Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately seven million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Participants paid ten dollars to reserve their place in line; the proceeds were donated to local charities to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty.

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  • 1986-05-25 (xsd:date)
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  • 1986-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • 1986-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • 1986-05-25 (xsd:date)
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  • 1986-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • 1986-01-01 00:00:00 (xsd:date)
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  • Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately seven million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Participants paid ten dollars to reserve their place in line; the proceeds were donated to local charities to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty. "On the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, 1986, almost seven million people joined hands to form a line that stretched 4,152 miles (6,682 km) – from New York City's Battery Park to the RMS Queen Mary pier in Long Beach, California. This nationwide event, called Hands Across America, was intended to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness. " In order to allow the maximum number of people to participate, the path linked major cities and meandered back and forth within the cities. There were undoubtedly many breaks in the chain, but enough people participated to form an unbroken chain across the country if the path had been a straight line. The Coca-Cola Company and Citibank donated a combined $8 million to fund the event. The event raised nearly $20 million, far short of its $50 million goal, and critics branded the event a failure, as production costs exceeded $17 million. The fact that nearly 7 million people participated and only contributed $20 million instead of $70 million meant that a substantial number of participants joined in without paying the requisite ten dollar fee. Cities along the route included the following: New York City, New York Trenton, New Jersey Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Baltimore, Maryland The first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland due to R2D2 not having hands. Washington, D.C. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (with the Pittsburgh Pirates Parrot) Cleveland, Ohio Cincinnati, Ohio (with Chewbacca the Wookiee) Columbus, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio Toledo, Ohio Indianapolis, Indiana (occurred in the rain, scheduled side-by-side with the Indy 500, which was rained-out that day) Chicago, Illinois (with Walter Payton . . . the longest unbroken section of the chain was allegedly in Illinois) Springfield, Illinois (with 50 Abraham Lincoln impersonators) St. Louis, Missouri Memphis, Tennessee (with 54 Elvis Presley impersonators) Little Rock, Arkansas Amarillo, Texas Albuquerque, New Mexico (with Don Johnson, and the Dearholt Family) Phoenix, Arizona (with Ed Begley, Jr. , however desert areas were mostly empty, dotted with one-mile -long chains of people. Truck drivers sounded their horns during the appointed time. ) San Bernardino, California Santa Monica, California Long Beach, California. 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, entitled "Hands Across America," was played simultaneously on hundreds of radio stations at 3:00 p.m. Eastern 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, 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. 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.
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  • Across the United States
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  • Hands Across America
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  • 1986 (xsd:integer)
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  • Hands Across America was a benefit event and publicity campaign staged on Sunday May 25, 1986 in which approximately seven million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. Participants paid ten dollars to reserve their place in line; the proceeds were donated to local charities to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty.
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  • Hands Across America
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  • Hands Across America
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