Appendicitis! Ballet Shoes! Accordions! Dirty Fortune Cookies! Jeff & Ryan welcome Marina Bryant, the USO performer whose true story inspired the season 10 two-part episode THAT’S SHOW BIZ. You’ll hear about Marina’s surgery, her fellow performers, and the soldiers whose stories were brought to life by the M*A*S*H writers and cast. Jeff Maxwell also makes a guest appearance in Marina’s story… not once, but twice! (Including one memorable meeting in the M*A*S*H ladies room.) That’s showbiz, folks.
Learn about the history of the USO
WATCH: The Bob Hope 1967 Christmas Special
WATCH: “USO – Wherever They Go”
WATCH: Gypsy Rose Lee performing
WATCH: Gypsy on The Dating Game
Marina Bryant – In Pictures
“1982 – soon after my episodes were aired in October of 1981. Proudly wearing my M*A*S*H t-shirt.”
“Pat & Marina. We performed in a USO Show to the Far East for 3 months in 1964 -1965. Then, another to Alaska for 7 weeks. We knew each other in high school and took that first big adventure.”
“The Moustache & Us in the middle of the Mekong Delta River on a helicopter pad attached to a barge and PT Boats.”
“95th Evac is in our ward (Quonset) and some of my roomies. In the story I told you, two of them are the Lieutenant (tall, standing) and Sergeant (sitting on the bed) who were on patrol. The radio operator was across the hall from us and he is the one that the character Mike is based on. His real name was Dan.”
“Me and a young paramedic we called Doc. (D. Rutherford) Doc was such a kind person and helped us all at the DaNang Press Compound. He helped me find a doctor when I was ill.”
“The Moustache & Us, 1968, Vietnam (a firebase in the middle of nowhere.)”
“Toys for Tots – 1969 – I was working for the Hollywood USO Overseas Shows Office and the Marines asked me to do a promo photo for Toys for Tots. I brought my rabbit Harvey for the photo.”
“Me and my best friend Diane – Diane and her fiancé’ and my Mom and friends came to the airport to meet me when I came home from Vietnam 1969.”
“Bob Hope and me at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, 1985”
“The Vietnam Wall – looking at George’s name for the first time on Memorial Day, 2000. Paul Revere was performing on the Mall along with Nancy Sinatra. Paul knew George, too, so he walked over to the Wall with me so we could both honor him.”
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