Istanbul under occupation (1918-1922) has a reputation of being a hotbed of decadent and scandalous nightlife, where occupiers and occupied lived through a sensational half-a-decade. American jazz musicians, a dizzying array of British, French, Italian, Scottish, Indian, and Madagascan soldiers along with oh-so-unforgettable Russian refugee women with their short hair filled old and new places of entertainment, whether a luxurious club, a public park or a makeshift gambling tent. What is not generally mentioned in this narrative is what came immediately before. People think that World War I was devoid of this kind or any entertainment. My paper focuses on entertainment during World War I (1914-1918) in the Ottoman capital. It will discuss the impact of the war on entertainment, how the relationship between non-Muslim and Muslim Ottomans played out in the streets and various recreation venues of Istanbul in times of extreme tension and hardship. I will assess the visibility practices of non-Muslim Ottomans and their engagement with the Muslim Ottomans as well as Germans who were allies of the Ottomans in the war. I will also assess the introduction and proliferation of Germans and other allies in Istanbul’s entertainment scene. Using documents ranging from museum correspondences to military orders from the Ottoman, Republican and Military Archives in Turkey, Central State Archives in Italy, the National and Military Archives in France, the National Archives and the British Library in the UK, and the American National Archives in Washington DC, along with newspapers, I argue that the war created unique circumstances and opportunities to engage in various types of leisurely activities. Some of these activities had the somber veil of the war, which necessitated active performance of patriotism, while others were as decadent and happy-go-lucky as their post-war counterparts. This paper makes the point that war brought not only human suffering – such as the expulsion of enemy nationals from the Ottoman Empire who played important roles in the capital’s entertainment scene – but also important changes in which the very boundaries of what is entertainment was redrawn. Accordingly, this paper questions the impact of war on an already rapidly changing social and cultural relations and practices of the capital city’s new and old inhabitants played out in the urban space.