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55 4 Piccadilly Lilly With the influx of soldiers into Fort Knox, Kentucky, the citizens of Louisville formed the Recreation Committee of the Louisville Defense Council to offer the new GIs places of wholesome and chaperoned entertainment. The committee published a weekly sheet, the Entertainment News, which indicated where the troops could go for a reduced price. The Louisville Colonels baseball team offered a ticket for fifteen cents, and dances were held on Friday and Saturday nights by the USO, De Molay, the YWCA, YMCA, and an offpost Service Club. GIs who liked professional wrestling could attend matches free of charge if they went in uniform. Every church and synagogue invited soldiers to attend services, and many of the places of worship offered the GIs free home-cooked breakfasts, a welcomed change from the mess halls of Fort Knox. Roller rinks, bowling alleys, and riding stables offered considerable discounts for the soldiers. To make it easier for the Fort Knox trainees, the city of Louisville offered free bus transportation to and from the post.1 The USO in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in conjunction with the Greater Boston Soldiers and Sailors Committee, gave GIs and sailors a map and guide to Service Clubs, jam sessions, dances, historic points of interest, YMCAs, free meals, and even a “Glamour Bar” for women in service.2 West Coast cities like Salem, Oregon, offered services to GIs at little or no cost. The Salem Defense Recreation Committee published a map and guide showing where the GIs could find sponsored dances, bowling alleys, Service Clubs, the YMCA, skating rinks, swimming pools, and movie theaters.3 After December 7, 1941, more civilians joined in the war effort to support the men and women in uniform. These efforts took a great deal of the pressure 56 American Girls, Beer, and Glenn Miller off the shoulders of General Osborn, and by 1943 the Special Services Division could focus on providing for troops in the United States and overseas where its services were most needed. The USO, which had emerged as the most important of civilian agencies, aimed at attracting women from diverse educational and economic backgrounds. Historian Meghan K.Winchell points out,“Local USO clubs usually staffed their canteens in shifts of several hours at a time, making volunteering most appealing to women who had large blocks of free time in the mornings, afternoons, or late evenings.”4 The USO cooperated with local organizations to provide for GIs, offering a full range of entertainment aimed at maintaining the soldiers’ morale. The soldiers, most of whom were draftees, found the transition to military life, with the real prospect of soon being in combat with battle-tested German or Japanese soldiers, bewildering at best. The army mess hall, though there had been great improvement in the preparation and variety of food, was certainly not home cooking. The hot coffee, doughnuts, sandwiches, and cakes offered by local groups, the Red Cross, and the USO helped in the transition for the GIs who entered the army with the expectations of civilian life left not far behind . Osborn and Byron both recognized the problem and welcomed all of the help they could get. Private Raymond James Oblinger, a draftee from Pennsylvania, represented what most GIs felt when he recalled, “The USO . . . had two locations in Anniston [Alabama] where a GI could meet a ‘nice’ girl. [A]lthough the guys outnumbered the girls ten to one.”5 Oblinger, a small-town lad with strong moral convictions, spent a good deal of time in the Fort McClellan Special Services library and often visited the post’s five movie theaters. Sergeant Charles Linzy, training at Camp Hulen, Texas, wrote to his wife in April 1943 that the USO had brought two shows to the camp. One show, titled You Can’t Take It with You, had come directly from the New York stage, and the second show featured the popular music of 1943, with a number of lesser-known big bands.6 Linzy moved to Camp Polk, Louisiana, where his unit would participate in large-scale maneuvers before being assigned to one of the theaters of war. Camp Polk was in a rural area of the state with few opportunities for entertainment in surrounding towns. Unfortunately, a large number of cheap saloons, widespread prostitution, and a criminal element moved into the area to prey on GIs. Special Services moved quickly to establish a Service Club and a Special Services presence there. Linzy wrote to his...

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