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Windmill girls ... keeping calm and ...?

AP.

Young ladies of the Windmill Theatre, Piccadilly/Soho (London) - a sort of downmarket London Moulin Rouge - in a staged propaganda photo showing them sleeping in the theatre basement during the Blitz. The "Windmill Girls" preformed "racy" "tableaux vivants" - which amounted to standing around (absolutely still) on the stage in carefully staged "scenes", clad in ... very little. Their proud postwar motto - "We Never Closed" - was rephrased by London wags as "We Never Clothed". Never mind, along with the intervening comedy/music hall acts - good (by our standards) innocent fun. Actually - apart from a short period in September, 1939 (during which all London theatres were required to close), the Windmill did stay open for the whole of the war, no doubt helping to boost the morale of British (men) of all classes in the face of the dreaded Hun. BTW - any doubt as to the staged nature of this photo need only look at the makeup. On the other hand - the Windmill was (is) bang in the middle of prime bombing target area. The Girls showed great courage, in their own way, by continuing to work there, in particular, during the period of the 1940-'41 Blitz. Best regards, JR.