Grandpa and the Statue

We're on to day two of the RUSC old-time-radio parade, in which Joy and I will be featuring a show every day on RUSC in the run up to one of the most important days in the history of America, our day of Independence.

Every so often, something leaps from the speaker and grabs my attention and this was a perfect example.

It was a show from the Cavalcade of America entitled Grandpa and the Statue, and is the warm story of the most famous pin-up girl in the world - the Statue of Liberty, upon which of course, is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence.

Given as a gift of friendship to America by the French, 'Liberty Enlightening The World' is universally recognised as symbol of freedom and democracy, with the seven spikes on the crown representing the seven oceans and the seven continents of the world.

But in the summer of 1885 the Statue of Liberty was in New York in pieces, awaiting assembly. A granite plinth for the statue was needed, but nobody could find the money to pay for it. Committees, Governors, and even Congress had tried find ways to fund the pedestal, but everyone fell short.

It seemed as though New York had run out of options, when the publisher Joseph Pulitzer decided to launch a fundraising campaign in his newspaper, The New York World.

This is the story about that triumphant effort to raise the money from more than 160,000 donors, including young children, businessmen, street cleaners and politicians, and in particular a crusty old man named Monaghan, played by Charles Laughton, and how from his early scepticism and refusal to contribute $1 towards her pedestal, he learned to love her.

Happy listening my friends,