{"value"=>"<p>Golden's participation in patriotic and humanitarian relief endeavors during World War II is documented almost exclusively through correspondence with and on behalf of numerous local, national, and international civilian and military organizations. His work with the American Theatre Wing War Service, the United Seamen's Service, and the U.S.O. is more thoroughly documented, and includes minutes, reports, and collateral material.</p> <p>War work, for Golden, was inextricably bound to his work in theatre. He arranged two playwriting contests for armed services members. His Army playwriting contest resulted in the production of <span class=\"title\">The Army Play by Pla</span>y, extensively documented in Series II: Show Files, which netted the Army Relief Fund over $200,000. His Naval playwriting contest, as evidenced by the limited correspondence presented here, was less fruitful.</p> <p>Golden served as chairman of the entertainment committee for the New York Defense Recreation Committee, which distributed over 12 million free tickets to servicemen over the course of the war. Some of the material presented here predates the formal creation of the committee; just as he had in World War I, Golden independently spearheaded campaigns to provide free entertainment for the troops, including tickets to his Broadway shows, in the earliest days of the war. Correspondence with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and President Franklin D. Roosevelt occurs frequently within the Defense Recreation Committee correspondence, as well as in Subseries I. A. General Correspondence.</p> <p>Evidence of Golden's efforts during the first World War, specifically his Liberty Bond drives and tickets-for-soldiers promotions, is limited to a small quantity of letters, clippings, and ephemera located in Series IX: Scrapbooks, Volume 1: 1911-1930.</p>"}