The Hollywood Victory Caravan

The train reached Washington D.C. on April 29. After Mrs. Roosevelt's White House lawn party, the troupe rehearsed at Constitution Hall. The next night they played the first show at the Loew's Capitol theatre. All proceeds from this show and all the others went to the Army and Navy Relief Funds.

Of all the stars Laurel and Hardy had the easiest time, becuase they performed hilarious routines that they had honed to perfection over the years. At every show a huge ovation greeted Stan and Ollie's theme music. Some of the other stars, however, acted in skits only recently created for the show. Bob hope was master of cermonies, holding the bits and acts together; a job he always did so well.

Pat O'Brien described the show: "Imagine on the same stage in one evening, Bert Lahr singing one of his great songs with Cary Grant acting as his stooge, Groucho Marx doing an insult routine, Charlotte Greenwood with her high kicks dance, Bing Crosby singing..., then trading ad-libs, funny ad-libs, with Bob Hope, Jim Cagney with a line of those pretty girls doing "Yankee Doodle Dandy,' Laurel and Hardy doing one of their great routines. It was one of those occasions, those three weeks, that really in my lifetime deserved that much-overworked adjective 'fabulous.' It really was, nothing less. Fabulous."

The show the following day in Boston set the routine for the rest of the tour: A motorcade to the theatre followed by the three hour show, ending with the stars circulating through the audience selling war bonds. The stars then returned to the train for midnight dinner and libations -- and more libations -- around the lounge car piano. Bert Lahr remembered, " We hardly got any sleep. We had a doctor on the train who gave us sleeping pills to calm us down and Benzedrine to wake us up in the morning."

The public reacted with exuberance. Screaming fans lined the parade routes of every city. One group of fans followed the stars to a Philadelphia restaurant and remained outside until Bob Hope leaned out a window and threw them biscuits from a basket; after he ran out of biscuits he threw out the basket.

One celebrity, however, often went unrecognized: Until later in his life Julius Marx never wore a mustache: Groucho's distinctive movie mustache was all greasepaint. Yet, off the movie set, Marx's acerbic wit and insults still flew from his

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