Part VI, Bringing USO Shows and Celebrity Entertainers to Fort Meade

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ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY

HISTORY NOTES

Quarterly Publication of the Ann Arrundell County Historical Society

EDITOR -MARK N. SCHATZ     ASSOCIATE EDITOR- FRED M. FETROW

EDITOR EMERITUS - MARIE ANGEL DURNER

P.O. Box 385 Linthicum, Maryland 21090-0385

Vol. XXVIII No. 1                                                                                                                   October 1996

Part VI: Bringing USO Shows and Celebrity Entertainers to Fort Meade

by Roger White

In the first five parts of this series, we examined U.S. Army training programs in which officers and enlisted men at Fort George G. Meade learned to organize stage shows and other recreational activities for servicemen overseas. The "practice" shows that these Special Service trainees presented at Fort Meade were a windfall for GIs who were stationed there, and the fort became known throughout the nation as a center for GI professional and amateur stage talent. Overseas, the moments of laughter, music and relax­ation that Special Service units provided to fighting men were important morale weapons that relieved stress and boredom, provided a taste of home, and kept GIs from engaging in harmful activities.

In addition to its unique school for GI performers and show managers, the Army's Special Service Division operated many recreational pro-­ grams specifically for the benefit of GIs in domestic forts and camps. The Army was very concerned that all GIs have satisfying, wholesome leisure activities to occupy their off duty hours. By the fall of 1941, the Morale Branch (predecessor of Special Service) was operating service clubs, movie theatres and athletics programs at Army installations, and guidelines specified that a full-time recreation officer be assigned to each regiment and separate battalion. By 1942, many types of traveling civilian shows were included in the recreational activities offered to GIs.

Direct from the Hippodrome

At least four different Special Service offices at Fort Meade brought civilian entertainers there, and some of these offices targeted specific units or areas of the fort. By early 1942, the Special Service office of Headquarters Company, Fort Meade Reception Center, was securing top-name entertainers to perform for servicemen and women who passed through the Reception Center. Private Jules "Babe" Mednick, who had been a professional show business manager, booking agent and publicity agent in New York and other eastern cities before the war, coordinated most of these engagements as part of his duties at the Special Service office. With the cooperation of I. M. Rappaport, owner of the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, as well as the theatre's manager and pub-­ licity director, Private Mednick arranged for enter- tainers appearing in person at the Hippodrome to travel to Fort Meade and perform for GIs every Sunday. These shows were presented in Theatre No. 3 at Seventh Street (now Llewellyn Avenue) and Chamberlin Avenue, just off Route 175 and close to buildings where registration, classification, aptitude testing, uniform issuance and other activities involving new inductees took place. Among the many "head-­ liners" who donated their time and performed in Theatre No. 3 during 1942 were bandleaders Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Spivak, Woody Herman, Russ Morgan, Alvino Rey, Charlie Barnet, Shep Fields and their bands, vocalists Connee Boswell, the Andrews Sisters, and the Ink Spots, and comedians Benny Rubin and Patsy Kelly.

The central post Special Service office at Fort Meade managed an even wider range of recreational programs and facilities for GIs stationed throughout the fort. Its staff of eight people -- four officers and  four enlisted men -- coordinated shows and sporting events and supervised the post service clubs, cafeterias, guest houses, Field House, theatres, libraries, gymnasiums, day room furnishings, art projects, dramatics programs and athletics programs. The post Special Service officer, Major Thomas C. Ferguson, had been supervisor of physical education and recreation for the Maryland Department of Education before the war. A Reserve officer, he was called to active duty and served as post Special Service officer at Fort Meade from March 1942 to July 1943, when he was replaced by Major Lester D. Friend of Warren, Ohio.

Major Ferguson's assistant for stage shows, Sergeant Maurice Sykes, was a native of Baltimore and had been a manager and booking agent for stage performers before the war. In early 1942, as Special Service officer for the 29th Infantry Division, Sykes had arranged for some of the stage shows at the Hippodrome Theatre to be presented in Fort Meade's Theatre No. 4, located at 21st Street and A Street. By late 1942, when he had joined the staff of the post Special Service office, he was credited with bringing hundreds of big bands and other stage shows to the fort. Sergeant Sykes was nicknamed the "Billy Rose of Fort Meade," a reference to the well known nightclub operator and producer of stage plays and musicals.

Troupe Movements

Typical of USO shows with lesser-known talent was "All in Fun," whose performers had played the Rhumba Casino in Chicago and the 21 Club in Baltimore before hitting the GI circuit. Presented in Fort Meade's Theatres No. 1, 2 and 3 in July 1942, "All in Fun" was a modern vaudeville or variety show with singing, comic dancing, tap dancing, acrobatic dancing, and impressions of Hollywood stars such as Groucho Marx and Lionel Barrymore. Men and women in the cast sang topical songs such as the patriotic "Beware We're on Our Way," the sentimental "I Don't Want to Walk without You," and "He's 1-A in the Army." In a lampoon of civilians trying to become soldiers, the show's emcee played "captain" to five "humorously unmilitary soldiers" in the Doughboy Act, "an example of how soldiering should not be done."

Other USO shows presented at Fort Meade early in the war included "Razzle Dazzle," which played Theatre No. 4 in February 1942, and "Harlem on Parade," starring Baltimore's own Eubie Blake, which played the same theatre a month later. "Yankee Doodle Revue" was presented in Theatre No. 1 and Theatre No. 3 in March 1942. "Out of the Frying Pan," a 1941 play by Baltimorean Francis Swann, visited Fort Meade as a USO show in February 1943 and in the same year was made into a motion picture, Young and Willing, starring William Holden, Susan Hayward and Eddie Bracken. A comedy, it deals with a group of hopeful stage actors who lure a theatrical producer to their shared apartment and try to trap him into giving them acting parts.

Beginning in August 1943, the presence of Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot Number One at Fort Meade increased the number of GIs there and the need for all kinds of services, including recreation and entertainment. The AGF Depot was one of only two Army centers in the United States where thousands of GIs were gathered to be shipped overseas as replacements for men who had been killed, wounded, reassigned or discharged. It was the only one that forwarded GIs to the European Theatre of Operation.

Under the supervision of Major Donald L. Martin and Lieutenant Robert S. Fryer, the Depot Special Service office organized athletics activities, distributed books, magazines, games and cards, maintained barracks day rooms, and arranged for shows ranging from legitimate theatre to vaudeville­style USO shows to visit the fort. Stage plays from Broadway, operas, well-known actors and actresses on personal tours, and little-known performers all were brought to Fort Meade. More than two shows per week were presented on average. Among the many well-known stage and screen stars who acted in plays or made personal appearances between 1943 and 1945 were Cornelia Otis Skinner, ZaSu Pitts, Edward Everett Horton, Celeste Holm, and Katharine Cornell, Among the USO shows scheduled to visit Fort Meade during the same period were "Stop, Look and Listen," with a swing singer, a Latin­American swing dancer, and two song-and-gag "funologists," and "Heigh-Ho," with comedians, a song-and­dance team, a puppeteer, and "comedy juveniles."

I came, I played the saw, I conquered

Some of the most memorable events at Fort Meade were randomly scheduled personal appearances by nationally known radio, stage and motion picture entertainers. Throughout the war, many celebrities came to the fort to boost GI morale, most under the auspices of USO-Camp Shows or the Treasury Department's war bond drives. Early in 1942, only a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, comedian Joe E. Brown and actress Linda Darnell visited Fort Meade. Film legend Marlene Dietrich sold war bonds on April 30 of that year, and Edgar Bergen and his smart-aleck dummy, Charlie McCarthy, entertained GIs on October 20. Ina Ray Hutton and her all-female swing band appeared in a 29th Infantry Division recreation hall in the spring of 1942 before a few hundred GIs; in January 1943, they played the post Field House before a crowd of approx­imately 4,000 GIs and officers.

The hit parade continued on February 2, 1943, when Lanny Ross, a vocalist who formerly appeared on network radio's "Show Boat," sang for an audience of approximately 3,000 GIs and officers in the post Field House. He sang several songs from the "Show Boat" program, including his signature piece,Moonlight and Roses." As Lieutenant Lanny Ross, he returned to Fort Meade and led a songfest in the post amphitheater in July 1943. In this event, he was supplemented by talent from Fort Meade's Special Service Unit Training Center, which trained enlisted men to present stage shows for GIs overseas.

Major Richard O'Connell escorts Marlene Dietrich upon her arrival at Pennsylvania Station, Baltimore, 1942. Dietrich sold war bonds at Fort Meade on April 30 of that year. Courtesy of the Fort Meade Museum

Hollywood was well represented among Fort Meade's celebrity visitors. In October 1943, film actress Joan Blondell, then appearing at the Maryland Theatre in Baltimore, visited the 101st Cavalry Regiment at Fort Meade to christen a tank named for her. She also served food to GIs in a mess hall. Two months later, film actress Anita Louise visited the post hospital to cheer GI patients, and pianist, film composer and film actor Oscar Levant played the piano for them.

On March 20, 1944, Marlene Dietrich starred in a USO show in Fort Meade's Theatre No. 4. Emceed by Danny Thomas, who had just become prominent as a nightclub comedian and singer, the show featured slow, sultry songs by Dietrich, music, comedy and dancing by Milton Frome and Lynne Mayberry, and musical accompaniment by Jack Snyder. Fort Meade's 128th Army Band provided additional accompaniment. The show closed with Dietrich playing "Pagan Love Song" on a musical saw. Shortly after this performance, Dietrich took her troupe and her musical saw overseas and entertained GIs in North Africa and Italy.

In addition to USO tours and bond drives, some well known radio stars agreed to broadcast from military installations in exchange for the right to include their customary commercials. On the evening of January 24, 1943, comedian Jack Benny and the cast of his popular network radio comedy show broadcast their regular Sunday night program nationwide from Fort Meade's Theatre No. 4. Approximately 1,000 GIs enjoyed the show "live" in the theatre. The cast included most of Benny's regulars: Mary Livingstone (in reality Mrs. Benny,) tenor Dennis Day, Jack's foil, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and announcer Don Wilson, who read commercials for Grape Nuts Flakes breakfast cereal. Music was provided by the McFarland Twins, Arthur and George, and their band. The title of the half-hour episode, "Mr. Benny Goes to Washington," was a parody of the popular 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring James Stewart. A recording of this broadcast is in the collection of the Fort Meade Museum.

On the day of the radio broadcast, the Benny troupe also appeared in the post Field House, where they entertained GIs informally for an hour and a half. Jack played a violin solo and gave away neckties, and Dennis Day sang some more songs. Eddie Anderson performed his "zoot suit" dance, which is preserved on film in the 1942 motion picture Star Spangled Rhythm.

SOURCES CONSULTED: Baltimore Sun, March 21, 1944; Chin Strap, March 6, 1942; Fort Meade Post, July 24, 1942; October 9, 1942; December 24, 1942; March 13, 1942; April 3, 1942; April 10, 1942; January 29, 1943; February 5, 1943; July 16, 1943; July 23, 1943; August 6, 1943; October 1, 1943; October 15, 1943; November 26, 1943; December 31, 1943; September 22, 1944; November 10, 1944; November 17, 1944; May 25, 1945.

Edwin Bronner, Encyclopedia of the American Theatre, 1900-1975

Frank Buxton and Bill Owen, The Big Broadcast (1972)

Danny Thomas and Bill Davidson, Make Room for Danny (1991)

USO, Five Years of Service: Report of the President (1946)

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Fort Meade Museum, Jack Kelbaugh