Hands Across America

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Hands Across America

Location(s)	across the United States
Years active	1986
Founded by	Ken Kragen
Date(s)	May 25, 1986
Website	Hands Across America

Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Many participants donated 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 the RMS Queen Mary pier in Long Beach, California. This nationwide event, called Hands Across America, was intended to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness."^{[cite this quote]}

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 48 contiguous states if the path had been a straight line.^{[citation needed]}

Hands Across America raised $34 million, and shortly thereafter, triggered the release of $800 million in aid from the Federal government that had been approved by Congress, but had yet to be released by President Reagan.

Cities

Cities along the route included the following:

• New York City, New York (with Brooke Shields as well as Liza Minnelli, John Cardinal O'Connor, 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 (with Jerry Lewis and Scott Baio)
• Baltimore, Maryland (with R2-D2 and Emmanuel Lewis.) The first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland.
• Washington, D.C. (with President Ronald Reagan at the White House and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill at the United States Capitol)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (with the Pittsburgh Pirates Parrot)
• Youngstown, Ohio (with Michael Jackson)
• Cleveland, Ohio (with David Copperfield)
• Toledo, Ohio (with Jamie Farr)
• Columbus, Ohio (with Michael J. Fox)
• Cincinnati, Ohio (with Chewbacca the Wookiee)
• Indianapolis, Indiana (occurred in the rain, scheduled side-by-side with the Indy 500, which was rained-out that day^{[citation needed]})
• Champaign, Illinois (with Walter Payton . . .the longest unbroken section of the chain was allegedly^{[by whom?]} in Illinois)
• Chebanse, Illinois, A cornfield in central Illinois served as center-point of the nation with 16,000 people in attendance along with the Silver Nickel Band and DJ Gerald Welch.^[1]
• Springfield, Illinois (with 50 Abraham Lincoln impersonators)
• St. Louis, Missouri (with Kathleen Turner under the St. Louis Arch)
• Memphis, Tennessee (with 54 Elvis Presley impersonators)
• Little Rock, Arkansas (with governor Bill Clinton)
• Amarillo, Texas (with Kenny Rogers, Renegade, Lee Greenwood 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, Dudley Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, and Donna Mills)
• Long Beach, California (with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Reverend Robert Schuller, Kenny Loggins, and John Stamos, backed by Papa Doo Run Run.^[2]

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, titled "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.

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 (the Spanish version was written by the composer Marcia Bell), a music production house in NYC. Look and Company were trend setters during the 1980s 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 New York City at the Power Station then the basic tracks and final vocal were recorded in Los Angeles. The backing band was Toto. The song peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

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.

Protests

Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey led an official protest over every New England state being excluded from Hands Across America. Political leaders in the south and Florida additionally weighed in against the route that was chosen to span the continental United States. Various protests broke out in the Upper Midwest, notably Minneapolis and Milwaukee, as well as northwestern cities such as Portland and Seattle. In Hawaii actor Tom Selleck and Sen. Daniel Inouye led a counter Hands Across Hawaii program that was held to remind mainlanders that "Hawaiians are Americans, Too!"

In popular culture

• In The Simpsons episode Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? Homer is seen watching the event on television, sitting on his couch as Marge, Lisa, Bart, the Flanders family, and other characters are holding hands through his living room. An unknown television announcer is heard reporting that "except for huge gaps in the Western states, Hands Across America was a complete success!"
• A Sunday strip of the newspaper comic "Doonesbury" had some of its characters in a chain. Said characters are singing the song of the same name, with the exception of Zonker Harris who says "I'm just a gigolo!"^[3]
• In "Hiatus", an episode of American sitcom 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) remembers having participated in this campaign.^[4]
  • In "It's Never Too Late for Now", another episode of 30 Rock, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) answers a request for ID in a bar with the response, "How about this for ID: I participated in Hands Across America."^[5]
• On July 21, 2004's episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, rapper P. Diddy presented a Top Ten list titled "Top Ten Ways I, P. Diddy, Am Getting People to Vote." The number three entry mocked the event, stating, "Remember 'Hands Across America'? Yeah, well we ain't doin' that."
• In the music video for Something to Believe in, by The Ramones, the event is parodied with an event titled Hands Across Your Face.
• The movie Beerfest makes numerous references to Hands Across America

Further reading

• Hands Across America, official web page at USA for Africa
• ABC News: Great Shakes: 'Hands Across America' 20 Years Later
• Time: American Notes Charity, 1 December 1986

References