Continuing my exploration of Canadian Army welfare during the Second World War, I look at how morale-boosting troop entertainment was organised and compare it to the British approach. I delve into the 1st Canadian Army Show HQ war diary to find simmering tensions with Drury Lane’s ENSA and some excellent video footage of shows during 1944 and 1945.[1] In many ways, Canada was more successful than their British cousins in harnessing live entertainment for their troops; however, it never reached the volume and variety of ENSA.[2] Major Purdy was the commanding officer of the 1st Canadian Army Show - more about him later.
Entertainment during the Second World War was primarily used to maintain morale, and this topic was particularly high on the Canadian government’s agenda. The political difficulties of motivating both the English- and French-speaking populations to support the war effort were compounded by the prospect of serving long periods away from home and, as the war progressed, news of heavy Canadian losses at Hong Kong and then Dieppe. There was an important additional dimension to morale, however, that was not present in Britain; whilst conscription was introduced for home commands, Canada relied on volunteers for service abroad until 1944, and so recruitment to the armed forces needed to be encouraged.
Canada had a proud tradition of troop entertainment dating back to the days of British and French garrison theatres during the 18th & 19th centuries and The Dumbells concert party during the First World War.[3] Seeing an opportunity to coordinate the talents of amateur performers volunteering to entertain troops at home, the Department of National Defense established a Directorate in Ottawa under Brigadier Foster in 1939. The Army, Navy, and Air Force were represented on the Directorate, and each of the forces established Auxiliary Service Officers for the coordination of entertainment in respective districts at home. The Directorate had several parallels with the British Services Committee for the Welfare of the Forces, which met from 1941 at Admiralty House in London.[4] However, the Canadian Directorate differed in two critical ways. Firstly, its aims for entertainment went further than those of the British. As Halladay explains, the Canadian government was consciously investing in the long-term culture of the nation by funding a pool of skilled performers.[5] The idea of investing in a national theatre was a political hot potato in Britain and was perceived by many during the war as overt cultural interference, more akin to communism or fascism than a democracy.[6] Secondly, the purpose of entertainment in Canada was not only to maintain morale, but also to support recruitment to the armed forces.[7] There were many factors driving recruitment to the armed forces in Britain (not least conscription!), but ENSA was never one of them.
Source: ‘This is the Army’ (1943). Warner Bros. Irving Berlin.
Inspired by the Broadway spectacular, This is the Army, produced by Irving Berlin, the Canadians created their own version called The Army Show. As described by Halladay:
“the purpose of producing such a show was clearly laid-out: a touring Broadway-type show and its subsequent radio broadcasts would become “a new medium for recruiting” while increasing public and Army morale.”[8]
This meant that Canadian entertainment qualified for additional funding from the government and their national recruiting campaigns. The recruiting role of entertainment also meant that criticism of shows to troops in the Canadian press would have been discouraged. This was not a nicety extended to the old pros at ENSA by Fleet Street during the war.
One further critical difference was religious and voluntary groups. These had a much stronger influence over Canadian troop entertainment than they had over ENSA and British military concert parties. Voluntary welfare organisations like the YMCA, Knights of Columbus, and the Salvation Army were represented on Canada’s Joint Organisation and Services Committee (JOSC), which coordinated entertainment across the three branches of the military from 1942.[9] In this way, Canada had more in common with the American United Services Organisation (USO), which included religious and charity interests, as well as military, as they tried to cater for the moral and spiritual welfare of troops.[10] Perhaps it was partly due to this virtuous influence that the Canadian authorities objected to what they perceived as the vulgarity of ENSA shows. Tommy Canuck, on the other hand, seemed to have more issues with the British dialects and music hall humour. Drury Lane-based ENSA had been providing entertainment to all Commonwealth troops based in the UK from the outset of the war. On 5 May 1941, acting on complaints from several quarters, the Canadian Forces Overseas ended its relationship with ENSA, preferring to establish its own concert parties based on the home command model.[11] Whilst Canadian troop entertainment relied heavily on satirising life in the Armed Forces, it was determined to maintain standards and avoid anything too vulgar. ENSA comedian Tommy Trinder would have lost half his act!
After touring Canada, The Army Show was split into five smaller concert parties, including The Tin Hats, The Foragers, and The Bandoliers, before being sent to the UK at the end of 1943.[12] When operating abroad, these five units became numbered detachments to the Auxiliary Services Section of the 1st Canadian Army, entirely under military command. Fortunately, this also meant that these Canadian Auxiliary Service Entertainment Units kept detailed war diaries, some of which are kept in The National Archive at Kew. By contrast, ENSA performers always kept their civilian status throughout the war, despite wearing a uniform from 1943 when touring abroad and were given the honorary rank of an officer to ease travel and accommodation. The 1 Canadian Army Show HQ based itself in Aldershot in January 1944 under the command of Captain (later Major) Purdy, before moving to Down Place near Guildford where it set up its own production centre for shows. You can see a clip of the performers on the troop ship headed to Britain in December 1943 and on the stage at a Garrison theatre in the UK here:
Source: Canadian Army Newsreel #31, Library & Archives of Canada, IDC: 33104.
Canadian concert parties typically consisted of a cast and crew of 20 men and women. Whilst starting with five concert parties (or auxiliary entertainment units), Purdy had plans to absorb some of the existing regimental concert parties in the UK and grow to over 250 performers with 10 operating shows.[13] Given they were in Europe to raise the morale of the troops, it was very sensible that each month of the war diary included a summary of the morale of the performers (something that I have not seen in British equivalent sources). In January 1944, after playing to 18,375 troops across 37 shows and travelling 750 miles, the diary reports:
“The girls took the shock of England quite badly. In some cases it is instability. In other cases just a matter of realizing that there is to be no pampering in this country. There are also the girls who take conditions as normal under the circumstances, and carry on with cheery faces.”[14]
The young Canadian performers were obviously taken aback by the austere conditions of wartime Aldershot!
Perhaps driven by curiosity and reports from their fellow compatriots, the Canadians checked out their competition shortly after arriving in England. After all, ENSA was not only playing many of the same theatres, they were at times organising the routing and accommodation for the Canadian entertainment units whilst in Britain. The officers visited a local ENSA show in February 1944 and were less than impressed:
“Capt. Purdy visited ENSA Show with Mr Fulton this evening, and reports it was the most deplorable thing he ever saw on a stage. Capt. Purdy maintains it is criminal for Canadian Army money to be spent on the rank amateur, and nasty type of entertainment this unit was providing. A/RSM Sanborn also reports a visit to an ENSA Show and the same report was heard. Rank and Filthy.”
Tensions with ENSA in terms of professionalism, lack of cooperation, and administrative cock ups were evident in the war diary throughout 1944. Certainly not all ENSA shows were poor quality, but there were plenty of instances where the audiences were disappointed – a topic the British press amplified with glee. ENSA was stretched very thin during this time, with conscription and a growing list of commitments overseas from Burma to Belfast. It is therefore not surprising that they had reached the bottom of the barrel with some of the performers at home in early 1944.
Given the lack of suitable entertainment on offer, auxiliary entertainment units from home were hugely appreciated by the Canadian troops based in England. In February 1944, the war diary reports the performers,
“are riding on a crest of enthusiastic acclaim that finds men lined up for two hours before curtain time. They have broken down doors to get in, and they have hung like monkeys on the rafters to see the shows.”[15]
In addition to theatres, the units recorded radio broadcasts to Canadian audiences back home and overseas with the BBC and CBC from the Criterion theatre in London. By October 1944, the routine tour-of-duty for each of the five concert parties involved Great Britain, then France, then Italy, before returning to Canada. Naturally, the need for entertainment increased after the end of the war, and the shows put on by the 1st Canadian Army Show became more elaborate and ambitious. In December 1945, they put on Rhythm Rodeo to entertain the troops and civilians at Shackleford Heath near Guildford. As you can see from this newsreel clip, it was quite a spectacle!
Source: Rhythm Rodeo: The Guilford Army Show puts on a wild west circus; Colonel Kit Carson; cowboys on horseback; lasso girls; chuck wagons; Indians and other western paraphnalia; skating routine; people dressed as horses in a comedy routine; Indians hold up a stage coach, Canadian Army Newsreel No.102. Canadian Library and Archive.
In conclusion, the way the Canadian army organised entertainment for its troops during the war was very different to the British. Having the concert parties as auxiliary units within the military structure allowed closer control over the content and respond more quickly to demands. The emphasis Canadian entertainment’s role in encouraging recruitment opened up important funding sources and reduced criticism of the quality of shows in the press.
[1] See also my post on the Canadian Army Concert Party, The Tin Hats, and their tour of Italy in early 1944.
[2] ENSA - the Entertainment National Service Association, led by Basil Dean, sought to harness Britain’s professional entertainment industry for the war effort.
[3] See photos of Canadian Great War concert parties here
. P.B. O’Neill, ‘The Halifax Concert Party in World War II’, Theatre Research in Canada Recherches Théâtrales Au Canada, 20.2 (1999) <https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/7086>; Laurel Halladay, ‘It Made Them Forget about the War for a Minute’, Canadian Military History, 11.4 (2002), pp. 21–35 (p. 22).
[4] ‘ADM 116/4971 Services Committee for the Welfare of the Forces Minutes of Meetings’, TNA [The National Archives], n.d., ADM 116/4971 Services Committee for the Welfare of the Forces minutes of meetings.
[5] Halladay, ‘It Made Them Forget about the War for a Minute’, p. 21.
[6] Jörn Weingärtner, The Arts as a Weapon of War: Britain and the Shaping of National Morale in World War II, First edition (I.B. Tauris, 2005), doi:10.5040/9780755626267.
[7] Halladay, ‘It Made Them Forget about the War for a Minute’, p. 24.
[8] Halladay, ‘It Made Them Forget about the War for a Minute’, p. 25.
[9] O’Neill, ‘The Halifax Concert Party in World War II’.
[10] Richard Fawkes, Fighting for a Laugh: Entertaining the British and American Armed Forces, 1939-1946 (Macdonald and Jane’s, 1978), p. 112.
[11] O’Neill, ‘The Halifax Concert Party in World War II’.
[12] Halladay, ‘It Made Them Forget about the War for a Minute’, p. 27.
[13] ‘WO 179/3941: Canadian Army Show Overseas’, TNA [The National Archives], n.d., fol. 1, WO 179/3941: Canadian Army Show Overseas.
[14] ‘TNA WO 179/3941’, fol. 1.
[15] ‘TNA WO 179/3941’, fol. 1.