General George Marshall was well aware of this problem. In 1940, even before the entry of America into the Second World War, he proposed an organization to enhance the morale and quality of life for servicemen and their families and on February 4, 1941, the United Service Organization For National Defense, Inc. was chartered. The name was eventually changed to the now familiar United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO). It was a civilian, nonprofit organization which included representatives from the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the YWCA, National Jewish Welfare Board and the National Catholic Community Service. The Travelers Aid Association of America joined about a month later.
Despite its Congressional Charter the USO was not a government agency. It was, and still is, a registered charity, run largely by volunteers with the President of the United States serving as its honorary chairman..
The USO provided a number of services to members of the armed forces and their families. There were social clubs, movies, dances, message services, spiritual counsel and even daycare centers for the children of working women whose husbands were overseas. Some USO centers catered only to women in uniform. The USO facilities often provided the only taste of home for soldiers during the entire course of the war.
The most famous of these facilities, aside from free coffee and donuts, were undoubtedly the camp shows. These shows took place anywhere one might find soldiers. No audience was too small, no venue unsuitable. It was not unusual for two or three soldiers to view a performance put on in the back of a pickup truck by a single entertainer. Many of the shows, of course, took place at military bases in the United States but as the war dragged on and more territory was gained by the Allies the USO moved into actual combat areas. Many times performers came under fire, thirty-seven died, some killed in action.
The USO was organized into four main circuits. The Victory Circuit brought fully staged Broadway shows to bases in the continental US that boasted large enough facilities, the Blue Circuit brought vaudeville type shows to smaller bases with fewer men and less spacious facilities, the Hospital circuit provided just what its name implies and the Foxhole Circuit played to front-line bases. Entertainers were not necessarily top name Hollywood, although an astonishingly large number of big stars worked the USO tours. Some of the volunteers were not even entertainers in the usual sense, artists would draw portraits of soldiers, producers, directors and technical support workers toured with the stars. Nor was being a big name star a guarantee of working the more plush venues. Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich and the Andrews Sisters all worked the Foxhole Circuit, alongside their lesser known contemporaries. The warriors in greasepaint worked hard. Some did as many as thirteen shows a day, from pickup trucks, barges, in gun emplacements and sitting under trees. The Andrew Sisters even did a show on a ship that was pulling out of harbor, being brought to shore as the ship moved out into the sea.
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