Foul-Weather Friends

G.I.s in France have had a lot of entertainment from home since the first five U.S.O. units waded ashore in Normandy last July and promptly merged into one mammoth revue, practically on the beach. Dozens of other units have jested and jeeped their way around the fronts; such headliners as Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Edward G. Robinson, Morton Downey, Fred Astaire have come & gone.

But there is much less entertainment these days in a France where only trained polar bears would find trouping comfortable. In addition to a limited, valiant rank-&-file, there are just two top-rank entertainers: Katharine Cornell and Marlene Dietrich. But Cornell, with a production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (co-starring Brian Aherne), and Dietrich, with a live-wire troupe, are both doing the work of ten.

Cornell, who went to Italy last August for two months (sponsored by the American Theater Wing), will soon round out a six-month European tour. After 77 Italian performances in 78 days, and 60 more in France, The Barretts was shivering in Paris last week. Oil burners were hidden around the stage; Actress Cornell was draped in a lace centerpiece to hide her khaki-underwear neckline.

Old Army Girl. The lustrous-limbed Dietrich has played the European circuit longer than any other star, has heard every kind of enemy fire except snipers' bullets. She flew to the Mediterranean last March, shoved across Africa, wheedled her way to Anzio, rattled into Rome two days after it fell. In August she was off again, hopping around Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, getting lost in fogs, doing four-a-days in England. In October she reached France. Last week she was singing in hospitals near Paris; this week she was off to tour the Ninth Army.

In glacial weather Dietrich peels off a half-dozen layers of G.I. greatcoats and woolies, usually slips on a gold-spangled white chiffon evening dress. She has learned not to stand too near the mike: it broadcasts her chattering teeth.

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