After FDR asked for some means to provide recreation and boost morale for American troops, the response was tremendous. Six private organizations came together to form the United Service Organizations, or USO, which was founded in New York on this date 74 years ago, on February 4, 1941.

At that time, the U.S. had yet to enter World War II, so the USO’s first job was to build “homes away from home” at various centers and clubs for GIs around the country. The converted churches and barns would become famous for offering dancing, movies, free coffee and doughnuts, or a quiet spot to write a letter for those serving in uniform. But after Pearl Harbor drew the Americans into conflict overseas, the USO really kicked into action.

The USO is first and foremost associated with its Camp Shows, bringing famous American entertainers overseas to the troops, and it’s estimated that there were nearly 300,000 such performances – entertaining more than 161 million service members – from 1941-1945. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra crooned; the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy clowned; Lucille Ball, John Wayne, and Mickey Rooney joined the effort. And of course, there was always Bob Hope and his ever-present golf club. Hope seemed to take his role in the USO as a kind of life’s mission, entertaining troops in every major American conflict from World War II to the first Gulf War…a span of 50 years which saw him spend 48 Christmases overseas and be named the U.S. military’s “first and only honorary veteran” by Congress in 1997.

For the celebrities touring with the USO, it was a far cry from the pampered treatment they received at home. Disease and plane crashes killed around two dozen performers. Al Jolson’s death in 1950 has been partially credited to the physical exhaustion of playing 42 shows in 16 days for Korean War troops. And then there was the ever-present danger of playing in war zones. The Nazis might have recognized Bob Hope’s value to the U.S. military, since they bombed towns he was performing in three times.

The shows have always been popular with troops away from home. Danny Kaye once took a stage in front of 5,000 troops, many of them packed on a hill far back from the stage. He approached the microphone and joked “Who’s holding back the enemy?” The USO was briefly disbanded after World War II, but was revived during the Korean War. While America’s wars have become more divisive since the 1940s, plenty of performers have taken the opportunity to entertain the troops in recent years. Stephen Colbert spent a week taping his show in Iraq in 2009, and has been joined in the Middle East by Robin Williams, Louis C.K., Gary Sinise, Jessica Simpson, Trace Adkins, and many more. Hollywood and the military are often seen as occupying opposite poles of America’s seemingly endless culture war…but around a USO stage, they’ve found common ground for nearly 75 years.

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