Countless military urban legends are run-away trains toward a fable. One tale - with supporting facts - lies at the heart of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall's Town Hall.
A number of facts and a first-hand eyewitness account support the following statement: one of America's most acclaimed military leaders loved to escape to Fort Myer's own movie theater.
Fort Myer's Town Hall building, which is located across from Conmy Hall on Sheridan Avenue, has a prominent relationship with the arts. During World War II, Americans had a handful of media outlets for entertainment.
Magazines, newspapers, live theater and radio were high on the list, but for World War II escapism, many flocked to the downtown or uptown movie house.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall was one of the many Americans who loved Hollywood film productions. While managing multi-fronts of war against the Axis powers, Marshall was apt to sneak away on a rainy April evening or snowy February night to catch a flick featuring the war's top cinema names like Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart or Katharine Hepburn.
"His way of relaxing in the evening was to go to the movies at the post theater," said JBM-HH historian Kim Holien of one of Marshall's Fort Myer hangouts.
Yet the war Marshall administered was just a Western Union telegram away - and many of those cables were brought to Marshall first-hand inside the theater while the chief of staff attempted to blend in with the crowd. Marshall's post theater seat was positioned so he could receive important dispatches without any disruptions for other patrons or having the movie interrupted.
"If you go down the center aisle into the theater and get to the very end of the balcony seating, at that little corner seat is where Marshall would sit so that his signals liaison officer could walk up that aisle, stand next to Marshall at head-high height with him if the officer needed to walk in during the movie," Holien explained. "I know this for a fact because that signal officer came to the base in 1995 or 1996 and showed me and told me about the whole scenario."
Currently, JBM-HH's Town Hall serves as a conference center and meeting hall and has hosted promotion ceremonies and The U.S. Army Band [Pershing's Own] musical workshops.
Related Links:
Joint Base Myer - Henderson Hall
Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region and the U.S. Army Military District of Washington
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