{"id":25197,"date":"2024-02-07T23:46:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/?p=25197"},"modified":"2025-01-09T21:24:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T21:24:31","slug":"dances-bands-and-pageants-women-and-entertainment-at-camp-adair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/2024\/02\/07\/dances-bands-and-pageants-women-and-entertainment-at-camp-adair\/","title":{"rendered":"Dances, Bands, and Pageants: Women and Entertainment at Camp Adair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Students in Dr. Marisa Chappell’s fall 2023 History 363 “Women in U.S. History” class spent the final three weeks of Fall Quarter 2023 in OSU\u2019s Special Collections and Archives Research Center exploring women in Camp Adair\u2019s history.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Alexandra Collins, Brandon Cunningham, and Maitreya Lake<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World War II was a trying time in the United States. Even though the country avoided much of the war\u2019s physical destruction, American military and industrial participation created significant upheaval. Entertainment thus played an important role, offering feelings of comfort and community and lightening the load of challenging times. As we explored the various entertainment options for service members at Camp Adair, we were struck by the prominence of women. Women were essential in organizing events, performing, and participating in social activities. This was not new; women had historically been called upon to serve as morale-boosters for male soldiers, particularly during wartime. This was not different at Camp Adair.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A glamour shot of actress Strelsa Leeds, announcing her appearance at Camp Adair in the play \u201cJunior Miss\u201d in February 1943.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A striking example appeared in the Camp Adair Sentry<\/em>, the camp\u2019s newspaper, in February 1943. The newspaper announced a visiting performance of a Broadway production called \u201cJunior Miss.\u201d The show\u2019s two headliners, Helen Eastman and Lucille Fetherston, play \u201ctwo teenage girls who prance through three acts of devastating beauty\u201d in a comedy that provides \u201chilarious and warm-hearted fun.\u201d The description of the play emphasizes comfort and stability, while the caption beneath a glamorous headshot of actress Ellen Curtis refers to her as a \u201cbeauteous blond.\u201d[1]<\/a> Women often played a key role in performances for soldiers.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example, captured a photograph, is the 1943 \u201cLittle Colonel\u201d contest (see below).[3]<\/a> The Oregon State Barometer<\/em>, which included additional photographs, described a shooting contest among \u201cgirls\u201d who were nominated on the basis of \u201cbeauty and personality alone.\u201d The top shooters would earn titles using a diminutive form of military ranks, from \u201cLittle Colonel\u201d for first place to \u201cLittle Second Lieutenant\u201d for fifth, with winners announced at a \u201c\u2018GI\u2019 Military Ball,\u201d where \u201cMiss \u2018Dead-Eye Dick\u2019\u201d would \u201cRule Over Dance.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cCollege women with 1903 Springfield rifles, circa 1943,\u201d Oregon Digital<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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A humorous article from the Barometer<\/em> in October 1942 highlights the emphasis on women\u2019s appearance, even outside of entertainment venues. In \u201cPigtails Irksome to Men, Says One With Keen Eye,\u201d Normal Sholseth complained about women students\u2019 hairstyles. \u201cWhat has happened to those super-glamorous sweeping bobs?\u201d he asked. \u201cOkay, so it does take 15 minutes to put up the mop, but after all look in the mirror and see results.\u201d Sholseth suggests that women\u2019s appearance was important to men, the \u201cfellow [who] rolls out of a warm bunk just to report to an 8 o\u2019clock gym class,\u201d the \u201charassed manhood of Oregon State.\u201d[5]<\/a> The article shows that ordinary women, not just entertainers, were being held to particular standards of feminine appearance and seen as a visual source of entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This photograph from the Sentry depicts the staff of one of several USO clubs in communities around Camp Adair. Camp Adair Sentry<\/em>, October 8, 1943, 8.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Women also played a central role in organizing and participating in social activities for Camp Adair\u2019s servicemen. Many women served as \u201chostesses\u201d with the United Service Organization (USO), creating and staffing recreational spaces and generally providing female company for servicemen far from home. October 1942, the Barometer<\/em> informed \u201cco-eds who wish to volunteer\u201d in hospitality programs at Camp Adair to fill out an application in the \u201cdean of women\u2019s office for membership in the Corvallis Victory volunteers,\u201d through which they can \u201cindicate interests in Junior Hostess groups, serve as dancing partners for service men at chaperoned dances\u201d or \u201cindicate preferences to serve as hostesses for handicraft, games or other recreational activities at the USO center.\u201d The article also noted that \u201csome evidence of family sanction should be on file in the dean of women\u2019s office, for those girls who plan to accept invitations to officers\u2019 dances at the camp or to volunteer to go to enlisted men\u2019s dances.\u201d[6]<\/a> The job of hostess was discussed by Barbara Martin in a book of collected memories of Camp Adair. Martin described her experience living near Camp Adair as a young woman and noted that many local girls saw the influx of servicemen as an opportunity to expand their circle of friendships and romantic opportunities. In fact, Martin would end up marrying a serviceman who was stationed at Camp Adair.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The various examples of women as entertainment at Camp Adair point to the different kinds of roles they played. The historian Meghan Winchell argues that the USO\u2019s senior hostesses served as surrogate mothers to soldiers, providing the physical and emotional comforts of home, while the USO \u201cdepended upon junior hostesses to use their beauty and sexual appeal to entice men into USO clubs.\u201d[8]<\/a> Women entertainers were also sexualized, and there was an emphasis on women appearing feminine and attractive to men, another way that women were used to emphasize the masculinity of male servicemembers.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> \u201c\u2018Junior Miss\u2019 to Be Here Feb. 20,\u201d Camp Adair Sentry<\/em>, February 11, 1943, 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Sherrie Tucker, \u201c\u2018And, Fellas, They\u2019re American Girls!\u2019: On the Road with the Sharon Rogers All-Girl Band,\u201d Frontiers: A Journal of Women\u2019s Studies<\/em> 16, no. 2\/3 (1996): 128-160.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> \u201cCollege women with 1903 Springfield rifles, circa 1943,\u201d Oregon Digital<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> \u201c\u2018Little Colonel\u2019 Candidates Shoot It Out For Honor to Reign Over Military Dance,\u201d Oregon State Barometer<\/em>, April 30, 1943, 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> Norman Sholseth, \u201cPigtails Irksome to Men, Says One With Keen Eye,\u201d Oregon State Barometer<\/em>, October 24, 1942, 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> \u201cCollege Officials Set New Policy For Camp Adair,\u201d Oregon State Barometer<\/em>, October 23, 1942, 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> Barbara Martin, \u201cA View of History,\u201d Camp Adair: 50 Years Ago<\/em> (Dallas, OR: Polk County Museum Association, 1992), 61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> Meghan K. Winchell, \u201c\u2018To Make the Boys Feel at Home\u2019: USO Senior Hostesses and Gendered Citizenship,\u201d Frontiers: A Journal of Women\u2019s Studies<\/em> 25, No. 1 (2004), 200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> Marilyn E. Hegarty, Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes: The Regulation of Female Sexuality During World War II<\/em> (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2010).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in Dr. Marisa Chappell’s fall 2023 History 363 “Women in U.S. History” class spent the final three weeks of Fall Quarter 2023 in OSU\u2019s Special Collections and Archives Research Center exploring women in Camp Adair\u2019s history. By Alexandra Collins, Brandon Cunningham, and Maitreya Lake World War II was a trying time in the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1451,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1345961],"class_list":["post-25197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hst363"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1451"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25203,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197\/revisions\/25203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}