Christopher Blake was born in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] in 1921, but spent most of his life in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], where he also attended Loyola [Annotator’s Note: Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He is a playwright and novelist, and all of his writing was done in New Orleans. He also spends a lot of time in California. He was studying at Columbia University [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York] in 1939 and 1940 when he was drafted and began training with the 706th Tank Destroyer Battalion at Camp Hood [Annotator's Note: now Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas], doing two maneuvers in the Mojave desert [Annotator’s Note: a desert near the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, spanning the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah]. While there, he wrote a play called "The Hero in the Grave" which one first prize in the John Golden competition. During the maneuvers they learned that their Colonel wanted their unit to stay close to his home, so Blake and a friend volunteered to go overseas, ending up with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group. Blake was happy about this because the 706th was deactivated and he never would have gone overseas. They trained at Camp Maxey [Annotator's Note: near Paris, Texas] and then at Dorchester Barracks in England. He enjoyed it. They went overseas three weeks after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] into Brittany [Annotator's Note: the Brittany region of France]. Blake spoke fluent French. They also went through Holland and Belgium, ending up in Bad Tolz [Annotator's Note: Bad Tolz, Germany] when the war in Europe ended. He dug a lot of foxholes. They saw some action, not a lot, but enough. They were supposed to go to the Pacific Theater. In the mean time, Blake took a three-week program on French culture and civilization in Paris. He met Gertrude Stein [Annotator's Note: an American writer and expat known for her salons attended by Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others] and Alice Toklas [Annotator’s Note: Stein's partner] while there and they took Blake under their wings. He was in Stein's salon when the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped. Stein convinced Blake that he should not go back to his unit. He made a phone call to a clerk pretending to be a General and stating that Blake was doing well in Paris, and to send his discharge papers, which he did. He remained in Paris, writing, and working for the embassy for a time. He then spent a year at the University of Washington [Annotator's Note: in Seattle, Washington] studying drama, and then moved to New Orleans to attend Loyola. He lived on Royal Street and Chartres Street, and his plays were performed locally. His book entitled "The Fair Fair Ladies of Chartres Street" was published. Blake entertained and cooked for Craig Claiborne, a food critic, while he was in New Orleans. Claiborne wrote about Blake in the New York Times, and Mayor Dutch Morial [Annotator's Note: Ernest Nathan "Dutch" Morial, the first African-American mayor of New Orleans from 1978 to 1986] dubbed Blake the "Gourmet Laureate of New Orleans", a title Blake did not want. He preferred to be known for his writing. In 1971, Lindy Boggs [Annotator's Note: Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana] recommended Blake to organize an event for the election of Vernon Louvier to the presidency of the National Press Club. McIlhenny [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Brigadier General Walter Stauffer McIlhenny; president of the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco] backed the event, and Louis Armstrong [Annotator's Note: Louis Daniel "Satchmo" Armstrong, an influential jazz musician] performed. Armstrong died shortly thereafter. Blake went to Spain for three months to work on a play about Gertrude Stein. After years of heavy drinking in Spain, he went into recovery in California. Blake took an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials] in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California], and it was a thrilling experience.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served in Europe with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group] began writing plays when he was 16 years old. All of his plays are set in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He was 20 years old and a student at Columbia University [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York], having lunch at a Japanese restaurant, when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The restaurant was quickly shut down and all of the staff were rounded up. He was drafted shortly after that and shipped out to Texas [Annotator’s Note: to then Camp Hood, now Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas]. He enjoyed boot camp and training. He and a friend, Frank Barry, volunteered to go overseas and continued training at Dorchester Barracks in England shortly after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He never saw a tank destroyer until he got overseas. They went over on the Aquitania [Annotator's Note: RMS Aquitania], a journey that took two weeks because of the zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] done to avoid mines and submarines. While doing desert maneuvers [Annotator's Note: in the Mojave desert during training] Blake jumped out of a moving jeep and was hospitalized for an injured collar bone. In Europe, Blake did a lot of interpreting [Annotator's Note: Blake was fluent in French] for Headquarters Company, 6th Tank Destroyer Group. He was excited to go overseas. They once captured young German soldiers, only 15 or 16 years old, who cried because they had been told that the Americans would bury them alive. During the Vietnam War, General McIlhenny [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Brigadier General Walter Stauffer McIlhenny; president of the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco] tasked Blake with writing a cook book for troops which would be delivered to soldiers with a tube of tabasco, which the GI’s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] had been asking for. Cigarettes became powerful currency in trading for goods.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] was surprised by the scale of the war once in France, and understood the importance of the war to Western civilization. While studying in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], Blake was invited to an event by Major Ian Fraser [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], who had taught him French while a student at Columbia [Annotator's Note: Columbia University in New York, New York]. Blake showed up to the home of the president of the Sorbonne [Annotator's Note: Sorbonne University, or Sorbonne Université, in Paris, France] in his muddy boots, speaking perfect French. It was an exciting time. He did not write much while in Paris, he did most of his writing in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He later self-published work which received rave reviews.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] volunteered to go overseas for combat duty because he and his friend [Annotator's Note: Frank Barry] were bored after participating in two desert maneuvers [Annotator's Note: while training in the Mojave Desert]. They felt like they were doing nothing. They were assigned to the 6th Tank Destroyer Group. The only openings were for chaplains but they made it overseas anyhow. Blake's work was mostly clerical, doing translating [Annotator's Note: as he spoke fluent French] and typing. They were always on alert, there was a lot of activity around them, although they were too late for the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He did not do much writing while overseas. When he met Stein [Annotator's Note: Gertrude Stein, an American writer and expat known for her salons attended by Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others], she knew he wanted to be a writer. Before he had even met her, while studying at Columbia [Annotator's Note: Columbia University in New York, New York], he wrote a play called "Lady with a Jug" in which he blamed the Fall of France [Annotator's Note: the German assault into France resulting in capitulation, May and June 1940] on Stein. He worked up the nerve to show her another of his works, to which Alice Toklas [Annotator's Note: Stein's partner] responded that he was a born writer. He eventually showed Stein his play about her, which she thought was funny. He wrote "The Bride Chewed Gum" while in Dorchester, England. He first met Stein when a writer whom Stein had rejected put him on the phone with her, and she invited him for dinner the next night. She took him under her wing and introduced him to many people including Picasso [Annotator's Note: Pablo Ruiz Picasso, an influential Spanish artist]. Blake and Stein eventually had a falling out, but she based the character Chris the Citizen in her opera entitled "The Mother of Us All" on Blake. She was dying from cancer and enjoyed Blake's visits. Blake had a copy of a play written by Picasso, "Le Chien Attrapé par la Queue", or The Dog Caught by His tail, including drawings by Picasso, but eventually sold it to a niece of McIlhenny [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Brigadier General Walter Stauffer McIlhenny; president of the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco] when he needed money to pay rent.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] witnessed women having their heads shaved after the war, accused of being collaborators with the Nazis. They were able to barter with cigarettes. The American officers took over the Ritz [Annotator's Note: Hôtel Ritz Paris, a luxury hotel in Paris, France] bar, excluding the enlisted men, but Blake spoke to the bartender in French and told him he was allowed. The GI's [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were everywhere and were loved by the French. Blake was in Bad Tolz [Annotator’s Note: Bad Tolz, Germany] in Bavaria when the Germans surrendered. He visited Berchtesgaden [Annotator's Note: and the Eagle's Nest, built by the Nazis and used for official purposes, visited several times by German dictator Adolf Hitler] while there as well. A picture was taken of Blake in front of a bombed out window there overlooking the bordering countries. Stein [Annotator's Note: Gertrude Stein, an American writer and expat known for her salons attended by Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others; a friend of Blake's] was accused of collaborating. Blake heard that she had sold a Cézanne painting to Goering [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command]. In Bad Tolz after the war's end, Blake's unit was expecting to go to the Pacific, but then he learned of a three-week course on French civilization being offered in Paris at the Sorbonne [Annotator's Note: Sorbonne University, or Sorbonne Université, in Paris, France]. Blake, as the only one who spoke French, which was a requirement, so he was able to go. It was while studying there that he met Stein, and reconnected with Major Ian Fraser who had been one of his professors at Columbia [Annotator's Note: Columbia University in New York, New York]. Had Blake ended up going back to his unit, he thinks he would have reenlisted [Annotator's Note: however, at Stein's suggestion, he impersonated a superior officer on a phone call and had his discharge papers sent to him]. He liked the military. He saw the possibility of going to the Pacific as just something they would have to do. He was with Stein and Toklas [Annotator's Note: Alice Toklas, Stein's partner] when he learned that the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] had been dropped. All he could think in the moment was that he bet his friend's brother, Ed Curry, who was doing secret work, had been working on the atomic bombs. He was just glad that it was the Americans and now our enemies who had that weapon. Toklas gave Blake cooking lessons. She and Stein were very motherly to him. Their relationship deteriorated because she did not approve of his friends. He met Richard Wright [Annotator's Note: Richard Nathaniel Wright, American author who often wrote on racial themes], who had written Native Son, and he was invited to Stein's for dinner. Stein and Toklas taught Blake manners and how to appreciate life. They introduced him to Virgil Thomson [Annotator's Note: who wrote the music to Stein's operas] and Jean Cocteau [Annotator's Note: a French writer and surrealist artist]. He also met the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland [Annotator's Note: Millicent Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland] at the Maison Lambert, owned by a noble Polish family, on the Ile Saint-Louis in Paris.

Christopher Blake [Annotator’s Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] worked for the American Embassy in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] before returning to the United States. He worked as an interpreter. Jefferson Cafferey, a native of Louisiana, was the ambassador to France at the time. There was a witch hunt of gays at this time, and Blake was asked to resign as he was living with a man, but he refused and was fired. Besides this negative experience at the Embassy, he was given no other problems for being homosexual during his time in the military. He finally returned to the United States in 1949, going first to the University of Washington [Annotator's Note: in Seattle, Washington] and then moving to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] after a six-year stay in Spain. Had it not been for Stein [Annotator's Note: Gertrude Stein, an American writer and expat known for her salons attended by Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others who encouraged Blake to impersonate an officer to order his own discharge, which he did] he would have reenlisted. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to pay for his education in Washington, and also at Loyola [Annotator's Note: Loyola University New Orleans]. He did not finish his studies at Loyola. The military treats its veterans very well and takes care of them. Blake suspects this is to make up for how poorly the veterans of the First World War were treated. As a child, he witnessed many veterans panhandling and begging on the streets. The Honor Flight program [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials] is incredible. All of his plays have been written in New Orleans. They will be shown at a festival a year from the interview.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] most remembers when his unit captured two very young German soldiers who thought the Americans were going to bury them alive. The war changed his life in every way, namely his getting to spend so much time in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He also met a photographer, Hubert Leufkens, during the capture of Holland, and they collaborated on a book about South Limburg [Annotator’s Note: South Limburg, the Netherlands]. He has corresponded with young students about his wartime experiences and friendships. World War 2 saved Western civilization and is the last of the Great Wars. Blake is now anti-war. Americans appreciate his wartime service, and he is often thanked by strangers. He also did an interview with the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: Red Cross, an international non-profit humanitarian organization] that is now kept in the Library of Congress. It is important for younger generations to learn about World War 2 to prevent future wars. The war affected everyone, during and after the war.

Christopher Blake [Annotator's Note: a novelist and playwright who served with the 6th Tank Destroyer Group in Europe] was a gay man in the military in the 1940s. Some of his fellow soldiers knew, some did not, but he never got any trouble about it. A friend of his was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for being gay, but he was honorably discharged and his homosexuality was never discussed. He had great friends. The only gay bar he ever went to was in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], which is where he ended up meeting Gertrude Stein [Annotator's Note: an American writer and expat known for her salons attended by Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others who became a friend and patron of Blake's]. He has never had any qualms about being gay. He attends AA [Annotator's Note: Alcoholics Anonymous] and has helped save people's lives by helping them get sober. Blake knew Clay Shaw [Annotator's Note: a businessman from New Orleans, Louisiana who was suspected of being involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy] and Garrison [Annotator's Note: New Orleans District Attorney James "Jim" Garrison]. He once ran into Garrison who asked Blake to have lunch with him and invite Clay Shaw, but it never happened. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in interview.] Blake presents "The Charlie Ration Cookbook", which General McIlhenny [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Brigadier General Walter Stauffer McIlhenny; president of the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco] asked Blake to put together. The GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] wanted tabasco but could not get it, so McIlhenny decided to create this cook book which could be ordered for one dollar and would come with a waterproof tube of Tabasco sauce. Fred Rhodes, who illustrated for Sad Sack, illustrated the cookbook.