Girls & Action

No national defense job has been slower than the supplying of professional shows to U.S. Army camps, but last week, after six months of confusion and lack of funds, the Government began to get somewhere with it. The job had been given to a single group--the semi-official Citizens Committee for the Army & Navy, Inc., headed by smart President Thomas John ("THINK") Watson of International Business Machines Corp. Under Chairman Watson was a theatrical subcommittee headed by Broadway Producer Vinton Freedley (Anything Goes, Red, Hot and Blue!).

Last fortnight the Citizens Committee learned a big lesson: that to Army audiences the word show means girls and action. To Fort Belvoir, Va. went lisping, begoggled Comedian Ed Wynn and other performers to donate their talents to an outdoor entertainment. First, it rained. Then an Army announcer spieled off 15 minutes of credits--for everything from the work of the Citizens Committee to the stage planking. The damp audience groaned and fidgeted.

Comedian Wynn followed with 15 minutes of foolish talk. The damper audience began heckling him, got better and louder at it. Comedian Wynn got mad, made the wrong remark: "Some of you fellows think you are funnier than I am, so you tell the jokes and I'll do the laughing." He escaped the ultimate bird only by giving the audience what it wanted--Tap Dancer Betty Bruce, brunette Singer Jane Froman, acrobats, eight chorines from Comedian Wynn's Boys and Girls Together. After that, the audience laughed at Comedian Wynn's foolery.

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