 Transcribe. Ladies and gentlemen, the railroad hour. And here comes our star-studded show train. Tonight, the Association of American Railroads presents the charming Broadway musical Irene, starring Gordon MacRae and his guest star Elaine Malbin. A choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and the music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. Yes, tonight another great musical success is brought to you by the American Railroad. The same railroads that bring you the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the fuel you burn, and the multitude of other things you use in your daily life. And now, here is our star, Gordon MacRae. Thank you, Marvin Miller, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Well, sir, tonight Elaine Malbin will be the unforgettable Irene. I'm a fellow named Donald Marshall, and I'm giving a party at my Fifth Avenue mansion. And of course, you're all invited. Here on Fifth Avenue is tracing our family background. You mean genealogy, Bob? That's right. Climbing up our family trees until we find William the Conqueror. Sometimes you climb your family tree and all you find is bark. That's called barking up the wrong tree. In the art of genealogy, we find the pedigree of your family tree. And if it's what it ought to be, the tint of blue is. If you want to find an uncle or a cousin or an aunt, we knew your tree. When it was a plant, we can make them what your family. When the nations keep beneath the cover underneath. Glad to see you're taking an interest in this new hobby. Breeding always shows. Oh, I don't know, Bob. John, you've got to help me. With what? Well, I put a lot of money into a new shop, a Modisse, Madame Lucy. I brought her here from Paris, but nobody's heard of her yet. Well, what can I do? Well, get some of your good-looking girlfriends to wear Madame Lucy's clothes, where other people will see them. Bob, I couldn't ask a gal to change her Modisse. She might think I don't like her clothes. I beg your pardon, Mr. Marshall. Yes, Clarkson? There's a girl from the shop about the seat cushions on the veranda. I'll be right out, Clarkson. Excuse me, Bob. Yes, of course. The cushions seem OK to me. Well, hello. Hello. Mr. Marshall here wished to complain about the cushion. Clarkson? Yes, Mr. Marshall. You can go. But the complaint... I have no complaint. Yes, sir. Well, what's your name? I'm the girl from the shop, Arino Der. I know your name, Marshall. Do you know that you're one of the loveliest girls I've ever seen? No. Not in this old shirt waist and this 98 cent hat. I hope you don't mind, but I've been peeking at all those really lovely girls at your party. They're dreamy. Gowns don't make any difference. Oh, yes, they do. I had a gown one. You did? Mm-hmm. It was Alice Blue. One of the women who comes into our shop gave it to me. It was just a cast-off, but do you know that originally it cost $85? Imagine that. I took it home and pressed it and fluffed it up, and I felt like a princess. Where is it now? It's gone. I wore it out. It just faded away. Oh, I wish you could have seen me in it. It was so wonderful. I even used to put it on a hanger. I once had a gown with all the dangerous things to squeeze. It's wonderful. Clothes make a lot of difference to a girl. Even if I do live on 9th Avenue, I love beautiful things. I've got a great idea. Listen, I'm going to see that you get not $85 dresses, but $300 dresses. $300? Irene, have you ever heard of Pygmerion and Galatia? They are a portable team. No, no, no. He was a sculptor and she was a statue. He decked her out in the most beautiful remit and she came to life. And they loved each other forever and ever. I don't believe it. Well, that's what I'm going to give you, Irene. Gowns and jewels and hats and slippers. You're going to be Galatia. Gee whiff. How much do you make a week at the shop? $15. Well, you're making $25 a week right now. And all you have to do is wear beautiful clothes, go to parties and tell everybody you bought them at Madam Lucy's. Is it a deal? It's a deal. Let me put down. Oh, mother. Why, a girl in this very tenement house was a model for clothes and hats. And it was her ruin. She got used to fine feathers and wanted to be a fine bird. Well, you know what she turned into? An old crow. All right, mother. All right. And didn't I have enough experience with your old man? He had to get a job in a distillery. Oh, daughter, did he love his work? He drank everything they made. Never hurt him could have killed him. Yes, mother. Where do you go now with that black look on your face? Just out to sit on the fire escape. Oh, we owe you money. We owe you money. We owe you money. I guess all a gal can do is dream. If I shut my eyes and my ears, but this isn't the fire escape at all. It's the rampart of a castle. We built our castles in the air and did the world go by. So half of dreaming in the sun in dream twelve Oh, shame there can't be more. Every girl could have all the garbage cans over there. And that isn't Mr. Maholi's washing, flapping in the wind. It's Mr. Marshall. Don, on the White Horse, come to serenade me. I want slippers, stockings, hats and gloves, under things, over things, everything. Design a gown. Beautiful gown this town has ever seen. Um, mademoiselle O'Dare. Do you have a color preference? Oh, yes. Blue. Problems she's sensational. Such boys. Such breathing. Oh, yes, Bob. You always said that yourself. Breathing shows. Uh, Don, which O'Dare family is that? Uh, the O'Dare's. You don't mean it. Well, oh, Don, I tell you, she's so fascinating that I'm positively falling in love with her. All the other men at this party seem to have the same idea. Listen. Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, one at a time. Oh, I'm having a lovely time. Well, it says it should be, Miss O'Dare, because we all think you're the loveliest girl in the world. Gentlemen, I thank you. I only hope at midnight I don't turn into a publicist. We'll return in just a moment for act two of... Just imagine, if you will, the longest underwater electric power cable in the world, seven and one-half miles long. Then think of a 525,000-pound base for a huge steel tower. Finally, picture in your mind a tremendous mirror, 17 feet in diameter. Only the railroads, in fact, have the facilities, the flexibility, the ingenuity and inventiveness to meet the challenge of these modern-day transportation jobs. To begin with, only the railroads privately financed highways of steel could stand up under such weight, and only on the railroads' privately-owned network of steel rails can such outsize loads be moved with safety and efficiency and without jeopardizing the safety and convenience of motorists. To do these jobs, the railroads have designed and built special cars capable of carrying tremendous weights and furnishing extra feet of clearance. They have, when necessary, torn up their tracks, dug out the roadbed beneath them, and temporarily replaced the tracks at a lower level. And always they have taken full advantage of their extreme flexibility, their ability to use a large variety of alternate routes, if a shipment is too oversized to make it on the most direct routes. Now, the railroads' ability to adapt their operations and facilities to handle special oversized loads is vital to the nation's economy in peacetime and absolutely essential in wartime. But more than this, the railroads' ability to handle these difficult transportation jobs with the same efficiency and dispatch they use in their day-in-day-out job of hauling the bulk of the nation's freight is a clear indication of why the railroads continue to be the very cornerstone of our transportation system. Here's Act 2 of the Lawrence and Lee version of Irene, starring Gordon Macrae as Donald Marshall and Elaine Malbin as Irene. Oh, John, business is booming. Every woman in town is buying her clothes at Madame Lucy's and all because Irene has been the toast of every party. Well, I'm happy that you're happy. Oh, you have no idea. Don, I'm in love with the girl, too. I've asked her to marry me. Yeah? What'd she say? She said she'd let me know. Meanwhile, I've been investigating her family tree. Oh? What'd you find? I've had the top genealogy expert make out a chart. Paid him $500. It proves she's an aristocrat. $500? If you paid $1,000, Bob, they would have said her father was the Prince of Wales and her mother was Queen of Romania. You don't approve of genealogy? Oh, what good is a fancy family tree? It makes you feel like a potato. The best part of you is underground. Well, all right, here's the odour history. It's all on this scroll. Let me have that, will you? I'll be right back. Irene. Oh, Irene. I'm right here, Mr. Marshall. Oh, you having fun? Oh, yeah. I wish it could last forever. I've kept a diary, so if anything happens, I'll have something wonderful to read about, at least, when I'm an old lady. You know what I have here? The history of your family. Oh, dear. Does it tell about pop and the distillery? And about Uncle Gus and the Jersey cop? No, no. It's all about queens and princesses in Ireland. It's all poetry. Here, look. Oh, it's like a fairy story. And I'm in it. Yes, you are. A little bit of salt and sweetness. Irene, a dainty slip of rare completeness. Mannerism, magnetism, eyes of youth inviting. Dancing by, with glancing eye, the flush of her exciting siren. The sword who captures hearts to charm them. Careful beware. Here, now she's there, followed by her sets. Up she goes, down she goes. Everybody's pet. Near or far, there you are. Captured in the net of tippity, which Irene, oh, dare. Irene, a little bit of salt and sweetness. Irene, a dainty slip of rare completeness. Mannerism, magnetism, eyes of youth inviting. Dancing by, with glancing eye, the flush of her exciting siren. The sword who captures hearts to charm them. Careful beware. Here, now she's there, followed by her sets. Up she goes, down she goes. Everybody's pet. Near or far, there you are. Captured in the net of tippity, which Irene, oh, dare. That's so nice. Oh, I wish it was true. I wish it was for real. I hate masquerading when I'm with you. But I'm the one who made it all up. That pig guy. Pigmalion. Yes. Did his gal ever have to go back and be a statue again? Or could she keep on pretending she was a girl and keep on being in love with him? Well, I think he was the one who had to pretend, because you see, she is so very beautiful that he never thought he was worthy of it. Golly. Ooh, be worthy. Just a little little smile. Oh, hi, Bob. What's up? Well, the party's almost over, and I'd like the last dance with the most beautiful girl here. Oh, no, no, no, no, you don't. Irene's gonna dance with me. I'm awfully sorry, Bob. I always said, Bob, the last part of a party was the most fun of all. You know that. Oh, the line. I wouldn't change your disposition, though I may have the intuition. Oh, not so much to miser, I should say. Oh, do tell. Now you're coming around, or else you wouldn't smile. And I know despite your attitude, you show a little gratitude and make the way we waitin' worth a while. Mother! Whoever snoozes on the corner of 8th Avenue told me where you'd been high on to me, fine lady. So this is why you quit your job in that shop to mix with these squirrels. I'll come home with you right now, mother. I should think so. Get out of those fine feathers and come back to your roost on 9th Avenue. Irene. Don't say anything, darling. Please. Well, this certainly changes the whole picture. I obviously can't marry you now. Well, nobody asked you to. Uh, Irene. What if a guy like me stood in line and waited, and maybe Sunday if she thought he was good enough for her, then maybe she'd want to go through life with him? Hmm? Do you hear that, mama? Mr. Big Mailing here is asking me to marry him. It sure sounded that way. Oh, you have lovely ears, Galatier. Oh, the saints' preservers look at them, too. They're in love. Oh, yes, mama. And it's just like in a fairy tale. Thanks to Verna Felton, Tom McKee, and to our entire company. Irene with music by Harry Tierney, booked by James Montgomery, and lyrics by Joseph McCarthy was dramatized for The Railroad Hour by Lawrence and Lee. The Railroad Hour is brought to you each week at the same time by the American Railroads. Every time you see one of the men or women who serves you by working for the railroads that serve you, and there are more than one and a quarter million of these men and women, remember this. For each of those people, it is at least one other person employed by the many industries that supply the railroads. Railroad purchases of materials, supplies, fuel, and equipment annually total up to several billions of dollars. They represent a realistic cross-section of the output of American industry and agriculture. The result is that in providing the nation's number one transportation system, the railroads not only create millions of jobs, but they are also one of America's best customers. Thank you very much, Marvin. Where are you taking the show train next week? Well, you just listen. You're going to be one of the three musketeers. No, no, you're wrong, Elaine. I'll be the fourth musketeer. And Dorothy Warren's show will be with us to fill the air with music. We'll all be listening. Good night, Gordon. Come back soon, Elaine. All aboard! Well, dear friends, it looks as though ready to pull out. And so until next Monday night, and three musketeers on behalf of the other members of the cast and of the American Railroads, this is your friend Gordon McRae saying good night. Irene was presented by special arrangement with the Tams Whitmark Music Library. Gordon McRae may be seen starring in Two Sailors and a Girl in Technicolor. Our choir was under the direction of Norman Luboff, and our music was prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. This is Marvin Miller saying goodbye until next week for the American Railroads. And reminding you, this month is Easter Seal Month. As you know, this campaign benefits the hundreds of thousands of crippled children who need the services of the National Society for Crippled Children. Won't you support the work of this organization? And now keep tuned for your Monday Night of Music on NBC! Transcribed. Stay tuned now for the telephone hour with Barbara Gibson on the NBC Radio Network.