The Lunchtime Follies: Food, Fun, and Propaganda in America's Wartime Workplace
The American Theatre Wing, Broadway's wartime service organization, played a key role in the professional theater's patriotic effort to assist the nation's mobilization campaign during the Second World War. The Wing sponsored highly successful War Bond drives generating millions of dollars for the nation's war chest, and a speakers' bureau that brought war-related educational and inspirational programs to civic, religious, charitable, and business organizations of all types. Although most widely known for the popular and well-publicized Stage Door Canteens, where the stars of Broadway, Hollywood, and broadcasting catered exclusively to uniformed military personnel, the Wing also ran uncelebrated but valuable entertainment programs that benefitted thousands of American soldiers wounded in battle and recuperating in East Coast hospitals.[1]
The American Theatre Wing began as a war-service organization associated with British War Relief and was created shortly after the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of war. Between Spring 1940 and 7 December 1941, the Wing collected and donated nearly $81,000 to the British organization. Additionally, the Wing organized clothing drives and sewing circles to aid European refugees. Two days after the American entry into the world conflict, the group severed its ties with the British, incorporated as the American Theatre Wing War Service and began to develop its diverse range of programs aimed at supporting the United States' war mobilization.
One of the most interesting programs operating under the Wing's management was a series of brief, variety-show structured amusements presented in American factories and shipyards called the Lunchtime Follies. The Follies featured Broadway actors, singers, dancers, nightclub and vaudeville comedians, and musicians who performed for workers at defense-related industry plants during the workers' scheduled mealtime breaks. In its time, government leaders, industry heads, union bosses, and most important, the thousands of workers who saw and enjoyed the programs, praised the Lunchtime Follies' contribution to the home front production effort. In terms of both their entertainment value and ideological content, the Lunchtime Follies was a propitious and effective theatrical venture. Unfortunately, the Follies are rarely mentioned in the cultural histories of the period and are inadequately researched even by theater historians.[2] To rectify this oversight, this paper will trace the program's genesis, briefly outline its early production history, and examine some ways in which the material presented in the Follies operated as patriotic wartime propaganda. However, before beginning, it is important to note some of the difficulties encountered in the preparation of this study.
Only fragmentary information survives concerning the practical and financial operation of many of the Wing's wartime programs. Nearly all of the wartime records of the American Theatre Wing were entrusted to a private individual for storage, and through a series of unfortunate circumstances, destroyed. In the case of the factory entertainments, most of the original performance material prepared for the Follies was never published, and apparently not saved by the authors or composers. The writers generously donated most of the short sketches and songs written specifically for the program without regard for royalties or copyright. Moreover, since the venue for the Follies' performances was not the traditional Broadway arena, and the audience restricted to factory employees, most of the hundreds of presentations that took place between 1942 and 1945 were not reviewed by the press. Despite the irritating shortage of scripts and performance details, piecing together the important features of the Lunchtime Follies to reclaim this noteworthy theatrical episode is still feasible.
To locate the source of the American Lunchtime Follies it is necessary to look first to Great Britain in 1939. In his book The Theatre at War (1958), Basil Dean documents the origin of the British equivalent of the Theatre Wing, the Entertainments National Service Association, more commonly known as ENSA. This assembly of performing artists, entertainment industry trade unions, and managerial associations was formed as part of England's home front campaign in their battle against the forces of Hitler and the Third Reich. Among the many programs administrated by ENSA was a series of mealtime entertainments presented to defense plant workers, and operated under the coined name of "ENSAtainments." After ENSA accomplished the difficult process of securing permissions from the military, government, and business leaders, they gave the first performance at the Woolwich Arsenal on 22 July 1940. Through "a process of trial and error" a performance format was developed that included singers, comedians, pianists, and military bands. At its peak the British factory entertainment program had up to 200 small performance troupes visiting ordinance plants, factories, and labor union halls in locations all across the island nation. The entertainment programs provided a needed diversion from the pressures of wartime production, and measurably increased the productivity of the workers. Dean cites one factory superintendent's claim that "a definite improvement of 5 percent in output" was realized after each ENSA performance. Dean also notes that he shared the idea for the British program with his American theatrical colleagues.[3] In late 1939, while the ENSA program was still in its preparatory stage, Dean visited the United States and distributed an outline of his proposed plan among influential members of the New York theater community. "I spent much of my time," Dean remarks, "like an itinerant preacher, distributing copies of my pamphlet to incredulous theatrical friends."[4]
When the Japanese attacked the United States in December of 1941, playwright Moss Hart, actress Aline MacMahon, producer Kermit Bloomgarden, and actor/producer George Heller, under the auspices of the American Theatre Wing, began to organize an American version of the ENSA program. Originally called the Lunch Hour Follies, the program's name was changed to the Lunchtime Follies shortly after it launched operations as part of the Wing's overall wartime activities.
The Theatre Wing initially anticipated two different benefits from the industrial variety shows. The primary goal of the program was, of course, to help to increase wartime production by providing recreation for the workers. However, the Wing's executive board also recognized that the Follies would expose many blue collar workers to the enjoyment of live dramatic entertainment and might have the additional advantage of helping to expand the potential Broadway audience. It was even suggested at the board's 17 June 1942 meeting that a large enough factory entertainment program might be the starting point for a National Theatre.[5]
Logistically the Follies relied on the cooperation and support of several non-theatrical organizations. From the outset the program needed approval from the United States Department of Labor, the War Production Board, and the National Security Agency. Munition plants, military shipyards, and aircraft manufacturing facilities were, at the time, operating under strict security regulations to thwart the efforts of Axis spies and saboteurs. Occasionally, permission for Follies performances at these high security locations had to come directly from the government. Performers frequently had factory police escorts to and from the front gates, and were required to wear large identification badges showing that they were approved guests. In some venues, security regulations were so strict IDs had to be worn on stage, "with the result that round pasteboard disks [were] seen dangling incongruously from pink satin tights."[6] Because gasoline and automobile tire rationing had placed severe restrictions on personal travel, transportation to and from the work sites for performers, technicians, and the theatrical equipment necessary to stage the shows was handled in a variety of ways. When available, the production troupes used commercial buses or scheduled rail service. In some situations, the American Women's Volunteer Service provided automobile transportation for the five to fifty miles between bookings.
One of the consistently troublesome aspects of the factory entertainment program was directly related to its funding. American Theatre Wing financial records indicate that $10,000 was allocated to cover the Follies' start up cost. The Wing's board of directors fully expected the program to continue by finding alternative funding sources. Early in the program, "it was proposed that the AFL and CIO be propositioned to finance the project, but that was quickly found impractical."[7] To create interest in the program, some early performances were presented free of charge, or for fees that did not fully cover production costs. Even after the program had experienced some success, Rachel Crothers, head of the Wing, suggested that the program be discontinued because "the Follies may not have justified the amount of money spent on them."[8] In the Follies' defense, Bloomgarden cited an increase in future bookings, and outlined a plan to make the Follies self-sufficient by eliminating all free performances. The board agreed at that time to let the Follies continue provided each interested production facility accepted primary financial responsibility for a Follies visit. To book a performance factory management would contact the Wing, agree to provide some sort of temporary stage for the players, and compensate the performers and crews for their efforts. According to a 1942 article in the Christian Science Monitor, fees for each Lunchtime Follies visit ranged from $200 to $650, depending on both the number of performers and shows given.[9] Performances were scheduled to coincide with the meal breaks of the workers, and in many cases the shows would be repeated two or three times at the same factory, enabling each shift of workers to enjoy the Follies. It was not unusual for a troupe to perform at noon, 8:00 P.M., and again at 4:00 A.M.. By the end of the war, the American Theatre Wing's total contribution to the program amounted to $34,181.02, most of that amount being used to pay for a full-time advance man, publicity materials, and associated administrative costs.[10] More than 500 actors, dancers, and musicians auditioned for the Follies programs and the Wing usually had as many as 150 performers on call. The American Theatre Wing held one of the first auditions at the Lyceum Theater near the end of July 1942. "Singers, dancers, specialty acts, masters of ceremony, magicians, and all other types of variety actors" were invited to join the Follies' "talent pool."[11] As the popularity of the program increased, up to six troupes of from ten to twelve performers would be operating simultaneously at different locations along the East Coast. Many Broadway and nightclub stars donated their time and talent, while others in the troupe were paid ten dollars per day on out-of-town trips, and seven-fifty when performances were staged near New York City. These flexible compensation arrangements undoubtedly suggest the cooperation of the entertainers' unions. Technical personnel accompanied the troupes to dress the stage and set up and operate a sound system that was, commonly, no more than a single microphone and several large speakers. Flexibility was also the guiding principle regarding stage decoration. Simple unframed cloth backdrops were frequently used to decorate the stage, while many of the stage properties used by the performers were borrowed from the host factory's own inventory, such as a piano, desks, tables, and chairs.
To supplement the dramatic material donated to the Follies by established playwrights and song writers, the American Theatre Wing sponsored a play and song writing contest open to the general public. The contest offered U.S. war bonds as prizes and guidelines for submissions requested that sketches require no more than 2-4 actors, take no longer than ten minutes for performance, and be capable of production on simple stages without extensive scenery, properties, or costumes. The report of the National Contest Committee, dated 5 January 1944, shows that they received slightly more than one thousand song entries, and more than 260 sketches and short plays. The report adds that though they awarded thirty-nine prizes, "very little material was received that would be suitable" for use by the professional performers involved in the Follies.[12]
Although originally scheduled to open at a factory in Schenectady, New York, the American Theatre Wing gave the first Lunch Hour Follies at the Wheeler Shipbuilding complex near New York on 8 June 1942. A repeat performance was then staged at Todd Shipyards in Brooklyn on June 22.[13] Nine days after the first presentation, Lt. J. D. Gassford, representative of the 3rd Naval District spoke to the Wing's executive board. Gassford related that he had conferred with leaders of the shipyard where the Follies had been presented, as well as with the Admiral in charge of American naval shipbuilding on the East coast. According to Gassford, they all believed that "if we can keep them [the workers] going with light speeches, entertainment, etc., it ... would be a vital contribution to the war effort."[14]
Over the next four years, hundreds of fifteen to fifty minute programs were presented in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Norfolk, Conn., and in many locations in New York and New Jersey. Crowds of up to eight thousand workers in war-related industries such as the Sperry Gyroscope Company, RCA-Victor, Revere Copper and Brass, the Maryland Drydock Company, the Rustless Ironworks, and a Curtiss Wright propeller factory sat on rough benches, scaffolding, shipping crates and perched on cranes with sandwiches and sodas while popular entertainers including Milton Berle, Arlene Francis, George Jessel, impressionist and radio star Arthur Elmer, and singers and dancers such as Sunnie O'Dea, Ella Logan, Buddy and Judy Allen, and the Cole Sisters entertained them. In the first year alone, the Follies played to more than 250,000 workers in fifty-five war-related production facilities.[15]
Because of the program's necessary association with the government agencies in charge of wartime production, many original entertainments written for the Follies focused on topics suggested by either the War Production Board or industry leaders. In an Associated Press news story, Jean Meegan quotes Aline MacMahon as saying, "The War Production Board had a tasty list of troubles, ... and we converted the problems into entertainments."[16] In this matter, the Follies program is different from its English counterpart. The ENSAtainments, judging from Basil Dean's account, rarely attempted to address specific issues and focused instead on relaxation and escapism. In contrast, from the outset, both the writers and the associated producers saw the Follies as a potential instrument for worker indoctrination. In its focus on industrial output, the Follies program was comparable to the propagandistic performances given in factories for workers in Russia following the communist revolution.
For example, one of the Follies' most provocative and propagandistic musical numbers was a song called "On Time." First sung by Patricia Ryan at the RCA radio factory in Harrison, New Jersey on 14 September 1942, "On Time" is blatantly propagandistic. Written by Harold Rome, the song is based on a specific suggestion coming from the plant's management who were experiencing serious production delays due to worker tardiness and absenteeism that ran as high as 7 percent. Sexually suggestive lyrics are employed to discourage no-shows and generally promote more productive work habits.
Some men are lazy, some men are slow -
But those are the kind that don't stand a show.
Those absentee boys, now I think are mean
They'd never get working on my machine.
To handle my goods and tighten my slack
Now I got no use for a stayaway [sic] Jack.
The man who stays home and lets his pals down
Won't get in my plant to turn my wheels around.
I can see by your smile - I can see by your style
That all you boys have something that I'd find worthwhile
Cause I want a man who comes to work on time
Oh give me a man who's in there working right on time.[17]
The Federal Government's request for assistance in getting an important production-related message to the general wartime labor force resulted in another highly propagandistic musical invention. Written at the request of the War Production Board and entitled "Sloppy Joe," this bit of musical propaganda was intended to help reduce a high incidence of on-the-job accidents through an effective use of humor and ridicule. The song sarcastically depicts the danger and inefficiency of a "flippy, floppy, mopey, dopey" production-line worker who is always dropping tools, damaging equipment, injuring his co-workers, and disrupting production output.[18]
George S. Kaufman, who collaborated with Moss Hart in 1936 on the hit play You Can't Take It With You, reunited with Hart to produce at least three skits for the Follies, and possibly a fourth. All of the Kaufman and Hart contributions contain elements of war-related propaganda, but are less specifically rooted in the day to day reality of the factory or shipyard production line. Instead, the themes expressed in these sketches center on notions related to Americanism, support for the Allies, and promoting a greater animosity toward the enemy.
The first Kaufman and Hart skit, "Fun To Be Free," was an abbreviated adaptation of a Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur 1940 patriotic history pageant of the same name, with additional music written by Harold Rome.[19] Revised after Pearl Harbor, the full-length play was scheduled to open at the Adelphi Theater on Broadway in early 1942. However, the revival of the pageant was delayed and finally canceled in March 1942 due to what the press labeled as internal friction.[20] Instead, "Fun To Be Free," a series of vignettes taken from moments in American history when freedom was thought to be in jeopardy, became the cornerstone of the first Follies presentation at the Wheeler shipyards in Brooklyn.
"The Man Who Went to Moscow," the second Kaufman and Hart piece is described as "a spoof of Hitlers attempt to conquer Russia."[21] A newspaper photo found in the American Theatre Wing scrapbooks shows comic David Burns dressed as Hitler, complete with military jacket, arm band swastika, and fake moustache. The accompanying caption reads, "Here Schicklegruber explodes as robot-like 'Nazi soldier' tries to follow incoherent commands."[22] On its surface this sketch vilifies and belittles the German dictator, making a fool of him, and according to the New York Times, it was "probably the big moment of the Follies."[23]
It is appropriate to note that operating underneath its comic surface the sketch was a reminder to the workers that Russia was bearing the brunt of the ground war in Europe and at a critical stage in her struggle against the Nazis.[24] This reminder was important because many of the armaments manufactured in the United States were sent directly to the Red Army as part of America's Lend-Lease commitment to Russia. The skit also portrayed the German dictator as a ranting, maniacal nincompoop whose illusions of grandeur, however humorous, posed a very real threat to civilization. Immediately following "The Man Who Went to Moscow," a Harold Rome song, "Gee, But It's Cold in Russia," was inserted into the program to underscore both the humor of the sketch, and the Nazi's lack of success in conquering either the Russian soldiers or the Russian winter.
Minutes from the Wing's board meeting of 1 July 1942 note that while "The Man Who Went to Moscow" and "Gee, But It's Cold in Russia" were well received by the workers, board member Kermit Bloomgarden expressed concern about their characterization of the German leader. Bloomgarden "thought some of the skits presented at the Shipyard were quite unfunny," and went on to suggest that "Hitler ought not to be pictured in any way but as the dangerous menace he is."[25] The presentation of Hitler as a comic character was, of course, already familiar to Americans through Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film, The Great Dictator.
The third Kaufman and Hart skit, "Washington, D.C.," was first presented at the Todd Shipyards performance. This comic parody made fun of government red tape, bureaucratic nonsense, and the overall complexity of doing business in the nation's capitol during the early stages of mobilization. Part of its humor came at the expense of the government's ever expanding alphabet soup of war time agencies, committees, and bureaus such as the WPB, OWI, OSS, WMC, OLLA, ODHWS, and FDA.[26] By employing comedy to expose the wartime waste of time, manpower, and materials, the vignette suggests that the obstacles to an efficient prosecution of the war are merely logistical complications, and that they are readily surmountable. The comic skit ultimately proclaims an entirely optimistic war-related message. The fourth Kaufman and Hart sketch is The Paperhanger.[27] To date, no clear evidence exists that positively confirms the approximately ten minute playlet was presented as part of the Follies. However, Malcolm Goldstein, a biographer of George S. Kaufman, says that it was originally written "for this [the Lunchtime Follies] and other agencies."[28] Since the script meets the strict production requirements of the American Theatre Wing's program, it is reasonable to assume that it was performed as part of the Follies. Its inclusion in this study is particularly important because it is the only sketch of its type published as a complete text, and offers the best opportunity to examine the blend of comedy and propaganda typical of so many skits presented in the Lunchtime Follies.
The Paperhanger requires a cast of three men and only minimal properties: a ladder, a bucket, a wallpaper paste brush, and two lunch boxes. Two of the characters are costumed in white coveralls and the third in a dark business suit. The dramatic locale is the home of wealthy Mr. Blatz. The only scenic element required is a half-papered wall, probably represented by an unframed painted cloth drop. When the play begins, one character is facing upstage, apparently in the middle of a wallpaper job, and singing "I'll Be Loving You, Always." As the song ends, the man turns around and the audience sees his face for the first time. It is Adolf Hitler. Hitler stops working, sits on a nearby crate, and begins to sob. Another laborer then joins him on stage and initiates the following exchange.
WORKMAN. Why, Adolf, what's the matter?
HITLER. (Through his sobs) If only my mother was here. I miss her so.
WORKMAN. (Sympathetically.) Aw!
HITLER. Every day, just about this time, I used to kick her in the stomach.
WORKMAN. Your own mother?
HITLER. There was nobody else around.
WORKMAN. But my goodness, Adolf! What did she say when you kicked her?
HITLER. "Heil Hitler!"
WORKMAN. You're a very strange man, Adolf. Yesterday you threw a dog under a railroad train - why do you do such things?
HITLER. The dog looked Jewish (1).
From the outset of the piece, Hitler is portrayed as a wimpy buffoon and an anti-Semitic bully. Hitler's violence against his own mother and man's best friend are clearly beyond the bounds of logical behavior. Moreover, Hitler's rationalizations for these actions frame him as both a megalomaniac and a bigot. In subsequent exchanges with the workman Schultz, Hitler calls his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, the "biggest liar I ever met in my life, including me," and labels Herman Goering, the head of the German Luftwaffe, "a dope fiend but nice" (1).
As the action continues, Hitler steals from the workman, taking a big beautiful apple, and offering in compensation "a little bit of a wormy apple" (1). In response to the workman's protests Hitler explains"There are three reasons that make it right. First, I am bigger than you are, second, I am a son of a bitch, and third, I wanted the apple" (1).
To make up for the unfair trade, Hitler suggests that they exchange sandwiches. The workman hands over his bologna sandwich for what Hitler promises is a "wonderful gooseliver [sic] sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes and pickles" (1). Hitler, in reality, gives the workman nothing but two slices of bread. Once again Hitler justifies his treachery, this time pointing out that no one has dared to stop his villainy. "There is one thing I can't understand about people," Hitler explains, "I tell them I am a son of a bitch, I prove it to them a hundred times a day, and still they don't believe me" (1).
The balance of the sketch is an allegory of Hitler's prewar manipulation of Russia, England, and the rest of Europe. Hitler first convinces the workman that if they murder Mr. Blatz, they can share ownership of his impressive house. After they sign a contract to that effect, Hitler distracts Blatz, and the workman kills him with a knife. Once the crime has been committed, Hitler reneges on the agreement, claims the house for himself, and forces the workman to finish the wallpaper job. Hitler tells the workman that Goebbels and Goering have already raped the workman's wife, and, if he does not follow orders, they will give cocaine to the workman's daughter and turn her against him as well. Hitler ends the sketch by turning to address the audience directly.
Isn't it wonderful how they always believe me? It's not as though I kept it a secret - I come right out and tell them what I'm going to do. They just can't believe that anyone can be as big a bastard as I am. You know, you can't tell how far a fellow could go, with a nature like mine. If one man believes it, why shouldn't a whole lot of men believe it? Why shouldn't whole countries believe it? Yes, sir, I wouldn't be surprised if I've got hold of something. I'll bet you it's going to work. I have an intuition. Things are definitely coming my way. (And they are. At that moment Schultz, [the workman,] on the ladder above him, crowns him with a whole bucket of paste) (2).
Kaufman and Hart built the sketch upon foundations of both verbal and slapstick humor, but it contains an important history lesson as well. Hitler's broken promises, coercion, and brutality recall the failure of appeasement and diplomacy that held the hopes of many in the world before the shooting war began. Blatz, like Poland and Czechoslovakia, is killed because his house represents something the Fuehrer says he wants "Lebensraum"(2). The authors do not characterize Schultz, the skit's representative of the German people, as a willing participant in Hitler's oppressions, but as a victim. It is possible that they intended this portrayal to differentiate between the dedicated Nazi party members who enthusiastically took part in the German subjugation of minorities and those Germans who abhorred the Reich's atrocities but who took no action against Hitler's brutal regime. Hitler's exploitation of the workman in The Paperhanger, and the violence directed toward the man's family, forces Schultz into a reluctant submission. Only at the end of the sketch does Schultz rise up against the tyrant and take his revenge. The audience, even as they laugh at his comic madness, witness the tactics of terror and belligerence used by the F�hrer to subjugate first his own people, and then an entire continent.
While broad comedy of this type was an important part of the Follies presentations, it was not the only propaganda strategy employed by the sketch writers. Kenneth White, author of the unsuccessful 1941 Broadway play, The Lady Who Came to Stay, collaborated with J. P. McEvoy to contribute a more serious vignette that is based on a real event in the European war. Entitled "Dnieperstroy," this sketch focuses on the destruction of the ten-year-old Dnieper River Dam by Russian workers and soldiers. Red Army General Semyon Budenny, "[a]cting under personal orders of Premier Joseph Stalin," oversaw the destruction of "the most important source of power in Southeastern Russia, ... releasing tons of muddy, swirling water to flood the lowlands below the delta."[29] The heroic maneuver was undertaken to "render relatively stable terrain useless" to the advancing Germans, and cover the Russian retreat from the Ukraine.[30] "Dnieperstroy's" dramatic portrait of a nation under attack by the Nazi forces, and of the courageous Russian people and their determination to survive no matter what the cost in property or human life, provided a poignant example of the kind of dedication and sacrifice needed by workers on the American home front. Another sketch, "The Destruction of the Dam," contributed by Warner Brothers writer Robert Rossen, dealt with the same topic and became part of the Follies repertoire in late October of 1942.[31]
Maxwell Anderson provided an additional somber sketch to the Follies that, unfortunately, resulted in some controversy for both the program and the playwright. "A Letter from Daddy" is a sentimental vignette based on an actual letter written by a navy pilot to his five-year-old son. The letter was delivered shortly after the flyer went down with his ship in the Pacific, and was made public by his widow. Anderson's dramatization of the mother reading the missive to her son was criticized because he failed to acknowledge the letter's original author. Anderson was also faulted because he expunged a section of the letter that linked the Catholic religion with the flier's hope for his son's future. Although Anderson's motive for this omission is not explained, it is possible that he was concerned about stirring the anti-Catholic bias present in the nation at the time.
In one Follies sketch, an unknown author established a humorous connection between the work being done in defense plants and the entertainment world of the celebrities. "Factory Footlights" was first performed at the Eberhard and Gould plant in Irvington, New Jersey in September of 1942.[32] The skit parodied what would happen to Broadway if they employed factory production methods on the stage. The sketch's comedy provides much needed laughter, but more importantly acknowledges the pressures and difficulties experienced by the workers in the audience, and finally praises their dedication to the production front. Other sketches known to have been contributed to the Follies came from writers such as George Oppenheimer, Ham Fisher, Zero Mostel, and many others. An article that appeared in the 10 June 1942 edition of Variety stated that the American Theatre Wing had secured promises from more than fifty American writers to provide ten-minute sketches for future Follies programs.[33]
As women replaced American men on production lines, the songs and sketches used in the Follies changed as well. Harold Rome, one of the leading songwriters writing for the Follies, supplied a group of musical numbers that paid tribute to the crucial contributions made by women workers. Rome's song "Solid, Solid, Suzabelle," "concerned a damsel who was turned from less patriotic pursuits, . . . to the production of tanks, planes, and guns."[34] Another popular number dedicated to the woman worker, "She Rolled Up Her Sleeves - She Hitched up Her Hose," was the subject of a photo layout in the Omaha World-Herald for February 14, 1943. One image reproduced there shows a chorus of six women singing the song, dressed in short skirts and kicking their legs rockettes style. Although we would now view this image as sexist and politically incorrect, at the time it was probably viewed as an important acknowledgment of the women's contribution to achieving maximum product output, and considered a positive glamorization of the woman's role in the workplace. This was an important component of the government's campaign to convince women workers that doing factory work previously handled only by men would not affect their femininity or make them less attractive.[35]
Kurt Weill, the German refugee composer, not only collaborated with American lyricists on many musical numbers for the Lunchtime Follies, but served as head of the program's production committee as well. A song featured in the Follies and attributed to Weill and lyricist Lewis Allen was a tribute to the American worker entitled, "Story of an Inventory." It was first presented in 1943 at the Cramp Shipyard in Philadelphia. Loosely based on the children's rhyme "The House that Jack Built," the lyrics function as a reminder to the workers of how important each step in the factory production process is to the overall success of the American war effort.
A thousand ships were launched today,
A thousand subs are on their way,
A million planes are off, hooray! ...
When ships go sailing down the ways,
When bombers roar and cannons blaze,
When men pass ammunition, praise
The man that worked the drill
That screwed the bolt
That held the shaft
That turned the wheel
That ran the belt
That made the things
That built the plane
That held the bomb
That dropped on Hitler![36]
In production, as they sang each line, chorus girls dressed in blue tights and red blouses held up oversized wooden props representing the items mentioned in the song enabling the audience to join with the cast in singing the refrain. They punctuated the final stanza of the song with a realistic sound effect of a dropping bomb played over the sound system.
Another audience participation number used in the Follies was a propagandistic version of the "Schnitzelbank" song. Using a large fabric backdrop with words and pictures painted on it to guide the audience's responses, the lead singer would introduce each stanza and the audience would join in singing the expanding chorus.
Isn't this the setting sun, yes this is the setting sun (Japanese Flag) Isn't this the done for Hun, Yes this is the done for Hun (cartoon of a Nazi soldier), Heroes True (American military men), Heroes too (American workers with Union badges) Kick in the Panzer (German Tank), The only answer (bomb), Things to buy (War Bonds), Battle cry (National Unity), . . . [37]
Other songs included in the Follies during its operation were a gag song that went under the title "For Defense," a musical number that equated the front lines with the production lines, "A Soldier of Production Now," and a Ted Mossman number usually accompanied by a square dance, "Put Another Nail in Hitler's Coffin." Popular standards that the audience could sing along with such as "Deep in the Heart of Texas," "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," and several African American spirituals, were occasionally included.
Factory and shipyard management hailed the Lunchtime Follies program for giving their workers an effective break from the routine of production line manufacture, and for creating a greater sense of teamwork among the workers. In a letter to Kermit Bloomgarden and the American Theatre Wing, the management at Todd Shipyards praised the program and noted, "to say that our men enjoyed it, to say that their morale was helped greatly, and to say that they would like more of it, is but to be trite; you and the many representatives of the Theatre Wing were present to see how the men reacted to it."[38]
James McGary, an employee at the Todd Shipyards, witnessed his first Follies from a rooftop perch. In a 1942 PM Magazine article McGary is quoted expressing his desire for more lunchtime entertainments and acknowledging the program's quality, "I guess it's about the best performance I ever saw . . . the men know they're getting big-time entertainment. You can bet they really appreciate it."[39] The New York World Telegram quoted Frank Castillo, a nineteen-year-old apprentice at the same shipyard who agreed with McGary, saying, "Its wonderful, ... they ought to have more of them."[40]
An article on the Follies appeared in Factory Management and Maintenance in November of 1942 and outlined exactly how they thought that the program benefitted the nation's overall war production effort. "Today it is generally agreed that the destiny of the United Nations will depend as surely upon the morale of the man in overalls as upon the man in uniform. Fatigue and boredom born of labor are as dangerous as any secret weapon the enemy might employ . . . this new service . . . is making a vital and significant contribution to the country's battle for production."[41] Echoing this sentiment, an article in the 24 June 1943 issue of the American states, "You can't win a war if the morale on the home front isn't tops, and the variety shows . . . are the big morale boosters on the production front."[42]
By the end of 1943, according to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Stewart Asher, manufacturers had acknowledged that "as morale sustainer and tempo tonic the shows are worth many times their financial outlay."[43] As industry looked forward to the end of the conflict and the return to consumer-oriented production, leaders interested in keeping productivity high considered several proposals that would continue to offer entertainment within the confines of the factory. Writing for Variety, George Rosen commented on the new relationship between business and entertainment.It's only since the advent of World War II that the value of entertainment as a contributing factor in attaining highest production levels in America has been recognized. Figures reveal increased production directly attributable to the theater-for-the-factory, with the industrialists who have booked the Wing's 'Follies,' many of them for return engagements, now fully convinced of the morale value of carrying this new tool into the postwar period of reconversion. . . . Picking up where 'Follies' leaves off, big business will retain the best proven features of the wartime industrial show biz and mold the new addition to its production line to fit the needs of private enterprise.[44]
The Follies were extremely popular with both workers and business leaders in the East. In response to industry requests, a similar Follies program began on the West Coast using Hollywood writers and film players. As many as eleven Lunchtime Follies troupes performed simultaneously at the many munitions and aircraft production facilities located there.[45] Original material for the West Coast Follies came from such capable writers as Groucho Marx, Jerome Kern, and Ira Gershwin. Sketches and songs again served two purposes: entertainment and education. For example, one musical number performed in the West featured "The Fleagelholm Welding School" and Zelda the Welder. The musical sketch "glorifies the woman in war work in boogie-woogie rhythm." "You Look Better to Me Now," another West Coast Follies' song, "romanticizes the girl on the assembly line who is more alluring in overalls than in her party gown."[46] Clearly the West Coast Follies was acknowledging the tremendous contributions made in airplane and armament manufacture by thousands of newly employed women. The latter of the two songs also seems to address the concern of many women that the stress of factory work would make them somehow less appealing.
Hearing about the entertainment program's productive benefits, Midwest manufacturers and workers expressed the desire for their own Follies program, but the shortage of professional talent in the heartland, and the geographical distance between industrial centers made the proposal problematic. In response to those appeals, however, the American Theatre Wing offered two rather unusual variations of the Follies. In December of 1943, the Wing announced the availability of "Mail-order" Follies programs. Upon request, the Wing would send scripts containing sketches, songs, and ideas for soliciting local talent to interested factory groups. It is not known how well the mail-order program fared, but its creation is a clear indication that plant managers and industrial leaders recognized the value of entertainment as a practical means of easing the pressure felt by workers on the wartime production line and increasing product output. In July of 1944, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, in cooperation with the Theatre Wing, released a series of records that featured leading entertainers performing material from the Follies. Costing as little as fifteen cents each, "the platters [were seen] as the answer to the American Theatre Wing's problem of how to get the lunchtime follies to out-of-the-way plants in the face of transportation troubles and stars' booking problems."[47]
The fame of the Lunchtime Follies program was so widespread both within the manufacturing community and beyond that it was almost instantly incorporated into the popular culture of the period. For example, in a Black Terror comic book published during the war, the story's hero is seen fighting hand-to-hand with Nazi saboteurs in an American industrial plant, while behind him, using the bed of a large truck for a stage, a group of scantily-clad chorus girls dances for an assembly of workers under a "Lunchtime Follies" banner.[48] In 1943, the AFL and CIO sponsored a musical variety show at City Hall in New York that featured an amateur all-labor union cast. One skit in the production was the recreation of a Lunchtime Follies presentation. Another example of the Follies being incorporated into other entertainments can be found in the 1944 film Right Guy, which contained a scene set in a factory where a Follies performance was in progress and provided background interest.
The Lunchtime Follies was an extremely successful endeavor for the American Theatre Wing. Using a variety of entertainment forms, including songs, dances, stand up comedy, magic acts, novelty musicians, and dramatic sketches, the men and women of Broadway, Hollywood, radio, and the nightclub stages of New York brought much needed, and appreciated, amusement to war industry production workers. In cooperation with government and industry leaders many of the popular entertainments presented by the Follies addressed important national or production related issues such as absenteeism, job safety, and quality control. The skits and songs brought to the workers reinforced American commitment to her allies, acknowledged the bitter realities of life on the home front, and, if only temporarily, refreshed the workers' spirits. Designated as "one of the most astonishing institutions to come out of the war,"[49] the Lunchtime Follies prove that theater has a unique potential to be both a therapeutic entertainment and a powerful motivational force when propaganda is intimately linked with popular amusement. Like the films, fictional stories, and radio dramas of the period that characterized the seriousness of the crisis facing the nation, the Lunchtime Follies sought to "inspire a feeling of collective responsibility, selfless dedication to winning the war, and solid identification of civilian activity with men overseas."[50] Although it was only one element of the American Theatre Wing's wartime mobilization of Broadway, we should remember it as one of the most creative and valuable contributions to the American home front made by the men and women of the professional theater during a time of extreme national emergency.
Robert C. Roarty, Ph.D.
[1] Isabelle Stevenson, The Tony Award: A Complete Listing, (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1994,) xi.
[2] The Lunchtime Follies is mentioned in several biographies including Malcolm Goldstein's George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater. Additionally, the existence of the Follies program is briefly noted in Isabelle Stevenson's history of the American Theatre Wing found in her book on the Tony Awards, however, no details are given.
[3] Basil Dean, The Theatre at War (London: George G. Harrap, 1958), 136-137.
[4] Ibid., 34.
[5] "The American Theatre Wing Minutes," dated 17 June 1942. In the collection of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, New York.
[6] "Lunchtime Follies, S. R. O.," New York Times Magazine 11 July 1943: 8+.
[7] "'Lunch Follies', Shows For War Workers, May Adopt Plan for Touring," n. p., n. p. Found in the American Theatre Wing Scrapbook, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. Many of the clippings contained in the American Theatre Wing's scrapbooks have no indication of publisher, date, or page. Even more problematic is the fact that the original scrapbook pages were cut in half at some point in time, often splitting a single article in the middle.
[8] American Theatre Wing meeting minutes, January 27, 1943.
[9] Christian Science Monitor 6 October 1942: n. pag.
[10] "The American Theatre War Wing Service Financial Statement as of 31 December 1945," Pinto, Winokur, and Pagano, Inc., New York.
[11] "Talent Registration," New York Post 20 July 1942: n. pag.
[12] "Report of the National Contest Committee, January 5,1944," Found in the records of the American Theatre Wing, New York.
[13] "Whistle While You Work," New York Times 23 June 1943: 22.
[14] "American Theatre Wing Minutes," dated 17 June 1942. In the collection of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
[15] Lewis Nichols, "Lunchtime Follies," New York Times 13 June 1943: 21.
[16] Jean Meegan, "Lunch-Time Follies," World-Herald (Omaha, NE) 14 February 1943, n. pag.
[17] Unidentified newspaper clipping, November 1942, American Theatre Wing Scrapbook, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
[18] Arlene Wolf, "Lunchtime Follies, S. R. O.," New York Times Magazine 11 July 1943: 18+.
[19] For more information on the original production of the Hecht-MacArthur pageant see my article "Fun To Be Free: Intervention Takes the Stage," Journal of American Drama and Theater (Winter, 1997).
[20] "Stage News," New York Times 26 March 1942: 26.
[21] Malcolm Goldstein, George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 362.
[22] Unidentified newspaper photo found in the American Theatre Wing scrapbooks at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
[23] "Whistle."
[24] In the summer of 1942, the German forces in Russia began an offensive that would result in the destruction of Stalingrad, and the deaths of untold Russian soldiers.
[25] "American Theatre Wing Minutes," dated 1 July 1942. In the collection of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, New York.
[26] The War Production Board, Office of War Information, Office of Strategic Services, War Manpower Commision, Office of Lend-Lease Administration, Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services, Food Distribution Administration.
[27] George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, The Paperhanger (New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1943) The published script is printed on both sides of a single sheet of paper. Subsequent references will be noted by an in text reference to page number (1 or 2).
[28] Goldstein, 362.
[29] "Dnieper Dam Reported Blown Up by Russians; Citizens Arming On Appeal to Save Leningrad; U.S. Considers Extending Credit to Moscow," New York Times 21 August 1941: 1+.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Unidentified newspaper article fragment, New York Times 23 October 1942.
[32] "'Lunch Time Follies' Invades New Jersey, Lambs-Berlin Party," New York News 10 September 1942: n. pag.
[33] "1st 'Lunchtime Follies' Clicks at Shipbuilding Yard Near New York," Variety 10 June 1942: 4.
[34] "Entertainment for War Workers," Philadelphia Record 23 September 1942: n. pag.
[35] For more information on this aspect of the government's recruitment campaign, see: Maureen Honey, "Remembering Rosie: Advertising Images of Women in World War II," The Home-Front War: World War II and American Society, eds: Kenneth Paul O'Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995) 83-106.
[36] Nichols.
[37] "Lunchtime Follies," Rustless Recorder, January 1943. (The in-house newsletter of the Rustless Ironworks,) and "Lunch Time Show for RCA Employees," Camden Courier (NJ) 21 September 1942: n. pag.
[38] Letter to Kermit Bloomgarden, dated 27 June 1942, reprinted in "The American Theatre Wing presents The Lunch Hour Follies for War Industry Workers." (American Theatre Wing brochure apparently printed after the first two performances.)
[39] "No Fun in War Work: Broadway Has a Cure," PM Magazine 22 June 1942: n. pag.
[40] "The Noon Whistle Blows and the Show is On," New York World Telegram 22 June 1942: n. pag.
[41] "The American Theatre Wing Presents the Lunch-Hour Follies," Factory Management and Maintenance (November 1942) 90.
[42] "Lunchtime Follies," American (Cohoes, NY) 24 June 1943: n. pag.
[43] Stuart Asher, "Lunchtime Follies for Workers in War Production," Philadelphia Inquirer (1943): n. pag.
[44] George Rosen, "Plan Mail-Order Show," Variety, 1 December 1943: n. pag.
[45] Although the format would have been similar to the East Coast Follies, it is likely that on the West Coast, the Japanese would have been the most prominent enemy portrayed in most of the Follies' presentations.
[46] Wolf.
[47] "Lunchtime Follies Put Out on Wax," Unidentified newspaper article dated July 20, 1944. American Theatre Wing scrapbook, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
[48] Black Terror n. p., 1943 (single page found in the American Wing Scrapbook, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.)
[49] Unidentified clipping found in American Theatre Wing scrapbook, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.
[50] Maureen Honey, Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984) 83.
©1999, Journal of American Drama and Theatre. Reprinted with permission.
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