Joe Papp in World War II

Having experienced anti-Semitism first-hand as a kid, Papp joins the U.S. Navel Reserves during WWII, determined to fight Hitler and fascism. “To me, intolerance is a greater threat than poverty,” he would later state. While stationed at Bainbridge Naval Base in Maryland, Papp meets Irene Ball, a WAVE. Their romance would last two years and result in the birth of a daughter, Barbara, whose existence he would not learn about until thirty-five years later. Papp would spend the duration of the war stationed on an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Solomons, in the South Pacific. “If there hadn’t been a war, I would never have wound up in theater,” Papp said of his experience in the Navy where he began staging vaudeville sketches for his fellow sailors to pass the time. Eventually Papp would become part of an “entertainment” unit that would perform for the troops. It was during this time that Papp met a young sailer, Bob Fosse, who he took under his wing, acting as a mentor and giving the young Fosse his first exposure to theater. Upon his release from the Navy in 1946, Papp and his first wife, Betty, get divorced.

1942-1946

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