Four Jills in a Jeep is a good movie title. It is catchy, it is descriptive, and it accurately reflects the tone of the film from which it springs. Four “jills” – AKA “pinups” in the vernacular of the time – in a U.S. Army motor vehicle, O.D. in color. The year is 1944. What are the belle dames doing? Entertaining the troops, of course. All danger is off screen. It is a happy movie.
During the war years, Hollywood turned to the musical/comedy variety film. Entertaining the troops was both patriotic and practical since it was an easy formula to build a movie around: Film the troops for patriotic effect and film the entertainers since they were already being paid a salary and needed fulfilling work to generate profitable returns for the movie studios. It is sometimes easy to forget, but these were contract players under a studio system.
Four Jills … had an added plus. It was based on a true story. The four are Carole Landis, Kay Francis, Mitzi Mayfair and Martha Raye. In real life, they traveled to England and North Africa as part of a five-month USO show in 1942. Landis wrote a diary and, with the help of a ghostwriter, turned it into a book that was adapted into the movie. Phil Silvers was added as a G.I. guide for the four gals. Also appearing in the film were Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra and actress Betty Grable.
About the Four Jills, three of them had careers that essentially ended after their venture into wartime goodwill. Only Martha Raye would survive in show business beyond the 1970’s. The saddest life of the four was likely Carole Landis’ (1919-1948). She married four times before her death by suicide at age 29. Her most famous film was the 1940 Hal Roach production of One Million B.C.
Her contract with 20th Century-Fox had been canceled by the late 1940’s. In part, her sad ending was linked to illnesses – malaria and amoebic dysentery – contracted during her war tours. She ended her own life on July 5, 1948, by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Her war efforts had made her a favorite of the soldiers, who nicknamed her ‘The Blonde Bomber’. In total, she made 49 motion pictures.
Kay Francis (1905-1968) was arguably the biggest star of the group. In the mid-30’s she was among the most popular leading ladies in Hollywood, receiving a weekly salary of $5,200 to top the Warner Bros. payroll for both 1936 and ’37. There was a reported suicide attempt in 1934 while working on one of her best received films, British Agent. Warner’s offered her a comedy lead in 1937, but that film (First Lady) was a box office failure. Francis complained about her studio roles, and she filed suit against Warner Bros. in 1937, a decision that would negatively affect her career.
She made appearances at military bases all over the world, but she was almost unemployable in Hollywood at war’s end. She signed with Monogram Pictures, a notorious B movie studio, made television appearances, and acted on stage through 1954, but her career was essentially over by 1955. She married five times and had no children. She died in 1968 at the age of 63.
Mitzi Mayfair (1914-1976) was a professional dancer and vaudeville performer with a special dance move: kicking her leg up to touch the back of her head. She appeared in such movies as The Ziegfeld Follies. In 1944 she married a music executive from 20th Century Fox and essentially retired from Hollywood. The couple later divorced, and she remarried and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she died in May 1976 at the age of 61.
Comedienne Martha Raye (1916-1994) was born into show business as both her parents were vaudeville performers. Raye made her acting debut before the age of 10, touring the country with her parents’ variety show.
In her late teens, Raye was a big band singer before being spotted by Hollywood talent scouts. She appeared with such stars as Bing Crosby and Jimmy Durante. She was extremely active with the U.S. military, starting with World War II and continuing through Korea and Vietnam. She acted into the late 1980s, dividing her time between movies, television, and occasional stage appearances. There were also five marriages and at least one reported suicide attempt.
Her close association with the military would continue for the rest of her life. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson made her an Honorary Green Beret and Lieutenant Colonel. In 1993, President Bill Clinton awarded her the nation’s highest civilian award—the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died October 19, 1994, and was buried with full military honors at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She was 78 years old.