December 15, 1944: "Hollywood Canteen" Premieres

Joan Crawford and Dane Clark

December 15, 1944: Hollywood Canteen premieres, providing World War II-era audiences with more stars than General Patton could shake his riding crop at.

It was technically a companion film (if not a sequel) to the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen. The real-life Stage Door Canteen operated at the 44th Street Theatre at 216 West 44th Street in New York from March 2, 1942 to December 31, 1945, after which the building was demolished.

Its West Coast equivalent, the Hollywood Canteen, was at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard, just south of Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles, running from October 3, 1942 to November 22, 1945 (Thanksgiving Day). The club offered food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, usually on their way overseas. It was open to servicemen of allied countries, as well as women in all branches of service, and admission, and everything else, was free to those in uniform.

The driving forces behind its creation were actors Bette Davis and John Garfield, along with Jules Stein, President of Music Corporation of America. The movie, directed by Delmer Davis, was filmed on location, and starred Davis, Garfield, and, among others, these performers, all of whom had volunteered for the real thing, in alphabetical order: The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Kitty Carlisle, Joan Crawford, Jimmy Dorsey (but not his brother Tommy), Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Malone, Janis Paige, Barbara Stanwyck and Jane Wyman.

And, yes, in his role of Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason was right: Hollywood Canteen was produced by Warner Brothers, and it premiered the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In," written by Cole Porter, and introduced by… Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers! They also sang their theme song, "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds." Roy even rode his famed horse Trigger onstage.

Oh, yes, there's an actual plot among the musical numbers. But, the place being Hollywood, and the time being World War II, its not a complicated plot: Robert Hutton plays Slim Green, the 1 millionth "GI" to be admitted, and he wins a date with actress Joan Leslie. He's on leave with his buddy, Sergeant Nolan, played by Dane Clark, who gets to dance with Crawford.

Speaking of whom: If you're looking for evidence of the feud between Crawford and Davis, you won't find any in this film.

A CNN studio and a parking lot are now on the site of the Hollywood Canteen.

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December 15, 1944 was a Friday. It was also the day that the Battle of the Bulge began, Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel on the way to a series of holiday concerts in Paris, and the first five-star Generals were promoted. I have separate entries for those events.

Baseball was in the off-season. The NFL Championship Game was played 2 days later, with the Green Bay Packers beating the New York Giants, 14-7 at the Polo Grounds in New York. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And, while the NHL was in-season, no games were scheduled for that day. So there are no scores on this historic day.