During World War II, some of Broadway's biggest stars spent their nights washing dishes, waiting tables and dancing with soldiers in a basement on West 44th Street. That basement was the Stage Door Canteen, one of the most remarkable things the theatre community has ever done for the country.
The Stage Door Canteen was a free club for American and Allied service members, run by the American Theatre Wing. Anyone in uniform could come in for food, coffee, dancing and live entertainment from Broadway performers, at no cost. It was staffed almost entirely by volunteers from the theatre world.
The New York canteen opened on March 2, 1942, less than three months after Pearl Harbor. It took over the Little Club, a basement space under the 44th Street Theatre at 216 West 44th Street, half a block from Times Square. Producer Lee Shubert, who held the theatre's lease, gave the space rent-free. Broadway designers decorated the walls, and the canteen was packed from its first night.
When the Wing first called for volunteers, hundreds of actors showed up. Performers took shifts as hosts, hostesses, waiters, busboys, dishwashers and dance partners. Lauren Bacall volunteered as a hostess, and Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were remembered washing dishes and serving coffee. Musicians, singers and comedians performed for the crowds nightly.
The effort was led by the women at the heart of the Wing, including Antoinette Perry, Rachel Crothers, and Louise Heims Beck. Read more about them in the women who built Broadway's charities.
The idea caught on fast. The Wing opened Stage Door Canteens in eight American cities, plus London and Paris. The canteen also reached a national audience through a weekly CBS radio series from 1942 to 1945 and a 1943 feature film, Stage Door Canteen. A separate Hollywood Canteen, led by Bette Davis and John Garfield, followed a similar model on the West Coast.
Over the course of the war, millions of service members passed through the New York canteen alone.
The New York canteen closed in 1945, when the 44th Street Theatre was demolished and the Wing couldn't find a suitable new home. A plaque on West 44th Street marks the spot today. The canteen was later re-created at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
After the war, the American Theatre Wing turned its energy toward education and recognition. It trained returning veterans for theatre careers and, in 1947, created the Tony Awards in honor of Antoinette Perry. The spirit of the canteen, artists giving their time to serve the public, runs through Broadway's charities to this day. See the history of Broadway activism and Broadway's legacy of social change.
The Stage Door Canteen showed what happens when theatre people decide to show up for their country. Broadway for Democracy carries that idea into civic life: we connect Broadway's audience with nonpartisan ways to register, get informed and vote. Support that work.
Yes. Food, drinks and entertainment were free to anyone in uniform.
In the basement of the 44th Street Theatre, at 216 West 44th Street in Manhattan's theatre district.
The American Theatre Wing, the nonprofit that later created the Tony Awards.
Yes. Stage Door Canteen was released in 1943 and filmed on a replica of the New York canteen.
In 1945, when the building that housed it was torn down.
Broadway has always shown up. Donate to Broadway for Democracy and help us reach more people with nonpartisan civic action.
