Jeep Show

About Jeep Show

An Ordinary Soldier Tasked With An Extraordinary Mission

Jeep Show chronicles the astonishing journey of Jim Tanzer, a thirty-year-old dance instructor who enlists in the Army in 1943 to fight the Nazis. Jim’s showbiz background lands him in the Morale Corps as an Entertainment Specialist.

Mickey Rooney Leads The Way

Shipped to Europe and tasked with performing in Jeep shows – small variety acts put on for combat infantry just behind the front lines – Jim travels throughout the Combat Zone with squad leader Mickey Rooney, the Hollywood superstar, also in the Morale Corps (as he was in real life).

Their performances, more than just entertainment, are a beacon of hope, bringing brief moments of song, dance, and laughter to weary troops, letting them know they are not forgotten.

Thrown Into A Desperate Fight

Jim’s story becomes intertwined with history when he is caught in the Battle of the Bulge. In Bastogne, he joins Team SNAFU, a makeshift unit supporting the 101st Airborne Division. Jim’s courage and determination in the face of overwhelming odds is a testament to the human spirit.

Jeep Show is fiction based on little-known aspects of the U.S. World War II effort seen through the eyes of an unlikely hero. It is a compelling and human story that will appeal to fans of works like Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and Ken Burns’ The War.

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Author Bio:
Robert B. O’Connor is the author of the extraordinary new WWII novel “Jeep Show – A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge.” His previous book was the non-fiction “Gumptionade – A Booster for Your Self-Improvement Plan.” Two radically different books, both about morale.
As a young man, Robert was Phi Beta Kappa at Kenyon College, a marketing executive at Procter & Gamble, then co-owner of an advertising agency. By his own account, he took a hard fall.
As he was helped up off the mat, Robert came across a quote from the nineteenth-century British biologist Thomas Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” Robert wrote Gumptionade to help himself and his readers recognize what needed to be done in their lives, and how to do it.
In 1967, promoter and impresario Jim Hetzer, the inspiration for the protagonist in “Jeep Show,” convinced Oxydol detergent to sponsor a circus. The result was a marketing disaster, humorous in retrospect.
In 1944, Hetzer enlisted in the Army and was assigned to the Morale Corps as an Entertainment Specialist. He was attached to a Jeep show squad in the European Theatre of Operations.
Jeep shows were small variety shows done for combat troops in forward areas too dangerous for the USO or the Red Cross. Hetzer often worked with Private Mickey Rooney.
Jim Hetzer’s story inspired O’Connor to write Jeep Show, now a BookLife Editor’s Choice selection. Kirkus reviews wrote: “It seems odd to call a World War II novel ‘delightful,’ but that’s exactly what you get with O’Connor’s mix of history and fiction as battles rage on and enlisted men entertain the troops.”