Hands Across America - Cities

Cities

Cities along the route included the following:

• New York City, New York (with Brooke Shields as well as Liza Minnelli, John Cardinal O'Connor, Susan Anton, Gregory Hines, and Edward James Olmos, Yoko Ono, and Harry Belafonte anchoring the George Washington Bridge)
• Trenton, New Jersey (with Dionne Warwick and Tony Danza)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with Jerry Lewis and Scott Baio)
• Baltimore, Maryland (with R2-D2 and Emmanuel Lewis.) The first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland.
• Washington, D.C. (with President Ronald Reagan at the White House and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill at the United States Capitol)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (with the Pittsburgh Pirates Parrot)
• Youngstown, Ohio (with Michael Jackson)
• Cleveland, Ohio (with David Copperfield)
• Toledo, Ohio (with Jamie Farr)
• Columbus, Ohio (with Michael J. Fox)
• Cincinnati, Ohio (with Chewbacca the Wookiee)
• Indianapolis, Indiana (occurred in the rain, scheduled side-by-side with the Indy 500, which was rained-out that day)
• Champaign, Illinois (with Walter Payton . . .the longest unbroken section of the chain was allegedly in Illinois)
• Chebanse, Illinois, A cornfield in central Illinois served as center-point of the nation with 16,000 people in attendance along with the Silver Nickel Band and DJ Gerald Welch.
• Springfield, Illinois (with 50 Abraham Lincoln impersonators)
• St. Louis, Missouri (with Kathleen Turner under the St. Louis Arch)
• Memphis, Tennessee (with 54 Elvis Presley impersonators)
• Little Rock, Arkansas (with governor Bill Clinton)
• Amarillo, Texas (with Kenny Rogers, Renegade, Lee Greenwood and Tony Dorsett at the TX-NM border)
• Albuquerque, New Mexico (with Don Johnson)
• Phoenix, Arizona (with Ed Begley, Jr., however desert areas were mostly empty, dotted with one-mile (1.6 km)-long chains of people. Truck drivers sounded their horns during the appointed time.)
• San Bernardino, California (with Bob Seger and Charlene Tilton)
• Santa Monica, California (with Jack Youngblood, Dudley Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, and Donna Mills)
• Long Beach, California (with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Reverend Robert Schuller, Kenny Loggins, and John Stamos, backed by Papa Doo Run Run.

The event was conceived and organized by Ken Kragen. Event implementation was through USA for Africa under the direction of Marty Rogol, the founding Executive Director. A theme song, titled "Hands Across America," was played simultaneously on hundreds of radio stations at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time (noon Pacific time) to add to the festive atmosphere of the event.

The actual song "Hands Across America" that was playing while everyone was holding hands was written by Marc Blatte and John Carney for Look and Company (the Spanish version was written by the composer Marcia Bell), a music production house in NYC. Look and Company were trend setters during the 1980s creating music for Chrysler's comeback with "Pride Is Back" and Goodyear's "Goodyear Take Me Home" among others. The lead vocalists were Joe Cerisano and Sandy Farina who at the time were the top session singers in America. All the demo work was done in New York City at the Power Station then the basic tracks and final vocal were recorded in Los Angeles. The backing band was Toto. The song peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

Hands Across America was a project of USA for Africa. USA for Africa produced "We Are The World" and the combined revenues raised by both events raised almost $100 million dollars to fight famine in Africa and hunger and homelessness in the United States.

The date and time chosen for the event inadvertently conflicted with another charity fundraiser, Sport Aid, which was organized by USA for Africa on the same day. Since Hands Across America was much better publicized in the United States, only 4000 runners participated in New York City for Sport Aid.