On May 22, 1955, movie star Debbie Reynolds entertained for thousands of American troops at the 8th Army Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. It was part of a week-long USO tour known as the “Johnny Grant Galaxy” show. Reynolds, who had skyrocketed to stardom three years earlier in Singin’ in the Rain, traveled with disc jockey Johnny Grant and a troupe of entertainers to perform across South Korea and Japan.
The show at the Seoul Military Post was famously marked by a massive overhead sign that read, “Welcome Debbie.” Photographs from the event show Reynolds on a makeshift stage, often wearing a simple, elegant dress, with a sea of soldiers in uniform stretching as far as the eye can see.
At the time, Reynolds was a massive “girl-next-door” icon. Just a few months after this tour, in September 1955, she would marry singer Eddie Fisher (a union that became one of the biggest tabloid stories of the decade).
While many stars visited Korea during and after the war (most notably Marilyn Monroe in 1954), Reynolds was praised for her genuine rapport with the troops. Veterans who were there often recalled her “dazzling” presence and the fact that she traveled halfway around the world to a still-recovering, post-war region just to boost morale.
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