 Vicks presents the Matinee Theatre starring Victor Jory. Vicks, the makers of Vicks Vapour Up, Vicks Vatronol, Vicks Coff Drops and Vicks Inhaler brings you the Matinee Theatre in a most unusual presentation entitled Beautiful Dreamer starring Victor Jory in the role of Stephen Collins Foster. You know, more and more millions of people are using Vicks Vatronol nose drops to relieve distress of head colds, benefit by their experience. The curtain rises on Act One of Beautiful Dreamer. Lots of folks have had a lot of different things to say about Stephen Collins Foster, about where he lived and how he lived and what he thought about things. And so many years have passed now that it's a bit hard to sift the truth from the legend. I don't even know that that's important to anyone but the historians. Of course, most everyone knows that he grew up in Pittsburgh and at that time, Pittsburgh was a swaggering, lusty little town along whose muddy streets the old covered wagons were rolling westward. On the night our story opens, Stephen and some of his friends had gone to see the celebrated Christy Minstrels and after the show, he and his brother, Mitt, had to walk home with young Jeannie McDowell. You know, I think this is one of the best evenings we've ever had. Isn't Jim Crow a great song? I can't get it out of my head. Oh, I think some of your songs are just as good, Stephen. I wish I thought so. Mid-look! Hey, Steve, look, here come some of the covered wagons. Yeah, head and waist. Oh, Stephen, wouldn't it be wonderful to go with them? Goodbye, folks. Good luck. Goodbye. Hey, what are you crying about? I don't know. There's something sad about all these people leaving their homes. They don't know what's before them. That's what's so exciting about it, Jeannie. It's as though you're watching history roll by close enough so you can reach out and touch it. Goodbye, mister. Good luck. Go safely. Oh, go safely. Oh, thanks, friend. Hey there, little lady. Don't you cry. We'll be back. Don't you cry. Don't you cry. Don't you cry for me. And look, Stephen, we don't let Jeannie go in the house. Dr. McDowell's getting us alive. Mitt, there goes America West. I wish I was going too. Well, good night, Jeannie. I'm going to leave for Cincinnati morning. I've got to finish packing. I hope you'll be happy there, Stephen. We'll all miss you so much. Thanks. I'll miss you too. Will I see you tomorrow? Yes. We'll all be down to see you off. Thank you for a very lovely evening, Stephen. And you too, ma'am. Good night, Jeannie. Good night. Don't you cry for me. What are you singing, Steve? I don't know yet. It's just something I thought of when those wagons passed. It's been going around in my head. Wake up! Wake up! What is it, Stephen? What do you want? What time is it? About three in the morning, I guess. Listen, Mitt. I just wrote a song. I want you to listen to it. Oh, good gosh. Can't it wait till morning? No, sir. You're going to hear it right now. One of these days, you'll want to say I was the first person in the world to hear Oh, Susanna, and I heard it at three o'clock in the morning. I'd be just as happy to say I heard it at ten in the morning. I heard it at ten in the morning, but go ahead. It rained all day. The night I left. The weather it was dry. The sun so hot to froze to death. Susanna, don't you cry. Don't forget your umbrella when it's raining. All right, ma'am. Goodbye, father. Goodbye, Stephen. You're a good job, son. Well, I'll do my best. Goodbye, Stephen. I think, oh, Susanna's a wonderful song. Did you know that Mitt came around and taught us the words this morning? No. Oh, good, Mitt. Goodbye, everybody. See you soon. Goodbye, Stephen. Come on, everybody. Sing it for him now. Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me. I come from hell, I'm a win, I'm the one I need. I'm Steve Hill, quite a send-off. They're certainly noisy enough. What's that blame thing they're singing? The song called, Oh, Susanna. Do you like it? No, I never heard it before. Who wrote it? Collins Foster, I believe. Stephen Collins Foster, eh? Never heard of him. Well, he'll have to do better than that if he ever expects to get any place. You're wrong. He's on his way some place right now. He's on his way to the top of the world. Not with that trashy isn't he? No, well, just wait and see, mister. Just you wait and see. And, father, the time goes very fast here in Cincinnati, and I'm very busy. After the day's work is finished, I spend my time writing songs. There's a gentleman who's going to publish some of them. I've written a few of them. Way for the famed Christian installs. The greatest, the most gorgeous, the most complete, the funniest, and the most tuneful minstrel show, now touring America. See the cakewarp. Hear the minstrel singers present the latest song by the celebrated American composer, Stephen Collins Foster. Way down south. Way down south, where the corn grow. Come along to Cuba and we'll dance the polka-juba. Way down south, where the corn grow. It seems such a long time since I've seen any of you. I like it here, but I think I'll be coming home soon. One day last month, I crossed the river to Vis-Dark Cousin at Federal Hill. That house in Kentucky is something I'll never forget. I fell asleep listening to the voices that drifted up from the Negro quarters. I think I must put it all into a song. My old Kentucky home. I've spent enough years away from home and enough years as a bookkeeper, and so I'm giving up my position and returning to Pittsburgh. I'm taking the boat one week from Saturday. By the way, I'm enclosing a song for Mitt to take a look at. I'm calling it Camp Town Racers. Camp Town Racers. I've tried my long, old Luda day. I come down there when I had kids in Luda. Luda. I go back home with a pocketbook in old Luda day. What a run all night. What a run money on the barfield. Make somebody bet on the bay. There, Jane. Don't you think that's one of the best songs Steve has ever written? Yes. Indeed I do. You'll be going down to the wharf with us to meet him Saturday, won't you, Jeannie? No, I... I don't think so. I have a great deal to do on Saturday, and I'm sure Stephen won't even miss me. Not that I care. No, Miss McDowell. What kind of an attitude is that? Well, what kind of an attitude should I have? He's been gone for three years, and he didn't write one letter. Not one. Well, he sent messages. Oh, to be sure. Give my love to everyone. Say hello to everyone. And say hello to Jane, if you happen to see her. Oh, no, Mitt, it's no use. It never has been any use. I know that. I'm not the girl for Stephen anyhow, now that he's so famous. Oh, don't feel that way. Please come, Jeannie. No. No, don't ask me, Mitt. I might cry. And I don't want Stephen ever to see me cry. Particularly over him. All right, Jeannie. If that's the way you want it. Why wasn't Jeannie at the boat? She was, uh, busy, I guess. Oh, I see. Jeannie's very popular, you know. I don't think there's a fellow in town that wouldn't give her his right arm if she wanted it. That's all? Stephen, have you ever really looked at Jeannie? Well, I haven't had much chance in the last three years. I've got a pretty good idea what she looks like. Yeah? What color are her eyes? Brown. Uh, uh, blue. Uh, uh, green? They're gray. Oh, gray. Well, I knew there was something like that. So Jeannie's the town bell, huh? And she didn't have time to come down to the boat, huh? Throw me her shoes, will you, fellow? Sure, but... What do you want with your shoes at two in the morning? I'm gonna pay a call, toss him a trouser. She didn't have time to come down to the boat, huh? You can't call on a girl at two in the morning. Can't I? Well, just watch me. Watch me. You won't feel so smart if Dr. McDowell comes out and wants to know why you're throwing pebbles at these windows. No. You won't feel so smart either if you break window. She doesn't wake up. I'm gonna hammer on the door. There she is. I'll wait here for you. Now, what do you boys mean by throwing rocks at my window at this hour of the night? Suppose my father had come down. Once you've taken sort of a chance opening the door, or do you open the door to anyone who throws pebbles at you and her? I knew it was you. I peeked. Hello, Stephen. Welcome home. Hello, Genie. I missed you at the boat. I missed you in Cincinnati. Did you, Stephen? You know something? Milch seems to think that I've never really seen you in my life. And what do you think about that? I think maybe he's right. Because you seem like someone completely new to me tonight, someone I've never met before. You're not the little Genie I grew up with. Steve, it's awfully late. Good night, Genie. I'll be calling tomorrow. Good night, Stephen. I'll be waiting tomorrow. Hello, Genie. Hello, Stephen. Come in. Thank you. Won't you sit down? Sit down? No. I think better on my feet. Genie, there's something that just occurred to me. That is, it's been on my mind for some time, I suppose. Only, I didn't really know it. You see, I never thought about you in that way, because you always seem sort of like a sister. Yes. I think that you're a very splendid girl with a fine character, and I've always looked up to you. Well, that's very nice to know, Stephen. Yes, I suppose it is. Genie, please don't interrupt. What I'm trying to say is, well, it's... Hang it all, will you marry me? No, no, don't say no without thinking it over. I've got some fairly good qualifications. Well, I can't seem to think of them right now. Do you love me, Stephen? Love you? Oh, Genie. Will you marry me? Of course I will. This is foster you're looking very beautiful out here in the moonlight. Oh, Stephen, I'm so happy. This is the most wonderful wedding gift that anyone ever had. I hate to get off the boat tomorrow. I knew anyone could be this happy. You know, I found myself going up to absolute strangers and getting acquainted just so I could sit down and say, let me tell you about my wife. Oh, I love to say those words. My wife, my... They make me feel very wealthy. Oh, Genie, Genie, Genie. You make me want to be so much better than I am. I want to take all the music I know and fill your heart with it. I want to give you every smallest thing you ever wanted. I'm not going to put into words, but Genie, I love you so much. Sometimes when I look at you, I want to cry. I feel the same way. I'm very proud to be your wife. Oh. Darling, I don't want to get off the boat tomorrow. Darling, tomorrow will be such a wonderful day. We're going to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. We're going to dance and sing, drink champagne, and I'll whir you around and around until you can't catch your breath. And around and around and around. It's life. Steven, listen. They're playing O Susanna. They're playing your music, darling. I don't believe it. Oh, look at everyone's dance. Darling, aren't you proud? Good evening, sir. We rode from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati together, remember? Yes, very well. This is my wife, sir. How do you do? Isn't the orchestra playing that same song your friends were singing on the 4th that day? Yes, they are. I still think it's terrible. And I still say Steven Collins Foster's going anyplace. Well, nice to have seen you again. Goodbye. Oh, Steven, who was that horrible man? Just someone I met on the boat. I never knew his name and he never knew mine. Now, don't look like that, darling. Don't you know that people like that are put in the world so that Steven Collins Foster's will work harder? You know what we're going to do tomorrow? What? I'm going to put all the things I feel inside me into music. The music that comes surging out of a man's soul when he looks around him and says, this is my country. This is my home. The bright, lusty music of Americans laughing. The strong, bitter tears of Americans pausing to bury the dead. And the tenderness of American men for one woman. Their love of firesides in peace at evening. The prayers that dream the disappointments, it's all inside me, Genie, and it's all music. My friend, whoever he was, says, Steven Foster will never get me place. Well, I say is wrong and I'll prove that he's wrong. In just a moment, the second act of beautiful greener starring Victor Jory and featuring Betty Winkler. Friends, you probably know from experience how exasperating it is when your nose stops up at night from transient ingestion or a cold in the head and makes breathing so difficult it's hard to get to sleep. Now, the next time you're bothered this way put a few drops of Vicks Vatronol in each nostril and feel it go right to work to open up the stuffy nasal passages in a hurry and make breathing easier. You marvel at how quickly it invites restful sleep by helping you breathe comfortably again. Vatronol is a specialized medication that brings grand relief in time, day or night, from sniffles, sneezes and stuffiness caused by head colds. So it's wise to keep a bottle always on hand ready to use immediately when needed. Try Vatronol, friends. You'll like the way it works. Just follow the simple directions in the package. Vicks Vatronol Nose Drops The curtain rises on act two of beautiful greener starring Victor Jory as Steven Collins Foster. Steven Foster and his genie went back home to Pittsburgh. Their daughter, Marion, was born about a year later and then they went on to New York and took a room in a boarding house. Some folks liked his music. Some didn't. No one paid much money for it. And so in Steven's own words all the world became sad and dreary. Far from the old folks at home at home. Oh, Steven, that's beautiful. I think it's one of the finest things you've ever written. Have you taken it to the publishers? Yes, I took it over this afternoon. It'll be out a few weeks. Oh, darling, this song can't help it for your success. I'm sure the newspapers will speak well of this one. Do you really think so? This newspaper would like to go on record as stating that such tunes as old folks at home are trivial and not musically inspiring. Yet they continue to break out every now and then like a morbid irritation of the skin. Last night, Miss Anna's there ashamed to say, stooped to pick up and sing old folks at home. One would soon think of picking up an apple core in the street. Old folks at home is as trashy as most of the other compositions of Steven Collins Foster. The baby doesn't look well, does she, Steven? I wonder if she's getting the proper nourishment. I'm afraid she isn't. Let me let me hold her a while, Jeannie. All right. Oh, look at her smile. She's a good little girl. Let the blanket around her, dear. I'll sing her to sleep. Come where my love lies, dreaming. Completely without merit. His latest, come where my love lies, dreaming is no exception. No. What's the use? Darling, there are good comments and reviews too. You mustn't read only the bad ones. Jeannie, I I don't think I I don't think I can write music anymore. Steven, a letter came from Mitt this morning. He sent some money to tide us over until your next royalties come in. By then our love will change. I'm sure of it. Well, you're the greatest composer in the world. I'm afraid I'm closer to being the greatest failure. It seems as though everything in the world is slipping away from me. I don't like to ask Mr. Lam, but I wonder if I could possibly get an advance on the next royalty. My family's not been very well. Mr. Foster, I'm sorry to have to refuse you, but that is impossible. You've already put on your next royalties. We couldn't possibly advance you any more money. But I've got to have it. Look, I'll sell you all the future rights to any of my songs that you've already published for $200. Huh? All right, Mr. Foster, I'll have it checked drawing forms. Don't sit here with the room so dark. Let me turn up the lamps. $200 on the table there. And when that's gone, I don't know where we'll turn. Ginny, I'm so frightened. What's happened to me? I was going to do so much. I was going to be up there on top with the world in my pocket. Look at me. I haven't a prayer or a hope. Darling, don't say that. You'll come into your own yet. You mustn't lose faith in yourself. Faith, faith for the very young. Oh, how can you? How can you forgive me for what I've done to you? You gave me so much and you've had nothing in return. Oh, my darling, I've had what I wanted in return. I've had your arms around me. I've had your love. Yes, that you have had and will always help. Please, Stephen, don't let your heart be broken because success didn't come as easily and as swiftly as we thought it might. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Darling, I've been thinking it's such an added expense trying to keep marrying me here in New York. Maybe I better take her home for a while. I can get a job in Pittsburgh and later when you're on your feet, we can try again. Well, Stephen, what do you think? I think you'd better go. I don't like to leave you, but I... I want you to go. I can't stand watching anymore. I can't stand looking at my child and she always looks hungry to me. Listen, Stephen, I love you more than anything or anyone in the world. Please believe that. Don't change. I don't want any soft words. I don't want any pity. Just please go. All right. Mary and I'll be waiting in Pittsburgh. We'll all be together soon, I'm sure. I'm afraid that's a dream, Jeannie. What a beautiful dream. Good morning, Mr. Foster. How are Mrs. Foster and the little one today? I think they're well, Mr. Lamb. They've returned to Pittsburgh for a time. Oh, well, they'll be back soon, won't they? I don't think so. Look, I brought you a song. I want you to tell me quite frankly whether you think it has any merit and, of course, whether you want to publish it. Beautiful dreamer, eh? Nice title. Yes, yes, yes. I think this is quite beautiful, Foster. Do you think it's above the level of the rest of my work? I think it's as good as anything you've ever written. I'm afraid that isn't quite good enough. I'm afraid it has to be better than anything I've ever done to be good enough. Well, all I can tell you, Mr. Foster, is that I think it has merit and that we'll be happy to publish it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Don't you remember me? I rode on a boat from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati and I saw you again at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Yes, of course I remember. You're the young man that was such a booster for Stephen Cullen's Forster. Do you still think he's such a great composer? No, not anymore. Well, you finally come around to my way of thinking, have you? I told you he'd never amount to anything. I can pick them every time. He might have amounted to something. He just must have taken the wrong turn somewhere. No, he just didn't have the stuff to begin with. Oh, I was just going for a bite of dinner. You came to join me? No, thank you. I'm tired. I'm going home. Matthew, look here in the paper. It says Stephen Cullen's Forster died today in the Poppers Ward at Bellevue Hospital. He had 38 cents to his name. What have I always said? I said Stephen Cullen's Forster would never amount to anything. I said nothing good would ever come of him. I can pick them every time. Yeah, a lot of folks said he'd never amount to anything. I said, I told you so when he died. And a lot of folks that had liked him felt a great loss. But a heap of folks that never knew him at all and never would went right on singing his music. The covered wagons rolled westward to the tune of his music. The colored folks sang it, and the white folks sang it on southern verandas and in northern parlors. Generation after generation rocked their children to sleep with it and sang it to their loved ones and handed it down with the family bibles. Maybe he wasn't much of a success as the world counted success in those days. He died at 38 with 38 cents in his pocket. One cent to account for each year he lived. Maybe he was a great man, maybe not. But he wrote a lot of songs and America is still singing them. And I reckon they'll go on singing them for a long time to come. In just a moment, a word from Victor Jory. These midwinter days, you can never tell when you'll suddenly catch cold. That usually means sniffle, sneezing, your head all stuffed up. Now you really should do something about those head cold discomforts. A neglected head cold can make you feel pretty miserable. And one of the best things you can do when the sooner the better is to put a little Vicks Vatronol in each nostril. It's remarkable how a few drops of this specialized medication bring relief in short order. Vatronol works right where trouble is to soothe sniffly, sneeze-y irritation and help clear stuffiness. And more than that, if you use Vatronol soon enough, if you use it at the first sniffle or sneeze or other warning sign of a cold, it actually helps prevent many colds from developing. So friends, it's sensible when you feel a cold is coming on to use a few drops of Vatronol right away for relief and as a wise precaution. Follow directions in the package. Vicks Vatronol Nose Drops. This is Victor Jory. Next week on the stage of Vicks Matinee Theater we bring you one of the great hits of Broadway and the screen, Dark Victory. I will play the role of Dr. Fred Steele where Trude Warner will be heard as Judith Cahern. Please be sure and write to me and let me know what plays you would like to hear. Address me Victor Jory, Carol Columbia Broadcasting, New York 22, New York. Our play today was written by Jean Holloway and was directed by Richard Sanville. Music for this series is under the direction of Mark Warner. The role of Jeannie today was played by Betty Winkler. Be sure to be with us next week The makers of Vicks Vapour Up, Vicks Vapronol, Vicks Cough Drops and Vicks Inhaler brings you the matinee theater production of Dark Victory starring Victor Jory. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.