Daily Bulletin | March 17, 1945 Train 6 was held yesterday to allow Cecil B. DeMille, noted screen [and] radio director, a personal inspection of the Canteen. Mr. and Mrs. DeMille were traveling in a party of five on the train and had expressed a desire to see the center and learn first hand the accomplishments of the workers. He was greeted by Mrs. Adam [Helen] Christ, general chairman, and some few minutes were spent discussing the activities of the Canteen. Dave Button of radio station KODY made a tran- scription of an interview with the movie executive in which DeMille paid tribute to the wonderful work being done in North Platte thru the Canteen. Americans now were learning about the un- precedented atrocities committed by Japanese and especially Nazi forces, including the latter’s execution of 6 million European Jews. Americans knew about the U.S. and Filipino surrender on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942, but not so much about how their Japanese conquerors herded them through the jungle, executing some and abusing many. Daily Bulletin | March 23, 1945 Canteen workers, who worked the hospital cars on eastbound No. 28 yesterday afternoon, were privi- leged to meet a lad who made the March of Death on Bataan. He said that he weighed 197 pounds when Bataan fell, and at the time he was liberated
from the ranks of command posts, camps and stations, is coming to North Platte on Monday to help impress the citizens of this community with the urgent need for increased production in the war plants of the nation. The production will be presented at the Fox theatre in appreciation for service of the North Platte Canteen, army officials said yesterday. Contributors to the Canteen and Canteen workers are invited to attend the production as guests of the Seventh Service command. Daily Bulletin | March 13, 1945 The Seventh Service Command’s traveling musi- cal show presented their performance to a packed house at the theater, which marked the [show’s] only appearance in a town without a base or major defense plant. … Gene Slattery, the official youthful Canteen ambassador, did his bit when Sgt. [Hal] Fontenelle offered his services as auctioneer and a grass skirt was auctioned off. Gene presented Mrs. Adam [Helen] Christ with the $20 it brought thru three sales on the stage. Legendary moviemaker Cecil B. DeMille sought his own “close-up” view of the Canteen that month. Other 1945 Canteen celebrity visitors included former heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock (Jan. 31), baking expert Betty Crocker (June 14) and future Disney and “My Three Sons” star Fred MacMurray (Oct. 19).
Troops wait their turn to enter the Canteen.
Union Pacific railroad’s Mutual [radio] network production. … Reporter Ray Clark will visit the Canteen in the Union Pacific station at North Platte, where he will interview Mrs. Adam [Helen] Christ, wife of a passenger conductor and head of the Canteen committee. He will also introduce four of her assistants — Grace Traub, Regina Interholzinger, Rose Stevenson and Lillas Getty. In the Pacific, Manila, the Philippine capital, was deemed fully liberated March 3. In Europe, U.S. troops crossed Germany’s Rhine River by captur- ing a railroad bridge at Remagen on March 7. Daily Bulletin | March 7, 1945 The 7th Service Command’s newest all-GI road show, “Production Urgency Caravan,” recruited
92 CANTEEN: AS IT HAPPENED
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