 Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. The makers of Hallmark cards bring you another and their exciting new series of broadcasts. On the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Hallmark will bring you true to life stories of actual persons who in their own way have contributed to a better world for all of us to live in. Presented on the Hallmark Hall of Fame by our distinguished host, Mr. Lionel Barrymore. Ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Hallmark Hall of Fame where each Sunday night we dramatize a true story for you. A true story of a real people to whom we respectfully dedicate this Hallmark Hall of Fame. And tonight we shall have a special guest after our dramatization whom I'm sure you'll all want to meet. Now once again the cry of play ball will unsettle this happy land. Tons of hot dogs, niagra's of pop will be consumed, millions of healthy grandmothers will perish suddenly and their funerals will be held oddly enough at Yankee Stadium, Shide Park or Ebbitt's Field. A great American spectacle of baseball will be on. The names of great and beloved baseball players are known to us. But do we know the man who more than anyone else is responsible for baseball as we know it today? Well, tonight the Hallmark Hall of Fame gives you the thrilling true story of Henry Chadwick, the father of baseball. Now here is Frank Goss from the makers of Hallmark cards. When you're looking for a way to say something to someone you care for, look for a Hallmark card and you'll find the card you want to send. Because Hallmark cards are designed to say what you want to say, just the way you want to say it, with the good taste you demand of anything that bears your signature. That's why Hallmark on the back of a greeting card has come to mean you cared enough to send the very best. Lionel Barrymore appears by arrangement with Metro Golden Mayor, producers of the Technicolor Musical Small Town Girls starring Jane Powell and Folly Granger. And now Lionel Barrymore brings you the first act of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Chris of Dizzy, Dazzy, Daffy, Bobo, Preacher, Rabbit and Gabby, Kai Kai, Satch, Demerge, Baby the Baseball, your attention please. Friends and I, Joe and Mabel, Tom and Dick and Harriet, your attention please. Find the sports, find the first names, find the colorful nicknames and clean sportsmanship, meet Plain Henry. But boys, you use a frat bat, don't you see? At least we did an exit. Henry Chadwick of Exeter England, now native of Brooklyn, saw some boys playing a curious game which he thought was cricket, or at least the English round as well as it was. It was four o'clock. Henry tried the game and first time at bat almost slammed the ball into Manhattan across the river. From that historic moment Henry Chadwick had won his Brooklyn citizenship and from that moment Henry Chadwick, champion cricketer back in England, became a man for the mission. They're Americans, mother. They love games. And they play them with all their heart. They don't have a game. It's not American, mother. What about that mixed up game? Those New York knickerbockers amuse themselves with. That's just it, mother. They amuse themselves with their curious game. They're a group of wealthy gentlemen playing under their own rules for their private amusement. That's no good, mother. They need national rules, national organization. There must be something I can do. I was wondering when you'd come to that. Mother, could you spare me three days a week and Sundays if I joined the Excelsior Baseball Club and gave those knickerbockers a lesson? Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York, sir. The Excelsior Club at its last meeting made the following resolution that the Excelsior Club engage the Knickerbocker Club in a friendly game of baseball to be played at your early convenience. Very truly yours, Henry Chedwick, Secretary Excelsior Baseball Club. Thank you, Dr. Adams. You're rather badly bruised. Here under the stands and go home. You're hostile to me. They used to cheer my hitting and fielding. Henry, if you're fine in the game, a certain gentleman would have given up a handsome profit. Profit? Your hit was sure to ruin their investment. You'd have stand by helplessly while baseball has turned into a lottery and a cheat for the profit of a few dishonest men. That is precisely what is happening. Not when your father played, Henry. Your father played a good game of cricket. But he also wrote editorials for his newspaper. Do you think I could write, Mother? Would they listen to me? One of the finest cricket champions in America. Well, I think the people of America like baseball and want it. But they want it fair and straight, and they'll get it fair and straight if I can do anything about it. Thank you, Mother. That's it. Somebody threw something through the window. And an envelope. With money in it. Money, Henry? What does the note say? Safely once tomorrow, and that's all. And you can keep the change. Oh, I can tell you when your father played cricket, something would... Mother, the window is badly broken already. You won't mind. Will you if I...? And it's not cricket, Mother. It's baseball. The second actor of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Every woman who has children to care for is familiar with this ageless question. Mother, what'll I do? May come on a rainy day when the youngsters can't go out and play, or it may be asked when the little folks are tired of their toys and bored with their usual games. Tonight, I want to suggest a really constructive pastime that will keep your old boys and girls busy for hours on end. One that will teach them to be thoughtful of others, too. Simply supply them with Hallmark May baskets. You see, Hallmark May baskets are bright, pretty baskets that children can put together without scissors or glue. Once they're made, they can be filled with a few candies or flowers and left on the doorsteps of playmates or grown-up friends. May baskets are a wonderful way to celebrate the happy custom of May Day and bring out the true spirit of this glad season. And the cost of Hallmark May baskets is low. Just 50 cents for a package of five different designs. So why not get yours one day soon? You'll know Hallmark May baskets by the Hallmark and Crown on the package. The symbol you look for on your greeting cards when you will carry enough to send the very best. And now Lionel Barrymore brings you the second act of our true story of Henry Chadwick. The gamblers, Henry Chadwick continues his tremendous batting to the deepening displeasure of the speculators. In the offices of the Long Island Star, he pushes an angry pen as defiantly as he swings a bat. Unless there is some sort of overall control and is in deadly peril of it, there must be public anger and official action over abuses. Let the game be organized, exploitation by thieves and hooligans. Discredit to the game. Baseball loses favor more and more. Teams dissolve. The famous Knickerbocker Club considers disbanding. But stubbornly, Henry Chadwick takes his great excelsis on tour, trying to save the game. In Richmond, Virginia, Henry has one of his finest and most significant days. Henry circles the bases while a suspicious crowd of plauds and dipens are suspicious. Did the pitcher let Henry hit safely for a price? Chadwick emerges alone and unhappy from the crude clubhouse. Starts across the primitive diamond. The stands are empty, but a lone carriage approaches and from the shadow of the stands... Lady something right halfway. You must think this is very unconventional of me, but my escort refused to introduce us and I had to tell you. You play a lovely game of baseball. Lovely? You write almost as well as you play. Thank you. Tell me, if you receive a very proper invitation to dine with us, from Father Cohen, would you come? Oh, why, I'd be delighted. Mother will never consent to a ballplayer, but she will to a writer. But Father hates writers and adores ballplayers. Now try to remember which to be to whom. Good. I would give you a lift into town, but it might give Richmond's eyebrows an even greater lift. Good evening, Mr. Chadwick. Good evening, Miss... Bach! Isn't it awful? Good evening, Miss Bach. Catherine Bach. It gets worse as it goes along, you see. I like it all right. Oh, well, I'd just rather be more than you realize because I've just been thinking of changing. Changing? Well, get up, Eugenie. Catherine, if you please. Kathy... How did I manage a dinner? Well, the writer was frequently uncouth, but the baseball player was a modern with urbanity. Oh, I'm confused. So am I, Henry. About what? Well, Henry, this fight you're making for all of baseball. Is it really worth it? Kathy, every nation needs its own tradition. Its national sport is part of its national tradition and character. A nation needs its heroes of peacetime as well as war. Heroes in armor are not enough to... Oh, dear, I'm boring you. No. I say America can grow a vast breed of heroes of every sort. Men to bring smiles and admiration to men's lips and children's eyes. Men who, without shedding blood, can bring honor to their country. Chadwick? No, no, no. I mean great men, heroes. Chadwick. You're laughing at me. Perfect gales of laughter, as you can see for yourself. Kathy, I've got to go back to New York. Will I hear from you? I don't know. What doesn't matter? As you'll hear from me, Mr. Jeff... Glenn's the name. Glenn. And your business with the Long Island Star? Oh. Oh, I see you're writing another article against the bad, unscrupulous gamblers. State your business, sir. In tomorrow's match with the Sabres, you will sing suddenly once to appear sincere. After that, you will be wise to pop up or strike out. Anything else, Glenn? Yes. Tear up that editorial you're writing and see that you don't write any more of them. No inducements, currency and an envelope, premiums? Lose that game. Stop printing editorials against us. And when you're asked to vote on a new league of baseball clubs to regulate baseball I've been hearing about, vote against it. Get out. Oh, by the way, I hear that Miss Catherine Botts is in town for the game. Come on, you, Glenn. Cooperate tomorrow and see colorful whales and Normandy on your honeymoon. Otherwise, well, get out. And you will tear up that editorial. And so we'll pop up and strike out. The tying and winning run are on base for the Excelsior's. Henry is young. He's in love. Baseball is just a game. Why be a fool for a fool's game? One strike left to lose the game. The stands grow sullen and still. In the stands, Kathy and Dr. Adams of the Nicarbaca Club almost grimly await the next pitch. Get us Henry, please. Henry was Henry. They always suspect pressure by the interests. It's hard to blame them. Henry would ask history might have thought of me if the catcher didn't drop that third. And molded and organized and welded into the great national game it is today. For years, it was one of the game's leading players. And continuing as a crusading sports writer, he defended the game from attack and from corruption, building it into full acceptance by the American people. The reason enough why Henry Chadwick is today called the father of baseball. We'll be back with our special guest in just a moment. But first, our friend Frank Goss has a little story of his own to tell you. It's about a familiar triangle. A boy, a baseball bat, and a broken window. Isn't it true that part of the effectiveness of the things we say is a matter of timing, of saying something at the right moment? I thought of this today when I read a note from a little boy in my neighborhood who had sent a baseball crashing through my window, and the note simply said, Mr. Goss, I'm sorry I smashed your window. Signed Johnny. That was all. But Johnny has made a friend for life because he said the right thing at the right time. Now, most of us rarely need to write a letter of apology, but we often want to say something special to our friends and see that they receive our message at the right time. That's why so many people have found hallmark cards, the ideal ambassador of friendship. And it's always possible to find a hallmark card that says what you want to say, just the way you want to say it. And because you can find a hallmark card made especially for the occasion, it always reaches your friend at just the right time to say, happy birthday, hope you're feeling better, or just to say, hello, I'm thinking of you. And you can count on it. The familiar hallmark and crown on the back of your card will give an added meaning to your message, for it means always, you'll carry enough to send the very best. And now here again is Lionel Barrymore. Tomorrow, the full spectacle of American baseball unfolds. Tonight, our hallmark hall of fame is deeply honored to pay tribute to one of baseball's very greatest, the pride of the Yankees, and for all time, a credit to baseball, late Lou Gehrig. To us, he represents all the virtues and sportsmanship that Henry Chadwick stood for. And so, as our special guest, we have Mrs. Lou Gehrig speaking, transcribed to us from New York. Mrs. Gehrig, we don't have to review new special greatness. He was among the very first in skill. He was the very best in good humor and good sportsmanship. Few men have done for any calling what Lou did for baseball. Thank you, Mr. Barrymore. Not just for your gracious words about Lou, but especially for your recognition of the importance of baseball to the American way of life. With the opening of another Major League season tomorrow, I too think this is a good time for us all to reflect on the many contributions the game has made. Lou was always aware of what baseball meant to America in terms of good sportsmanship, team play, and a keen competitive spirit. Therefore, Mr. Barrymore, it is indeed a pleasure to join with you and millions of others in paying tribute tonight to America's favorite game. Thank you, Mrs. Gehrig. On behalf of all Americans, may I express America's great depreciation and unforgettableness of a great ball player and a very great person. Next week on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, we will pay tribute to the man who was recognized as the father of our American drama, William Dunlap, as we dramatize his true and fascinating story. There's going to be another special night for us all to be sure, not to miss. We must be listening. Our Hallmark Hall of Fame is every Sunday. Our production director is William Gay. Our script tonight was written by Milton Geiger. Until next Sunday then, this is Lionel Barrymore saying good night. There are so lonely in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. Our cast tonight included Whitfield Connor as Henry Chadwick, Lorraine Tuttle as Katherine Butts, Ted DeCorsi as Dr. Adams, Constance Cavendish as the mother, Peter Leeds as Glyn, and Byron Kane as the umpire. On Sunday afternoon, April 26th, there will be a special Hallmark Hall of Fame program. Hallmark cards will present Mr. Maurice Evans in his two-hour television production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's out your paper for time and channel. This is Frank Goss saying good night to you all until next week at this same time, when we present another true-to-life story of actual persons who, in their own way, have contributed to a better world for all of us to live in. Next Sunday, we honor the father of American drama, William Dunlap, on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. This is KMBC.