Good AS Gold : ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ Remains a Symbol of Support for Troops Stationed in the Persian Gulf

Tony Orlando is speaking fervently from a car phone in Beverly Hills, but not about record deals or a Las Vegas gig. He’s talking about the Persian Gulf War and his signature song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree.”

“For 18 years I’ve sung that song. It has become a part of my life,” says Orlando, who previously was reluctant to speak about the song for fear of appearing self-promotional. He turned down offers to perform for Vietnam POWs in 1973, and for Iran hostages in 1981.

But, these days, tying a yellow ribbon has become a part of his expression of support for the soldiers at war. He wears one every day, one is tied to his car door and trees on his estate in Calabasas are wrapped with yellow strips.

“It is a privilege to do what I can and to speak out in terms of support for our troops. Today, the yellow ribbons I see everywhere are not about me, not about the song, they’re about America. This is America’s story, not my story,” Orlando says.

Indeed, the apolitical yellow ribbon--a unifying thread connecting today’s patriots, protesters and peace lovers--is becoming more commonplace than the patriotic red, white and blue.

And the 1973 hit by Orlando has found yet another interpretation beyond its original meaning: about a man coming home from prison to find 100 yellow ribbons welcoming him.

“I never imagined it would become what it has become today,” Orlando says of the song that popularized yellow ribbons.

The Southland is awash in yellow hues despite a shortage caused by the increasing demand for yellow ribbons.

Yellow ribbons, plastic and fabrics are wrapped around palm trees, telephone posts and flagpoles. They are draped on street lamps, hanging on door knockers, flapping around car antennas and fluttering on mailboxes, pinned to gym bags, clothing, shoes, hair, and adorning billboards, buildings, golf clubs, shopping carts, stationery and the ears of critters being groomed at pet salons.

Some advertisers have gone so far as to put yellow strips at the top of magazine ads and major department stores, including Robinson’s, are giving away a free yard of yellow ribbon to customers. Sav-on Osco drugstores and radio station KRTH are laminating photographs of soldiers onto buttons decorated with yellow ribbons. And various jewelry designers are churning out clay and plastic yellow bow pins.

And Hollywood is clamoring “to sign a contract for a movie based on the song,” says Irwin Levine, who co-wrote “Yellow Ribbon” with L. Russell Brown. Levine never imagined that it would sell 70 million copies worldwide and become the second-most recorded song in history after “Yesterday.”

Manufacturers report they are dyeing the bulk of their materials yellow and pulling double shifts to meet the demand of the good-as-gold ribbon from craft and gift stores, supermarkets, churches, florists, veteran organizations and nonprofit groups.

C.M. Offray & Sons, a New Jersey ribbon manufacturer has increased its shipment of yellow ribbon to 10 times last year’s orders, says Neil Mandell, the firm’s vice president and creative marketing director. That comes to a colossal 30 million yards and still counting.

Mandell says the yellow ribbon is a symbol “that is bringing people together again.”

Mandell says the company--one of the largest in the country and in operation since 1879--has been receiving “tremendous amounts of requests.” The company has given away thousands of yards of ribbon and at least 20,000 yellow bows since the yellow ribbon craze struck.

At Michael’s, a craft and decorations store in Santa Monica, manager Peggy Hurley says after running out of the real thing, the staff became resourceful.

“We had to cut plastic yellow tablecloths to make bows. We ran out of those in about four days and now our warehouse is completely out and we put an order into an Idaho manufacturer.”

Hurley says she had been ordering three rolls of the ribbon a month. But since yellow ribbon-mania, her February order soared to 192 rolls.

At the 120-unit Ocean House Apartments in Santa Monica, tenants have hung yellow bows on their front doors.

“We share deep feelings of the pain that the families are going through and fear for the GIs because they’ve been bombed,” manager June Gatewood says. “The yellow ribbon symbolizes that the sun will shine again if the communication of peace will come forth.”

For Juanita Santos, the owner of Los Feliz Doggery, yellow ribbons have taken on a deeply personal reminder to stop and pray for the safe return of her two sons--one in Lebanon and the other on the U.S. aircraft carrier Constitution--and a son-in-law also on the ship.

“I’m going crazy. It’s hard,” says Santos, who not only wears a yellow ribbon pinned to her grooming smock but makes sure every dog leaves with one. She has ribbons on her two macaws, three cats and two dogs.

“The ribbon means bring (the troops) home,” she says. “It’s a vigil. Every time we look at the ribbon we say that prayer, ‘Bring them home safe and sound.’ ”

The tradition of wearing yellow ribbons started as a way of praying for the safe return of soldiers in the Civil War, according to historians. Soldiers wore yellow neckerchiefs and their wives and beloveds wore yellow ribbons as a promise to wait for a soldier’s return from battle.

Rodri J. Rodriguez hopes that the 10,000 yellow ribbons she sent out will be worn. They are attached to a message of brotherhood and peace included in ticket information for Mariachi USA II, a June festival at the Hollywood Bowl.

Rodriguez, who is producer of the event says she did this because she was “depressed” over the war. “It is a time to mourn and reflect and hopefully by June we will be celebrating music and world peace. The yellow ribbon is a sign of hope that all of our people come home very soon.”

That’s a sentiment shared by many, including Penne Laingen, whose husband is ex-hostage Bruce Laingen, a captive in Iran for 444 days 10 years ago. Penne Laingen popularized the gesture of tying a yellow ribbon around a tree in remembrance of her husband during the Iran hostage crisis.

The yellow ribbon tribute originally came to the Bethesda, Md., woman after she saw American University students throwing dog food at Iranian demonstrators in a TV newscast in 1979. “I didn’t want us behaving that way,” she recalls, saying that the Tony Orlando song gave her hope.

Now she finds herself placing fresh ribbons for her two sons, ages 24 and 29, who are both Navy lieutenants stationed in the Gulf.

“People have asked me why I think this has taken off, why not just the flag. My feeling is that the flag signifies the country, but the yellow ribbon signifies we care. We are not going to forget these troops as we did those in Vietnam.”

She says the yellow ribbon, despite sometimes differing interpretations, is “developing as an apolitical folk symbol.”

Orlando and Irwin agree. They contend the song has become a part of Americana and Orlando acknowledges that the song has been “the catalyst for the symbol,” which he says is not a political statement.

“Every war has a song or a movie or something that unites people and keeps people together,” Orlando says. For the families of Persian Gulf troops, yellow ribbon has become “the unifying strand that connects everyone--a coalition of the heart.”

“Yellow ribbons have shown the world that this country is indeed united and those soldiers over there are not alone anymore. Not in this war.”