Creative Team

Director — Chuck Hoenes
Sets — Bob Fetterman
Costumes — Steven Simon
Lights — Annmarie Duggan

Written by Linda Thorsen-Bond
Study Guide written by Gary Cadwallader

Cast of Characters

Marian Ames: A lovely, classic leading lady of the silver screen who is slightly past her prime. Elegant, gracious and maternal, Marian is a strong leader with a healthy dose of wry humor.

Lilly McBain: Gorgeous, ambitious and tough as nails. A survivor who masks her vulnerability with a cynical veneer. She plays the saxophone, banjo, and guitar.

Jo Sterling: A good natured gal and everyone's best friend. She's warm, sensitive, brainy and ready with a snappy wisecrack at every occasion. She plays the drums.

Topeka Abotelli: A rough-edged housewife and mom. A super-patriot who works as a riveter in a war plant. A zany, warmhearted woman with an antic energy. She plays the piano.

Katie Gammersflugel: A young, small-town girl. Enthusiastic and highly emotional.

History of the Show

SWINGTIME CANTEEN opened Off Broadway at the Blue Angel Theater on March 14, 1995. It starred Alison Fraser as Marian Ames, and Emily Loesser, whose legendary father, Frank Loesser as Katie Gammersflugel. (Frank Loesser, Emily Loesser's father, wrote many classic musicals like GUYS AND DOLLS, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, and MOST HAPPY FELLA, and many of the shows songs.) The show closed November 24, 1995, running a little over 300 performances.

The Source

SWINGTIME CANTEEN is based on a real event that took place on Christmas Day 1942. On that day Coca-Cola sponsored a 12-hour marathon radio program that broadcast live programming from 43 separate army and navy bases. The program was called "Uncle Sam's Christmas Tree."

Synopsis

Act I — Jo Sterling opens the show by welcoming the audience, all members of the 8th Air Force. Jo, Topeka, Lilly, and Katie then sing, "In The Mood." Jo then introduces the star of the show, Marian Ames. Marian then sings the "Bugle Call Rag."

The five girls then sing a medley of two songs, "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive," and "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition."

Marian tells the troops that this is the girls' first performance on a tour of front-line bases and that all the girls are volunteers at the Hollywood Canteen in California. They sing the song "Hollywood Canteen," and then explain how they accidentally formed their all-girl band: Bandleader Guy Lombardo and his orchestra were a no-show at the Hollywood Canteen so Marian and Jo rounded up girlfriends at the canteen who played instruments and sang. They didn't want the soldiers to go without entertainment.

Marian then introduces their special guests, the Andrews Sisters, but is informed by the commander that the singing sisters are in quarantine in Malta due to a measles outbreak. Marian, Katie and Lilly jump right in and sing the songs themselves. They perform a medley of some of the Andrews Sisters' biggest hits: "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," "Rhumboogie," "Rum and Coca-Cola," "Tico-Tico," "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Hold Tight, Hold Tight," "Three Little Fishes," "Pennsylvania Polka," and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree."

After these group numbers, it's time to meet each girl individually. Marian introduces Katie who sings "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." Then Topeka talks to the troops about her recent job as a riveter in a factory and sings, "His Rocking Horse Ran Away." Next, Marian introduces Jo as her personal stand-in on movie sets for the last 16 years. Jo sings "Love Isn't Born, It's Made." Lilly McBain is introduced and she sings, "Daddy." Finally, Marian pronounces her love for London and sings, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square."

Suddenly the show stops as Katie rushes to the stage and gives Marian a slip of paper with emergency orders from the top brass. It seems the military was unaware until now that the troupe was all female. Headquarters has deemed it unsafe for the girls to travel alone in war-zones. They will be sent back to the United States following the show. Though the girls are disappointed, they vow to do whatever they have to do to help win the war. They sing "Thank Your Lucky Stars and Stripes."

Act II — The act opens with "Sentimental Journey," as the girls welcome the troops back.

Marian then sings, "Don't Fence Me In."

Katie is asked to sing another song and she finally admits to Marian she is secretly married to a GI she met at the Hollywood Canteen. Marian is shocked. Katie tearfully sings, "How High The Moon."

Marian admits that she, too, has a love; a commander in the British Royal Air Force. She sings, "You'll Never Know."

Topeka reports that three of her cousins, an old high school sweeheart, a neighbor, and her best friend are all in the military in various places around the world. Her husband, however, is 4F and is home taking care of the kids. She sings, "My Shining Hour."

Jo's brother, her only relative, is also in the armed services. She sings, "I'll Be Seeing You."

Marian requests that they now forget the sentimental songs, and start "jumping." All the girls join together and raise the roof with, "Sing, Sing, Sing." During the number, bombs begin exploding in the distance, knocking out the electricity. Lilly musters her strength and bolsters everyone's confidence. She leads the girls in "Keep the Home Fires Burning," and "Pack Up Your Troubles."

The bombing stops and an all-clear siren is heard. The power is restored and a radio announcer's voice is heard. Unfortunately, the loss of power has caused the girls to miss ten minutes of their fifteen minute segment on the all-day, worldwide radio program of which the show was to be a part . This only leaves time for one number, and they decide to sing "Apple Blossom Time."

Following the song, the girls are sent a message by the commanding officer saying that he loved their show and is changing his mind. They won't be sent home after all, but will continue their tour in the Pacific. The order is signed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The girls, overjoyed, end the show with a rousing medley of, "Beyond the Blue Horizon," and "You're Off to See the World."

Timeline: World War II at a glance

— September 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland.
— September 3, 1939: Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
— September 10, 1939: Canada declares war on Germany.
— April 9, 1940: Germany begins occupation of Denmark and invades Norway.
— May 10, 1940: Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
— June 10, 1940: Italy declares war on Britain and France.
— June 14, 1940: Germany invades France.
— September 13, 1940: Italy invades Egypt.
— September 27, 1940: Germany, Italy, and Japan sign Tripartite pact.
— October 7, 1940: Germany invades Romania.
— October 28, 1940: Italy invades Greece.
— March 30, 1941: German Afrika Korps begins offensive in North Africa.
— April 6, 1941: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
— June 22, 1941: Germany invades Soviet Union.
— September 5, 1941: Germany occupies Estonia.
— December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, declares war on USA.
— December 8, 1941: Allies (except Soviet Union) declare war on Japan.
— December 11, 1941: Germany declares war on USA.
— December 25, 1941: Japan captures Hong Kong.
— January 2, 1942: Japan captures Manila, The Phillipines.
— February 15, 1942: Japan captures Singapore, Thailand.
— May 6, 1942: US forces in Phillipines surrender.
— June 4, 1942: Battle of Midway - US sinks 4 Japanese aircraft carriers.
— August 22, 1942: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
— November 4, 1942: Operation Torch begins - Allies invade northwest Africa.
— May 12, 1943: Surrender of Axis forces in North Africa.
— July 10, 1943: Allied forces land in Sicily, Italy.
— July 25, 1943: Mussolini's Fascist goverment overthrown in Italy.
— March 19, 1944: Germany occupies Hungary.
— June 6, 1944: Operation Neptune - Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day).
— August 15, 1944: Allied landings in South of France.
— August 25, 1944: Allies liberate Paris from Germans.
— October 4, 1944: Allies land in Greece.
— October 14, 1944: Allies liberate Athens.
— February 4, 1945: Allies liberate Manila.
— April 1, 1945: US invades Okinawa, Japan.
— April 12, 1945: President Roosevelt dies - Harry Truman becomes President.
— April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide.
— May 2, 1945: German forces in Italy surrender.
— May 4, 1945: German forces in Holland, Denmark and northwest Germany surrender.
— May 5, 1945: Ceasefire on the Western Front.
— May 7, 1945: Germany surrenders unconditionally.
— May 8, 1945: VE Day declared.
— June 22, 1945: US forces occupy Okinawa.
— August 6, 1945: Atomic bomb fropped on Hiroshima.
— August 8, 1945: Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
— August 9, 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
— August 14, 1945: Japan surrenders.
— August 15, 1945: VJ Day declared.

The Roots of War

Less than two decades after the end of World War I - "the war to end all wars"- brutal fighting erupted again, not only in Europe but also in Asia. As Americans read about distant battles, they hoped that these deadly conflicts would remain on the other side of the world.

The seeds of these new conflicts had been sown in World War I. For many nations, peace had brought not prosperity but revolution, caused by economic unrest. It also brought the rise of leaders driven by dreams of national greatness and territorial expansion.

Contrary to the hopes of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I did not create a "just and secure peace." Germans saw nothing fair in a treaty that blamed them for starting the war. Nor did they find much security in a settlement that stripped their country of territories they had long seen as German.

In addition, the peace settlement did not make the world "safe for democracy," as Wilson had hoped. At the end of the war, new democratic governments did emerge in many European nations. However, most of these nations lacked democratic traditions, and their newly elected leaders needed to show that democracy could improve people's lives economically. However, the Versailles treaty did nothing to help the wartorn nations of Europe rebuild. Instead, many of the new democracies were expected to pay off huge war debts while trying to deal with widespread hunger, homelessness, and unemployment.

Unable to cope with these problems, the new democracies collapsed one by one. In country after country, dictators seized power and threw out the elected leaders. Some of these dictators were content simply to collect taxes and keep order. A few, however, had far grander ambitions.

In 1919 Benito Mussolini had begun his rise to power in Italy by advertising for war veterans to fight the politicians, who, in Mussolini's view, were destroying Italy. This mobilization was the beginning of fascism, a new political movement that consisted of a strong, centralized government headed by a powerful dictator. Mussolini dreamed of making Italy a great power in the world.

In Germany, Adolph Hitler followed a path similar to Mussolini's. At the end of World War I, Hitler had been a jobless soldier drifting around Germany. In 1919, he joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Soon Hitler had become the tiny party's leader. Hitler, who had been born in Austria, dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire. To this element of nationalism Hitler added his theories about race. In his view, Germans--especially blue-eyed, blond-haired "Aryans"--formed a "master race" that was destined to rule the world. "Inferior races" were fit only to serve Aryans.

A third element of Nazism was national expansion. Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive, it needed living space. One of the party's aims was "to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth," even if this could be accomplished only by "the might of a victorious sword."

Halfway around the world, nationalistic military leaders in Japan were trying to take control of their government. These leaders shared Hitler's belief in the need for more "living space" for a growing population. Ignoring the protests of more moderate Japanese officials, the militarists launched a surprise invasion of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Within several months, Japanese troops controlled the entire province, a resource-rich area nearly as large as Western Europe. The success of the Manchurian invasion put the militarists firmly in control of Japan's government.

The USO and The Hollywood Canteen

World War II was tough on the enlisted men and women who were fighting for freedom. They faced extremely tense situations amid adverse conditions every day for months and years. It was grueling, and difficult. President Franklin Roosevelt knew that it was critical to keep the troops' morale high and felt they needed a brief respite from the daily brutal grind of war. The United Service Organization (better known as the USO) was formed at his request, to do just that.

"On April 17, 1941, a meeting was held in Washington that would establish a new undertaking, the United Service Organization-the USO. There was a growing sense of urgency that something needed to be done to bolster and maintain the morale of America's servicemen and women. Six major national organizations pledged themselves to become partners in the USO: the YMCA and the YWCA, the National Catholic Community Service; the National Jewish Welfare Board; the Salvation Army; and the National Travelers Aid Association. Delegates at the meeting agreed that the USO would be financed by the American people through voluntary contributions and not by government funds.

The organization's work was placed under the general direction of the Army and the Navy, its budgets subject to approval by the American government."

Singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, classical actors, opera singers, popular and classical musicians and variety artists traveled from city to city, military base to military base, and coast to coast, entertaining new draftees. The performers ranged from international celebrities and superstars to unknown chorus boys and girls, all united as the USO to bring entertainment and joy to enlistees around the country.

The shows were such huge successes in bolstering morale that the USO established a new arm, USO Camp Shows, Inc. This arm was formed to take the shows overseas to entertain the troops who could use a little "taste of home." The first Camp Show traveled to the Caribbean in November and December of 1941, and it was a big hit. Because of its accomplishments, a USO report stated "...it was not only feasible but advisable that entertainment should follow our armed forces wherever they went."

The performing troupes immediately began taking shows to venues all over the world; to Newfoundland in Canada, Iceland, England, France, Spain, North Africa, and points east such as The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and China. They performed for soldiers on hastily constructed stages, on aircraft carriers, in bombed-out theaters, in huge fields on the front lines of war, and in hospital wings and stockades (prisons). All the performers worked under conditions that were makeshift at best. Sometimes they played for ten thousand men and women in huge productions; other times to only one patient in a small hospital room.

The Hollywood Canteen was founded by movie superstars Bette Davis and John Garfield. It was a nightclub in Los Angeles that was modeled after the first canteen, the Stage Door Canteen, in New York. Canteens were small nightclubs where soldiers or sailors in port could go to mingle, dance, have refreshments (usually coffee and doughnuts), and be entertained by the stars of the day.

"No one simply performed at the canteens. You sang or danced or told jokes or played a musical instrument, whatever your specialty was, but you also waited on tables, danced with the guys or gals, and provided a friendly or sympathetic ear whenever the occasion arose in conversation, which was often." (Maxene Andrews, "Over Here, Over There")

In New York at the Stage Door Canteen, theater superstars like Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Tallulah Bankhead, Gertrude Lawrence, Vincent Price, Ethel Merman, Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn would perform shows, serve food, cook, clean, and supervise the "hostesses" who were there to dance and chat with the men.

The Hollywood Canteen was created to function just like its New York counterpart. Hollywood celebrities like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and Ray Bolger would visit nightly, working in the kitchen and milling and talking with soldiers. Because of the success of these two canteens, others were set up in Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Newark, San Francisco, Washington, and London. A canteen was established in 1945 in Paris after that city was liberated from Nazi occupation.

Glossary of Terms and Names

Bar mitzvah - a ceremony for admitting a boy of 13 as an adult member of the Jewish community.

Egg creams and phosphates - the first is a cold beverage made with milk, chocolate syrup, and soda water, the second one made with fruit syrup and soda water.

"The eighty-eights" - a slang term for the piano. A piano has eighty-eight keys.

GI - an enlisted man of the armed services. The term GI came from "government issue."

Gin rummy - a card came where the goal is to match your cards in suits and lay them down as soon as possible.

Goehring, Goebbels, and Himmler - High ranking German Nazi party leaders.

Rag - short for ragtime, a popular music style of the early 20th century.

Stand-in - a movie term in which a person stands in the place of the actor so that the technical crew can set lights, camera angles, sound, etc.

H.G. Wells - (1866- 1946) Famous British author known for "TheTime Machine,"and "The Invisible Man."

There are many famous movie and singing stars named in SWINGTIME CANTEEN, they are: Irene Dunne, Zasu Pitts, Van Johnson, Dolores Del Rio, Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Marlene Dietrich, Martha Raye, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Jeannette McDonald, Roy Rogers, Red Skelton, Kate Smith, Frances Langford and the Andrews Sisters.

Famous composers mentioned in SWINGTIME CANTEEN are: Jule Stein, Frank Loesser and Cole Porter.

Famous bandleaders named in SWINGTIME CANTEEN are: Guy Lombardo and Gene Krupa.

Especially for Students...

In live theatre, unlike movies and television, the actors can hear (and often see) you as easily as you can hear and see them. If you comment out loud at a live show, or read or eat, you disturb not only other members of the audience but also the people on stage, thus diminishing the performance and, ultimately, your enjoyment of it.

This doesn't mean you have to remain silent. Actors want you to respond with laughter and applause; but such responses should always be genuine and appropriate to the moment. Such inconsiderate behavior as shouting, catcalling or sustained whispering, even during blackouts, can ruin the concentration of actors and audience members alike. And throwing paper or objects of any kind towards the stage is not only rude, it's also extremely dangerous to the performers.

In the event of any student misbehavior, the relevant school will be contacted and its principal informed.

We want you to enjoy your visit to Seaside Music Theater, and we rely on you to exercise your common sense and mature judgment. Thank you for being a valuable part of our audience this season.

Investigations

In "Swingtime Canteen," the performers are part of a USO Tour. If you were to put together such a tour today, which performers/celebrities would you include? Why? Write a press release for your imaginary tour. For samples, search the Internet for releases about the "Hootie and the Blowfish USO Tour" which took place in December, 1998.

The setting for "Swingtime Canteen" is the early 1940s. Look through movie listings in the back of this week's "TV Journal." (It is part of The Sunday News-Journal.) Find movies, which were made during this era, view one and write a movie review. For sample reviews, check out Friday's "Go Do" section of The News-Journal.

There were six major national organizations, which partnered to support the original USO. Find examples from The News-Journal of current activities of these organizations. Write a "Letter to the Editor" telling of their contributions to the community.

Visit one or both of the following related web sites: http://www.swingtimecanteen.com and www.uso.org and then write a review of the site. For sample reviews, check out Tony Briggs' Dr. DOS column in the Personal Business page in Monday's News-Journal.

Imagine that you have been asked to organize a USO tour for US troops currently stationed abroad. Where would your tour go? Write a memo listing the places and give reasons for your choices. If possible collect news articles that support your position.

"The Root of War" section of this study guide, lists some of the political figures who contributed to the start or expansion of World Wars I and II. Clip articles from current issues of The News-Journal that describe the actions of current political or military leaders who promote unrest in today's world. Write an editorial calling attention to their actions.

Germany and Japan and Italy were at war with the rest of the world during the setting of "Swingtime Canteen." Clip articles from current issues of The New-Journal that report on the current activities in these countries. Write an editorial contrasting the changes.

The females in "Swingtime Canteen" were almost banished from the combat zone because they were not accompanied by a male. Find a recent new article or cartoon which shows that the role of women in war has changed.

Use the Internet to search for the lyrics of one or more of the songs from the show. Then clip news or feature stories, columns, comics or editorials that deal with the same subjects.

Interview a person who was alive during World War I or II. Ask about his/her personal experiences and memories of the war and its effect on everyday life. Write a feature story of your findings.

Find a news report of a war happening that moves you to anger, frustration, pride, etc. Write a song expressing your feelings.

Look through recent issues of The News-Journal for stories by reporters who are on the front lines of conflicts around the world. Think about the hardships and dangers they face. Write a letter to the editor expressing your appreciation for their work.