Country Music and the USO
Source: www.uso.org
Topic: Country Music
Sort Desciption: The USO’s partnership with the country music industry is as old as the USO. The ... Country music stars from both programs traveled on several USO ...
Content Inside: Country Music and the USO The USO’s partnership with the country music industry is as old as the USO. The Grand Ole Opry and Gene Autry’s radio show, “Melody Ranch,” were popular programs during the 1940s. Country music stars from both programs traveled on several USO tours, entertaining military personnel stationed around the world. Thanks to exposure on USO tours, country music was introduced to many service members from Northern regions of the United States who had considered the genre “hillbilly” music. In the early 1940s, Autry served his country flying C-47 cargo planes in the China- Burma-India Theater. When the war ended, “the singing cowboy” toured in the Pacific with a USO troupe, thus beginning the long-standing tradition of country artists traveling on USO tours overseas to boost troop morale. In 1949, in partnership with the Grand Ole Opry, Red Foley, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Rod Brasfield, Little Jimmy Dickens, Hank Williams and others toured U.S. military bases in England, Germany and the Azores. In the 1950s, Carolina Cotton, the Yodeling Blonde Bombshell, entertained military personnel in Europe, North Africa, Korea and Japan. The USO sent Patsy Cline and Jerry Reed to Hawaii in 1960 to perform and shake hands with military personnel. Red Foley and Roy Acuff accompanied Bob Hope on USO overseas tours in 1961. Acuff toured again in 1962, traveling to the Eastern Mediterranean region for eight weeks, while modern country singer Johnny Cash went to the Pacific for three weeks. Acuff and his Grand Ole Opry tour continued to perform for service members throughout the 1960s. During the Vietnam War, Roy Acuff and the Grand Ole Opry stars visited Vietnam and Thailand from 1967 to 1970. Acuff and his wife, Mildred Douglas, also toured military hospitals in Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Okinawa and Hawaii, stopping at bedsides, signing autographs and shaking hands. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans also toured in Vietnam. After the ...
