The United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of War, and later with the Department of Defense (DoD), relying heavily on private contributions and on funds, goods, and services from various corporate and individual donors. Although it is congressionally chartered, it is not a government agency.
Founded during World War II, the USO sought to be the GI's "home away from home" and began a tradition of entertaining the troops and providing social facilities. Involvement in the USO was one of the many ways in which the nation had come together to support the war effort, with nearly 1.5 million people having volunteered their services in some way. The USO initially disbanded in 1947, but was revived in 1950 for the Korean War, after which it continued, also providing peacetime services. During the Vietnam War, USO social facilities ("USOs") were sometimes located in combat zones.
The organization became particularly known for its live performances, called "camp shows", through which the entertainment industry helps boost the morale of servicemen and women. In the early days, Hollywood was eager to show its patriotism, and many celebrities joined the ranks of USO entertainers. They went as volunteers to entertain, and celebrities continue to provide volunteer entertainment in military bases in the U.S. and overseas, sometimes placing their own lives in danger by traveling or performing under hazardous conditions. In 2011, the USO was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
According to the organization's website, the USO maintains over 250 locations worldwide. During a gala marking the USO's 75th anniversary in 2016, retired Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then-chairman of the USO Board of Governors, estimated that the USO has served more than 35 million Americans over its history."From World War II to Afghanistan: USO Marks 75th Anniversary", Department of Defense, February 5, 2016"Happy 75th Anniversary USO!", Huffington Post, February 4, 2016
History
The USO built on and greatly enriched a tradition of entertaining troops in the war theater. In World War I, many soldiers were treated to a variety of theatrical and musical performances (in which some soldiers participated when professionals were scarce). And in the Civil War, soldiers themselves typically played instruments and sang songs for entertainment. There were a few traveling entertainers who risked their lives to entertain troops in camp. The most well known, indeed famous, of these was Father Locke, whose service was requested by President Abraham Lincoln himself.
Mission and goals
The USO was founded on February 4, 1941 by Mary Ingraham in response to a request from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide morale and recreation services to U.S. uniformed military personnel. Roosevelt was elected as its honorary chairman. This request brought together six civilian organizations: the Salvation Army, YMCA, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), National Catholic Community Service, National Travelers Aid Association and the National Jewish Welfare Board. They were brought together under one umbrella to support U.S. troops, as opposed to operating independently as some had done during the First World War. Roosevelt said he wanted "these private organizations to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces." According to historian Emily Yellin, "The government was to build the buildings and the USO was to raise private funds to carry out its main mission: boosting the morale of the military."Yellin, Emily. Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II, Simon and Schuster (2005)
The first national campaign chairman was Thomas Dewey, who raised $16 million in the first year. The second chairman was future senator Prescott Bush. The USO was incorporated in New York on February 4, with the first facility erected in DeRidder, Louisiana, 1941.John Whiteclay Chambers II. "USO." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press (2000), Nash, Bill. High Hat Sam: The Life and Times of Louisiana Governor Sam Houston Jones. Springfield, Missouri : James E. Cornwell, 2014. p. 102. More USO centers and clubs opened around the world as a "Home Away from Home" for GIs.The USO, A Home Away From Home for 80 Years, by Julia Lauria-Blum, July 9, 2021 The USO club was a place to go for dances and social events, for movies and music, for a quiet place to talk or write a letter home, or for a free cup of coffee and an egg.The United Service Organizations for National Defense, Inc. (USO) and the YWCAVirginia Commonwealth University
The USO also brought Hollywood celebrities and volunteer entertainers to perform for the troops. According to movie historian Steven Cohan, "most of all ... in taking home on the road, it equated the nation with showbiz. USO camp shows were designed in their export to remind soldiers of home." They did this, he noted, by "nurturing in troops a sense of patriotic identification with America through popular entertainment."Cohan, Steven. The Road Movie Book, Routledge (1997) An article in Look magazine at the time, stated, "For the little time the show lasts, the men are taken straight to the familiar Main Street that is the goal of every fighting American far away from home." Maxene Andrews wrote, "The entertainment brought home to the boys. Their home." Actor George Raft stated at the beginning of the war, "Now it's going to be up to us to send to the men here and abroad real, living entertainment, the songs, the dances, and the laughs they had back home."
USO promotional literature stated its goals:
In 2011, the USO was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama "for contributions to lifting the spirits of America's troops and their families through the arts".
World War II
After being formed in 1941, in response to World War II, "centers were established quickly ... in churches, barns, railroad cars, museums, castles, beach clubs, and log cabins."Clairday, Robynn. Postcards from World War II, Square One Publishers (2001) Most centers offered recreational activities, such as holding dances and showing movies. And there were the well-known free coffee and doughnuts. Some USO centers provided a haven for spending a quiet moment alone or writing a letter home, while others offered spiritual guidance and made childcare available for military wives.
But the organization became mostly known for its live performances called Camp Shows, through which the entertainment industry helped boost the morale of its servicemen and women. USO Camp Shows, Inc. began in October 1941, and by that fall and winter 186 military theaters existed in the United States. Overseas shows began in November 1941 with a tour of the Caribbean.
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Within five months 36 overseas units had been sent within the Americas, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and during 1942 1,000 performed as part of 70 units. Average performers were paid $100 a week; top stars were paid $10 a day because their wealth let them contribute more of their talents.
These overseas shows were produced by the American Theatre Wing, which also provided food and entertainment for the armed services in their Stage Door Canteens. Funds from the sale of film rights for a story about the New York Canteen went toward providing USO tours of shows for overseas troops.
Following the Invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, Edward G. Robinson was the first movie star to travel to Normandy to entertain the troops.Ross, Steven J., "Little Caesar and the McCarthyist Mob" , USC He had already been active back home selling war bonds, and donated $100,000 to the USO. During his show, he said, "This is the most privileged moment of my life, the opportunity to be here with you."Robinson, Edward G. All My Yesterdays, Hawthorn Books (1973) p. 240 The following month, Camp Shows began in Normandy.
Until fall 1944 overseas units contained five performers or fewer; The Barretts of Wimpole Street, using local theaters in France and Italy, was the first to use an entire theater company, including scenery. At its high point in 1944, the USO had more than 3,000 clubs, and curtains were rising on USO shows 700 times a day. The USO's fundraising efforts were controversial. An MGM film, Mr. Gardenia Jones, created to assist the USO in its fundraising campaign, was nearly withdrawn from theaters due to objections by the War Department, mainly because of scenes showing soldiers jumping with joy at the opportunity to shower in canteens and rest in overstuffed and comfortable USO chairs. The Army, noted The New York Times, "feels this is not good for morale as it implies that there are no showers or other comforts for soldiers in military camps." The film starred Ronald Reagan, then a captain in the Army Air Force.Pryor, Thomas. The New York Times, June 28, 1942
Fundraising was also aided by non-USO entertainment groups. Soldier Shows, which troops – often experienced actors and musicians – organized and held their own performances, were common. The army formed a Special Services unit that organized such shows and supervised the USO, and the experience from the Soldier Shows led to Irving Berlin's Broadway show This Is the Army. Performers and writers from throughout the army were recruited for the production; they remained soldiers and continued drills. Berlin, who had written and produced the similar Yip, Yip, Yaphank during World War I, took the entire 165-person cast on tour in Europe in 1942, raising nearly $10 million for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The following year the show was made into a film by the same title, again starring Ronald Reagan. The This Is The Army stage production toured worldwide until it closed in October 1945 in Honolulu. The USO was also supported by the National War Fund.
War correspondent Quentin Reynolds, wrote in an article for Billboard magazine in 1943, that "Entertainment, all phases of it – radio, pictures and live – should be treated as essential. You don't know what entertainment means to the guys who do the fighting until you've been up there with the men yourself. ... You can quote me as saying that we should use entertainment as an essential industry so long as it's for the boys in service. Anybody who has been there would insist on it. ... Hell, you should have seen how happy the G.I.s were when they heard the ballplayers were coming over. And John Steinbeck, just back from a chore as war correspondent, ... also applauded show business as part of the war effort and its importance as a morale builder.""Quentin Reynolds Talks on Terrific Job Big and Little Showbiz is Doing Overseas", Billboard, October 30, 1943 p. 4
According to historian Paul Holsinger, between 1941 and 1945, the USO did 293,738 performances in 208,178 separate visits. Estimates were that more than 161 million servicemen and women, in the U.S. and abroad, were entertained. The USO also did shows in military hospitals, eventually entertaining more than 3 million wounded soldiers and sailors in 192 different hospitals. There were 702 different USO troupes that toured the world, some spending up to six months per tour.Holsinger, Paul. War and American Popular Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group (1999) In 1943, a United States Liberty ship named the SS U.S.O. was launched. She was scrapped in 1967.Reading 1: Liberty Ships National Park Service Cultural Resources.