Screenland (May 1943-Oct 1944)

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Following the Washington run, I played engagements in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The proceeds of this tour, plus the gross from the New York run, added to the sum of $250,000 paid by Warner Brothers Pictures for the film rights to "This Is The Army," made a grand total of over $2,000,000 which the show raised for Army Emergency Relief. I made an album of records, and it also contributed royalties to the Fund, as well as the royalties from the smash song hits which Mr. Berlin contributed to Army Emergency Relief. In February, 1943, I arrived at Bur bank, California, to make the picture version of "This Is the Army." With the band playing This Is The Army, Mr. Jones, I marched into the studio, flags flying, rifle on my shoulder, and in full military dress. During the time I worked at the studio, I made my headquarters at Camp T.I.T.A., a special military encampment a mile away from the Warner studio. There had been built a drill field, tents were" set up, and an obstacle course and bayonet dummy course were also built. While I worked at the studio, I observed regular military discipline and duties. I arose at 6, dressed, had breakfast, came over the pass from Hollywood to Burbank, and was at the Camp for 8:15 reveille. From there the top sergeant assigned me to the sound stage where I was to work that particular day. I lived in an apartment or a small hotel room somewhere in Hollywood, sharing it with other members of the unit in order to make my $2.88 go further. At the end of the day I stood retreat at 5 :30, and then I was on my own — unless I had guard duty to perform that night. Guard duty was a fourteen-hour trick, two hours on and two hours off. Camp T.I.T.A. was military property and had to be guarded. I am the only actor who ever worked in a Hollywood picture that got $50 a month for the job. I worked on sound stages next to ones where such stars as Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, or Errol Flynn were working, and when I ate my lunch at the studio commissary, I rubbed elbows with all the Hollywood great. But I was still a soldier, and I still saluted every officer in sight, buttoned up all my buttons, and stood at attention when an officer entered the sound stage. I worked for Mike Curtiz, one of the top directors in Hollywood, who was in charge of making a motion picture out of Mr. Berlin's stage show hit, but I took orders from the sergeant who was in charge of staging the dances, and the lieutenant from my company who acted as assistant director to Mr. Curtiz. I entered a new world — a world of arc lights, Technicolor cameras, of endless rehearsals in order to secure one. good "take," of long hard work and little relaxation except at night, when I was too tired to do much except go dancing a little at the Hollywood Canteen. Did I say dancing? I sat on the sidelines. I'd had enough dancing. A motion picture, unlike a stage revue, has to have a story. Therefore there are two distinct troupes working before the camera in "This Is The Army." One troupe consists of George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Ronnie Reagan, Dolores Costello, Una Merkel and Charles Butterworth — they are carrying the "book" portion. The other troupe consists of myself and 349 other soldiers. We sing and dance and do our specialties for the camera just as we did for audiences from New York to Frisco. Joan Leslie looked forward to being in "This Is The Army." The first day she walked on the set she smiled pleasantly at all the boys, but not a single boy spoke to her. Joan tbought the boys were just shy. But when day after day went by and they didn't warm up she went to Lieutenant Ronald Reagan and asked him if she had done something wrong. Why did the boys all avoid her? Why were they so standoffish? Lt. Reagan explained that it was a military order— the boys were on the set to work, and not to mingle with civilians. One night at the Hollywood Canteen Joan met some of the boys and danced and chatted with them for several hours. They were so friendly, and complimentary, that now she felt things would be different on the set. But the next day on the set they looked right through her again. Irving Berlin has been singing, Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning for twenty-five years. He claims he wrote the song because he actually does hate getting up in the morning. He only took one civilian privilege during the entire tour of m This Is The Army." He refused to get up in the morning. He always appeared for work at noon. His services were entirely donated. When he faced the camera to sing Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, he forgot the words. Mr. Berlin's favorite story about himself actually happened on this "This Is The Army" set. They were playing the recording of the sound track of Berlin singing 'Oh etc' when a prop man turned to Lt Reagan who was listening and said, "If the guy who wrote that song ever heard the way it's being sung he'd turn over in his grave.-' While "This Is The Army" was in production Warners were making other pictures using all ranks of Army officers played by extras. When they passed each other on the way to the commissary the real soldiers would salute the phony Captains and Majors. Of course the extras didn't salute back. Finally, to avoid any further confusion, the studio issued an order that in the future all "Warner Brothers officers" had to wear white arm bands when going to lunch. The white arm bands were lettered "Warner Brothers." Ronald Reagan, who is a Lieutenant in the real Army, plays a Corporal in "This Is The Army." In the scenes the boys didn't have to salute him. When they passed him on the lot they were supposed to salute him. They were constantly upset trying to figure out when to do it, when not to do it. Well, I worked for three months making a motion picture out of "This Is The Army," all the proceeds of which will go to Army Emergency Relief. It is estimated that the net AER will get from the picture will come to more than five million dollars. I'm happy that I have been able to do my part to raise money for this worthy cause. I'm also happy that I've been given a chance by the Army to do the things I knew how to do best. If the Army thought that I would be better as a soldier-actor than I would be manning a machine gun somewhere in North Africa — then that's the Army's decision. But now that the picture's finished, I'm hoping to get into a little more active job in the Army. Toward the end of our stay at Warner Brothers studio we spent a whole day out at the Warner ranch, with loaded rifles, on a battlefield set I charged through the smoke and flames, across a field mined with dynamite charges that were skilfully set off by the technicians. I like to think that that was a dress rehearsal for things to come. For after all, I'm a soldier in the United States Army. And now that the job of "This Is The Army" is finished, I'd like to do a little fighting. Raising money for AER is a worthy job, but there's more serious work to be done. Soon! 64 SCREENLAND