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Show British Keep Up Spirits in War Concerns, Plays Planned By Professionals to Entertain Public. LONDON. Britain is fighting this war not only with planes, cannon and munitions, but also with violin bows, camel hair brushes and play scripts. A total of $400,000 already has been granted for promotion of the battle on' the entertainment front. Last year 5200,000 was expended and a like sum is included in the 1941 plans for the advancement of music and the arts. Under the direction of the council for the encouragement of arts and music, the program aims to "maintain "main-tain the best in civilization." The council already has been responsible for hundreds of concerts, plays and exhibitions throughout Britain. The plan was started last year through a $50,000 donation from the Pilgrim Trust fund. Government authori- tioc aaron rr.ntnh thic cum Hnllar for dollar, doubling the amount. A similar fund was raised in this manner man-ner last year. Entertain in Shelters. As a result, isolated' factories, t munitions industries, settlements of evacuees and shelter dwellers have been entertained by units of performers per-formers sponsored by the council. These units, working in regional defense areas, are created with achievements that officials said "not only have a psychological value but a therapeutic value as well." They are assigned to banish loneliness, depression and exhaustion among i both the fighting forces and the civil-j civil-j ian army fighting the battle of Britain. Brit-ain. Some of the nation's finest singers and instrumentalists are co-operating in the program and donating their services. Although the performers seldom see the results of their work or know their value to the war effort, the council cited one sensational effect produced upon an old man who was struck dumb by nervous shock suffered suf-fered during an air raid. The man recovered full use of his voice when he was persuaded to sing in a choir organized by one of the units. One Cockney who dubiously watched a shelter concert in a large London subway finally admitted "all that noise does seem to keep the roof up somehow." Helps Professionals. During the winter months as many as 400 concerts monthly had been sponsored by the council in churches, village halls, mining towns and factories. The council is a godsend to professional pro-fessional musicians thrown out of work by the war. Often it has been the sole support of actors and painters paint-ers whose talents are unmarketable under wartime conditions. The program pro-gram also is designed to encourage amateurs from whom will spring the new generations of artists to preserve pre-serve the continuity of British artistic artis-tic culture. Both professional and amateur drama, musical comedy and pantomime panto-mime have been sponsored throughout through-out the country by the council. During Dur-ing the first six months of this program pro-gram alone more than 400 amateur productions were staged. This work largely was done through organization organi-zation of amateur drama clubs and societies. |