Soldier's show

Last updated

A soldier's show or blueprint special was a theatrical presentation designed by the United States Army's Special Services Division for the purpose of team building and improving morale for soldiers during World War II. According to Arthur Loesser, brother to songwriter Frank Loesser, blueprint specials were the brainchild of Harry Salter, [1] orchestra conductor for 1920s and 1930s radio programs and the inventor of Name That Tune .

Often written by Tin Pan Alley songwriters and radio comedy writers, the soldier's shows were pre-packaged musical reviews distributed to local army camps, complete with orchestral arrangements, scripts for skits and jokes, stage directions, costume designs, scenery diagrams "all pre-cooked and provided with directions for serving." [1] As opposed to USO Camp shows, often presented by professionals and special services entertainment units, the blueprint special was designed so that the local soldiers themselves built the scenery, cobbled together costumes, played the instruments and performed for each other. [2]

Hi, Yank! by Frank Loesser and Pvt. Arnold M. Auerbach with dances by Pvt. Jose Limon is an example of a popular 1944 blueprint special. [3] Loesser and Auerbach assisted Captain Ruby Jane Douglas mount an all-Women's Army Corps show entitled P.F.C. Mary Brown, [4] [5] [6] based on Loesser's previous wartime hit First Class Private Mary Brown from the review "About Face". [7]

While visiting North Africa, Dwight D. Eisenhower went backstage and praised the performers: "You are entertaining soldiers. You are not fighting with guns - but your job is just as important. As long as you are doing your job well . . . you will be rendering a service, and a great one, to your fellow soldiers and your country" [2]

In 2017, director Tom Ridgely adapted works from four soldier's shows into a limited run showing of "Blueprint Specials", performed in New York City at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. [4] [5] [8]

Related Research Articles

Browning Hi-Power American-Belgian semi-automatic pistol

The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic handgun available in the 9mm and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized. FN Herstal initially named the design the "High Power", which alludes to the 13-round magazine capacity, almost twice that of other designs at the time, such as the Luger or Colt M1911.

Frank Loesser American songwriter (1910-1969)

Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows as well as shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the latter. He also wrote songs for over 60 Hollywood films and for Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once for "Baby, It's Cold Outside".

United Service Organizations American charitable organization

The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of War, and later with the Department of Defense (DoD), relying heavily on private contributions and on funds, goods, and services from various corporate and individual donors. Although it is congressionally-chartered, it is not a government agency.

<i>Guys and Dolls</i> Musical

Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner".

Rodger Young United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

Rodger Wilton Young was a United States Army infantryman from Ohio during World War II. Born in the small town of Tiffin, Ohio, in 1918, Young suffered a sports injury in high school that led to his becoming nearly deaf and blind. Despite this, Young was able to pass the exams necessary to enter the Ohio National Guard. Soon after the United States entered World War II, Young's company was activated as part of the U.S. Army. Soon after his activation, in 1943, Young was killed on the island of New Georgia while helping his platoon withdraw from a Japanese ambush. For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor.

<i>A Walk in the Sun</i> (1945 film) 1945 film by Lewis Milestone

A Walk in the Sun is a 1945 American war film based on the novel by Harry Brown, who was a writer for Yank, the Army Weekly based in England.The book was serialized in Liberty Magazine in October 1944.

Frank Jenks American actor

Frank Jenks was an acid-voiced American supporting actor of stage and films.

"If I Were a Bell" is a song composed by Frank Loesser for his 1950 musical Guys and Dolls.

<i>Variety Girl</i> 1947 film by George Marshall

Variety Girl is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Tryon, Nella Walker, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and William Demarest. It was produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Among many others, the studio contract players include Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Barbara Stanwyck and Paula Raymond.

<i>Greenwillow</i>

Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser. The musical is set in the magical town of Greenwillow. It ran on Broadway in 1960.

Arnold M. Auerbach was an American comedy writer, especially for radio, television and newspapers. Auerbach wrote radio and television scripts for Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, Fred Allen, Frank Sinatra and Phil Silvers, among others. In 1946 he co-wrote the play Call Me Mister. In 1956 he shared a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series for The Phil Silvers Show. Auerbach contributed humor columns to The New York Times, and published a humorously-styled novel, "Is That Your Best Offer?" (1971). He published the 1965 memoir Funny Men Don't Laugh about his collaborations with radio comedians.

Martin Ruby American football player

Martin Owen Ruby was an offensive tackle and defensive tackle for the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the All-America Football Conference, New York Yanks of the National Football League, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. He lived in Waco, Texas, while he was a professional player.

Pleasures and Palaces is a musical with a book by Frank Loesser and Sam Spewack and music and lyrics by Loesser. It is based on Spewack's flop 1961 play Once There Was a Russian and takes its title from the opening lyrics of the 1823 song "Home, Sweet Home": "Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

Military Intelligence Service (United States) Military unit

The Military Intelligence Service was a World War II U.S. military unit consisting of two branches, the Japanese American unit and the German-Austrian unit based at Camp Ritchie, best known as the "Ritchie Boys". The unit described here was primarily composed of Nisei who were trained as linguists. Graduates of the MIS language school (MISLS) were attached to other military units to provide translation, interpretation, and interrogation services.

Ted Kavanagh

Henry Edward Kavanagh was a British radio scriptwriter and producer.

<i>The Yanks Are Coming</i> (1942 film) 1942 film

The Yanks Are Coming is a 1942 American patriotic musical film from Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation directed by Alexis Thurn-Taxis.

Special Services was the entertainment branch of the American military. The unit was created on 22 July 1940 by the War Department as part of the Army Service Forces. Special Services not only used its own specially trained and talented troops but also would often engage local performers. Among its activities were staging plays and stage acts, holding concerts, filming documentaries, and providing recreational opportunities for servicemen.

<i>G.I. Carmen</i>

G. I. Carmen was an all-GI 1945 musical stage show produced by the 253rd Infantry Regiment, 63rd Division of the U.S. Army as morale booster for allied troops occupying post-WWII Europe. Initially intended as a three-show run for the regiment, it was extended to reach the entire division and then picked up by the 7th Army and sent on an eight-month tour of the ETO seen by over 250,000 military personnel and countless civilians.

Jane Douglass White American musician and army officer

Jane Douglass White, born Ruby Jane Douglass, was an American Women's Army Corps officer, music educator and songwriter. A University of Oklahoma graduate, she wrote several songs during World War II to promote the corps; Captain Douglass was selected in 1944 to command the first all-woman Special Service company. Before the war, Douglass taught vocal music in the Bristow, Oklahoma public schools. One of her songs, originally entitled "The WAAC is in Back of You", was adapted after the war into the official "Song of the Women's Army Corps". She was awarded a master's degree at Columbia University, while she studied piano with Anton Bilotti. After marriage, she changed her name to Jane Douglass White, becoming a prolific songwriter and music director for stage and television. A song she co-wrote with Sidney Shaw, "Love is a Gamble" was recorded by such artists as Eartha Kitt and Johnny Mathis. She was an assistant producer with Harry Salter for the 50's edition of television's Name That Tune and afterwards became a well-known Christian music entertainer. Douglass served as a musical director for Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship program.

The "Song of the Women's Army Corps" is a United States Army marching song written by Jane Douglass White, with lyrics by White and fellow soldier Camilla Mays Frank. Originally written during World War II as "The WAAC is in Back of You" by White before her induction into the service, the song's lyrics were adapted later by White and Frank to better reflect post-war women's army service, and was adopted by the Women's Army Corps as its official song in 1951.

References

  1. 1 2 Loesser, Arthur (1950). "My Brother Frank". Notes. Music Library Association. 7 (2): 217–239. doi:10.2307/891581. ISSN   0027-4380. JSTOR   891581 . Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Guide to the John C. Becher Soldier Show collection, 1940-1953". George Mason University Libraries. George Mason University. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  3. United States Army Service Forces Special Service Division (1944). ""Hi, Yank!" A soldier shows "blueprint special."". www.bklynlibrary.org. Headquarters, Army service forces, Special services division. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  4. 1 2 Tran, Diep (2017-03-02). "Connecting Military Officers, Veterans, and Civilians in 'Blueprint Specials'". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  5. 1 2 Schulman, Michael (29 December 2016). "Unearthing Rare Second World War Musicals". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  6. Auerbach, Arnold; Douglass, Ruby Jane; Loesser, Frank (1944). "P. F. C. Mary Brown,a WAC musical revue". hdl.handle.net. Headquarters, Army Service Forces, Special Services Dvvision. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  7. "First Class Private Mary Brown". kokomo.ca. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  8. "Blueprint Specials". Waterwell. Retrieved 26 May 2021.