Fredd Wayne

Wayne was made a Special Service non-com (Entertainment Specialist) for the 253rd Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division. For eighteen months, in addition to traditional military training, he ran movie projectors, wrote, produced, and performed in soldier shows in Mississippi, attended courses at Fort McPherson, Georgia, and Washington & Lee University in Virginia (future director Arthur Penn was a classmate); Wayne also acted as booking agent of a hugely successful GI orchestra led by Ralph Cerasuolo, a sophisticated jazz violinist formerly known in New York City as “Leonardo of the Stork Club”. Despite a 14-year age difference they became close friends.

Elements of the 63rd Infantry Division, including Wayne and the band, landed in Marseilles, France, on December 8, 1944, and were rushed north to support Americans locked in the Battle of the Bulge. Wayne was assigned to GRO (Graves Registration Office) to retrieve fallen soldiers. On April 2, 1945, he discovered Cerasuolo’s body, killed by a single sniper shot to the forehead.

Shortly after VE-Day, Wayne was directed to put together an entertainment for the men. In response to his notices 45 combat veterans of his 253rd Infantry Regiment turned in rifles for grease paint to create G.I. Carmen – destined to become, with the exception of This Is The Army, the most successful G.I. show of World War II.

Cpl. Fredd Wayne, 253rd Infantry, in the title role of "G.I. Carmen"

With half the cast as women in ill-fitting costumes and scraggly wigs, the show was to run for only three nights in Tauberbishofsheim, Germany[2] but its raucous, bawdy humor, robust singing, and dancing made it a roaring success that the Army recognized at once.[3] In addition to writing, producing, and co-directing duties Wayne had to play the title role when no other G.I. would touch it. The cast included several pre-war professionals, including Hal Edwards, who had danced in 20th Century Fox musicals, and Ray Richardson, a tenor with the Chicago Lyric Opera. Most of Ralph’s band, now led by Marty Faloon, were onstage as well, among them guitarist Charlie Byrd. After raiding Stadttheater Heidelberg for colorful costumes, proper wigs, and scenery, the army sent the troupe on an extended eight-month tour throughout Germany,[4][5] Belgium, France, Italy, and Austria including stops at leading theatres in Berlin, Brussels, Paris,[6] Rome, and Vienna. The show closed in Nuremberg on January 24, 1946. GI Carmen’s cast was kept together throughout 142 performances before audiences totaling well over 250,000 G.I. and allied troops and countless civilians, including Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris and Marlene Dietrich in Berlin.

Out of these creative years Fredd Wayne developed the role for which he’s probably best known. The idea came to him while flying to New York from Los Angeles in 1964; he went straight to the New York Public Library from JFK to begin research and was directed to the Editor of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. After six weeks of study and appearances as Franklin on 'Tonight' and 'Today' shows[9] he began breaking in his one-man show Benjamin Franklin, Citizen in upstate New York and Ohio. By the time he reached Los Angeles the production was running smoothly and Wayne was hired to play Franklin in a two-part Bewitched on ABC-TV.[10]Wayne’s Benjamin Franklin, Citizen also had a long run in Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre[11][12][13] which led to a well received U.S. State Department tour of Europe[14][15] and subsequent college tours throughout America during the Bicentennial era and beyond. His work as Franklin on Bob Hope's America is 200 Years Old...And There's Still Hope! recorded on May 4, 1976, led to appearances in multiple roles on four subsequent Bob Hope Television Specials including an appearance as Brandon Tartikoff opposite Brandon Tartikoff. Fredd Wayne has also appeared frequently as Franklin at IBM, GE, and other industrial conventions. His recording of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Audio Partners) was selected as one of the top audiotapes of 1997.[16]

As a writer Fredd Wayne’s articles have appeared in The New York Times,[17] Playboy,[18] The Los Angeles Times,[19][20] Performing Arts,[21] Westways,[22] The Arizona Republic,[23] and numerous other publications. Wayne has titled his upcoming fictionalized memoir “Blinky's Great Adventure”.