Just a little footnote to Country Joe's comments on the GI anti-war coffee
house activities. Joe wrote:
>We performed anti-war entertainment at GI coffee houses
around the
USA. GI coffee houses were run by a group of anti-war people who mostly
were
motivated
by moral concerns as opposed to political concerns of war.<
I was director of the US Servicemen's Fund (great name to hide the
reality), and believe me the people who worked in the office and almost
all those who worked in the coffee houses and on underground GI papers
were highly political folks--a
little too much so, occasionally. In fact, many didn't want Jane F. and
her show around for political (or maybe sectarian) reasons.
As to the original movie--most of which, as I recall, was shot at
Fort Hood--Jane F. HATED it--said it would interfere with her career.
Others in USSF like Howard Levy thought it was perfectly good and a very
useful fund-raiser for the coffee houses and papers. The dispute got to
be very bitter (to say the least of it). It led Fonda, Sutherland et al
to take the FTA show off on its own (after they performed it in NY) and in
to a very conflicted tour
around bases in the Philippines and elsewhere. But that's a much longer
story. At any rate, I thought it was a fine representation of what was a
rousing show.
Make a video copy of that movie, Joe. I think there's a USSF
archive somewhere, or should be. I've got a drawer full myself.
Paul Lauter
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 17 2000 - 21:17:58 CUT