USO tours-from symphony
of superstars to 1 -man band
E - -" " .1
by Martin Kasindorf
One of the few happy
innovations of modern warfare
is the celebrity entertainer
performing for troops overseas.
George M. Cohan set the
pattern during World War I;
dozens of Hollywood stars
carried it on in World War 1 1 , in
Korea and for the first years in
Vietnam.
Lately, however, what the
USO used to call its
"Symphony of Stars" has
begun to resemble a one-man
band. Bob Hope still turns up
regularly on the military
circuit; so occasionally do
Martha Raye and George
Jessel.
But for the great bulk of
their entertainment, the troops
must be content with the likes
of 'The Lumpty Brannun
Show," "Gemini Crickets" (a
rock group), "Johnny
Pineapple and His South
Pacific Revue," and "Funny
Girl" with a cast of 15, all of
them students at Rio Hondo
Junior College in Whittier,
Calif.
These performers, skillful
though some of them are,
nevertheless lack the star
quality present only a couple
of years ago. Then, Danny
Kaye was touring the Vietnam
boondocks and so were Nancy
Sinatra, Jonathan Winters and
Joey Bishop. Raymond Burr
was doing burlesques of Perry
Mason for the troops then, and
James Stewart was doing
burlesques of himself.
"In those days," says James
Sheldon, head of the
Hollywood office of the USO,
"you'd never know who would
be on the phone saying, 'I have
some time, I've been thinking
about going, how long will it
take?"
Sheldon even has trouble
remembering the last big star
to go overseas. "Who in the
hell was it," he mutters. "Ann
B. Davis. Sebastian
Cabot ...?" Finally he asks a
secretary to check.
"It was Robert Horton,"
she discovers. "In March
1971."
The stars began to drop out
as the war became more and
more unpopular. At about the
same time, the muscle-men of
Hollywood, the heads of the
big talent agencies, stopped
pressuring their clients to go on
USO tours.
Young entertainers these
days are especially uninterested
in going to Vietnam-even as
entertainers. And their lack of
enthusiasm is not helped by
the USO's discouragement of
"controversial material."
"I don't believe in stirring
General
Hester
speaks
Brigadier General Hugh B.
Hester, one of the highest
ranking military officers to
oppose the United States
Involvement in Southeast Asia,
will speak Thursday at 12:30
p.m. in the Nebraska Union
ballroom.
Hester, a nationally
acclaimed lecturer and writer
oh foreign affairs and
international relations, will talk
about negotiations with
Vietnam and what they mean
to American foreign policy.
Hester H a co-author of the
book, On the Brink.
up the troops," Sheldon says.
"Our function is to go in and
create as few waves as possible
and to keep good public
relations.'"
He also goes along with
military guidelines on personal
appearance: "We try to
convince a guy not to flaunt
some little personal
eccentricity like too much hair
and beard and peculiar clothes.
We say: 'Full-dress guys are
treating you, and in a nice
environment like that, you'd
want to blend in as much as
possible.'"
Yet the stars once went on
long tours and retained their
individuality and occasionally
took their lumps for it. One
World War II veteran recalls the
day Mickey Rooney arrived in
a camp in southern France
wearing an officer's dress shirt,
a cravat, fatigue pants pressed
to a knife-point crease, white
sweat socks and moccasins:
"A West Point colonel
chewed him out for five
minutes in front of a hundred
men. Rooney never answered
back once. He just shrugged
and went off and changed his
clothes. And an hour later, he
put on the best show I've ever
seen for something like
25,000 Gl's sitting on their '
helmets in the middle of a
dusty drill field."
The spirit is very different
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now. Recently Joey Bishop
griped to Daily Variety about
the transportation
accomodations on a trip he
made to Vietnam in 1968.
"Stars are accustomed to
tailors and all kinds of
conveniences," he said.
Veteran entertainer J.C.
Curtiss, now head of the USO
audition committee, shakes his
head at this kind of
complaining. "I remember
being on Guam in World War II
when Jack Benny, Carole
Landis and other big stars flew
in," he says. "They rode in
jeeps and trucks in the rain,
slept in tents and never
complained."
Despite its troubles and a
five per cent budget cut this
year is another one the USO
carries on. Last year, it sent
only 72 shows to the Far East
(compared to 110 the previous
year), but overall it put on
7,840 shows (at home and
overseas) and entertained for
7,850,000 military viewers.
And Sheldon is still hoping
the big stars will return.
"Maybe I'm naive," he says,
"but I keep trying to remind
people that the USO is a
voluntary effort for the
involuntary Gl, for the young
draftee and the more or less
coerced enlistee who has been
thrown into the pit."
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daily nebraskan
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