By: Amy Chen, CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow

In honor of Memorial Day, a day to remember all members of the military who died in the course of their service, this week on Cool@Hoole we are featuring two items from Wade Hall’s Collection of Sheet Music. Hall’s library of music includes a large amount of patriotic songs written to boost the morale of the country during wartime.

March of the Women Marines, Wade Hall Sheet Music M1630.2.S275 M27 1943x

March of the Women Maries. Music by Louis Saverino. Words by Emil Grasser. New York, NY: Belwin Inc., 1943.

The Marine Corps Women’s Reserve was founded in 1943 and closed in 1948. Designed to provide a female labor force to support the men fighting, the march reiterates their role within the military hierarchy. One lyric reiterates, “we serve that men may fight in air, on land, and sea.” Notably, the Women’s Reserve even included its own band.[1]

By the end of World War II, 20,000 women participated in the reserve.[2] The Women Marines Association (WMA), a similar organization, continues today as a way to support active-duty military and veterans, whether they are male or female.

This copy of the “March of the Women Marines” is in excellent condition, with no apparent shelf wear.

There’ll be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin When the Yanks Go Marching In, Wade Hall Sheet Music M1648.B97 T4 1943x

Sgt. Joe Bushkin and Pvt. John De Vries. There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin When the Yanks Go Marching In. New York: Barton Music Corp, 1943.

“They’re gonna take a hike through Hitler’s Reich,” announces Bushkin and De Vries’ patriotic song predicting the success of the United States against Germany.

In 1943, when this song was written, the Casablanca Conference between the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Allies’ policy that the Axis powers, consisting of Germany, Italy, and Japan, must submit to an unconditional surrender. The Allies also decided to postpone invading France in order to concentrate on Italy instead. The Italian invasion is successful and, by the end of the year, the Allies decide to begin planning an invasion of France for June 6, 1944, a day that would become known as D-Day.[3]

So while 1943 marked the turn of the war to begin to favor the Allied forces, military success was still uncertain; Germany’s surrender would not come until 1945. In the meantime, songs like “There’ll be a Hot Time” kept soldiers’ morale — as well as the morale of the home front — up during the long months of fighting.

“There’ll Be a Hot Time” is in good condition with minimal shelf wear. Frank Sinatra’s portrait on the cover of the music recalls how young performer served as the voice representing all the men who had gone off to war.

Sinatra sang this song to promote the war effort in 1944. However, Sinatra’s career did not take off fully until the 1950s, when his followers switched from being primarily young women to older men. Later, he’d become known for his time in the Rat Pack, a group of performers based in Las Vegas and Hollywood that included Sinatra as well as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford. Sinatra’s decades-long career in both film and music which began in the 1940s made Sinatra one of the largest stars of the twentieth century.[4]

Works Cited

[1] “Marine Corps Women’s Reserve Band,” Music Educator’s Journal 30.1 (September/October 1943), 23.

[2] “Marine Corps Women’s Reserve,” Marines.com, http://www.marines.com/videos/-/video-library/detail/video_marine_corps_womens_reserve

[3] “1943: World War II Timeline,” World War II History, http://www.worldwar2history.info/1943.html.

[4] “Frank Sinatra,” Bio.com, http://www.biography.com/people/frank-sinatra-9484810#rat-pack&awesm=~oF1t2346YrKEfS.