This must have been an exciting night to witness: After months of fundraising, cajoling, recruiting, organizing, and building, Bette Davis and John Garfield’s pet project, the Hollywood Canteen opened at 1451 Cahuenga (on the corner of Sunset Blvd) on the night of October 3, 1942. As we can see, bleachers were set up in the forecourt so that people could witness the parade of stars (Eddie Cantor was the MC that night.) And word had obviously gotten out already because that long lone of servicemen is already four men deep. From that night until November 2, 1945, the Hollywood Canteen hosted, entertained, and fed nearly 4 million grateful servicemen. According to the L.A. Daily Mirror, the building was demolished in December of 1966.
And now that site is the parking lot of the CNN building on the corner of Cahuenga and Sunset Blvd. This image is from January 2021.
I remember Johnny Carson talking about the time he danced with Marlene Dietrich here, before he shipped out. Given all his efforts on behalf of the Hollywood Canteen, it’s awful that John Garfield was hounded by HUAC, only a few years later.
Indeed. Talk about very short memories.
Read Garfield’s HUAC hounding was actually to go after his wife who was a member of the Communist Party, as many idealistic NY artists were in the late ’30s. Also read HUAC went after him only for the publicity. His “closed door” testomony was anything but & generated reams of press for HUAC. MacCarthy & Cohen’s plan all along.
Ugh! So his story is even worse than I imagined.
Fun quote from actress Paulette Goddard: “If anyone accuses me of being a Communist I’ll hit them with my diamond braclets!” Smart cookie; she was in HUAC sights being “married” to Chaplin at the time.
Also worth noting was Bette Davis’s adamant instance of a zero tolerance racial discrimination policy. Everyone was welcomed at the Hollywood Canteen!
In 1942 LA, minorities were barred from almost everything – where they could live, dine & even sleep for a night! {Beverly Hills actually had a law only minorities allowed overnight: household servants!)
Don’t know how this racial policy worked in actuality, but man it took guts for
the era.
Yes, it took a great big bucket of guts for Bette to insist on full integration. I would imagine that it had a flow-on effect. Or at least I’d like to think it did.
We need a historical marker!