In addition to shows, the canteen offered off-duty military personnel opportunities to unwind in various ways, including dancing with hostesses and female entertainers, eating, and writing letters home. Composer Robert Schumann struggles to compose his symphonies while his loving wife Clara offers her support. The soldiers (California, Dakota, and Tex) are the lynchpins who carry the paper-thin story around delightful performances from the likes of Ethel Merman, Ray Bolger, Gracie Fields, Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee, Kay Kyser, Xavier Cugat, and Count Basie.Blink and you might miss (a few names for a taster) Tallulah Bankhead, Ina Claire, Judith Anderson, Aline MacMahon, Katherine Cornell, the Lunts, George Jessel, Ed Wynn, Ralph Bellamy, George Raft, May Whitty, Harpo Marx, Ned Sparks, and Dorothy Fields. Jim Beaver . Lives and loves are intertwined in a novel that follows three women from the theaters and dance halls of New York City during World War II. We may never know what happens to California, Dakota, and Tex (and millions like them) but 'Stage Door Canteen' gives you a bit of their lives, and a snapshot of the wartime canteen. Use the HTML below. The Stage Door Canteen was an entertainment venue for American and Allied servicemen that operated in the Broadway theatre district of New York City throughout World War II. [Don Wagner Collection] ATW Work Room Pin - 1 1/2" - Nothing is known about the "Work Rooms". Stage Door Canteen Star. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Their story provides the backdrop for showing the greatest film, stage, comedy, and musical actors of the day performing multiple plays, acts, and musical numbers, or serving drinks and food to U.S. servicemen at this famous non-profit establishment. 1,228 likes. The USO zaniness of 1941 is no joke; the consistently attractive girls here are all doing their bit by spending time with soldiers bound for overseas. The innocence of Delmer Daves' screenplay borders on the ludicrous. During that scene, Earl Oxford sang the song "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen" in both versions. Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. A chronicle of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of aspiring actresses who all live in the same boarding house. Waiter. Stage Door Canteen. "Dakota" Smith (William Terry), a young soldier on a pass in New York City, visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theatre and movies appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The place was The Stage Door Canteen and the guests were the steady stream of GIs headed off to war. The Stage Door Canteen was in New York and sponsored by the American Theater Wing. Francis Pierlot. [3], The canteen's popularity led to the establishment of other canteens throughout the United States as well as London and Paris.[4][5][6]. Bram Stoker's Dracula, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Peggy Lee Fever, A Year with Kate: Stage Door Canteen (1943), JOHNNY WEISSMULLER 5/5 {9-39} UN/DEL {1-3} = {8-36}, Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing. Peggy Lee. With actress Nedda Harrigan leading the effort,[1] the canteen opened March 2, 1942, by the American Theatre Wing, and operated seven nights a week in the previously unoccupied Little Club under the 44th Street Theatre[2] at 216 West 44th Street in Manhattan. The official estimate of attendance on the canteen's opening night was 1,250, with 200 "actresses of varying importance" as hostesses and 75 "'name' actors" as busboys. ATW Stage Door Canteen Pin - 1 1/8" - While this is a small pin, it is believed to belong to an ATW volunteer or employee, not to a donor. Maggie Davis. You'll remember Katharine Hepburn as she goes all patriotic at the end of the movie.Is it a good film? $3.99; $3.99; Publisher Description. They aren't glorified, but are simply depicted as young lads who like dancing with girls and being treated with courtesy. Mack Gray. Bette Davis served the desserts. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place. A war time romance bloomes in WWII between canteen hostess Eileen and visiting soldier Dakota at New York's famous Stage Door Canteen. He journeyed to England where his dreams of success became real and where he met his future wife Eva Leale (Dorothy Patrick). BB's Stage Door Canteen tickets are known to sell out fast, and same-day tickets may not be available. Many were leaving home for the first time and the Canteens offered a welcome opportunity to forget, if only for a night, their fears and anxieties. Was this review helpful to you? Many were leaving home for the first time and the Canteen offered a welcome opportunity to forget their anxieties—if only for a time—with entertainment, fellowship, and a little American spirit. [8], "Nedda Harrigan Logan; Actress Co-Founded Stage Door Canteen", "Stage Door Canteen Jammed for Debut, Duplicate Planned", "A Question About Broadway's Historic Stage Door Canteen", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stage_Door_Canteen&oldid=991404324, United States home front during World War II, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 November 2020, at 21:59. And Stage Door Canteen is a great snapshot of this unique soldiers' club. Stage Door Canteen Star. (1943). Marlene Dietrich and Lauren Bacall danced the night away. Radio program Stage Door Canteen featuring from left: comic, Johnny Morgan and Muriel Stafford Image dated September 1, 1944. Food was provided free. When I went with my Mom, it was a prix fixe menu with 2 to 3 choices for each (a soup or salad, pork or seafood or chicken, bread pudding or chocolate torte) and 1 free glass of wine. Franz Roberti is a famous orchestra conductor who has a number of girlfriends. The Stage Door Canteen was an entertainment venue for American and Allied servicemen that operated in the Broadway theatre district of New York City throughout World War II. The story revolves around Pamela, as a woman in late-1800's England who has no intention of marriage and wishes to be her own person. By today's standards, the film is unashamedly sentimental, corny and relentlessly patriotic. Stage Door Canteen ‎ (4xLP, Comp) Heartland Music, Heartland Music, Heartland Music, Heartland Music, RCA Special Products: HL 1051 / 4, H-1051/1, H-1051/2, H-1051/3, H-1051/ US: 1987: Sell This Version