Extra Army Rations

Broadway and Hollywood have also gone to war--in U.S.O.-Camp Shows uniforms (Army o.d. or khaki). Last week some 250 entertainers invaded Europe, the largest group yet in a great push that began shortly after V-E day. The Army prescribed it as a cure for the G.I. doldrums.

Stars & Garters. The supreme commander behind U.S.O.'s army of entertainers is chunky, chubby Abe Lastfogel, 47. Affable Abe, who worked his way up from office boy to senior partner of show business' Wm. Morris Agency, was asked to organize U.S.O.-Camp Shows in 1941.

Working without pay, he operated on the premise that entertainment for servicemen was not only "desirable but essential." He had a big job recruiting entertainers, who were leary of the hardships and pay (the U.S.O., which is subsidized by the National War Fund, pays run-of-the-mill entertainers $100 a week, topflight volunteers $10 a day). But by hook & crook, Lastfogel rounded up thousands of smalltime entertainers. These troupers, formed into small variety companies, were (and still are) the backbone of U.S.O.-Camp Shows.

Lastfogel made two trips overseas, found that even entertainment-hungry G.I.s complained when the shows were second-rate. Nobody would object, he found, to more big-name performers, especially if they looked like Marlene Dietrich. Determined to satisfy his audience, Abe went to work on Broadway and Hollywood. By V-E day, when the Army gave him a solid green light for transportation, he had his quota of stars and garters. Ready for action were smash-hit shows, top-bill specialty acts, operatic and concert stars, any and every other kind of talent.

Now playing to S.R.O. all over Europe are such prize packages as these:*

P: Songstress Jane Froman, brunette favorite of G.I.s. Since she was injured on her first tour, in the 1943 Lisbon Clipper crash, she has had 18 operations, is "finishing the job" on crutches. P: Comedians Jack Benny and Bob Hope, and Cinemactress Ingrid Bergman, accompanied by full companies of stooges and satellites.

P: Harmonica Maestro Larry Adler, and the jingle-jangling Andrews Sisters.

P: Manhattan's famed, precisionist Radio City Rockettes.

P: Radio's Information Please (with Guest Star Beatrice Lillie).

P: Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne in Love in Idleness, and a leggy Billy Rose Diamond Horseshoe Revue.

P: Orchestra Leaders Shep Fields and Hal Mclntyre, with their bands.

Although they are no substitute for homecooking, the U.S.O.-Camp Shows, by jeep and by jest, are now delivering much of the entertainment rations that G.I.s in Europe crave. As soon as conditions permit, the program in the Pacific Area will be stepped up, too. One professional company now there is playing Oklahoma! Wrote a grateful G.I.: "I'm glad I've joined the Army. I finally saw it."

*In Germany two G.I.-cast shows were also packing them in: the 63rd Infantry Division's burlesque of Carmen, the 106th's strictly straight The Voice of the Turtle.

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