I Am an American Day ceremonies with Jinx Falkenburg and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

The NYPR Archive Collections | Jan 1, 2000

I Am an American Day ceremonies with Jinx Falkenburg and Bill Robinson (partial).

I Am An American Day was the brainchild of New York public relations man Arthur Pine. The songwriters of "I am an American" brought their piece to Pine who had the song played on network radio by for an "I am an American Day" at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The campaign was so successful that a newspaper chain promoted "I am an American Day" nationally and got President Roosevelt to name it as an official day. It later became "Citizenship Day" and then "Constitution Day."

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150660
Municipal archives id: LT2294

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