Jack Benny & James Cagney - Command Performance - Best of American Entertainment for WWII Troops

Command Performance was a radio program which originally aired between 1942 and 1949. The program was broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRS) and transmitted by shortwave to the troops overseas—with few exceptions, it was not broadcast over domestic U.S. radio stations.

Most episodes of the program were produced before an audience in the Vine Street Playhouse in Hollywood, California, and recorded via electrical transcription. The weekly listening audience of was estimated at 95.5 million.

Troops sent in requests for a particular performer or program to appear, and they also suggested unusual ideas for music, sketches, or sounds from home on the program, such as: "Ann Miller tap dancing in military boots"; "a sigh from Carole Landis" or Lucille Ball; "foghorns on San Francisco Bay"; "Errol Flynn taking a shower"; "a slot machine delivering the jackpot" and "Bing Crosby mixing a bourbon and soda for Bob Hope". Top performers of the day appeared, including Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and The Andrews Sisters.

The first Command Performance was broadcast on March 1, 1942, almost exactly three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was produced under the aegis of the Office of War Information and its success paved the way for the creation of the Armed Forces Radio Service in May 1942. Time magazine described Command Performance as being, "the best wartime program in America". However very few listeners in the United States ever heard it and it would appear that the Christmas Eve Command Performance of 1942 was the only program of the series to be broadcast to a general audience. Variety magazine commented on this saying:

The War Department on Christmas Eve gave domestic listeners their first taste of a series that had been going out to the Armed Forces on short-wave for 43 consecutive weeks. The purpose of the special occasion as Elmer Davis, Office of War Information chief, expressed it in a foreword to the show, was to forge a link between the servicemen abroad and the folks on the Home Front. A recorded version of the show was short-waved, all over the world, the next day... Hope emceed, tossed off a monologue and cross-fired with Crosby. A special treat in the vocal department was the version of "Basin Street Blues" that came out of the tonsil partnership of Bing Crosby and The Charioteers."

Originally Broadcast December 20, 1944
Episode 156