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CNN Live At Daybreak

What's an American Flag Worth?

Aired June 14, 2002 - 06:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This is Flag Day. Did you know that? It is Flag Day. So in honor of Old Glory, CNN's Garrick Utley offers this look at our grand old flag.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What is an American flag worth? Can you put a price on pieces of cloth cut into stars and stripes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last chance at $230,000. Sold to you madam, for $230,000.

UTLEY: Seventy-five flags were sold at Sotheby's auction house recently for a total of $1.3 million. A collection put together over many years with passion and patriotism by Thomas Connelly.

THOMAS CONNELLY, COLLECTOR: They are history. It's hard to not look at these and appreciate everything that it symbolizes, which is America.

UTLEY: Even before the "dawn's early light" on that September morning at Fort McHenry, the American flag had been constantly changing.

NANCY DRUCKMAN, SOTHEBY'S: This flag, which is called the Grand Union Flag, is probably the flag that George Washington would have carried across the Delaware.

UTLEY (on camera): What we see here is how the flag has evolved. Yes, there have always been 13 stripes, with a few exceptions; and of course one star for each state in the union. But until 1912, there were no hard and fast rules as to how the stars were to be arranged.

So in 1860, this flag maker put 31 stars in two concentric circles. Only two years earlier, 31 stars were arranged in the shape of one giant star. And in 1845, when Texas joined the union, the stars were arranged in, well, you figure it out.

(voice-over): A century ago flag waving and flag raising swept the country every June 14th; the anniversary of the first flag act passed by the continental Congress. When the United States entered World War I, Flag Day was officially established by the government to boost patriotic fervor. Americans have taken their flag into battle and planted it on the moon. And since that morning in September, it has been everywhere, so that once again Americans could see that their "flag is still there."

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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