Living Archive - Home Front

Entertainment

Although all forms of entertainment suffered during the war, new songs continued to be written and sung, both on the radio, or wireless as it was known, and in live concerts. Sometimes proud and defiant, sometimes sad and quietly hopeful, many of these new songs matched and formed the public's mood. Slow, emotional numbers such as "We'll Meet Again" and "I'll Be Seeing You" were particularly popular because they put into words and music what many people parted from their loved ones felt.

During the war, cinema was a powerful means of propaganda. Films often featured plots which emphasised sacrifice, people giving up things for duty and loyalty. ‘In Which We Serve’, ‘The Best Days of our Lives’ and ‘Brief Encounter’ were emotionally powerful at the time.

Dancing was one of the most popular pastimes during the war and from 1942 onwards British dance halls were filled with American servicemen.

"They used to put on dances in a hall and the entertainment was quite good. It was marvellous to be invited to Bletchley Park because there was a lot of Americans up there and they had extra food. We used to go to local dances in St Martins Hall and the camps, where the soldiers were. We used to dance the jitterbug. The Americans brought that over and Glen Miller’s music. Gwen

"We had entertainment at home in so much as we’d got all sorts of games, boxed games and things like that. Mother had been a music teacher, so we were both taught the piano and so we used to entertain our grandparents with duets with mother!" Audrey

"Lots of funny things happened during the war and I had to wait forty years to see the end of a film! I went up West, with some friends, to see ‘Stage Door’, Rita Hayworth. In the middle of it the warning went so they turfed us all out of the cinema and we had to go down this shelter in Hyde Park and by the time we got out the shelter they wouldn’t show the film again, they closed the cinema. So we had to go home and it wasn’t until a few years back that they had it on and I saw the end of it! I had to wait forty years to see the end of it!" Edith

"On Saturday evenings they usually had a dance in the Science and Arts Institute which was burned down. I don’t know who put them on, but the Rhythm Aces used to play, and there was Joe Lovesey, he used to have a band too, they were very good too. Quickstep, Foxtrot, Waltz, and they said the Tango, but it wasn’t a proper Tango, but we used to try and do it, we used to dance together very often, because there weren’t enough men." Betty