In 1940s, as the US marched to war, Hollywood pulled up its socks, put on its makeup and got behind the troops. It churned out scores of movies aimed at keeping morale high. Among the feel-good films of the time was Stage Door Canteen, which celebrated a recreational centre for recruits of that name in New York. The film was studded with cameos by such figures as Katherine Hepburn, Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller and even the Anglo-Indian actress Merle Oberon.
Stage Door Canteen also featured appearances by major orchestras led, among others, by Benny Goodman, Count Basie and this one, fronted by the Spanish-American bandleader Xavier Cugat (whose records can still be found in flea markets across India).
The austerity of the war years resulted in a ban on record imports in the subcontinent. To meet the demand for music, HMV’s plant in Dum Dum, Calcutta, got Indian dance bands to record American hit tunes. As a consequence, only a few months after Stage Door Canteen was released in the US in 1943, the Bombay band leader Chic Chocolate and his Music Makers made their own version of the film’s big song, She’s a Bombshell from Brooklyn.
Latin music was immensely popular in India and, as this photo shows, Chic’s Music Makers didn’t dress very differently from Xavier Cugat’s men. These tracks are from the Marco Pacci archive.
