SAN FRANCISCO — Cameras were rolling. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing. But San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was simply unable to put in an appearance. Literally.

The bay's unpredictable fog kept the magical bridge under a misty blanket Wednesday, spoiling a filming session for a National Parks Service video.

The women of the 300-plus-member choir even sang "On a Clear Day," hoping a little melodic positive thinking would help.

All to no avail.

Don Mischer, who produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics, wanted to use the choir to put just the right finish on a 4 1/2-minute video he's producing that combines two beloved American anthems: "This Land Is Your Land" and "America the Beautiful."

The video, Mischer said, is being produced to be seen, perhaps, in theaters as a public service trailer and elsewhere.

"It will be seen on the Discovery Channel and also will be seen in all programs the National Parks Service produces over the course of the year," he said. "We're trying to raise awareness of the national parks and help people understand that we have to protect and take care of them."

Members of the famed Utah choir are among various artists performing segments of the two-song medley, he said.

"We're starting with Yo-Yo Ma. We filmed him playing his cello on an island in the Boston Harbor 12 miles out in the Atlantic, on Little Brewster Island," Mischer said. "He's playing and there are sounds of waves in the background.

"Willie Nelson will sing in the Grand Teton National Park, and Stevie Wonder will perform, probably at the Lincoln Memorial," Mischer said. The video's images track across the nation, east to west.

"The payoff," he said, "will be the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. . . . The last lyrics you'll hear on the video are the choir singing 'from sea to shining sea.' "

The fog played havoc with the best-laid plans, but filming still proceeded. The 300 voices sang while close-ups and wide shots were done. In all, they spent five hours at Crissy Field in Golden Gate National Park, hoping for the fog to clear.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was in San Francisco Wednesday as part of a nine-city tour of the Pacific Northwest. The tour, which began in Pocatello, Idaho, on June 17, continues with performances in San Jose this evening and Sacramento on Friday. The final concert will be in Reno on Saturday evening.

Mischer said that he would have included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in his nation-spanning video even if it had not been in California and available for filming.

"The choir was so instrumental in making the opening ceremony of the 2002 Games successful. There just is no other choir that compares with it in this country, so when I thought about having a big emotional vocal ending, I thought we ought to use a group that this country knows and respects.

"There is only one name that comes to mind," he said, "and that is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir."

---

E-mail: gerry@desnews.com