The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-07-03


 Berlin has composed nine new songs for This Is the Army" and the reports are that, as might be expected, they are sure-fire. The titler are: My Sergeant and I Are Buddies"; T Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen"; "The Army's Made Man of Me-; I'm Getting Tires So Can Sleep; with My Head in the Clouds; American Eagles" That Russian Winter" What the Best-Dressed Man Will Wear and 'This Is the Army"
 The show will be presented on July 4, an appropriate date indeed, at the Broadway Theater, huge house which, oddly enough for New York, IS on Broadway. All proceeds of course, are for the Army Emer- gency Relief Fund and Berlin has even turned over the copyrights on all of the songs to This Is the Army, Inc" so that the fund will get proceeds from the sheet music sales.
 All-Army Cast
 The cast, now In the last stages of rehearsal here, is composed en- tirely of army men called in from various parts of the country. Some of the members are well known to the professional stage; many of the 300 have never appeared on the stage before. Some of the better knowns are Staff Sergt Ezra Stone (the Henry Aldrich of the radio and a former right-hand man of pro- ducer George Abbott; Earl Oxford, musical comedy juvenile; Jules Oshins, of the night club-radio team of Oshins and Lessy; Joe Cook, Jr., who will do an imperson- ation of his famous father; Fred Kelly, musical comedy dancer and brother of the better known Gene Kelly; Burl Ives, radio singer of folk songs; Belmonte Christiani, of the noted family of bareback riders of Ringing Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, and James MacColl, promi- nent Broadway juvenile.
 The pit band will include musi- clans from most of the top-notch orchestras of the day, all members of the army.
 The salaries of the cast will be pin money compared to those of big Broadway musical show because the players receive merely their army pay. Sergeant Stone draws top money.
 | Performances will be given every evening, including Sunday, and there will be Saturday and Sunday matinees. The New York engage nent is expected to be limited to couple of months, after which the show will go on the road and hit the high spots around the country, as well as entertaining at army camps.
 Two Old Berlin Hits Used
 In addition to the new songs which Berlin has composed, there will be two old ones used, songs which he wrote for "Yaphank." One of them, the now familiar, God Bless America" was never used in that production. The other, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morn ing" was the shows outstanding hit and will be repeated with Berlin on the singing end. Some of th0 members of the "Yaphank" cast are being recruited to help out in this number
 To disillusion any who may think that the boys VITO are in this show have found soft touch, 1t might be well to point out that there are few things more gruelling than the re- hearsal of big musical show and that, in addition, these soldier troupers have to spend much of their spare time in drilling just as if they were in camp. After the show gets under way, there will be even more time for drilling.
 The army expects big things Of ''This Is the Army and so does Broadway. It should outdo the suc- cess of "Yaphank" if for no other reason than that Berlin has packed some 20 more years of experience as a snowman and a composer into his busy life since he last went to