juicy approximately 40 percent of Americans have never left the United States that may sound strange to those of us outside America but you have to remember the US is a big place if I as an Irish man wanted to go to the desert for some reason well I'd have to leave Ireland but an American could go to a desert a Snowy Mountain a massive City a forest Disneyland without ever leaving the country and that drastically reduces their chances of ever meeting a Frenchman there's little need to leave because it has everything because it's so vast so vast that making a chain of humans holding hands from coast to coast sounds like an impossible task but it's actually been done Hands Across America was a public fundraising event in 1986 that sought to bring six million Americans together in hand holding across a 4 000 mile chain from the east coast to the West Coast the event was held by USA for Africa that's United Support of artists for Africa not United States of America for Africa you may remember them from the 1985 hit single we are the worlds that featured a star-studded Ensemble of celebrities raising money for famine and disease relief in Africa USA for Africa hoped to replicate the success of We Are the World with Hands Across America aiming to raise between 50 to 100 million dollars with the event it took 400 staff nine months to organize the event and spread awareness they even released another song for the event although it didn't come close to the massive success of We Are the World featuring no notable celebrities except for members of the band total Who provided instrumentals for the track that didn't mean celebrities weren't on board with Hands Across America though there were a few featured in the songs video which aired for weeks on MTV like Robin Williams and C-3PO the song was also to appear in 1986's Super Bowl halftime show although apparently Michael Jackson complained it upstaged we are the world which he had written with Lionel Richie so instead of the song young there was a Hands Across America commercial featuring Lily Tomlin and Bill Cosby Hands Across America think of what we can do with our own hands the publicity campaign was a success and come Sunday May 25th 1986 around 6 million Americans showed up to be part of Hands Across America participants were asked to donate ten dollars to reserve their spot and if they wanted to give more there were commemorative t-shirts and the like as an incentive so were they able to create a continuous human link from one course to another yes well kind of there were a number of hiccups along the way the chain would start in New York and as you can see had a bit of a Meandering path to cities like Washington DC believe it or not the root chosen caused protests from cities that saw their exclusion from the event as an intentional slight rather than you know a matter of practicality I mean you want to be doing something like this not this over a million Americans participated in other similar events like Hands Across Hawaii whose slogan was Hawaiians are Americans too are you really that upset that you weren't involved Hawaii is 2 000 miles away from the U.S Mainland Hands Across Massachusetts was another one sparked by official protests from Senator Ted Kennedy and representative Edward Marky who were apparently taking their exclusion very personally thankfully the 80s was a blissful time in America where there were no other problems whatsoever so politicians had plenty of time to focus on this issue because there was nothing else worth addressing another hiccup was sport Aid another charity event that was also held by USA for Africa Unfortunately they had seemingly inadvertently organized both events for the same day and since Hands Across America was much better publicized sport Aid suffered a disappointing turnout but Hands Across America had great participation there were celebrities like Bill Clinton presumably holding the hands of some interns Yoko Ono know yeah and Mr African charity himself President Ronald Reagan yeah there were some protests over his involvement too the China handholders ended up in some pretty interesting places like New Jersey's Rahway State Prison where 500 inmates held hands and the Susquehanna River in Maryland where divers held hands underwater Springfield Illinois saw 50 Abraham Lincoln impersonators hauling hands although they were outdone by 54 Elvis impersonators in Memphis Tennessee the chain did have some problems though especially in the western states where the climate wasn't the most hospitable God made the desert for scorpions and rattlesnakes to fight to the death under the boiling Sun not for a bunch of goons to hold hands in as such there were some gaps in the chain although these were filled in with banners or ribbons or ropes some ranchers even used battle to fill in the gaps tender were other parts of the line like the big cities where people just weren't doing it properly they were standing real close together or even in front and behind each other leading to some parts of the chain being 10 people wide which was obviously unnecessary and also stupid Hands Across America lasted about 15 minutes during which time participants sang songs like America the Beautiful we are the worlds and the Hands Across America song obviously if you count the gaps that were filled with non-human objects they did manage to form a chain from coast to coast if you also count the gaps that were filled with nothing yeah unfortunately they couldn't quite complete the continuous chain but well get this there were enough participants involved to have done it properly if they'd all been standing four feet apart and weren't all bunched up in certain sections as for the fundraising aspect well they didn't quite reach their 50 to 100 million dollar Target the event instead raised 34 million dollars still a fairly sizable sum I certainly wouldn't turn it down but well even this wasn't as straightforward as it sounds obviously a lot of the money had gone into organizing the whole thing liability insurance alone cost three million dollars after deducting these operating expenses only 15 million dollars was left less than half the money raised while something is better than nothing unless that something is the better fact that Americans are so contrarian even an event that literally United them hand in hand around the country for the purposes of Charity was divisive enough to cause protests united we stand divided we also stand but in a different state cursing you for not making the hundreds of miles of detour to include us bastards overall I think Hands Across America was a nice idea you know what else is a nice idea watching another one of my videos if you liked this one that is which I imagine you did if you made it this far I have a video about another American charity event in the 80s that didn't turn out quite as planned actually it was a disaster and if you've seen a few of my videos and liked them all why not subscribe to see them as I release them until next week stay safe [Music] foreign only a few in the line carried radio to sing the Hands Across America theme and most couldn't wait to find a way out of the 100 degree heat but as one man said it was a good time for a good cause and it may never happen again