was the first president and among the many uh things that he did is he willingly gave up power the power of the presidency after his second term even as many Americans were clamoring for him to become essentially a monarch and and the lifetime uh ruler uh you know like kind of like a lifetime president of the United States nonetheless Washington felt that two terms was enough for any

[12:06] president and he set the precedent of that that was not broken until uh Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office and ended up serving four terms although he only served a a very short time in his fourth term he died um just a few months after being inaugurated um and and and then subsequent to that a an amendment was passed to Constitution uh restricting presidents to two terms so that that wouldn't happen again um and but um so going back to Columbus Day so Columbus Day was set

[12:42] for the second Monday of October of each year and that's why here it is Monday October 14th which is this is the second Monday of of this year and uh actually wait a minute this is the third Monday isn't it hold hold the phone here nope that's right yeah it's the second Monday second Monday of this year all of a sudden I was thinking thinking something was wrong um but the second Monday of October and that has become the day that Columbus Day is is celebrated um here in the United States um Ju Just A another

[13:20] slight digression um many of you know that I'm a huge fan of the show Hogan's Heroes and uh there's an episode actually there's a couple of episodes where um an Italian uh prison camp Commander uh comes to Stalag 13 ostensibly the first time ostensibly to learn uh how to be a better Camp commandant from uh Colonel clink um and he's recruited by hog Hogan and his Heroes essentially to be a spy um on uh

[13:58] on on what's going on in Italy for the benefit of the Allies which he agrees to do he subsequently um uh um almost gets caught and so he flees Italy and comes back to Stalag 13 um hoping that Hogan and his men will get him out of Germany and and saf to Switzerland where and um and um Hogan agrees to do it if he'll help him gather some on a new German weapon and so he goes to see uh the the

[14:34] Italian major Bonelli is his name the character's name anyway he goes to see Colonel clink and uh and you know funny enough because you know he's he's he's Italian right um so he's trying to butter up Colonel clink and he tells him that he he he he the three greatest men in in his estimation are Christopher Columbus Marone and colonel Clink right so um I'm not sure that Colonel clink fits fits in there but you can see that two of the most famous Italians of all time are were you know Christopher

[15:10] Columbus and Marone who uh discovered radio for for those of you who are uh you know up on that that part of History so um historically uh Columbus Day was celebrated with parades um especially in cities with large Italian-American populations like New York and Chicago San Francisco um they would have floats they would have music and displays of Italian American culture and so it's it's interesting that the criticism of of Christopher Columbus was he started

[15:47] what people call a a genocide of the indigenous peoples here um that that's a a topic yeah that's a bourbon topic as I call it um but but Columbus day is is certain certainly never was a a celebration of um you know the the the sort of negative side of Europeans Coming to America it was it was a a celebration of Italian culture and Italian-American Heritage U by this by

[16:22] this immigrant group The the most famous of these parades uh which I believe is is still going on started in 1929 is the New York City Columbus State parade and you'll you'll see I think uh you know police officers of Italian descent marching in it the Knights of Columbus and and other Italian Civic organizations all March in the parade um there would also be um uh cultural events at schools um it was a time when um that that that um typically uh

[16:57] Elementary School children would learn about Italian-American culture um so they they would you know typically learn about um you know Columbus and his Voyages of Discovery um but beyond that they would learn about um Italian-American Customs they would learn about um a little bit about Roman Catholicism perhaps um it's it's I think it's important to keep in mind that um America was founded primarily although not exclusively uh by Protestant Christians um Maryland

[17:33] being an exception it was a Roman Catholic uh colony from from the get-go and Roman Catholics long suffered from discrimination in this country and and I know as as a as a child um I I I found it very interesting to learn about um Catholic practices um and um I know I I went to um different at different times particularly when I was in choir and we would go on tour we would oftentimes sing in these absolutely awesome and I mean that in

[18:09] the real meaning of that word all inspiring um Cathedrals I in particular I remember going on choir tour to San Francisco I I think I remember it at least in part because my dad uh went went with us and and I I really got to see my father in a different light on that trip and we sang at both St Ignatius cathedral which was a an old Cathedral I'm you know very well kept up beautiful I think it was buil in the um 1800s and then St Mary's Cathedral sometimes known as the the washing machine agitator because it was a

[18:46] contemporary building and the form of the building looked somewhat like a washing machine agitator um but but both of them were very profound experiences for me as a young man and and I was I was glad of having the opportunity to see um what the Catholic mass looked like um how it was performed um you know as you know I'm Jewish so it was never a thing of me you know wanting to participate in it per se but I I I was glad of the opportunity like I said to to understand it better and then

[19:21] um um I think maybe a year or two after that choir tour I remember at Sunday school Jewish Sunday school the teacher I had um he he did a course on sort of comparative religions so we could learn about other faiths um in addition to Judaism and he took us to this was in Santa Barbara California he took us to a a Catholic folk Mass which was even which was completely different than anything I'd ever seen before so I think you know Columbus Day historically was an opportunity for Americans to learn

[19:56] about this um group this look Roman Catholics are a um roughly 17th or 1/8 of the world population um for good or for bad the Roman Catholic church and Faith have had a profound impact on the history of the world and the history of this country and so it's I think it's it's a very good thing for us to learn something about it and to learn about italian-americans and and and what they've they've you know brought to this country and so again historically that's what um uh Columbus Day was about so in in in honor of

[20:33] Columbus day uh I you know I wanted to honor um Italian culture and so my my thinking was you know who is the most famous Italian American and and of course I I I if if you know anything about um American popular music and I don't mean most recent popular music I mean popular music over you know 150 almost 200 years that it's been a part of American culture so you've heard of a man by the name of Frank Sinatra um

[21:08] Frank Sinatra um was very proud of his Italian Heritage um I would argue that Frank Sinatra may have been the most popular um performer uh of all time in this country certainly he's at the very very top now may be that you know somebody like Taylor Swift she's you know she's made more money in concerts or maybe had um you know more people come to see her of course there were a lot more people in this country now there are much larger venues but in his

[21:43] day uh there is no doubt that that Frank Sinatra was the most popular singer of his day rivaled only by probably Bing Crosby um who he supplanted and then toward the other end of his career by Elvis Presley um and and there were um kind of good-natured um rivalry between uh Bean Crosby and Frank Sinatra and between um uh Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as well although if you've ever seen um a video of them interacting um

[22:20] Elvis was incredibly respectful of of Frank Sinatra he knew I think that in some ways he his his career really stood on the shoulders of of this man who who developed the ability for individual singers really to break through and have the kind of success that Frank Sinatra had and that uh and that Elvis Presley had so um Sinatra was first of all a singer he sang with the dorsy band early in his career um and he actually sang with um

[22:56] another band before dorsy um and I'm I'm going up on the name of that band but he went to that band leader when when dorsy um asked him to become a singer and and the band leader said by all means you know the dorsy organization is a fine organization you'll have a lot of success there and and and Frank Sinatra did and then eventually he went out on his own he recorded I I think thousands of songs during his career he's probably best known for or um well I think PE PE

[23:32] generally people best know him for New York New York um you know Start Spreading the News I'm leaving today um however those those who of us like me who are big Sinatra fans um the the song that I think most um epitomizes Frank Sinatra is the song My Way um and now the end is near and so I face the final curtain um and it's a song about how a man has to live his life his way my way which is which is

[24:08] really what Frank Sinatra did for all of the um the the shall we say not so Noble things um that he did in his life he I'm not I don't want to get into them but um if you read about Frank Sinatra you know that you will find that he was an absolutely loyal friend an absolutely um loyal American um just devoted to people um his his career entertaining was was really based on his desire to bring some some happiness some relief to

[24:46] to people and and some enjoyment to people um and so again th those are probably his his two best known songs but he he recorded all kinds of songs um Fly Me to the Moon um uh gosh I'm trying to think there's there's just there's there's so many um they all laughed one of my favorites which mentions Marone um you know for inventing the radio um but he also had a career in acting and he did both dramatic roles as well as comedy and musical comedy so um probably

[25:25] his um his greatest musical comedy role was as Nathan Detroit in um uh uh not Pi pry in um Guys and Dolls uh he also um was famous for what are known as The Rat Pack films the best one of which is the original Oceans 11 uh and it is it is an absolutely iconic film it's shot in Las Vegas by Van Frank son ra and his rat Packers that included um uh Dean Martin

[26:04] primarily and Sammy Davis Junior Joey Bishop uh Peter Lawford um and um shoot the fellow that uh played Mr rer on th's company I I I used to know his daughter I'm I'm going up on his name but anyway um it's it's about a heist that takes place in in Las Vegas it is a wonderful film of its time um the to read about the history of the film is is is so much fun it was sort of the epitome of you know this group that really had you know taken Las Vegas by

[26:41] storm um I I have not seen the Remake and I tend not to see remakes of iconic films because I frankly think it's it's pointless uh but his and perhaps the best the the best acting uh role he had was uh his Academy award-winning role in From Here to Eternity um and he had a co-starring role um and I'm going up on the character's name but he was he was in the with he was in that film with among others Ernest Borgnine who's

[27:17] another absolutely wonderful um individual I I had the absolute pleasure of of meeting him twice um just a wonderful wonderful man um but um From Here to Eternity in from 1953 if you have not seen that movie um it is an absolutely iconic film and really stands on its on its feet even now 70 plus years later so uh Sinatra also as I mentioned was incredibly charitable he looked after his friends um he would literally give

[27:55] them the uh shirt off his back he had he had times of great success he had times when he had completely fallen out of favor he and then he came back on top again I know I saw him perform live very late in his career uh in Long Beach um at at that point it was a little bit sad he clearly um did not have um he was not fully in his faculties um but it was nonetheless great to to see this absolute icon of of American popular culture sure perform live I'm I'm glad I did even though I would love to have

[28:31] seen him earlier in his career particularly in Las Vegas I just I wasn't really old enough for you know for that to happen so what what what I one of the pieces that Frank Sinatra did that I think is most impactful was a 1945 short film in which he uh essentially starred and the the film all throughout his entire life um Frank Sinatra was dedic dedicated to combating uh

[29:06] Prejudice and bigotry in this country and um just a a short anecdote about that he was very very very close friends with Sammy Davis Jr and when U Jack Kennedy ran for president Frank Sinatra marshaled all of his resources on behalf of Kennedy's election campaign and one of the things that he did was he um worked with uh Sammy Davis Jr in order to get black

[29:42] Americans to come out and vote for Kennedy and and of course John Kennedy won the presidency and he asked Sinatra to put together an inauguration show and Sinatra invited Sammy Davis Jr to uh to be a part of the show and in in what is frankly a very shameful um incident um Jack Kennedy had his brother Robert call Sinatra and tell

[30:18] him that um despite the work that Sammy Davis Jr had done on his campaign he was not welcome at the inauguration because at the time Sammy Davis Jr was was either dating or married to a white woman um and uh Sinatra basically never forgave uh Kennedy for that um he was absolutely appalled at the the the lack of gratitude and and the bigotry um exhibited by by that um the kennedies

[30:54] Justified it because at the time um the the the South was heavily Democratic and and the idea of um misation I think it was called relationship between a black man and a white woman was just it was just Unthinkable in in in the American South at at you in in 1960 um and uh and and and true to true to his um his Creed um he stuck by Sammy Davis Jr and and um

[31:32] and and and and again that was kind of the end of um not only his his friendship with with Jack Kennedy but also Peter Lawford who was uh Jack Kennedy's brother-in-law I believe he had married one of Kennedy's sisters so um you know he he was for for for people say many you know not nice things about Frank Sinatra but he was a man of principle and and at the top of those principles was that um everybody in America needs to be treated uh with decency and and needs to have equal

[32:08] opportunity so in 1945 um he participated in this short film and it basically um he walks out of the out of a theater after ostensibly a performance and he sees a bunch of young boys and they're beating up this one kid and they're basically beating him up because he's not the same religion that they are and now Frank Sinatra was always a small man but at this point in

[32:44] his career he was also he he was known for being like like tiny he was very thin he was not a particularly tall man and and he he he was young this was you know toward I mean he was he was very well known of of course that's why um The Producers wanted him to do this film but but he was he was a young man and uh he was uh you know 30 years old at the time or 29 at the time um and and but he looked much younger than that and so um Frank uh Sinatra basically you

[33:20] know breaks up the fight and and he he asks he's like what's going on here with you and so they they have this dialogue about it and I I want to read you what Sinatra says to the boys at the end of this dialogue in this short film he says look fellas religion makes no difference except maybe to a Nazi or somebody as stupid now 1945 we were still involved in in World War II um the the the film was made at beginning of 1945 so Nazi Germany had not surrendered yet and so

[33:56] you can see that you could call this propaganda I I think you know okay not all propaganda is bad um but so I'm going to start again um look fellas religion makes no difference except maybe to a Nazi or somebody as stupid why people all over the world worship God in many different ways God created everybody he didn't create one people better than another your blood's the same as Mine mine's the same as his and he gestures to the bullied kid do do you know what this wonderful country is made of it's made of it's made up of a

[34:32] hundred different kind of people and a different and a hundred different ways of talking and a hundred different ways of going to church but they're all American ways wouldn't we be silly if we went around hating people because they combed their hair different than ours wouldn't we be a lot of dopes my dad came from Italy but I'm an American but should I hate your father because he came from Ireland or France or Russia wouldn't that be a first class Fathead you guys remember Pearl Harbor why the so socked us so it looked

[35:08] like we could never do anything about it but a couple of days later something very important happened close your eyes and let me tell you about it come on close your eyes go on we want you to imagine it there was a JP Battleship the Haruna and one of our planes spotted it you know what it takes to bom a battleship it takes guts and knowhow and teamwork and our boys sure needed plenty of it because the Japs were throwing up enough Flack to get out and walk home on but the pilot had only one thing on his

[35:43] mind to get over that ship and he did and then the balader pushed a button and a 500 pound tomato smacked that right in the middle yep they sank it and every American threw his head uh back and felt much better the pilot of that ship the pilot of the airplane was named Colin Kelly an American and a presbyterian and you know who dropped the bombs mayor Levan an American and a Jew you think maybe they should have called the bombing off because they had different

[36:19] religions now uh look the the the the term not not a nice word to hear of course and but you know in the context of World War II we were fighting Imperial Japan and of course that's that's how Americans uh spoke then uh so you know not wishing to minimize that but setting it aside you know son Frank Sinatra in this in this um short film makes the point about how our our ethnicity Our Heritage our

[36:56] religion our he doesn't specifically say skin color um but you can see in in the in the in the film there are you know boys of of different skin color there uh he the these are not things to divide us um we we are all Americans we should all be together and and we should all um think of ourselves as as as one country one people so he ends the the short film singing a song called the

[37:31] house I live in now I'm not going to sing the song to you I don't have Frank Sinatra's Voice or for that matter anybody else's but my own but I do want to wrap up this show by reading You the lyrics of this song because I think that I think in many ways this is really what Columbus Day is is celebrating again just going back to its history it it's celebrating group of immigrants that came here that wanted to be looked at as loyal Americans while retaining the cultural connections to their to the

[38:08] country of of their ancestry and so this is what Frank Sinatra sings uh at the end of that short film the house I live in what is America to me a name a map or a flag I see a certain word democracy what is America to me the house I live in a plot of Earth the street the grosser and the butcher or the people that I meet the children in the playground the faces that I see all Races and religions that's America to me

[38:46] the place I work in the worker by my side the little town the city where my people lived and died The Howdy and the handshake the air of feeling free and the right to speak your mind out that's America to me the things I see about me the big things and the small that little corner news stand or the house a mile tall the wedding in the churchyard the laughter and the tears the dream that's been a growing for more than 200 years so I it's just it's such a

[39:22] powerful song and uh I I encourage you to go to YouTube you can search out Sinatra the house I live in and you can watch this short you can wa you can listen to him sing the song and and and remember on on this uh Columbus day that we are all Americans um those of us who lived here before Europeans came here those of those of us who came in the you know the the whose ancestors came on the Mayflower those of us who came later I

[39:59] know my my ancestors came here in the very late 19th century and early 20th century and and down to people who are coming here today I think Columbus State celebrates that America is a place that people want to come to for the opportunity that it gives them a a country that has tried to be ever more welcoming ever more open to the um diverse ideas as and cultures and religions of people in the world we struggle at times we make mistakes um

[40:35] but but in the end um we we should all I I think strive to emulate Frank Sinatra in striving for uh equality of opportunity and for decent treatment of of all our fellow citizens and all all people in America so I thank you very much for joining me today on this special edition of the way to wow shows for Columbus Day I hope you have a happy and a meaningful holiday whatever you're going to be doing and

[41:10] just before I I I leave off uh tomorrow at 10:00 am. is my show um business lessons from the military and I'm going to be talking about um one of the best known military books that that is that is also used as as a basis for business ideas The Art of War uh by sunu and so I invite you to tune in for that and then on Wednesday at 10: am is my show people making money and it is our monthly economic Echoes where we look at the

[41:47] state of your economy so I look at a number of economic indicators break them down so that you can see how how is is what's going on in the economy affecting me my family my loved ones my friends my business my professional practice it's all good and well for the newspapers or media Outlets to report you know 2.4% inflation um none of us experience price increases or decreases based on the CPI because of how the CPI is put together for example so we dig beneath

[42:22] the surface go into the details so you can really see that and uh other than that again wishing you a happy and meaningful Columbus Day and signing off as I always do well wishing you also a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do Marie darling you are my bell courage at all times my friends