Mario Lanza - This Land - A Tribute to US Constitution Day

This video is to commemorate US Constitution Day, today, Sept. 17. Mario Lanza's beautiful voice and paintings by master artists are joined together to honor this day. Sept. 17, is the day to remember the signing of the US Constitution, our very precious historic document. This document sets forth the framework for our government to operate. This song, itself, however, speaks to the love of one's own country which is generally shared by all people around the world.

Photos of Mario are from his film "The Great Caruso" in the opening with the rest being from "That Midnight Kiss".

The song "This Land" is from "The Lord Don't Play Favorites" (9/17/56), "an original musical play, with Jo Swerling and Hal Stanley adapting book from Patrick Malloy's short story, with music by Hal Stanley and lyrics by Irving Taylor, directed by Clark Jones; story of small-time traveling circus stranded in a drought-stricken small Kansas town, subjected to huge fine by city fathers as a way of raising money to pay for a professional rain-maker, when the circus needed money to enter its trick horse in the county races, with circus duping yokels into paying the race fee to the circus ringmaster posing as the rain-maker; stars Robert Stack, Kay Starr, Dick Haymes, Buster Keaton, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, large supporting cast."
(The above quote is from: http://www.producersshowcase.org/library/lorddontplayfavorites.html).
The plot sounds very much like the 1956 movie with Burt Lancaster and Kathryn Hepburn called "The Rainmaker". "It stars Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges and Earl Holliman.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Earl Holliman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. The Rainmaker play was remade as for American television in 1982, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring James Cromwell, Tommy Lee Jones, William Katt and Tuesday Weld."
(The above quote is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rainmaker_(1956_film)"

The master artists and their paintings and the video screensaver are listed in the order of their appearance in the video:
1) Flag waving screensaver from: www.GitDirt.com
2) William Etty (1787-1849) - Prayer at Valley Forge
3) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 -- 1900) - Our Heaven Born Banner
4) Edward Mitchell Bannister (1833 -- 1901) - Landscape with Cows Grazing near River
5) artist unknown -- title unknown
6) Antonio de Pereda y Salgado (1611- 1678) - The Holy Trinity
7) Charles-François Daubigny (1817 -- 1878)- An Apple Orchard
8) Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1845-1926) - Baby Reaching For An Apple
9) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 -- 1900) - Otter Creek
10) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 -- 1900) - View in Pittsford, Vermont
11) Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) - Portrait of a Young Woman, c.1803
12) L. Prang & Co., Boston - Christoper Columbus Arrives in America
13) Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863--1930) - The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914
14) Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952) - Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
15) Emanuel Leutze (1816 -- 1868) - Washington Crossing the Delaware
16) John Trumbull (1756 -- 1843) - The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
17) George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) - The Emigration of Daniel Boone
18) Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Oregon Trail, 1869
19) Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Surveyors Wagon in the Rockies, 1859
20) Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone Park, 1868
21) Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak 1863
22) Edward Mitchell Bannister (1833 -- 1901) - Five Cows in Pasture
23) Edward Mitchell Bannister (1833 -- 1901) - Man with Cows
24) Benvenuto Tisi (or Il Garofalo) (1481 -- 1559) - God Blessing the Earth
25) Marie Egner (1850-1940) - Farmhouse with Blossoming Fruit Trees
26) Abraham Archibald Anderson (1847-1940) - Thomas Alva Edison (1847 -- 1931), c. 1889
27) William Merritt Chase (1862 - 1917) - The Chase Homestead,1893
28) Thomas Cole (1801 -- 1848) - Haven Wood
29) Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) - Elizabeth Corbin (Mrs. Griffin Gatliff) & Daughter Elizabeth, 1798
30) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 -- 1900) - Our Banner in the Sky
31) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 -- 1900) - Niagara Falls, from the American Side, 1867
32) Frederic Edwin Church (1826 - 1900) - The Natural Bridge, Virginia, 1852
33) Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Deer at Sunset
34) Jasper Cropsey (1823 - 1900) - Greenwood Lake
35) Ferdinand Reichardt (1819-1895) - View on the Mississippi River
36) Edward Henry Potthast (1857 -- 1927) - Grand Canyon
37) Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908) - Saddleback Light, Maine
38) William Guy Wall (1792 -- 1864) - New York From the Heights
39) Gilbert Stuart (1755 -- 1828) - Dolley Payne Todd Madison, c. 1807
40) Jennie Brownscombe (1850-1936) - Examining the flag

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mario
• lanza
• mario lanza
• this land
• us constitution
• art
• paintings
• entertainment
• popular drawing

[MegaMusiclover1234]

@Valdez244

Thank you so much for your kind words.

Your channel is awesome. Your upload of Mario's song Lygia is so very wonderful, I have watched it several times.

Thank you again.

[Valdez244]

My first time hearing this one, it`s absolutely epic with beautiful visual accompaniment. Thanks so much for this.