TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/030491/0304460.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.7 KB | 114 lines

                                                                                SHOW BUSINESS, Page 72

Good Morning, Saudi Arabia


From Meryl Streep to M.C. Hammer, dozens of celebrities sign up
to beam their songs and greetings to troops in the gulf

By JANICE C. SIMPSON -- Reported by Sally Donnelly/Los Angeles
and Lara Marlowe/Dhahran


    The war in the gulf was barely a week old when the staff of
the local morning TV show AM Los Angeles came up with the idea
of mounting a salute to the troops in Saudi Arabia. But when
the program put out a call for celebrities to participate in
the tribute, the TV staff feared that the tight schedule would
discourage stars from taking part. The producers need not have
worried. Tom Selleck, M.C. Hammer and the entire cast of
Roseanne signed up. So did Ben Vereen, who sang a spirited
version of Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now and later joined country
singer Lee Greenwood and Susan Anton for a heartfelt rendition
of America the Beautiful. Said Vereen: "I want us as a country
to realize our responsibility to the troops. I don't want
Saddam Hussein to see us as divided."

    Entertaining the troops has been a tradition among
show-business folks ever since the USO first took performers
overseas to perform for G.I.s during World War II. But the
eagerness to participate has rarely been greater or more
broad-based than it has been since Operation Desert Storm
began. Energized by lingering guilt about the way Vietnam
soldiers were treated, celebrities of all political stripes have
been rushing to show support for allied forces in the gulf.
Nearly 100 actors, singers and athletes, ranging from Meryl
Streep to Mike Tyson, got together to record Voices That Care,
a pro-troop music video that made its debut last week on
armed-forces television. "This isn't pro-war or antiwar," said
songwriter Linda Thompson Jenner, who initiated the program and
wrote the lyrics. "There are people involved in this project
who stand firmly on both sides, but this is an apolitical
message to tell the troops we're thinking of them." Profits
from the sale of the video and audio track in the U.S. will be
donated to the American Red Cross and the USO.

    Satellite dishes, VCRs and other technology help make it
possible for the men and women in the gulf to receive this
outpouring of entertainment. More than 85% of U.S. soldiers
stationed in the region have access to radios, compared with
just 50% during the Vietnam War. Some 3,000 television sets are
also available to the troops, and more are on the way. Five
major companies, including ARCO and AT&T, each donated $500,000
to a USO fund that will spend some of the money to build mobile
entertainment centers for the troops. Dubbed the USOasis, these
vehicles contain large-screen TVs, VCRs, stereo systems, and
cellular phones, so that soldiers can call home. The final
touch: popcorn machines.

    Troops in the gulf can tune in 24 hours a day to the U.S.
military network, which is broadcasting the most comprehensive
schedule of programming ever provided for fighting forces. In
a region where a night of R. and R. means downing a couple of
cans of nonalcoholic beer and practicing the steps to a new
Marine-invented dance, the "Gas Mask Rag," the outside
diversion is welcomed. "It is very important to keep up morale
in the midst of such a lonely and isolating experience as a war
in a desert," says Army Lieut. Colonel Robert Dawson, deputy
director of the military broadcasting center in Los Angeles,
which gathers the bulk of its programming from U.S. radio and
TV stations. The armed forces usually pay a small fee for
entertainment, but scores of producers and show-biz executives
are donating their programs. Both the Super Bowl and last
week's Grammy Awards were beamed in live. Taped segments of Los
Angeles Laker games, boxing and wrestling matches, and
favorites like The Arsenio Hall Show have also been shown.
Disney even paid for a musical special, headlined by singer
Greenwood, whose patriotic anthem God Bless the USA is one of
the songs most requested by the troops.

    Saudi Arabians can eavesdrop on armed-forces radio but not
on the military's closed-circuit TV signals. Even so, all tapes
and transmissions coming into the country are monitored to
avoid offending the sensibilities of the Saudi hosts. That
rules out programs containing make-out scenes, women wearing
tight or revealing clothing and displays of religious icons.
Some soldiers were concerned that the restrictions might cause
the censorship of Cher's Video Canteen, a two-hour special of
music videos hosted by the actress, whose scanty costumes are
her trademark. Programmers for the VH-1 cable network, which
sponsored the show, did exclude some videos from the program,
including all by Madonna, but Cher passed muster by wearing
jeans and a jacket. When Bob Hope staged his Christmas show for
the troops, the Saudis passed the word that they weren't happy
about his female troupers and that only women accompanied by
their husbands were welcome in the kingdom. Thus the only woman
on the tour was Hope's wife Dolores.

    For shows broadcast live from the U.S., the biggest problem
is the time difference of eight to 11 hours, which means that
many sports events must be taped in the middle of the night and
watched later. Even so, the young men and women in the gulf are
grateful for such diversions and the good intentions behind
them. "It brings a bit of home to you," says Francis Gitro, 47,
a chief warrant officer from Rochester. And that explains why,
even though the troops enjoy star-studded extravaganzas from
Hollywood, the most popular TV show of all is a videotape of
loved ones back home.