Command Performance was a show that would be presented exclusively for service men and women, to their specifications, and based upon their "commands". The idea was simple yet brilliant, meeting the need that millions of service personnel had to feel special, recognized, and appreciated, as well as the desire of thousands of writers, performers, musicians, producers, and technicians to somehow contribute their own special talents to the war effort.

 

Command Performance was created in 1942 by radio producer Louis G. Cowan who was at the War Departments' Special Services Division. He knew that the show would have a very small budget - in fact, it would likely have no budget at all, thus he began by contacting the various show business unions. All quickly agreed to waive the union wage and conditional agreements of their members so long as the broadcasts were limited solely to military audiences.

 

It wasn’t long before “Command Performance” became THE radio show of the war years. Everyone who was anyone in show business wanted to make at least one appearance - and, to the relief of creator Louis Cowan and newly-appointed producer Vick Knight, they usually brought their writers along with them. Responding to an ever-increasing demand for movie stars, the show gradually moved from New York to Hollywood, occupying space at the Sunset Boulevard studios of CBS and NBC. And, in late 1943, it became the jewel in the crown of the Armed Forces Radio Service, a brand new division of the War Department that would exist solely to bring information, education, and information to military personnel throughout the world.

 

So take a trip back in time with “Command Performance” - a time when America was fighting another war in far off lands, when brave men and women risked their lives for our freedom, and when show business answered the call to entertain them. It’s an entertaining journey and also one that reminds us just how much we owe to those people who literally fought to save the world during World War II. We know it's a trip you’ll want to take time and time again in eleven original broadcasts of Command Performance, Volume 3 and restored to sparkling digital quality.