Command Performance by the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) is a radio program which originally aired between 1942 and 1949. The program was broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network with a direct shortwave transmission to the troops overseas. It was not broadcast over domestic U.S. radio stations.
Troops sent in requests for a particular performer or program to appear, and they also suggested unusual ideas for music and sketches on the program, such as Ann Miller tap dancing in military boots. Top performers of the day appeared, including Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and The Andrew Sisters.
One memorable program, Dick Tracy in B Flat, aired on February 15, 1945. On this date, AFRS produced what it called the "first comic-strip operetta." The program is notable for its use of what Alan Havig once described as Verbal Slapstick - i.e., "burlesques-in-sound" that use "broadly farcical" comic "language" to "alter reality" (130, 213).
In this raucous, bawdy send-up of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Dick Tracy in B Flat transforms the raw violence of Gould's "police detective" comic strip into a wedding farce that would have appealed to many soldiers who had come up against the raw violence of WWII battlefields.
Bing Crosby starred in the title role. Dinah Shore co-starred as Tess Truehart. The supporting cast included Judy Garland, Cass Daley, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Frank Morgan, Bob Hope, Harry von Zell, Jerry Colonna, Lou Crosby, the Andrews Sisters and the Joe Lilley Chorus.
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