Elbert S. "Bert" Mosher and the Bob Hope 1950 USO tour
Okinawa 1947 -1957

Bert Mosher came to Okinawa in 1946-47 as a civilian architect for Holmes & Narver, a contracting firm working for the District Engineer (Army Corps of Engineers).

At some point he decided to go into the photography business and about 1950 he started his first business known just as "Photo Service". One of his first known photo products was a 1950 booklet of 10 photos of the Bob Hope USO tour show that took place on Okinawa about Oct - Nov 1950. The members of the show were as follows:

Guest Stars:
Bob Hope
Marilyn Maxwell
Les Brown
The Taylor Maids
Judy Kelly
Hy Averbach
The Hi-Hatters
Jimmy Wakeley


In the early 1950's Bert changed the name of the business to "Mosher-Reid Photo Service" which operated from about 1951 to 53. Nothing is known about who Reid was. About 1954 Bert then changed the name to "The American Photo Service", in 1957 he sold the business to an Okinawan and returned to the United States. Mosher-Reid Photo Service and American Photo Service booklets and postcards can be seen in the 1950-55 Photo section and the B&W Postcard section of the website.

On the back cover of the 1950 photo booklet he lists two locations Camp Kue and Machinato. It is not known which location was shown on the back of the 1950 photo booklet. By 1954 he was in the location shown in a 1954 ad for The American Photo Service which indicates it was in Machinato.