All of which is to say that when Ripley’s Believe It or Not pointed out that America had zero national anthems – and especially not “The Star-Spangled Banner,” or, as he called it, “a vulgar old English drinking song” – people listened. The American public was shocked – shocked! – and demanded this situation be remedied. Letters began pouring into the government, along with a petition that garnered over five million actual pen-and-ink signatures.
This seemed like an easy enough slam-dunk for the Depression-rattled Hoover administration, and so they did as requested, officially declaring “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States of America, a scant 16 months after the cartoon debuted.
Now, obviously, your mileage with the song may vary, given all the racism baked right into it, but, hey, five million outraged citizens changed it once. Who’s to say we can’t do it again?
Eirik Gumeny is the author of the Exponential Apocalypse series, a five-book saga of slacker superheroes, fart jokes, and assorted B-movie monsters, and he recently added werewolves and assassins to The Great Gatsby. He’s also on Twitter a bunch.
Top Image: U.S. Navy
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