Hello everyone..
Enclosed is a shot of the opening of the Hollywood Canteen- on October 3, 1942. Marsha worked almost every Saturday night of the war at the Canteen. Not only did she dance with a 1000 soldiers an hour for 5 hours a night but she was a "Captain", responsible for pulling in 10 people to work at the Canteen that night. Often her parents and sister Marjorie pitched in, making sandwiches in the kitchen. Marsha told me that a very shy Hedy Lamarr would quietly do her part preparing food.
The remarkable thing about Marsha is that she CHOSE to work the Canteen on Saturday night -because she knew that most stars were out on the town on their one night out. Back then, the studios worked a 6 day work week. While her husband Jay was off at war, she did her part by dancing for 5 hours and signing her name... and guess what.. she told me that after all that..she and her friends were so jacked up so they'd rush over to the Hollywood Palladium and DANCE there till it closed!
also during the war, Marsha begged the studio to go on a USO tour.. In 1943, they gave her time off to go to the Arctic- along with Kay Francis, Teddi Sherman and Reginald Gardiner
To learn more about the USO tour, you can order this book;
and by the way,, these two acts of activism were only a SMALL part for what Marsha did for the soldiers during the war.. war bond tours.. hospital visits.. She was prepared to be an ambulance driver- in the event the U.S. was attacked.. amazing what she accomplished...
That's it for today.. Please share this link if you can, so we can get to 2500.. and a few dollars here and there do help to "feed the meter".. I'm not saying how much I put in the kitty today, but it goes REALLY FAST .. Have a wonderful weekend and again.. thank you so much for your kindness and generosity