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Show EDWARD G. LUEDERS February 1, 2000 on the base, it was fair game to try to get a trip in there. And we would do so. But w had to do so, of course, when flights were available, and would take us in bucket seats from base to base. This was over China, plus two bases Myitkyina and Bhamo in Burma and all of these Upper Assam bases in India, from Calcutta northeast, and there were probably, I'll make an off-hand guess, there were a dozen of those. WIN: What would a typical program that you would put on be like? EDW: One of us would act as M.C. The second time, I did. And introduce these acts. It would be vaudeville of a kind of up-beat sort, because we didn't have any women! So our sex jokes were all, well it wasn't that they were uncensored, but they might be a little unbuttoned. But we didn't cater to that sort of thing. This was entertainment with music, G.I. jokes, acts, maybe a tap dancer. We had one guy who did a dance, Pat Rooney, Jr., who was a tap dancer and a comic, a stand up comic, and he had his routine. And then we would have singers, and musicians. One guy was a ventriloquist, complete with his G.I. dummy. I played some of the worst pianos on earth, and sometimes no piano- in which case, I would do my act on the other instruments that I had some small capability on, sax, clarinet, trumpet, including an ocarina once- a one-man-band act! WIN: Oh, really? EDW: That I scared up. But that was local ocarina, and it was awful. I just used to have to tell my tale about being an ocarina player. WIN: So you, uh ... EDW: Jokes! Plenty of jokes, patter. And stand up comedians. 39 |
