FTA Show
The FTA Show, a play on the common troop expression "Fuck The Army", was a 1971 anti-Vietnam War road show for GIs designed as a response to Bob Hope's patriotic and pro-war USO 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. 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. The United States Servicemen's Fund, 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.
Anti-Bob Hope USO Tour
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." As anti-Vietnam War sentiment increased in the U.S., Hope admitted in 1966 that "'a few' performers had turned down his invitation to join his Christmas tour for servicemen in South Vietnam because they disapproved of United States policy", but confirmed his own commitment to the war, saying "We ought to move a little faster – hawk style." Further, Hope's old fashioned vaudeville-rooted style and jokes "began to fall flat for audiences of young GIs, who often found show corny at best, offensive at worst." His retro comedy often "objectified his female co-stars" and included "racist jokes." "During one show he infamously joked that the bombing of North Vietnam was 'the best slum clearance project they ever had,' insulting the humanity of Vietnamese and denigrating American minorities who lived in so-called slums." 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".The ''FTA Show'' is formed
These contending views intensified and by 1970 both The New York Times and The Washington Post were taking note of U.S. troop "disillusionment with Hope's humor and prowar message". Fonda told reporters that the FTA Show was inspired by "articles in The Washington Post and The New York Times about soldiers in Vietnam who were dissatisfied with the typical USO shows." She told a reporter from the Times that the show would reinforce "what the soldiers already know. They know that the war is insane. They know what GIs have to contend with better than we do. We're simply saying, 'We know what you're up against and we support you.'" Fonda was convinced "The military is filled with men who are against the war!" She explained:The same reporter pointed out that Fonda had a lot to lose and asked whether she feared "for her career in movies?" Fonda responded, "if, because of my political activities, I were prevented from working in Hollywoodand there are no indications that that is likely to happenI would work elsewhere. That's all."
By the time the FTA Show had travelled around the continental U.S. and was headed to Hawaii and then Asia, they had developed a more official statement of purpose:
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."
The tour
By the spring of 1971, a three-hour program had been developed, which was "rehearsed in New York City for a few weeks before taking the show on the road." The tour, referred to as "political vaudeville" by Fonda and The New York Times, began to visit military towns throughout the U.S. and then Asia with the goal of establishing a dialogue with soldiers about their upcoming deployments to Vietnam. 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 Bragg Army base. 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". One historian, quoting a The Washington Post reporter, described the show's popularity as "notable, considering the fact that 'it wasn't easy' for active-duty military personnel to attend FTA. Military authorities routinely 'put out misinformation about the time and place,' and GIs had to travel at their own expense. They also risked being photographed and harassed; Fonda recalls that the CID, 'the military equivalent of the CIA, was always around taking snapshots.'"Fort Bragg
Before arriving in Fayetteville, near Fort Bragg, 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 coffeehouse could hold less than 500 people, so "the troupe put on a series of performances, to packed houses of GIs, over the course of two days and nights" starting on March 14, 1971. The initial cast included Fonda, Sutherland, Boyle, Gregory, Gould, Dane, Goodrow, Swamp Dogg and Johnny Rivers.The New York Times reported that the "antiwar, anti-military" show "clearly went over well" with the "exuberantly shouting" GIs. Their chants of "Join the GI Movement, boys, join the GI movement." could be heard out on the street. 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."