 Family Theater presents Loretta Young in Heritage of Home. From Hollywood, the mutual broadcasting system in cooperation with Family Theater presents Heritage of Home, starring Loretta Young. This is Family Theater's fifth anniversary, the beginning of its sixth year of broadcasting in the interest of family life in America. Since its inaugural broadcast, February the 13th, 1947, more than 300 stars of Hollywood and New York have appeared on 273 Family Theater programs to further the cause of family unity in the countries where Family Theater is heard. Now, for our special anniversary broadcast dedicated to the Homes of America, Heritage of Homes. And to act as narrator, one of Family Theater's very special friends who appeared on our first broadcast and has appeared 16 times since then, Miss Loretta Young. You've probably heard these words. In love of home, the love of country had its rise. They were written by Charles Dickens and Englishmen. But I think they have particular meaning to Americans because to us, it seems impossible to separate the two, love of home and love of country. For the very forming of our nation, we have made a bond between home and country that will not suffer a separation. We have taken the resources of America and made them into a way of life that pivots on the home. We have built a giant with the skeleton and muscles, not a bone and fiber, but an iron and steel from Pittsburgh, Fontana and Gary. We've given this giant arteries of rails and veins of superhighways. And we've forced the blood of industry and commerce to flow through them. His body protein is represented by a billion head of livestock on the hook. And his carbohydrates fill the numberless acres of cultivated fields across our nation. We have endowed this giant with a nervous system of Arizona copper to carry impulses at telephonic speeds over any distance and for any reason. We've activated him with 10,000 hydroelectric hearts from Lubeb Bay to San Francisco. Yes, we have in truth built an industrial giant and we have set him to one high purpose. The task of serving and preserving our heritage, our way of life, the way of life that centers on the home. We take it seriously, this heritage of ours. It was not easily come by. If you think it was, ask the men who died from great sharp wounds sustained while trying to hold a bridge at Lexington, or ask the men who died of cold at Valley Forge, or the 225 killed in the long forgotten battle of 440 and 1778. Those revolutionary warriors, those charter members of the Union, they could tell us about the cost of our heritage. And they could tell us about the things of another era, the era when America was being rediscovered. That's what you're saying, that there's a natural run of water all the way from the St. Lawrence to the Pacific Ocean, and that all a man has to do is to go up there and look. It could be there. I've heard about it even from the Indians. The Hurons and the Ottawa, they make plenty of talk about a northwest passage across the country. Some even say the English found it during the war and was fixing to use it against us when we beat them. If we had, it would have been a bigger war than it was. And maybe them red coats figured the whole thing wouldn't be worth the effort. Worth the effort? Man, I'll tell you it was worth the effort. Worth more than that. The war was a big war and it cost a lot in lives and sweat. I fought in it. Virginia militia under Patrick Henry's rest is sold. And I tell you, if I didn't know how much country there was here, I think I'd have fought just a little bit harder. That's for sure. What'd you see, Saunders? Why, man, it'd take a month to tell you the wonders I've seen in just this one year of trapping. You folks here in the East can't even imagine it. Mountains so high you couldn't see the top of. That's right. That's right. Whole strange up and running for hundreds of miles. Why, I've seen rivers, quick water rapids, rollin' boulders as big as this here table for miles. Why, there never was such a game. I trapped so many beaver I had to buy more pack horses from the Blackfoot. And if they hadn't stolen back from me, I'd be a rich man today. Yes, sir, beaver, so many they was gettin' in each other's way. Already beaver? Be a lord, no, deer, elk, moose. Why, you never seen such a game. And buffaloeer by the millions. Millions? Yes, sir, now I swear it, I swear it. I've seen herds of buffaloeer that cover the plains as fursy I can see. And so thick you couldn't see the grass they was foddering. Oh, heen, baby. It's God's own truth. But what about the soil? Soil, I'll tell you. I've been a wheelwright and a trapper and like a lot of other old timers, a soldier for a spell. Ain't never been a farmer, but don't take no farmer to know where I've been in the greatest growing country a man could ask for. Looks good. Good. Why, man, you never seen so many kinds of soil. Some black as soot, some red and some black. Well, colors don't mean much crap if there's nothin' goin' on it. Hair, now, hair, hair, hair, hair. Now, nothin' goin' on it. I'll tell you, there's nothin' that ain't goin' on it. I can talk his head off first, I care. Me too. How far did you get, old man, St. Louis? St. Louis. Hey, I've been across the big river, the Mississippi. Yes, sir. Across the mountains. Mountains are tall as snow lower all year round. Yes, sir. I've been in the greatest country God Almighty ever made in Enchom. St. Louis. Ha! I've been all the way to Taos. Taos? Yeah, well, you wouldn't know that, not know anything about that tall, but this town does. It's a town. Yes, sir. It's a far west, there's nothin' but Indians and Spaniards that come up from Mexico. And maybe a few trappers like myself. And I tell you another thing, this child knows. I just come back from seein' the best country this world's got to show a man. Yes, sir. It's big, it's rich, and it's a-waitin'. And as soon as I get a few possibilities, I'm goin' back out there. I'm goin' back. And there'll be plenty of the following me. Oh, yeah! Now, you watch, there'll be plenty of following me. West migrations have filled so many pages of history as the western movement in our own United States, when men and women put all their earthly goods in the flatbeds of Conestola wagons, and their futures in the hands of God and headed west. West to make their homes. And to seek what fortunes God might have in store for them. The Oregon Trail, the southern route, sometimes called the Santa Fe Trail, and another traveling line called Hanson's Way, which after time was known as the Devil's Highway, because some claim that only the devil himself could travel on that road and stay alive. These were the roads of westernings, all plainly marked. Marked with abandoned wagons, axle-deep in mud because of some sudden storm, or marked with blackened shells of wagons caught by even more sudden Indians. It would be interesting if we could ask these people how it was home hunting in those pre-wanted days. When almost any thought came with a good view and you picked your house out, log by log. When home improvement was a matter of sweat, you set a credit. Made up my mind, Emily. I'm going to talk to the captain. Oh, it's just what we wanted. No, Sampson, that's going another thousand miles, and we won't find anything better. Hey! Warner, you'll be standing first guard night along with Simpson. Sure will. Captain, we want to talk with you. We want to pull out of the train. Yes, we've seen the place we want. A couple of miles back, and you don't need us anymore. No reason for us to go the rest of the way to Oregon when we've already picked a home site. No, there isn't, but that ain't it, Miss Warner. You all signed on for the whole trip. It's a rule for the mutual protection of everyone, ma'am. A train master can't afford to break. Come a fight, one more man shooting, one more woman loading might make a big difference. But you said yourself we're almost finished with the Indian country. Oh, please, Captain, we'll be safe enough just a few miles from Fort St. Charles. Listen to me now. Now, look, I said a while back and I thought we wouldn't have a worry much about the Indians anymore, so we all have been pretty lucky, luckier than most, and here's the reason. This is a big train, 61 wagons. And 61 wagons are the only reason we've come as far as we have without being attacked. All of us together protecting each other takes a mighty big war party to start anything. It's kind of like the foremen of the government. Individuals all getting together, united to protect each other. Now, look, if you drop out of the train, chances are tomorrow, say, the Simpsons will see a spot of ground they like and they'll pull out too. And after a while, some of the others will go. And we won't have any strength left. You understand me? I see what you mean, Captain. Yes, we've got to depend on each other. Now, I won't hold you back if you really want to pull out, but I'll leave it up to you, Warner. What do you think? Well, it was an awful pretty spread back there, but I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of them. Don't you, Emily? Yes, we will. We'll be with you the rest of the way, I guess, Captain. Good. That's what I thought you'd say. And don't you worry. There'll be plenty of good home sites for you to pick from for this trail is done. I hope so, Captain. I know, ma'am. I've been this way before. If you ought to know, then, you just leave it to me. I'll tell you when to start looking. You're standing first watch with Simpson. Wait, and I'll leave you for the second watch. Thank you, Captain. You know something, Al. What? I'm kind of glad we're not fooling out. You are? You think I'm foolish? Well, maybe I am. Oh, it was a pretty enough place for a home back there, but... I don't think we'd ever stop wondering about the places still up ahead, the places we'd heard so much about. What do you mean? Well, you know, the ones we heard all the talk about when we were still back in Missouri, the ones that decided us on making the trip. All the wonders of the Washington Territory, Oregon, the Pacific Ocean, and California... I think we'd have always been a little mad at ourselves for not doing what we planned, for not going all the way to find the best place on earth to raise our children. That's mighty important, Albert. Emily, I think maybe you're right. Well, you better get started setting up camp while I unhitch the oxen and water. Like you said, they got a mighty important working hand. The wagon trains have all passed now, and the people who traveled in them have all gone. They built their children a heritage of home, and then they left. And their wagon tracks have been covered over with growing wheat and corn in fields of oil derricks, railroad tracks, and even cities. It was no accident this building of our homeland. It was a deliberate act of the United Wills, of hundreds of thousands of Americans, the pioneers who settled this land, and the men who fought in the 587 battles before the coming of this century. And those who preserved America in the unnumbered battles of the First and Second World Wars. And if you want to figure out the total, you'll have to count in Heartbreak Ridge, in Chon, in the Po-Hong Airstrip. Oh, yes, they too are being fought for home, indirectly perhaps, but just the same for home. To illustrate the statements, let's make a journey. Let's take a trip in thought and find a battlefield. Let's see this indirect protection of our home. This is the place. Yesterday it might have been a picnic ground, or a place where cattle grazed, or men sowed seeds of wheat and gathered in a harvest of full grain. But now in this place, men sow other seeds and reap another kind of harvest. Now you phone that information back to CHQ as soon as you ring it off here. All right, good night. Oh, come on in the tent, Lieutenant. Yes, sir. Well, what's this, little boy? That's what I wanted to see you about, sir. Some corporal had him in total. He got called for patrol. Now I've got him. It's all right, boy. The Colonel won't bite you. Excuse me, sir. Lieutenant, are you with the intelligence? Yes, sir. Lieutenant John Patterson, sir. What are we going to do about this? I was hoping you'd know, sir. Come here, boy. Lieutenant, tell him. Adionata, over here. It's all right. About the size of my youngest boy. All right, up you come. Lord, he doesn't weigh a thing. Has he been fed? Yes, sir. You're the first one. He's like, pick him up. No, no, no, no. Lieutenant? We're done. He wanted to know if you were a friend. It's always the first question he asks. First question? That's the second question, sir. He said his mother and father have gone away and so has his home. He means it was burned down. What did he say? He says that he's been looking for his parents, but he can't find them. He can't understand why they've been away so long. They've never left him alone before. He wants us to help him find them. Find his parents. I don't know what to tell him, sir. Lieutenant, tell him he can stay with us until we find his parents. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And tell him not to worry. We'll just pretend he's our little boy until we do find them. Too much, are you? Our children sleeping in their beds have no feeling of the yearning or the want that lives with other children in another hemisphere. We gently lay our babies down to sleep on fresh white linen sheets and watch them as they snuggle their small heads into their pillows and fold soft playoff to sleep. And if there seems to look of worry, oh, it's only that they fear tomorrow might not be as sunny as today. And if a nightmare troubles them in sleep, they'll wake from it and find themselves quite safe at home with reassuring parents. And those others whose whole lives are constant nightmares, they wake, gaze in anguish at the night and wonder if there'll ever come a dawn. He's asleep, Lieutenant, but look at his face. Troubled. Like only his body were asleep. Want to put him on the cot, sir? Yeah, real easy, ma'am. Gentle now. That does it. I thank God my own children don't have the trouble these two. You got any children, Lieutenant? No, sir. Well, maybe... Look, this war or police action or whatever they're calling it now is a test case, a sampler. The communists are just finding out how much they can get away with. Sir, the pattern's the same. Maybe if we hadn't let Mussolini run over Ethiopia, Hitler marched into Austria and Czechoslovakia. If we only could have done something then, maybe we could have nipped World War II in the bud. That would have been a big item. Yes, sir, it certainly would have. This is different. Now we've got a chance. If we do it right this time, maybe we won't have World War III. Things like this. Children without parents. Parents without children. And through the grace of God, the children home in America will never come to this. I suppose you're right about that, sir. I know I'm right. Just hope we can do it. You see, this war being fought in indirect protection of our homes might not be so indirect at all. We can turn our thoughts from battlefields for now and leave the darkness of the Orient small hours of the night and pass the sunrise over the Pacific and pause in our journey of thought to consider another aspect of the preservation of our heritage. That multi-engine aircraft in the distance was designed and built to be a luxury liner. Still might be called just that. For times of war make accepted needs like splints and plastic casts. Great luxuries. And give more value to a pint of dry blood serum than to a body's full weight in perfect diamond. Oh, yes. Yes, it's still a luxury liner, this aircraft with its cross of red. And it will be till that day when peace will be declared and it may settle in some quiet field and fly no more when there will be no more wars to fight or wounded to bring home. How would you like to drive for a while? Ah, delighted. Just let me pour myself a little more coffee here. You want some? Oh, thanks. How do you like this kind of work? Well, I don't care much for the hours. Equipment's nice, though. I can take it now. You got it. I guess I just outgrew fighter planes. Don't react fast enough anymore. I suppose I'm doomed to the slow stuff now. So? In ten hours you will be in San Francisco. You would have taken Columbus two years to make this trip. Now you're reaching for him, boss. Sure. Don't like my airplane? Oh, sure, I do. Best thing of flight. I'm a little curious about the name, though. My Angel? Yeah. You name it? I thought it was kind of appropriate. My Angel. Angel of mercy? Hospital ship. You know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Great big aluminum angel. Shorter way through space. Kind of poetic. That's me. Tony, you make one trip a week on this run? One round trip. How many weeks? Who knows? Duration, I guess. Duration, huh? I got a theory about that. I think it's corny. Tony, you got any religion? Yeah. Have you noticed how the end of a war always comes just about the time the world is going through a spiritual regeneration? I've noticed. Well, I think it's the spiritual regeneration. Everybody going back to God that does it brings peace. Mm-hmm. You got a point. Say, you don't talk much like an ex-fighter pilot. And another thing that... Why has America gotten away without being bombed? In England, one out of every five homes was damaged or destroyed in the last war. I don't know. Why? I don't know either, but I've got a theory that says... Charity. America's always been great for giving things to needy nations. Land lease, friendship trains, Marshall plan? Well, three chairs for the red, white, and blue. Well, you can laugh, but charity's a mighty big thing. And I think that's what's turning the trick. Charity means an awful lot to God. Yeah, might be at that. You know, a peculiar guy. Peculiar? Brother, I'm a miracle. Through the last war in fighters and through this one in jets, at least until last week, there's still not a mark on me. Yeah, on that much borrowed time a fellow sure can get religion. Sounds like it. And look at me now. Flying an angel. Less than ten hours, a propeller-driven angel came to rest in San Francisco. But not so with us. They thought it was not so restrained by air resistance, nor must a thought conform to rules of time and space. See below us now there lies the coastline of America. Behold the warmth and magnitude of this place we call our home. Behold the grace and beauty of this land held in the peaceful arms of ocean. There below in the interlacing filigree of earth and steel and water formed by the hand of God and man into cities. And into blocks on streets and into houses there are homes because the people who live in them are free and happy. Look beyond the early morning lights of harbor cities, past the greens of San Rafael and down the inland valleys to the south, where months ago ten thousand arbors strained under a million tons of grapes. A cloud comes from the sea and for a moment hides the desert's face from sunlight. Then drifts on to lose itself among the Rocky Mountains or perhaps join others and converge on Colorado for a storm. Past the jagged peaks of Rocky Mountains, a broad patchwork of fields of winter weeds, of corn stalks gathered into bunches, fields of soy of hay and green alfalfa, and here and there mountain ranges hold their snow-covered heads of the clouds and face toward the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. Below us now the Appalachian chain, New York and then the sea. This is our home, our heritage. This is the place where the responsibility for the preservation of that heritage must fall. Where resurgent towards the things of God should start, since our forebearers first set foot on new free soil and breathe the fragrance of this balsam-dare. Since men first set their plows to taste the sweetness of this land, our country's united will has been for liberty and peace. Oh, let us exert that united will by calling on our maker as a nation asking him to strengthen our homes and families against adversities, to give us peace, peace enough for all the homes all over the earth. Since, oh Lord, it is from thee come all holy desires, all right counsels and all just works, we pray thee to grant unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give. Stimulate our hearts, oh Lord, to keep faithfully thy commandments, that with the fear of enemies removed may our times by thy protection be peaceful. And when, oh Lord, in justice and in honor, we must fight to maintain the graces you have given us, remind us that through you and only through you may we look forward to an end of fighting. For the anniversary, Family Theatre has presented Loretta Young in the Heritage of Homes. Others in the cast include Ralph Moody, Howard Culver, Marion Richmond, Tom Holland, Billy Baugham, Eddie Ryan, Philip Ahn, and Maria Marco. The script was written by Robert Hewell Sullivan with special music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed for Family Theatre by Joseph F. Mansfield. This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theatre that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theatre will present James Cagney and Gene Cagney in the Redhead. Join us, won't you? Family Theatre has broadcast throughout the world in the magnificent Hollywood Studios of the world's largest network. This is the mutual broadcasting system.