Think Andrews Sisters with a bit of Gypsy Rose Lee.
Pinups on Tour: Operation Joliet — a World War II-style vaudeville and burlesque show — will stop in Joliet at 7 p.m. July 9 at Stone City VFW Post 2199 in Joliet. Cast members will perform music from the 1940s through 1960s.
“Our show is very similar to what you would have seen touring around vaudeville back in the day,” said founder Julia Reed Nichols. “It has variety, it has comedy, it has singing, it has audience interaction. It’s just a good time.”
The show runs two hours with an intermission and is intended for those 18 and older.
“I always tell people we’re a PG-13 show. Everything you see in our show you can see on late-night TV. But it is more adult humor, so we make the show 18 and up,” Reed Nichols said. “If somebody has a teenager and they feel comfortable bringing them in, we’ll let them with their parent. Especially by today’s standards and especially by Vegas standards, it’s not crazy at all. We’re very clean for Vegas.”
The Las Vegas-based group started as a volunteer organization about six or seven years ago, she said, performing in area VA hospitals and visiting with the veterans. As videos of the different performances began to go viral, requests for visits started coming in from across the country. Now, Pinups on Tour travels the United States with ticket sales from its shows funding the visits to VA hospitals and veterans’ homes.
“The show that we do at the VFWs, American Legions and civilian venues actually allow us to do free hospital visits all across the country,” Reed Nichols said.
Current and retired service members can attend the Pinups on Tour shows for free by reserving a Military Appreciation Ticket on the Operation Joliet Eventbrite page. Civilians can purchase general admission or reserved seating tickets.
“I do encourage people to RSVP because as the summer goes people are definitely wanting to get out so the tickets have been moving quicker than usual,” she said.
Reed Nichols, whose father was a pilot in the Air Force and both grandfathers and a grandmother served in World War II, said the shows are a way to have fun and help a good cause at the same time.
“We don’t charge the American Legions and VFWs that we visit,” she said. “We bring our show from Vegas at no cost to them.”
In addition to giving tickets to the shows to military personnel for free, the group does not charge the VA hospitals or centers for its visits either.
“We’ve been really lucky. We get a lot of support from our audience members,” Reed Nichols said of the groups growing fan base. “Generally speaking, whenever we go to a venue, they ask us to come back the following year. So it’s just kind of a snowball effect growing our community of supporters as we go.”
“They’re always so supportive. It’s always a really great group. It’s a mix of veterans and civilians. It’s not just meant for the military community,” she said. “There’s a lot of supporters in the civilian community that get dressed up and come out as well.”
In addition to ticket sales, funds raised from the donation of pinup calendars to the veterans the cast visits in the hospitals and centers also help fund the group’s efforts.
“It features some of our cast members, but is also features female veterans, military wives and women who volunteer at veterans organizations from all across the nation,” Reed Nichols said.
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Audience members can purchase a calendar to donate to a veteran at the VA hospitals and centers, writing messages on the back of each one. The Pinups on Tour cast then distributes the calendars during its visits.
“So it’s really special because it reminds the veterans how many Americans are thinking of them,” Reed Nichols said.
With COVID restrictions in place, the Pinups cast has not been able to directly interact with the veterans at the hospitals and centers. While they performed outside some locations while the veterans watched from inside, they have not been able to visit or hug them after the shows.
“Right now we’re not allowed anywhere near them still. Hopefully that will change soon,” Reed Nichols said. “So those notes right now are really our only way of communicating with them and making them feel special.”
The cast is grateful that things are starting to safely open up and they can start performing and visiting as they did pre-pandemic, she said.
“Because the thing about our veterans who have been in the VA hospitals and veterans’ homes, it’s been hard for us not to visit them, but it’s been harder for them not to get any visitors,” she said. “A lot of them haven’t been able to get their own family members in there, and that’s just starting to change. Anything we can do to show them a little extra love I think is really important right now.”
Pinups on Tour: Operation Joliet
When: 7 p.m. July 9
Where: Stone City VFW Post 2199, 124 Stone City Drive, Joliet
Tickets: Military members/veterans can reserve free tickets. General admission is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. $35 reserved seating and $50 VIP reserved seating
Information: pinupsontour.com
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.