Whenever I read about various famous actors or musicians during World War II, it always seems like they volunteered for the military and then were given jobs in some official capacity involving entertaining the troops, such as being a bandleader or producing, directing and acting in films made to promote the war effort.
Does the military still do things like this? Obviously the culture of America has changed drastically since the days of WWII and we don’t have public figures like musicians and actors volunteering for service. But what if we did? What if the Kings of Leon or Matt Damon decided to sign up for the Army? Would the military try to put their talents to use?
Reading the Wikipedia article on the USO will tell you much of what you’d like to know. The entertainers who enlisted during WWII most certainly did not entertain the troops. Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, etc, were treated as normal soldiers and fought for their country.
Other entertainers who did not enlist [or couldn’t enlist] donated their time to the USO. For example, Frank Capra made propaganda films and Frank Sinatra recorded for the V-disc program. Many others donated their time to the Hollywood Canteen (see Wikipedia again). I believe Bette Davis founded it.
As for today, the USO still exists and many entertainers have traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, to entertain the troops.
I think Joe Lewis spent most of his time putting on boxing exhibitions and giving speeches; many of the celebrities who joined or were drafted served as combat soldiers, giving up lucrative careers to do so. I believe quite a number of MLB players served with distinction.
The lack of a draft or declared war has really diminished celebrities from being in the military. NFL player Pat Tillman signed up to fight for the country, so that’s what they used him for. Sadly that turned very tragic.
What, they didn’t have Tops In Blue when you were in?
In any case, I don’t know if any celebrities were ever in Tops In Blue, but it is a special duty (special as in, “Not your normal job”, which includes postal workers, dorm managers, First Sergeants, recruiters, etc.) that you can pull in the Air Force. Mostly they do Glee-style mashup performances, I’m told. Haven’t made it to one of their shows yet.
I DID make it to the USO show the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders did at our base for Christmas Eve. Happy Holidays indeed.
EDIT: And since Jimmy Stewart was brought up, I would like to drop my absolute favorite bit of Hollywood trivia: Jimmy Stewart was Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserves, and served during Vietnam as well as WWII (he flew as an observer on a B-52, not sure how many times he did that though). Somewhere on the internet is a video about the old B-58 Hustler, and there is a quick shot of Jimmy Stewart taking off his helmet before climbing out of the cockpit of one near the end.
Raguleader brought up the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders coming out to entertain the troops, which reminded me of a question I always wanted to ask (please forgive the hijack).
Do Chip and Dale dancers or other types of beefcake entertainers also come out to entertain straight females and (now) openly gay males in the military?
What, you mean us straight military guys aren’t entertaining enough for them? :dubious:
I keed :D, I know that not every female and gay male servicemember can be so lucky as to be stationed at the same base as me, so I suppose it is a legitimate question. I want to say that pro athletes and such do come out from time to time, but I’ve not seen any of them in Korea. To be fair, I haven’t exactly had my radar up paying attention to see if they were coming either.
Many professional baseball players who enlisted for WWII spent substantial portions of their time playing ballgames for service teams.
Joe DiMaggio played for an Army airfield team, Pee Wee Reese for the Aiea Naval Hospital squad; Reese’s team beat Dimaggio’s for the 1944 Central Pacific Service Championship. The services generally felt that stars of this renown were most valuable as entertainers, and they saw no front line duties.
Bob Feller’s military career began similarly, as a fitness instructor and pitcher at the Norfolk naval base, but he later asked for combat duty and led a gun crew on the battleship Alabama.
Warren Spahn pitched for the Army 1850th Service Unit team and later the 115th Engineers Group team, but saw action in between, in the Battle of the Bulge and at Remagen. He received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and battlefield commission.
Years later, somebody was asking him about the grind of the baseball season, and he said,
More than one hundred minor league players were killed.
