Hollywood USO, Mostly Shunned by Servicemen, Debates Its Future

Minutes after arriving in Hollywood on a recent Friday night, K. C. Hanson and four buddies from Camp Pendleton were holding forth in the lobby of a Holiday Inn, planning a night on the town.

Time was when those plans might have included a trip to the Bob Hope USO. But no more.

“USO, what’s that?” asked Hanson, 19, a North Dakotan fresh out of boot camp.

It is the kind of remark that officials of the Los Angeles Area United Service Organizations say they are used to hearing.

Once a Magnet

And, they insist, it explains the fact that while hundreds of soldiers drift past the bars and cinemas of Hollywood on weekends, the USO Club that was a magnet to generations of military personnel is dark and empty.

“To put it simply, the military isn’t coming,” said Joan Jones, the USO Club’s executive director.

The decision last November to close the club on nights and weekends was among several operational changes that USO officials say have been necessary to revive the club’s sagging fortunes.

Others aren’t convinced. “It appears to a lot of us that they’ve just abandoned the playing field, that they’ve decided to strangle (the club) slowly, and move on to other activities,” said Gary Northcutt, one of about two dozen USO volunteers who were told last year that their services were no longer needed.

He and others, including several former staff members, have been sharply critical of the club’s strategy in recent months, including the elimination of such traditional activities as chaperoned dances and Bingo in favor of other priorities.

Some of those priorities include assistance with higher education, housing referrals and referrals for family services, including marital counseling and financial assistance, officials say.

In the past year, the USO has beefed up its hospitality lounge in the American Airlines Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, and plans to open outreach centers soon near military installations in Long Beach and Barstow.

Officials say the new approach is necessary for several reasons, not the least of which is that personnel from the 21 military installations the club serves are no longer willing to travel long distances to play Bingo and dance with volunteer hostesses.

“There’s a feeling out there (among the military) that only nerds go to the USO,” said one USO board member. “We’re trying to change that.”

However, such changes have raised doubts about the club’s future in Hollywood.

Sale Considered

Timothy Viole, president of the Los Angeles Area USO, said last week that the organization’s board of directors is “seriously considering” selling or leasing the building at 1641 N. Ivar Ave. that the USO purchased in 1973 after 32 years at other locations in Hollywood.

Citing complaints from USO board members, volunteers and community members about the low number of people being served at the facility, the United Way of Los Angeles, which contributes almost half of the USO’s budget--about $650,000 this year--cut its contribution for fiscal 1987 by 25%.

Club officials acknowledge that some special events designed to pump up attendance have flopped.

For example, when the club staged a $35-a-plate comedy fund raiser in June, officials were forced to let people in free after only about a dozen paying customers showed up, according to several who attended. In October, the club promoted a hayride for military personnel and their families down Hollywood Boulevard, but the event was canceled after no one but staff members came.

Christmas brought another disappointment. Despite the presence of the Los Angeles Laker cheerleaders, 15 turkeys waiting to be served in the dining room and an offer of free long-distance phone calls home, only about 100 military personnel came, less than half the turnout of the previous year.

Bus Service Suspended

Last month, a bus line that for 14 years has transported Marines to Hollywood from Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base on weekends, depositing passengers in front of the USO, suspended the service after failing to attract any Hollywood-bound passengers for several weeks in a row.

Some of the USO’s more vociferous critics, upset at the prospect of the club’s disappearing from Hollywood, have blamed the club’s management for the declining clientele.

They have taken issue with official claims that such a large presence is no longer needed in Hollywood, noting that by their own count, USO officials estimate that 22,000 military personnel come to Hollywood each year.

“In the eight years I was there, the USO never closed one day of the year, and certainly never on a weekend, which is when you need it most, said Esther Ancurio, the club’s director of volunteers until last June.

She and others claim that the club’s problems have escalated in the 15 months since Jones became executive director and began adhering closely to the board’s mandate for major change.

Jones submitted her resignation last month, saying she wants to devote more time to teaching.

“The whole atmosphere changed after Joan Jones took over,” said Ancurio, who claims she was forced out as the club’s program director.

Volunteers Protested

Ancurio’s departure prompted at least two dozen volunteers--many of them young women who had served as hostesses at the club’s dances--to quit and begin picketing outside the club on weekends. The picketing lasted four months.