Mail Call

Mail Call, like Command Performance, was produced by the Armed Forces Radio Service to boost the morale of and entertain American forces during World War II. After some experimentation in the early shows, it became a musical variety show featuring appearances by some of the biggest stars of the day, such as Lionel Barrymore, Nelson Eddy, and Dinah Shore.

Often, the songs and performers were selected in response to requests from troops in the field. Hosts would often identify the troops by nickname and mention the APO address from which a request originated. An occasional conceit of the show was to act as if it was taking place on a ship or at a military post and the audience and performers were assembling for an actual "mail call". The half-hour show was produced primarily in Los Angeles and ran from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.