Stage Door Canteen

by Maggie Davis

New York City, the capital of the free world, is dark, its lights turned off as enemy submarines lurk offshore, as close as Coney Island. Three men - a gunner from a B-17 bomber who‘s a national hero, a magazine editor uprooted from civilian life and attached to the Allied High Command, and the violence-stalked captain of a Royal Merchant Navy freighter - find their destinies linked with three volunteer hostesses from New York’s famous Stage Door Canteen. Genevieve Rose is a beautiful Broadway star in an experimental Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that seems headed for disaster. Elise Ginsberg is an indomitable young refugee from Hitler’s terror. And Bernadine Flaherty is the ambitious, talented teenage dancer from Brooklyn hoping for her big show business break. Against Manhattan’s wartime glamor, GIs fresh from combat in North Africa and the Pacific find themselves dancing with the likes of the Stage Door Canteen’s Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. Food, whiskey and clothes are rationed, and spies are where one least expects to find them. Life is lived for the moment, love is passionate and often random, and those who can, snatch at a chance for happiness. For beyond the frenetic blackout, the entire world is fighting and dying.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

aka M. H. Davis, Maggie Daniels, Katherine Deauxville

Maggie Hill was born in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, daughter of George Blair and Dorothy (Mason) Hill. She also writes under the pen names of M. H. Davis, Maggie Davis, Maggie Daniels, and Katherine Deauxville, is the author of over 25 published novels. She is a former feature writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, copywriter for Young & Rubican in New York, and assistant in research to the chairman of the department of psychology at Yale University. She taught three writing courses at Yale, and was a two-time guest writer/artist at the International Cultural center in Hammamet, Tunisia. She has written for the Georgia Review, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Holiday and Venture magazines. She is the winner of four Reviewer’s Choice Awards and one Lifetime Achievement Award for romantic comedy from Romantic Times Magazine, and received the Silver Pen Award from Affaire de Coeur Magazine. She is also listed in Who's Who 2000.

Reviews

[LA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I enjoy reading books set in the early '40's and during WWII. Although set in the era I enjoy, Stage Door Canteen was a huge disappointment. The storyline was disjointed and the characters weren't fully developed. Within the novel there were a number of characters who had stories to be told. However, a couple of these stories ended awkwardly. In my opinion, the ending of Stage Door Canteen seemed incomplete. I was left with more questions than answers. Perhaps that is how the author, Maggie Davis, wanted to end it. Could a sequel be written? If so, would it be to continue the story of two of the main characters - Jenny and Brad?

[Katherine Johns · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting but all over the place

I like the subject but there were too many stories and some didn’t fit together. It was well researched and I learned a lot about broadway during the beginning of WW2. But the story kept going off to other plots that had little or nothing to do with the title and main theme

[Jeff J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this, not sure how it slipped past my radar so long. The Stage Door Canteen in New York City sets the foundation for a novel about life in America during the early years of World War II. I was particularly fascinated to read about the development of the musical Oklahoma! and how it served as a catharsis for wartime audiences.

[Robin Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I’m definitely a WW2 History buff, this book was terrible 🤨🤨. It was all over the place!! I liked the movie better!!!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a moderately enjoyable read about a slice of life against the backdrop of WWII.

On the home front, Jenny is an actress in rehearsal for the play that will ultimately become Oklahoma!, and a hostess at the Stage Door Canteen, which provides hospitality and comfort for the Allied Forces, with a husband in the war. Other stories are interwoven concurrently, such as that of Dina and Gene, wartime sweethearts.

Some of the military descriptions were written in an uninteresting fashion, and I confess I skimmed some of those passages. On the whole, however, I liked the novel well enough. Not sure how to indicate, but I'd award it two and a half stars.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book tedious. I liked reading about the making of "Oklahoma!", but that was about it. The letters between Brad and Jenny were way too long and hard to believe Brad would have put sensitive info in them, even if they weren't being censored. I know many celebrities helped at the canteen during the war, but their names were just dropped in without much background. I think the author was just trying to put too much in a short amount of space.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked this book. It had a bit of history, romance and NYC glamour all in one. The author also told the reader what was true (most of the book) and what was fictional. I did feel the book ended quite abruptly; this could be because I was not quite sure who the protagonist was.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light read, but was a different perspective on the War, something I didn't know that much about.