Telegraph | Aug. 1, 1945 All ex-motion picture men from Hollywood, and recently returned from Okinawa, the 10-man crew will spend the next four or five days taking pictures of the Canteen kitchen, dining room, workers and visitors. … “This is just the Army’s way of saying ‘thanks’ to all the home front soldiers who are helping in so many different ways to speed the end of the war,” Lt. Lindsay said. Daily Bulletin | Aug. 3, 1945 Lt. Louis Lindsay revealed the crew were becom- ing more and more impressed with the [Canteen] enterprise with each passing day. “I’m glad we received this assignment,” he said. “Everyone is do- ing so much here. It is hard to realize North Platte is no larger than it is. If our film is a ‘thank you’ it is little enough to show our appreciation for what you are doing here.”
few miles out here on the highway, we turned on the car radio and heard your Canteen broadcast.” The next few minutes were spent busily “stuffing the chicken,” as the soldier expressed it, but “down the hatch.” As they left to continue their jour- ney, all four expressed their thanks and said they thoroughly enjoyed being one jump ahead of the Canteen workers, as well as the food. A good many servicemen and women enjoyed fried chicken at the Canteen yesterday. Callaway’s total contribution in fried chicken was 170.
Alamogordo, New Mexico, was being prepared for detonation over one or more Japanese cities. Fate had decreed that this crew — which donated $10 as a group to the Canteen before leaving — would record North Platte’s reaction to the end of human history’s deadliest war. (To view the Signal Corps footage, visit unwritten-record.blogs. archives.gov/2014/08/12/supporting-troops-on- the-homefront-the-north-platte-nebraska-canteen .) Daily Bulletin | Aug. 1, 1945 The Army Signal Corps Photo Command, west- ern division, began filming the North Platte Canteen yesterday as four Custer County groups set a new record for donations at the servicemen’s center yesterday. Directed by Lt. Louis Lindsay, the ten-member crew revealed the theme of the Canteen was be- ing used in the filming of “Nebraska,” a pictorial review of the state. The film is being made for overseas distribution … Each state is being filmed by the corps. Using a total of 10,000 candlepower lights, the cameras began to roll yesterday as the first trains arrived in North Platte. Throughout the day, shots were made of each incident. Outside filming was accomplished when the Pullman section of the Overland Limited arrived. All other shooting was done within the center. The group will spend the next two weeks in this vicinity, with much of the time scheduled in the Canteen.
William Jeffers had one last major gift for the Canteen before war’s end.
Telegraph | July 14, 1945 Friday the 13th apparently is a good day to break in a new piano. At least servicemen at the North Platte Canteen did a lot of searching today to find some Canteen worker to play the new piano, do- nated by William Jeffers, for them. They located a pianist, too, and sang with her songs like “My Wild Irish Rose” and “When You and I Were Young, Maggie.”The new piano arrived today and, as yet, disposition of the old one has not been decided. The last day of July brought an Army film crew in- tent on capturing the Canteen and the community and region that had brought it to life. Neither the cameramen (whose work is reflected throughout this chapter) nor their subjects had an inkling that the atomic bomb, successfully tested July 16 near
The uniformed crowd is thinning out at this point in the Canteen’s never-ending cycle of serving hot food and warm smiles.
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