Magic at the Stage Door Canteen
On the 2 March 1942, less than three months after the United States entered the Second World War, the Stage Door Canteen opened beneath New York’s 44th Street Theatre. Run by the American Theatre Wing, it offered Allied servicemen free food, dancing and entertainment, much of it provided by volunteers from the theatrical profession. Producer Lee Shubert provided the basement without rent and theatrical unions helped convert it. The room measured only forty by eighty feet and could accommodate about 500 people at a time, so servicemen were admitted in shifts. On busy nights more than 2,000 passed through. Actors waited tables, hostesses danced with the men and performers appeared on stage without fee. Among the famous faces involved were Katharine Hepburn , who danced with servicemen, and the young Lauren Bacall , who volunteered as a hostess before becoming one of Hollywood’s best-known stars. For men accustomed to seeing such people only on a cinema screen, the informality was part o...