Obviously, a busy place. Worth noting: no mention of dances. Female companionship was even harder to find in the huts near the front lines or in the holiday leave areas. Nature ran its course. Occasionally the Y became a place where unauthorized male-with-male intimacy occurred.
U.S. Army, 1942. From the left: Corporal Nelson Barclift impersonates Norwegian ballet dancer and American movie actress Vera Zorlina. Irving Berlin in WWI uniform. Private Julie Oshins does a striptease as he impersonates Gypsy Rose Lee. Sergeant Erza Stone in WWII uniform. Far right: A chorus "girl".
Meanwhile Irving Berlin was already a thriving and celebrated songwriter when he was drafted and assigned to Fort Yaphank on Long Island in New York. One day his Commanding Officer called him in and asked him to put on a soldier show which would raise funds to build a visitors' lounge. Berlin agreed and embraced the General's edict that although the cast would be all-male, there would be female impersonators doing comedy, singing, and dancing.
Yip Yip Yaphank, U.S. Army, 1918. Soldiers in blackface and drag perform "Mandy" in the Century Theater on Broadway
Berlin's creation, Yip Yip Yaphank, opened on Broadway in the Century Theater in June 1918. Among the Berlin songs nestled one entitled "I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the YMCA." When it was sung, there was considerable unauthorized snickering by knowing soldiers in the audience and the song was pulled from the show. However, remaining in the program was a minstrel number, "Mandy," which was performed by a chorus of servicemen in blackface and in little girls' clothing.
U.S. Army 1918. Private J. T. Morey of the 107th Ambulance Co., of the 27th Division is making up private Daniel Burns, Co. A, 102nd Military Police, who is going to play "Lotta Noyse" in You Know Me Al. The show was so successful when produced in camp that the soldiers came to New York and gave performances for the home folks.
Another soldier show that played in New York City was You Know Me Al. Its heroine in real life was a Military Policeman.
Overseas with the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Force) soldier shows really began in earnest after the Armistice. Following November 11, 1918 there was a prolonged period of waiting before the soldiers could go home.
During this time Command Control shifted from fighting to entertaining. General Pershing issued General Orders 241 which directed "the attention of all concerned to the importance of encouraging the development of all kinds of appropriate talent." Supervisory officers were assigned. Tours were planned. The creation of shows became a joint A.E.F./YMCA venture.
A few real girls from field detachments of the YMCA, the Red Cross, the Knights of Columbus, and the Salvation Army joined the troupes of troops. But most of the "girls" were played by soldiers and every regiment thought that its "chorus girls" were the greatest.
One favorite routine had a gentleman inquire of one of the "girls," "Are you a lady?" "Gawd, I try to be," she answers in Brooklynese.
Although theaters were quickly built, performances took place in ruined cathedrals, tents, chateaux, huts, and on open-air platforms. Every cast wanted to play Paris: the largest theaters and the largest crowds were there.
Who Can Tell? U.S. Army, 1919. Men of the 88th Division rehearse as chorus "ladies." The song is "There Is Room In My Heart For You," and the soldiers will sing it to President Woodrow Wilson in Paris.
The biggest of all the shows, with a cast of 160 including 32 female impersonators, was Who Can Tell?, the song-and-dance revue of the EightyEighth Division. President Woodrow Wilson, General Pershing, and representatives of fifteen nations at the Peace conference caught the revue at the Champs-Elysees Theater in Paris. Troops of the 88th came from Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and were organized and trained at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa.
A Festival in Venice German POWs at Camp Polk, LA, in 1943 put on a variety show. Both costumes and scenery were made from salvage.
Another show that played Paris was A Buck On Leave, staged by the Motor Transport Corps.
In the field hospitals, the wounded amused one another with local variety programs.
By the time the troops departed Europe 700 soldier shows with a total cast of 15,000 soldiers had been well-received in spite of the cynical remark of a middle-aged colonel: "The entire A.E.F. seems to be made up of masquerading soubrettes."
U.S. Army, 1942. Ballet Dancers
Female impersonation continued after World War I in servicemen shows. At isolated locations where itinerant actors rarely ventured, the troops learned to entertain themselves. Falsies and makeshift wigs became a staple of many presentations.
With the coming of the Second World War, the draft not only produced a large audience clamoring to be entertained, but also filled the ranks with a new generation of show-biz talent.
Irving Berlin, now a 53-year-old civilian and a legendary songwriter, volunteered to create a new soldier show with the proceeds to go to Army Relief. Washington, D.C. was quick to accept his offer. Berlin again set up shop at Fort Yaphank and a nationwide call went out for Army talent. Strongly desired were skillful singers and dancers, specialty acts, and a bevy of female impersonators. As in Yip Yip Yaphank only male service personnel would perform.
This Is the Army U.S. Army, 1942. The official photo caption reads: "Don't let them fool you, boys. They're chorus 'gals' but tough as mule meat."
Berlin called the show This is the Army. It premiered at the Broadway Theater on July 4, 1942. The production opened with a minstrel show, shifted to a vaudeville program, and ended with a revue. Female impersonators were found in the following numbers: "Mandy," "Ladies of the Chorus," "That Russian Winter," "That's What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear," "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen," and "Aryans Under the Skin" (with an unknown Private Burl Ives playing one of four frauleins). Critics loved it. Wilella Waldorf wrote in the New York Post:
Much of the comedy involving hairy-chested soldiers dressed up as chorus girls is one the familiar Varsity-show type, but This is the Army has a snappy professional quality that the college boys seldom manage to achieve.
The New York Times:
The great Private Oshins out-gypsys Gypsy Rose Lee. Richard Watts, Jr. in the New York Herald Tribune: To the United States Army which was intelligent enough to realize the value of such a production to the wartime spirit of all of us, there must go more credit than it is possible to set down here. . . it has everything except girls, and the terrible truth is that you don't miss them. Burns Mantle in the Daily News:
* * * It's a marvelous soldier show. Good for our morale and theirs. Good for recruiting, too. And bond sales. And especially good for the faith that conquers.
This is the Army played 112 performances in New York and then went on the road. It played the major cities of the United States including Washington, D.C., where President Franklin Roosevelt saw it.
The last stop in America for This is the Army was Hollywood, where Warner Brothers made it into a movie. Future Senator George Murphy starred as the father of future President Ronald Reagan. Screenwriters fabricated a story connecting Yip Yip Yaphank with This is the Army. Some actresses appeared in the film but none performed in the production numbers of its soldier show. Songs added to the film were all composed by Berlin.
After Hollywood This is the Army went overseas. During a run at the London Palladium the King and Queen of England, accompanied by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, came to see the show. The final London performance was attended by General Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 6, 1944. He called it "Wonderful!" Then the show headed around the world: Italy, Cairo, Persia, Australia, New Guinea, Philippines, and all the Pacific Islands. The cast disbanded in Honolulu with the end of the war in 1945.
