I'm An American -- Guiseppe Bellanca

Recorded Sound | Digitized | RG Number: RG-91.0038

Overview

Description: On December 15, 1940 Giuseppe Bellanca spoke with Ugo Carusi, Executive Assistant to the Attorney General, about life in America for newcomers. Bellanca reveals that Americans want immigrants to assimilate quickly. He says the conversion could cause the nation to miss out on major contributions, that could propel its status to the best in the world. The two men discuss totalitarian claims of democracy failing in the modern world. Bellanca suggests educating all Americans in democratic ideals. He praises American individuality and the rejection of a dictator. Bellanca warns man’s ingenuity is being used to destroy him. The program concludes with Bellanca vowing to defend democracy; so that no American child will run and hide at the sound of an airplane.

Giuseppe Bellanca (b. Giuseppe Mario Bellanca) was born on March 19, 1886 in Sciacca, Italy. As a young boy, Bellanca was fascinated by aviation. He studied at the Royal Institute of Milan and earned a degree in engineering. In 1910, at the age of 25, Bellanca immigrated to America in hopes of finding opportunities in aviation. He built his first aircraft two years later in Brooklyn, New York. One of Bellanca’s early innovative designs became the standard for general aviation.The Italian designer taught himself and others how to fly at his aviation flying school on Long Island. He went on to build a variety of aircrafts that broke records for endurance and distance, as well as blaze the trail for international commercial air transportation.
Date: Broadcast: 1940 December 15
Format: WAV

Physical Details

Language: English
Genre/Form: Radio broadcasts.

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: This archival media can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing stations.
Copyright: NBC Universal
Conditions on Use: Contact NBC Universal at www.nbcuniarchives.com for permission to duplicate and use this film or sound recording.

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Cultural pluralism. Democracy--Study and teaching. Democracy--United States. Ethnicity--United States. Immigrants--Cultural assimilation--United States. Immigrants--Interviews. Immigrants--United States. Individualism--United States. Italian Americans. National characteristics, American. Totalitarianism.
Geographic Name: United States.
Personal Name: Bellanca, Giuseppe Mario, 1886-1960. Carusi, Ugo, 1902-

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: In process
Recorded Sound Provenance: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased digital copies of these sound recordings from the Library of Congress in March 2018.
Recorded Sound Notes: More information about Giuseppe Bellanca:
https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/bellanca-giuseppe/
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/giuseppe-m-bellanca-collection-1919-1959
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19270704,00.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Mario_Bellanca

More information about I’M AN AMERICAN:
https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/historians-mailbox/im-american
https://www.npr.org/2017/10/16/557338355/im-an-american-radio-show-promoted-inclusion-before-world-war-ii
Recorded Sound Source: Library of Congress - Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
File Number: Source Archive Number: RGB 1260

Record last modified:: 2024-02-21 07:27:19
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn620815

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Also in "I'm An American" NBC radio broadcasts

I’M AN AMERICAN premiered in 1940 on the eve of WWII. The NBC radio broadcast was spearheaded by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Labor to foster a “deeper consciousness of the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship and more tolerance for fellow american of all birthplaces”. The weekly program featured distinguished foreign-born citizens discussing their naturalization process, the meaning of “democracy” and reminding all Americans of the value/privilege of U.S. citizenship. Sound recordings of I’M AN AMERICAN are available from the NBC Radio Collection in the Library of Congress.

Date: 1940-1944

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I'm An American -- Guiseppe Bellanca

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