FTA Show

FTA Show (Fuck The Army Show)
Ticket from FTA performance in Monterey, California
Ticket from FTA performance in Monterey, California 1971
GenrePolitical vaudeville
Show typeTouring
Date of premiereFayetteville, NC outside Fort Bragg Army Base March 14, 1971 (1971-03-14).
Final showYokosuka, Japan outside Yokosuka US Naval Base December 22, 1971 (1971-12-22)
Creative team
DirectorsAlan Myerson, Francine Parker and Nina Serrano
WritersJules Feiffer, Carl Gottlieb, Herb Gardner, Fred Gardner, Barbara Garson, Robin Menken, Nina Serrano and Pamela Donegan
ActorsJane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Peter Boyle, Garry Goodrow, Michael Alaimo, Howard Hesseman, Elliott Gould, Mike Nichols, Carl Gottlieb, Larry Hankin, Ben Vereen, Darryl Henriques and Yale Zimmerman
ComediansDick Gregory, Paul Mooney
Musicians & singersSwamp Dogg, Holly Near, Len Chandler, Rita Martinson, Barbara Dane, Johnny Rivers, Nina Simone and Country Joe McDonald
Advance peopleFred Gardner, James Skelly, Elaine Elinson, Louis Wolf and Bill Belmont
PublicistSteve Jaffe
Other information
SponsorsUnited States Servicemen's Fund (USSF), Entertainment Industry for Peace & Justice (EIPJ), Pacific Counseling Service and Beheiren (Japan Peace for Vietnam Committee)[1]

The FTA Show (or FTA Tour or Free The Army tour), a play on the common troop expression "Fuck The Army" (which in turn was a play on the army slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure"), was a 1971 anti-Vietnam War road show for GIs designed as a response to Bob Hope's patriotic and pro-war USO (United Service Organizations) 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[2] 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 (Jerry Williams Jr). 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.[3]: pp.104–6  Fred Gardner, the originator of the antiwar GI Coffeehouse movement, became the Tour's "stage manager and liaison to the coffeehouse staffs."[4] At various times other actors, writers, musicians, comedians and entertainers were involved (see infobox).[5][6] The United States Servicemen's Fund (USSF), with Dr. Levy as one of its principal organizers, became the official sponsor of the tour.[7] 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 (EIPJ).[8]: p.52 [9]: p.7349 

  1. ^ "Articles About Free Theatre Associates". Displaced Films. Archived from the original on 2024-06-28. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
  2. ^ "Jane Fonda F.T.A. February 15, 2020". February 17, 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14 – via YouTube. (Describes: meeting Levy on the set of Klute, basing show on G.I anti-war newspapers, 1971 America) Jane Fonda at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood introducing the audience to the anti-Vietnam War documentary "F.T.A." (1972) that she co-starred with Donald Sutherland on Saturday, February 15, 2020. Eleven minutes.
  3. ^ Parsons, David L. (2017). Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-3201-8.
  4. ^ Gardner, Fred (1991). "Hollywood Confidential: Part II". The Sixties Project: Viet Nam Generation Journal. Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  5. ^ King, Sarah (2020). "Free The Army". U.S. History Scene. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  6. ^ Gallagher, Paul (2019). "'F*CK THE ARMY': WHEN JANE FONDA AND DONALD SUTHERLAND TOURED THEIR ANTI-VIETNAM WAR SHOW, 1972". Dangerous Minds. Dangerous Minds Blog. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  7. ^ Wooten, James T. (1971-03-15). "500 G.I.'s at Debut of Antiwar Show". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Goss, Lindsay Evan (2014). Entertaining the Movement: Jane Fonda, GI Resistance, and the FTA (PhD). Brown University. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  9. ^ Investigation of Attempts to Subvert the United States Armed Services Part 2 at Google Books