USO entertainers lift Pvt. Raymond Kennedy's spirits

Description

Pvt. Raymond C. Kennedy, wearing pajamas with frog enclosures, smiles as he props himself up on his left arm in a hospital cot and holds a playing card in his right hand. Long Pin Soo, to Kennedy's left, bends slightly toward the bed as he holds a spread deck of cards in his left hand and points toward the deck with his right hand. To Kennedy's right, Stubby Kaye and Lucille Johnson stand on the other side of the bed. Lucille Johnson is playing a guitar, wearing earrings, a brooch, and a dress. Stubby Kaye and Long Pin Soo are wearing tuxedos with pocket squares but Stubby wears a necktie and Long Pin Soo wears a bow tie. There is a newspaper folded on Kennedy's lap.
No date; likely 1945
Digitizing agency: University of Missouri--Kansas City. Library. Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Special Collections.
Typewritten note attached to the back of the photograph, "Public Relations Office, 1380th AAF BU, NAD, ATC, Presque Isle, Maine. "Traveling USO troupes frequently visit evacuees at the Air Transport Command's North Atlantic Division evacuation hospital at Presque Isle, Me. Here Long Pin Soo, a magician with an overseas troupe, performs a card trick for Pvt. Raymond C. Kennedy as Lucille Johnson plays the guitar, and Stubby Kaye makes a few humorous remarks. Stubby, emcee with the USO outfit, tips the scales at a mere 300 pounds. An employee of the Arthur A. Crafts Co., Boston, Pvt. Kennedy was inducted into the Infantry on June 10, 1944. He was wounded in Germany and was flown from a general hospital in Paris in a C-54 transport plane of the SNOWBALL fleet to Presque Isle. His wife, Mrs. R.C. Kennedy, lives a 26 Baker Street, West Roxbury, Mass. -30-"