FTA Show

1971 political vaudeville antiwar show

The FTA Show (or FTA Tour or Free The Army tour), a play on the common troop expression "Fuck The Army" (which in turn was a play on the army slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure"), was a 1971 anti Vietnam War road show for GIs designed as a response to Bob Hope's patriotic and pro war USO (United Service Organizations) tour. The idea was first conceived by Howard Levy, an ex US Army doctor who had just been released from 26 months in Fort Leavenworth military prison for refusing orders to train Green Beret medics on their way to the Vietnam War. Levy convinced actress Jane Fonda to participate and she in turn recruited a number of actors, entertainers, musicians and others, including the actors Donald Sutherland, Peter Boyle, Garry Goodrow and Michael Alaimo, comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory and soul and R&B singer Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams Jr). Alan Myerson, of San Francisco improv comedy group The Committee, agreed to direct, while cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer and playwrights Barbara Garson and Herb Gardner wrote songs and skits for the show. Fred Gardner, the originator of the antiwar GI Coffeehouse movement, became the Tour's "stage manager and liaison to the coffeehouse staffs." At various times other actors, writers, musicians, comedians and entertainers were involved (see infobox). The United States Servicemen's Fund (USSF), with Dr. Levy as one of its principal organizers, became the official sponsor of the tour. The anti Vietnam War USSF, promoted free speech within the US military, funded and supported independent GI newspapers and coffeehouses, and worked to defend the legal rights of GIs. Sponsorship was later taken over by a group called the Entertainment Industry for Peace & Justice (EIPJ).

The FTA Show was explicitly created as a counter to Bob Hope's pro war USO tour. For many years the USO had been organizing patriotic pro military shows at US overseas military bases. Bob Hope became the most famous symbol of these shows through annual Christmas shows and a yearly nationally broadcast TV special. Hope "unequivocally supported the American mission in Vietnam", and praised General Westmoreland at the end of his 1965 Christmas show for "giving of all his military genius trying to preserve American lives and principles." Further, Hope's old fashioned vaudeville rooted style and jokes "began to fall flat for audiences of young GIs, who often found [his] show corny at best, offensive at worst." In 1970 The New York Times quoted one of Hope's writers, "He just doesn't understand how the G. I. of today feels." The writer jokingly continued, "When he sees a V sign in his audience he thinks two guys want to go to the bathroom." The Times also cited a Newsweek magazine report: "Hope was met by 'a barrage of boos' last December when he said President Nixon had asked him to tell the troops he had 'a solid plan for ending the war.'" At a Saigon USO show in 1970, an opening act of GI musicians dedicated their first song to "Mr. Bob Hope" and proceeded to play the heavy metal antiwar classic by Black Sabbath, "War Pigs". She explained:

By the end of 1971 when the tour ended, in addition to its clear anti Vietnam War thrust, the "racially inclusive and pro feminist messages of FTA stood in sharp contrast to Bob Hope's show. Whereas Hope made racist jokes, FTA embraced racial equality and took seriously the grievances of non whites. While Hope joked about sexual assault and unapologetically objectified the women in his cast, FTA endorsed women's liberation and featured women as full participants in the show – without forcing them to don sexually provocative clothing." At a press conference in New York City, Fonda and Dr. Levy announced their plans to kick off the FTA Tour in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near the Fort Liberty Army base (then call Fort Bragg). The initial plans were for "an ambitious twenty stop tour" of U. S. military bases, and the final results were even more impressive. According to Fonda in her autobiography, they performed "for some fifteen thousand GIs near major U. S. military bases" before heading overseas where they "did twenty one performances". All told, "between March and December of 1971, the show toured to over 64,000 troops, playing near, but never on, bases in North Carolina, California, Washington, Texas, Idaho, New Jersey, Okinawa, Japan, the Philippines, and Hawaii." And this, even when GIs "might risk official or unofficial discipline for attending an antiwar show".

Before arriving in Fayetteville, near Fort Liberty, tour organizers sent the show's script to the base's commanding General asking for permission to perform on the base. Dr. Levy told the press with a straight face, "We expect his full cooperation", noting they had "contingency plans" to perform in the local Haymarket GI Coffeehouse off base, which is where they ended up. They also applied to use the Fayetteville municipal auditorium and sued when pro military city officials turned them down. A federal judge overruled the city, which then demanded a $150,000 insurance policy for the performance, a "prohibitive" expense for the Tour. The historian, David L. Parsons, wrote, "By most media accounts, the FTA show's premier in Fayetteville was a huge hit among the soldiers who crowded into the coffeehouse."

One week later, on May 15 and 16, the FTA performed at Russ Auditorium in San Diego, California to capacity crowds of almost 5,000 sailors and marines from the area's numerous military bases. This time, the organizers had first requested to perform not on a base but on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the U. S. S. Constellation. As described by historian David Cortright:

Each show opened with California Country, a local rock group, followed by Teatro Mestizo, a Chicano theater group from San Diego State, who "performed a hard hitting play about the life and death of a young Chicano soldier killed in Vietnam." A local GI underground newspaper, Liberty Call, reported, "There was little question that the audience was in full agreement with the anti war theme of the show. As in Monterey, the paper was very impressed with Len Chandler", describing him as "one of those rare singers who combine a wonderful voice, excellent musicianship and witty songs with incredible warmth and rapport." Liberty Call also wrote that after the first show, "many private citizens opened their homes to servicemen so that they might spend the night and avoid the dreariness of returning to bases and ships." On Sunday, before the second show, many sailors and marines joined the cast of the show in Balboa Park for a picnic. One of the authors of the Liberty Call article, James Skelly, became the advance person for the next two FTA Shows outside military bases in Tacoma, Washington and Mountain Home, Idaho. Fred Gardner, the show's first advance person, described him as a likable "big guy" with a big mustache.

On September 18 and 19 the FTA performed in Killeen, Texas just outside Fort Cavazos Army base (formerly Fort Hood) and then in San Antonio on the 20th. Again the organizers had applied for permission to perform on base and had been denied. They then applied to rent the local high school auditorium and, when that was turned down, took the issue to court. The day before the first scheduled show the court denied their petition forcing the performances into the relatively small local GI Coffeehouse, the Oleo Strut, whose maximum legal capacity was 250. With people "sitting on the floor as tightly as possible", they played five shows over two days "to packed houses and enthusiastic crowds", with others standing "outside to listen or catch a glimpse of the show." The local GI underground newspaper, Fatigue Press, reported that Fonda spoke to the audience at the last show on Sunday the 19th. She "explained that the purpose of the FTA Show was to entertain and show support for the GI movement." She said they were "not alone in our struggle as places and groups such as these exist at almost every military installation in the U. S." She expressed her solidarity with the GIs and their families and said that by "uniting we resist, we end the war, we attain our denied rights, we end racism and sexism in the military and we FREE THE ARMY." Also on Sunday, the cast went to a picnic at the a local park with many of the GIs who weren't able to get into the shows. In another indication of the sentiments of local government officials, when cast members began to put on some of their skits from the show, the town's police forced them to stop. In San Antonio, "the show filled a downtown club with over 2,300 spectators, 'military, front to back [ ] Less than 50 tickets were sold to civilians,' according to the San Antonio Light.

In Hawaii, the show performed at the Civic Auditorium in Honolulu on Thanksgiving Day. After the show, approximately 50 crewmen met with the show's cast and, when the ship pulled out of port to continue to Southeast Asia, 53 sailors were missing. Two other shows were scheduled to be presented in Manila, but it's unclear whether they occurred.

When the FTA show arrived in Japan they ran into difficulties with the Japanese government. They arrived in Tokyo on December 7 from the Philippines and were initially denied entry into the country by Japan's Immigration Office on the grounds that they "possessed only tourist visas and no work permits." After a three and a half hour tense standoff in the airport, "the group was permitted to proceed to a hotel as the Office considered an appeal to its decision." A Board of Immigration spokesman told the press that "as tourists, they could not engage in theatrical performances or political activity of any kind." A Military intelligence report observed, "Audience reception of the show was warm and many joined in the singing and handclapping. The cast was given a standing ovation at the conclusion, despite the rather amateurish presentation." This report went on to say, "The use of profanity in the show was frequent and many of the songs and skits were crude, apparently being aimed at the young, first term enlisted man."

Much of the content for the shows came from GI newspapers. Often, the skits were based on antiwar and anti military comic strips which had been reprinted in the GI underground press. At each show the performers would use a military unit from the nearby base so GIs from the imagined unit storming the Capitol (or sometimes the White House) were sitting in the audience. According to Bragg Briefs, the base underground GI newspaper at Fort Liberty, when this routine was done there "The GI's response was a tremendous roar of clenched fists raised in solidarity."

In 1972 a U. S. documentary film called F. T. A. and directed by Francine Parker was released, which followed the show as it stopped in Hawaii, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Japan. Footage from the film and discussion of the FTA Show is included in the 2005 documentary film Sir! No Sir!. Since then, the director of Sir! No Sir!, David Zeiger, has been involved in resurrecting the original documentary film F. T. A It was shown publicly in Los Angeles in early 2009 at the American Cinematheque with a panel that included two of the original performers in the show. F. T. A. also had its broadcast premiere on the Sundance Channel on February 23, 2009. The DVD of F. T. A. is now sold on the Sir! No Sir! website.