On May 25 , 1986 , over 5 million Americans linked hands to make a 4,125 - mile human mountain chain that stretch out from New York City to Long Beach . They were n’t just big manus moderate enthusiasts , though . They were participating in Hands Across America , a massive charity event and fundraiser that hoped to put forward money for and draw attention to homelessness and hunger .
In the nearly 25 year since Hands was a national phenomenon , it has lento fade in our computer memory . Let ’s take a look at the story behind the bountiful outcome .
Coca - Cola kicked in $ 8 million to get the project rolling , but an case like this really need celebrities . Hands assembled a real manslayer ’ row of star . The outcome had four fame co - chairmen : Bill Cosby , Kenny Rogers , Lily Tomlin , and Pete Rose . ( Rose and his Cincinnati Reds teammates joined hands with Little Leaguers at Pittsburgh ’s Three Rivers Stadium during a road trip . )
What better place to grab the interior consciousness than a Super Bowl commercial message ? That January , Hands made its first big splash when it ran an ad have its theme song during Super Bowl XX . The advert grind away up some overnice promotion for Hands Across America , but it could n’t compare to what followed : a headliner - studded music video recording feature the event ’s astonishingly cheesy theme song . ( Since this was 1986 , of course the song ’s back set was Toto . )
Despite the terrific product value of this video , at least one famous person was hesitant to participate . Just a week before the upshot President Ronald Reagan said , “ I do n’t believe that there is anyone going thirsty in America by reason of defense or lack of power to bung them ; it is by people not knowing where or how to get this help . " In other words , if anyone was thirsty it was his or her own fault . Reagan finally soften his stance just two days before Hands Across America and took a spot in the Sir Ernst Boris Chain on the White House lawn .
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Other celebrity arrive out in droves , too . Prince kick back in a $ 13,200 donation . Jetreported that NBA greats Kareem Abdul - Jabbar and Alex English joined with Olympic racecourse star Edwin Moses to form a sports committee . Whoopi Goldberg , Harry Belafonte , Brooke Shields and Dionne Warwick joined in on the handholding .
Even with this Hollywood glitz , the whole “ across America ” title was a little dubious . The participant could n’t fully stretch from ocean to shining sea given Hands ’ roundabout road , so farsighted ribbons or lengths of R-2 had to stand in for actual the great unwashed for up to a hundred miles in areas like deserts . TheLos Angeles Timesreported that there were huge disruption in the product line in some of the dodgier section of East LA , and volunteers ’ efforts to recruit people from their front porches to join the Sir Ernst Boris Chain did n’t generate any interest group .
What do you do with jillion of people once they ’ve linked hands ? Why not have them belt out out a few tunes ? The chain stayed together for 15 hour , long enough for participants to sing “ We Are the World , ” “ America the Beautiful ” and , naturally , the Hands subject call .
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However , as anyone who ’s ever tried to imprint a human chain across a continent can tell you , it ’s no small labor . As Hands ’ home film director toldTimein an understated audience before the consequence , “ It ’s like planning the encroachment of Normandy and Hannibal ’s intersection of the Alps on the same day . ” The organizers used a pair of giant computers located in Marshfield , WI , to supervise the event and assign participant a stead to stand .
Planning and promote Hands required nine month and a staff of 400 people , which direct a huge bite out of the event ’s bottom pedigree . On top of that , the great unwashed were excited to obtain hand but less enthusiastic about mailing in their donation . Hands only root for in around $ 34 million total , and once the event spend around $ 17 million to compensate its bills it only net $ 15 - 16 million . Robert Hayes of the National Coalition for the Homeless severalize theNew York Timesthat the event ’s organizers “ spent too much to raise too little and promoted a interior extravaganza empty of substance . ''
At least one dispossessed family get a huge welfare from the case . Six - yr - former Amy Sherwood had been living in a New York roofless shelter when she was nibble to be in the Hands promotional telecasting . Hollywood talent scouts decided the girl showed promise and inked her to an act contract bridge . Little Amy still took her symbolic place as the first link in the chain where Hands begin in New York ’s Battery Park even though she and her kinfolk had moved into a Brooklyn apartment .
Despite critics ’ jabs that the case was more of a spectacle than a fundraiser , it would be myopic to just look at the raw numbers pool on how much Hands collected . The promoters point out that the event avail raise the visibility of the homeless in the public knowingness , which belike led to more volunteering and donations to related causes . If the event really did raise awareness , then it ’s easy to see why its organizer deemed it a success . And if it did n’t ? At least it leave a really odd blip on our ethnic memory .
