 The DuPont Cavalcade of America, starring Agnes Moorhead in party lines. On the Cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Here is a cool and refreshing suggestion for your home this summer. Paint those drab-faded walls with DuPont speed-easy wall finish. Although you thin speed-easy with water, it dries on your walls to a velvety oil-type finish. It's easy to apply with a large brush or roller, and it dries in less than one hour. You can use speed-easy on wallpaper, wood, plaster, or most any interior wall surface. It comes in 11 clear, beautiful colors. Speed-easy, its name tells the story. It goes on easily, and it dries quickly. It's speed-easy, and it's made by DuPont. Agnes Moorhead, winner of the Four Uncorrespondents Award, may soon be seen as one of the stars in the Metro Golden Mayor picture. Our vines have tender grapes. The DuPont cavalcade presents Party Line, adapted from the book of the same title by Louise Baker, starring Agnes Moorhead as Miss Elmira, Mayfield's best-known, most quoted and consulted citizen, the telephone operator. Is everybody on the line? Well, that's good. Well, friends, you will be delighted to hear that Mrs. Ned Branner gave birth to an eight-pound baby girl this morning at 5.20. Now isn't that lovely? I remember Miss Elmira. Operator of Mayfield's telephone exchange. My name's Louise Maxwell, and when I was a child, there was no such thing as the dial telephone. Every family in Mayfield, rich enough to have a phone, shared it with at least three other families on what was known as a Party Line. We Maxwells were on a Party Line, along with the Dexterous and the Myers and the Grandes. Mayfield's telephone exchange wasn't very large, but Miss Elmira ruled it like a queen rules an empire. I found that out when Kenneth Myers and I tried the season's most popular telephone sport once too often. You want to do this one, Louise? Hello! No, you do this one. I'll do Mr. Ben. Hello! Miss Elmira? Well, of course it's Miss Elmira. Who's this? It's me, Miss Elmira. Kenneth Myers. Oh, I thought I recognized your voice. What do you want, Kenneth? Can you connect me with Mrs. Hogg? Please, Miss Elmira. All right. What you have to say? Sure. Just see now, um, you got Prince Albert in the tin can? Well, you better let him out. Okay. We'll do it now. Still in the tin can. You may as well take a message for your mother. I know she ain't home otherwise you wouldn't be pulling these shenanigans. Yes, ma'am. Well, when she comes home, Louise, tell your mother I tried that pork roast recipe she gave me with a tomato and it came out fine. Come in and see me. I want to talk to you. Yes, ma'am. Of course it's Miss Elmira. Who else would it be? The greengrocers? Oh, just a minute. Just a minute. Yes! Saw your husband go into Jake's barber shop, Miss Cardride. But honestly, I don't think he needed a haircut. Oh, sure. Sure, I'll call you when I see him coming back into his office. Hello, Miss Elmira. Oh, hello there, Louise. Come to pay a call. Yes, ma'am. Well, that's real nice of you, honey. How's your ma'am? She's fine, Miss Elmira. Her strawberry rash is all gone. Well, now I'm real glad to hear that. Oh, just a minute, dear. Yes! Hello, Miss Dexter. You sound worried. Dr. Sims, which one... Well, which one of the boys is sick? Oh, oh, Mary, love all your border. Oh, well, these spinsters are always ailing, aren't they? Well, now listen. The doctor's out at the Granger Farm right now, so I'll catch him there and send him on. Oh, now don't you worry a bit. He'll be there all right. Miss Elmira. What is it, honey? How long have you been our telephone operator? Oh, long before you were born, child. When I grew up, can I get to be one? Well, if you do what your mother tells you, don't eat too many pickles. Oh, I don't, Miss Elmira. You stand a good chance. Now, you just play with your jacks a while, honey. Miss Elmira has to make an important announcement about a little stranger that came into the world. Who are you going to tell? Oh, everybody. So, Myra. What is it, child? Did you call until everybody when I was born? Naturally. How do you think they would have known about it otherwise? Well, if you tell all the news, what's the newspaper for? The men. They print it for the men. All but the personal column. The women read that. So they don't have time to read anything else. Why? Well, they're too busy listening. Easier than reading, too. All they have to do is pick up the receiver and eavesdrop. Oh. Now, run along. Run along so I can make this announcement. Well, that's something important to tell me. I had. You know, you said for me to drop in the next time. Yes. Oh, yes, indeed I did. Young lady, the telephone is a scientific instrument into which the best brains of the country have been poured. And it's too valuable for little girls to use in playing jokes. It is? Yes, it is. How do you think your mother would get the news if it wasn't for the telephone? Then she'd have to read the courier, wouldn't she? You're evading the issue. The telephone is for business. So your mother can call Dr. Thins when somebody's sick. Mrs. Carr tried to call the greengrocers and complained that the lettuce was welded. Well, it's a long distance. What's long distance? Well, it's long distance. It's far away. Long distance is a telephone call from out of town. Did you ever have a long distance call? Did I? Clear from Washington one. Gee. From a senator of the United States. A real one? And did he talk to you on it? Well, a call was naturally for me. It was for the judge, but it had to go right through this switchboard. Matter of fact, if you want to be real particular, it was the senator's secretary that did the call. But there's no use quibbling about trifles. Now, run along so I can make this announcement before the baby gets too old. We never got a long distance call in our life. Hello? Anna, this is Geraldine Dexter. Did you hear the news? Mary Lover has a bow. No. More scandalous than that. Mr. Cordair. No. Why? How perfectly awful. Why? Nobody knows, but they say he left a note on the pincushion. That's what I'm saying, Geraldine. I just got on there. I'm no deedeth. What did it say, Geraldine? Well, now, that sure as no knows decide that you won't say a word. I hear you, Geraldine Dexter. That's my profession. We know, Elmira, we know. Are as noble as those of a surgeon, and wild horses couldn't brag from you the contents of a conversation that passed over your wire. Indeed not. If Mr. Cordair wants to leave his wife for another woman, I say it's nobody's business but his own. Louise, you stay here a minute, honey. I'm going next door. I'll be right back. Mrs. Dexter right now. She got here fast. Where's your mother? Here I am, Geraldine. Oh, I just have to talk to you, Anna. Did you hear that Mr. Elmira said before she hung up? I certainly did. And I've always thought the Cordairs were so deported. It gives you pause, doesn't it? But what do you mean? Anna, how do we know our own husbands aren't being subject to influences we know nothing about? Geraldine Dexter. Well, Clyde goes to market in San Francisco four times a year, and he's even been to Chicago three times. And everybody knows Chicago's a very bad place. Oh, well, that's just silly. Elmira wouldn't know if anything like that were going on, and she never tolerated. Hmm. Even Elmira doesn't know what goes on in San Francisco or Chicago, Anna. What about your own husband? My own husband? You mean Ed? Yes, Ed. He goes all over the county. How do you know some woman isn't trying to get him? Some rich widow or some country schoolman? I'm going to call Elmira. You're not going to let the whole town know our husbands are leaving us. I don't care. I'm going to put a stop to it before it's too late and my two innocent little girls are left fatherless. Yes. Miss Elmira, this is Anna Maxwell, and I've got something terribly important to ask you. The answer is an up-and-down no. I did your pardon. What did you say, Anna? What did you say, Miss Elmira? Twenty-three women have called us the same question, and I'll tell you the same thing I told them. Don't put a healthy body in a sick bed. You understand what I mean by that, Miss Maxwell? Well, I'm not sure, Miss Elmira. Well, you just think it over and you will. And now, before I leave you, I want you to hear this article I cut out from the San Francisco Chronicle. Are you sitting down? That's all right. I'm not tired. Well, listen close now. A good wife and strengths and endurance. A bad one is confusion, weakness, discomforture and despair. Keep up your spirits though the day be a dark one. We'll miss out. Oh, what did you say, Anna? Well, she inferred we're a couple of gossip-swallowing fools. Oh, and she's right, Geraldine. All through this thing, I've had something dreadful in the back of my mind. Something dreadful? Why, Anna? Well, I've been wishing I... Well, I've been wishing I was a spinster like Mary Lovell. Well, I'll admit I was, too. But that's all gone now. I realize how lucky I am. It's more than luck. It's a blessing to have a husband like mine. I wish Mary Lovell had one, too. Even half is good. Anna, I think you've got the beginning of an idea there. Well, I think we should make it our business and seriously this time to find a good husband for Mary. A really good husband. Poor thing. Well, it sounds like a good idea, Miss Dexter. But Mary Lovell is forever sane. She's very happy as she is. I don't care what she says, Elmira. She just can't be happy on Mary. Of course not, though. Well, you better be careful, Miss Dexter. Oh, no. She's upstairs reading her poetry. Poor thing. If there were only some man we could introduce her to... She's already met the three Matthew Bachelors 11 times. There's no use torturing them anymore. Maybe we could give a party. The men could bring their unmarried business associates. I wouldn't do her any more good than giving her dead dog a bone. What's the matter with her? That means Mary Lovell's coming downstairs. Well, we'll think of something. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Never say die. By the way, how old is Mary Lovell? She's as old as I am. Well, I still say never say die. Oh, excuse me, girls. Excuse me. A stranger's coming in. I've got to get off the line. Pardon me. I was told you might be able to help me find a room to rent. Oh, excuse me. My name is Benson. Charles Oglethorpe Benson. My card, madam. Yes, yes. New field salesman for Libby McNeil and Libby. Oh, are you engraving on the card? You must make very good money. Well... What sort of room do you desire, Mr. Benson? I mean, aren't you glad to help you find a room if you'll tell me your specifications? For instance, are you a married man, Mr. Benson? Well, unfortunately, no. It's not yet been my luck to find the lady of my dreams. I'm looking for bachelor quarters. Bachelors quarters? Bachelors quarters? Bachelors quarters. Well... You come back here in 15 minutes, Mr. Benson, and I'll have a fine room for you. You did say bachelor quarters, Mr. Benson. Well, yes, yes, I did. Of course, if it's too hard... Oh, no, no, no. Don't be sure and come back now. Are you here? 15 minutes. Before we bring you the second act of tonight's to plant cavalcade starring Agnes Moorhead and Party Line, here's another story about a different kind of telephoning. You know, the units of an army today are linked together with telephone lines. The first wire to go in while troops are still advancing is in the salt wire. Later, it's replaced by heavier wire that carries voices wider. 18 miles against the salt wires, 10. You've seen pictures of it knotted around fence posts and trees, stretched over the broken brick and stone of shattered buildings. We just gave Whitman to tell you more about it. Much of the telephone wire used by American forces is coated with DuPont polythene, a new plastic with outstanding insulating properties that help American wire to carry voices over unusually long distances. Further experiments are being made with a very thin coating of another DuPont plastic, nylon, as protective jacket around the polythene, all of which means that these new plastics, alone or in combination, are sure to find places in many fields after the war in the electrical industry for refrigerator parts for gaskets and tubing, and that's only beginning. Polythene, discovered in England by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited and further developed here, illustrates the teamwork of science and the teamwork of a company like DuPont, sold as nylon. For the manufacture of these two valuable plastics depends upon the chemists and the laboratories, the engineers who design and build plants to make them, the men and women working in the plants, and the technical service men who make them known to other manufacturers. All of these people work together to bring you the products of industrial chemistry We at DuPont speak of as better things or better living through chemistry. Now back to DuPont Cavalcade's presentation of Party Line, starring Agnes Moorhead as Miss Elmira, ruler of Mayfield's telephone exchange with the turn of the century. Louise Maxwell continues the story. During all the years of my childhood, Miss Elmira was one of Mayfield's most important people. She was ever willing to help, to listen and to scold whichever was needed. Nor did we expect any less from Miss Elmira than she gave during the time my mother and Mrs. Dexter were on their manhunt to find a suitable bachelor for Stinster Mary Lovell. It was Elmira who discovered Charles Oglethorpe Benson, learned he was looking for a room and promptly phoned our house. I don't understand you, Miss Elmira. You're shouting so I can't make out what you're talking about. I'm not shouting, Anna Maxwell. I'm just trying to tell you you just have to take him. Take whom for heaven's sake? Your rumour. But I have no rumour. Didn't you hear what I've just been telling you for goodness' sake? Mr. Benson, he has no wife. Who has no wife, Elmira? I just got on. Mr. Benson, Mrs. Dexter, a new traveling man. He just got into town. That's why Mrs. Maxwell just passed already my room. But why should I? I have a husband. Anna, you don't understand what Elmira's saying. Mary Lovell. Goodness, it says plain as the nose on your face. Mary Rose of Geraldine Dexter. Geraldine Dexter lives right next door to you. So Mr. Benson has to room with you. That's right, Anna. But I have no room. Louise can move upstairs into Bernice's room. I'll come over and help move her things. And I'll get Ply to bring over that good quarter-sized iron bed to Rodney's room. You can have the bureau that goes with it. But, you have no right to buy any bucks at a time like this, Anna Maxwell. This is Mary Lovell's one big chance to land herself a husband. And this man is perfect to tell him that I looked at him. How could you tell? He wears horn-rimmed spectacles. Then Mr. Benson moved into my old room. The campaign started. The strategy was developed over the telephone. It was Miss Elmira who decided on the first great move. What Mary needs is a past. A what? What does she need a past for? Well, my goodness. Do you want him to know no man's even looked at her for 15 years? Well, what kind of a past could she have? It has to be romantic. I know what? We'll make a productive young physician who got the call and went to China and died. That's all right. But we better make it more distinguished. Mr. Benson, the distinguished touch, you know. Let's see. Mary was engaged to the wealthy sign of a Boston family. A beautiful youth with the soul of a poet. Open to him. A floating ulcer. To his memory. That's how she never married. Oh, many young men, tell him all this. You are? Me. Oh, I hardly know the name. Well, he roams at your house, don't he? What more natural than you just glide into the conversation over a cup of coffee? Oh, oh, and you better add that the tragedy has left her haggard and aged, though she's still young in years. What's that for? You want to prepare them for the way she looks, don't you? I can still taste that roast chicken my mother prepared for Mr. Benson's first Sunday dinner. It was a strange and wonderful day. For once I was allowed to eat an entire meal without a single vegetable, and my pet didn't even scold when I put a gravy spot on Aunt Delia's and broadened tablecloth. We were all too busy watching Mr. Benson and Mary Lovell. Well, now, you know, that was the best dinner I've ever eaten in my life. Ever. Why, thank you, Mr. Benson. But you wouldn't say that if you ever tasted the roast chicken Mary made. Isn't that true, Mary? Oh, she's just flattering Mr. Benson. I'm not good at anything. Anything? Why, Mary Lovell, you know very well you make the best fan-buried cakes in Macy's. Oh, no. Don't believe her, Mr. Benson. Our Mary's inclined to be too modest. That's why she's the most popular member of our unmarried family. Mrs. Max, where are they? I can readily see why. Oh, Mr. Benson. Well, I guess I'll leave you two young folks to get acquainted while I see how my little girls are faring in the kitchen. They're just too quiet to see me. Have you? I beg your pardon. What were you going to say, Mr. Benson? Oh, no, no. You go ahead, Mrs. Lovell. Well, I was going to say, do you favor reading, Mr. Benson? Well, I've never been one much with books, Mrs. Lovell. I regret that now. It's never too late to learn, Mr. Benson. Now that a person has a good teacher, Mrs. Lovell? Uh, Mrs. Lovell. Yes, Mr. Benson. Would you... Would you, uh... lend me one of your books? Bye, Mr. Benson. I should love to. The first or the second? The seven o'clock show. Then they went into Bennett's pharmacy. That was at nine o'clock. They each got a cup of hot chocolate, and that's when he told her the blue of her dress matched the blue of her eyes. Well, for my military could have engaged. I wonder if my good black dress would do for the wedding. I've had it two years. Well, I'd like to ask Dad for a new print, but I know he'd raise the roof. What about you, Miss Elmira? I'm waiting for the invitation. Miss Elmira was right. Suddenly, a mysterious blight seemed to hit the blossoming romance. The women didn't know what to make of it. I simply can't understand it. He hasn't been over in a week, and Mary is simply hollow-eyed. He's acting pretty peculiar, too. Doesn't talk hardly to anybody anymore. Never so much as mentioned Mary. Although he used to love to get me on the subject of that poor dead Boston fellow. Hasn't she confided in any while at all? She's not the confiding source, Miss Elmira. She's lived here with us now for 11 years, and I swear she's never told me one intimate thing about herself. Although, frankly, I don't think there's ever been anything to tell more intimate than the color of her petticoats. Till now. What color are her? They're pink mostly. A few white ones, but not much lace until about three weeks ago. She got one of those 398 ones with eyelet embroidery. Hmm. That's when I knew things were getting serious. Oh, wait, wait. What's the matter? It's Mary. She's headed this way, and there's a look on her face. I'll call you back. Why, I came to you, Miss Elmira, because I know that if anyone would know who started that awful rumor, it'd be you. You, well, you say someone told him you once had a sweetheart? I did. Well, I thought, I mean, I should think that that would make you more interesting, so to speak. Well, that's what she said. She said at first he was actually attracted because of my romantic past. Uh-huh. Then later it began to worsen. Oh, dear. Oh, man. Oh, who could have started that horrible rumor? I bet it was that Mrs. Cartwright. It sounds just like her. Well, I don't sound like her. Anyway, why don't you go home and let me see what I can find out? Oh, will you, Miss Elmira? Yes, I will. Oh, thank you ever so much. I don't know what Mayfield would ever do without you. Sometimes I wonder about that myself. So you'll just have to tell him, Mrs. Maxwell. You mean not to tell him I lied? Now, Elmira Jordan, that's not fair. After all, you made up that Boston fellow yourself. Oh, it's a shame to do away with him this way. He was such a nice boy. And so high-born. Boston best. Well, I guess I'll have to think of something to say to Mr. Benson. He'll probably never speak to me again as long as I live. Anyway, he did admit the story attracted him to Mary in the first place. So even if it's lost me a friend, it's gotten Mary a husband. And that's what we were after, weren't we? Well, there's the story of Mary Lovell, Kenneth Meyers, Mrs. Dexter, Charles Oglesaw Benson, and Miss Elmira. Mary Lovell is Mrs. Benson now, and Kenneth Meyers is a major in the Army. And Miss Elmira? Well, Miss Elmira is no longer the telephone exchange. But I can have a dial-a-may-sealed number without hearing Miss Elmira's voice. Good morning, friend. You will be delighted to hear that Mrs. Ned Branner gave birth to an eight-pound baby girl this morning at 5.20. Mm-hmm. Now isn't that just lovely? They've named her Beverly. Mr. Branner wanted her to call Genevieve after his mother, but Mrs. Branner's always liked the name Beverly ever since she read the grouse-dark books. Mrs. Branner didn't have a hard time of it at all. Her mother came down from Oakland to help out for a while. Mm-hmm. Well, goodbye now. Our thanks to you, Agnes Moorhead, and to all members of tonight's Dupont Cavalcade cast. Next week, the Dupont Cavalcade is going to bring you a radio play about two American medical officers who sought out one of the most terrible scourges of history, Typhus, the feverish, hollow-eyed emperor of death, who, down through the centuries, had never met his master. But armed with nothing more than a dusting gun and some white powder, the American Army Medical Corps defeated him in the hectic days of 1944. Richard Worf will be on hand next week as our star in D.D.T. The music for tonight's Dupont Cavalcade was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. Our Cavalcade play was written by Sylvia Berger and based upon Louise Baker's Party Line, which is to be filmed by 20th Century Fox. This is Frank Graham inviting you to listen next week to Richard Worf in D.D.T. On the Cavalcade of America brought to you by the Dupont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is the National Broadcasting Company.