[Annotator's Note: This clip begins with Audrey Maduell already in conversation.] The Victory Belles was a personal name for a group of neighborhood girls that were taken to camps and bases. They had nothing to do with the Andrews Sisters [Annotator's Note: American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras; Laverne Sophia Andrews, Maxene Anglyn Andrews, and Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews] or the Victory Belles at the Museum [Annotator's Note: a vocal trio that performs at The National WWII Museum, in New Orleans, Louisiana]. Maduell was a professional dancer in ballet. She could do gymnastics and nationality dances. She did the Argentine tango at Army camps. She had a ten minute act in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. In Michigan, Jackie Gleason [Annotator's Note: John Herbert Gleason, American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor] was the emcee. He was not famous at that time. He thought he would be funny and introduced her group incorrectly. Maduell [Annotator's Note: whose name was Audrey Palmer then] asked him to do it correctly, but he did not. He did that for two weeks. She would ask him every time to do it properly. He turned his back on her once, making her cry. He invited her and her mother to have Thanksgiving dinner [Annotator's Note: annual holiday in November in the United States] with him to make up for it. She was held over there for another two weeks and they brought in another emcee. Some years later, her daughter turned off the television because Jackie Gleason's show, "The Honeymooners" [Annotator's Note: American television comedy, 1955 to 1956] was on and he had made her mother cry. There were different groups in private homes and church groups too. Mrs. Maduell [Annotator's Note: Madeull's future mother-in-law] found out she had done many benefit shows. They found out the agents were taking money.

Leather was needed for the servicemen's shoes. Audrey Maduell had to have ballet shoes and others. She had to use extra stamps for those. Any meat that had fat on it, would be rendered so they could save the grease. They would turn the grease in. They had to have stamps for nylon stockings since nylon was needed for parachutes. The stamps meant they were contributing to the war effort. She danced in Mexico and one of the acts' fathers would take them buy stockings there. She had special stockings that she would dye red. She wore red shoes at her wedding. Her dancing shoes were made especially for her in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. Her girlfriend Muriel [Annotator's Note: Muriel MacHauer] still talks about how her mother fed her and her brother. Maduell took a big bag of lunch to school. For Sunday dinner, she had a salad, potato salad, a roast, vegetables, and two pies. Her granny lived next door and they got a pie. For Mardi Gras [Annotator's Note: events of the Carnival celebration beginning on the Christian feast of the Epiphany and culminating the day before Ash Wednesday, a holy day in many Christian denominations], she would put a tablecloth on the sidewalk, and they would have dinner there. Her father wanted to make sure she got catches from the throws [Annotator's Note: name for trinkets thrown to the spectators from the parade floats]. He kept a pocketful of trinkets and would pretend he caught them. Her sons continued the practice when her daughter was watching a parade on television. Her mother was an outgoing person ahead of her time. At her mother's wedding in 1919, she would not say "obey" as part of the ceremony. Her mother decided that the servicemen in the city did not know where to go. She called the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] and said to send some servicemen to their home for dinner, a swim in the canal, and a dance lesson. Maduell would teach them to tango or rumba. Her mother always invited them for Christmas dinner and always had a gift and a stocking for them. Maduell does the stockings for her family still.

Audrey Maduell had an air raid shelter right across from her house. Her father would bring coffee to the workers building it. After the war, when he died and his funeral procession went by, the workers honored him. Her father became an air raid warden. When an alarm went off, they would close their black-out curtains so no light could get out. They had stores of food and water. Her father would go around and make sure everyone was obeying the rules. It was scary. There were U-boats [Annotator's Note: German for submarine] in the Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico] that could have come up the Mississippi [Annotator's Note: Mississippi River]. People thronged to churches as the fear brought people back to God. Catholics believe in novenas [Annotator's Note: an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks] and in different saints that they prayed to. Madeull's brother was in the Army, and she sent him an I.D. [Annotator's Note: identification] bracelet. On the back, she put with "with love, Audrey." People did not believe it was his sister. He volunteered when he was in school. He was sent to South Bend, Oregon. Maduell wrote to the Chamber of Commerce and said her brother was lonely. A family who lived there kind of adopted him. Her brother then went to New York for electrical school. It was in a bad neighborhood. He was then sent to the Philippines outside of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. They were to build a school to train people to drive big equipment. Her brother installed the high-tension wires. They were going to have celebration when they turned it on. He said they needed to try it out first. There were problems and he found the problem. They then had their celebration. Her brother came home after VJ-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945] and returned to school. He later married and had children. Korea came up [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] and he was called up as he was in the Reserves. He later became a chemist. Now the Reserves are as important part of the service as the regulars. Her husband was in the Reserves for 21 years. He worked for the FAA [Annotator's Note: the United States Federal Aviation Administration] too. A friend's husband was called out and recalled for Korea. He got called out for the Cuban Crisis [Annotator's Note: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 16 to 28 October 1962; confrontation between United States and Soviets over ballistic missiles in Cuba] and would have lost his job if he went. He was told he had to resign then and lost everything. Maduell's brother-in-law died before he could get his Reserve pension after putting in years. Federal employees on pensions' widows get 55 percent of their salary.

Audrey Maduell would have servicemen ask for her pictures. One Marine was egotistical. She met him in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Pensacola, Florida]. He put his hand on her shoulder and asked her to dance. She said no. Her mother told her to dance with him. They became friends. He came to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. In the car, she realized he wanted to kiss her. He did not get a kiss. He sent a letter that holes all over it due to the censors. He asked her to send him a picture. She sent him a picture of a train. He wrote back that he wanted a picture of her. She went him one of when she was 16 months old. He then said he wanted one of her "now." She sent one of her dancing that her mother had taken from far away. She finally sent him some professional pictures. One of her pictures she sent in pieces separately. Don [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was in a Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] in North Africa. He had a buddy named Tommy [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. Tommy as on R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] in England and Don gave him money to buy her something.

Audrey Maduell found it sad to be at the train station where the families were watching their loved ones going off to war. Church groups were out there consoling people. [Annotator's Note: Maduell consults her notes after getting some water.] There were different religions there. The USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] had booths. The men could get coffee and donuts as well as free cigarettes. The American Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] was there and so were the Gold Star Mothers [Annotator's Note: women entitled to display a gold star on a service flag as the mother of a US military member that died while engaged in action against an enemy]. People became very prayerful. There was a railroad bridge crossing Lake Pontchartrain. The soldiers thought they were taking a train overseas. Every church and synagogue were helping out. Maduell was with the National Catholic Community Service [Annotator's Note: formed to help military personnel and civilian defense workers and their families, 1940 to 1980]. She could go to any USO in any city. Her cousin Edna Radlige [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] and her family came to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. They sewed bags for the military. Her cousin's boyfriend was in a German prisoner of war camp. He came back and wanted to be married. He told her if she wore a beautiful gown, it would make him look worse than he already did. She did not wear the gown. These are the kinds of adjustments people made due to the war.

During the war, there were signs all over the city [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. The most impressive to Audrey Maduell was "Loose Lips Sink Ships." It was very important. She had received censored letters. A Marine wrote to her. He knew she was a professional dancer. He used "Marine talk" [Annotator's Note: slang for using obscene language] figuring she was in show business. She sent it back with his words scratched out and included a bar soap with instructions to wash his mouth out. He wrote back that his mother used to wash his mouth out with the same brand of soap. After Hurricane Katrina [Annotator's Note: a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that hit New Orleans, Louisiana in late August 2005], groups came from different cities. One group came from Aurora, Colorado. Her kids had seven to nine houses to gut [Annotator's Note: term for removing ruined contents] and could not do it quickly enough. Twenty people from Colorado helped gut Maduell's house. She got a package in a mail saying that they were replacement treasures for the ones she had lost. Maduell had a barrel of World War 2 letters and souvenirs that she lost. The person sent her a shawl and a letter of her own as a replacement. Albina Smith Lupo owned the Lakeview Theater [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. Albina managed the theater as a teenager. She married Tommy Lupo [Annotator's Note: US Navy Lieutenant, later Commodore, Thomas J. Lupo] and her father have her the theater. Tommy and Maduell's husband were in the same unit when they joined. They were not given a lot of leave but were allowed to swim in Lake Pontchartrain. They would sneak out on dates by pretending to go swimming. They were sent to Corpus Christi [Annotator's Note: Corpus Christi, Texas] and completed their aviator training in seven months. Her husband was in his 20s but most of the men were in their teens. It was such a responsibility. They were the Greatest Generation [Annotator's Note: the term The Greatest Generation refers to the generation in the United States that came of age during the Great Depression and later fought in World War 2 and is derived from the book The Greatest Generation by American network television journalist and author Tom Brokaw]. The group that built the bridges were being shot at. The mechanics were the true heroes. It was remarkable what the young men did and the sacrifices they made.

On a small island in the Pacific Ocean, some native peoples were fascinated by some crystal balls floating in the air which turned out to be soap bubbles. Audrey Maduell sent the soap to a soldier. She wrote to 25 different servicemen. She sent some puzzles, and one soldier wrote back that she had not sent the solution. In response, she sent some soap bubble solution. She included a little Christmas tree that was about six-inches tall. Word got out there was a Christmas tree on the island. The soldiers loved it. [Annotator's Note: Maduell goes over some notes with the interviewer before the interview goes to black.]