Overview

In New York City in 1939, neither eighteen-year-old Jack “Jake” Jacobson nor his comrade Murray “Duke” Davison had any intention of joining the military. Their sights were set on playing club dates in what Duke called the “upholstered sewers” of Manhattan. Jake, a comic, and Duke, a jazz trumpet player, were amateur entertainers looking for their big break, not men in uniform readying themselves for war. That all changed after Pearl Harbor. Newly inspired, Jake and Duke decided to act honorably and enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. En route to their first assignment in North Africa, Jake and Duke persuaded Gen. Lewis Brereton of the Ninth Air Force to allow them to perform for their fellow soldiers and boost morale. Spurred by Jake and Duke’s success, Brereton subsequently created the first Combat Special Services Entertainment Unit. The eventual formation of this fifteen-piece troupe of comics, singers, and musicians—dubbed the “Sky Blazers”—lightened the spirits of combat troops across the Middle East, England, and France during the war. In their two and a half years overseas, they would have many close calls with the enemy as they struggled to put on their shows for the weary Allied forces. The Sky Blazers would also be privy to the glitz of the entertainment business, even performing for Egyptian royalty and at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Rife with glamorous highs and lifethreatening lows, Jacobson’s wartime story continues to entertain.

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9781597972857

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Gives readers one of the most enjoyable, light-hearted memoirs of life during World War II that can be imagined. There are few books about war that can make the reader feel true happiness and <i>Introducing . . . The Sky Blazers</i> does just that. World War II Forums--World War II Forums (08/26/2009)

Jack Jacobson has written a thoroughly enjoyable, fast-paced, poignant, funny, and powerful account of an unlikely group of Ninth Air Force soldiers during World War II. Jacobson knows how to pace his story as he takes you from the Jewish streets of the Upper West Side via Dayton, Ohio, to the sands of North Africa, and, via England, to France a scant fifteen days after the Normandy invasion. Full of unexpected twists, Introducing . . . The Sky Blazers may be among the last of the war memoirs as a generation passes away.

Gives readers one of the most enjoyable, light-hearted memoirs of life during World War II that can be imagined. There are few books about war that can make the reader feel true happiness and Introducing . . . The Sky Blazers does just that. --World War II Forums

Author Information

Jack Jacobson began his broadcasting career in 1929 on WHAM radio at the age of eight in Rochester, New York. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Jubilee of Freedom Medal from the French government. After World War II, he entered a fifty-four-year career in radio and television broadcasting, which included serving on ABC television network’s first Promotion Advisory Board, and was inducted into the Arizona Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame. He passed away in 2009.

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