Entertainment industry comes together for victims

A little more than a week after a deadly, unexpected attack on American soil, entertainment giants joined in an unprecedented patriotic broadcast carried by all the networks.

The day was Dec. 15, 1941, just eight days after Japanese aviators bombed Pearl Harbor. Stars with names such as Bogart, Garland, Stewart and Welles volunteered to play roles without pay in the radio broadcast of a fact-based drama honoring the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Similar impulse, different age. Friday night, a two-hour telethon carried on about 40 cable and broadcast channels -- including those dedicated to music, movies, and Spanish-shows -- sought to raise money to assist those people directly affected by the terrorist strikes on Sept. 11. “America: A Tribute to Heroes” was shown live without commercial breaks throughout the country.

Among the featured stars, spanning both a variety of fields of the performing arts and a variety of generations of performers, were Limp Bizkit and Willie Nelson, Will Smith and Charleton Heston, Mariah Carey and Jim Carrey. Top celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks also took part.

The faces of Jack Nicholson, Kurt Russell, Whoopie Goldberg, Selma Hayek, Cuba Gooding, Adam Sandler, Andy Garcia were visible answering contributors’ calls. Top-drawer figures -- George Clooney, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Muhammad Ali -- took part in stripped-down style. There were no captions or booming announcers heralding their presence.

“We all feel the need to do something, no matter how small, or symbolic,” Hanks explained.

Bruce Springsteen led off with a gentle version of his haunting anthem from the 1970s, “My City of Ruins;” a few minutes later, U2 performed, live from London, its anguished song “Walk On.”

On paper, with all those stars volunteering, it might have resembled an updated USO tour headlined by Bob Hope and the Andrews Sisters during World War II, as though we Americans were the troops. In reality, the tone of the program was unrelentingly heartfelt, fitting for the tragedy of the event, but also at times making the broadcast tough to absorb. There were numerous testimonials about people believed dead from their loved ones and from the stars.

Reports suggest an unheard-of level of cooperation by notoriously cutthroat network executives, who also enlisted their counterparts at cable networks, recording studios and telecommunications companies to make it all work. The program was broadcast live and simultaneously on sound stages in New York City and Los Angeles.

“In this case, it’s not your standard “How can we make money or get publicity?’ ” said Joe Saltzman, a scholar of popular culture and journalism at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California who has written extensively about prime-time programming on television.

Last night’s performances sought to drum up money for a special United Way of New York account.

“The funds that are collected are going to be given as a restricted donation to the Sept. 11th Fund,” said Kathy Walling, vice president of communications for the United Way of New York City. “This is just for victims, and their families. Wherever the victims are from, that’s how far reaching it will be.”