 dedicated to the strength of the nation. proudly we hail honoring Nancy Kelly and dedicated the United States Army and United States Air Force presentation. and now here is your host, the well-known Hollywood showman, C.P. McGregor. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, and greetings from Hollywood. Welcome to your Theatre of Stars, where all your own motion picture favorites join us in plays we know you'll enjoy. Our star is the Broadway and Hollywood actress Nancy Kelly and the title of our highly dramatic story is Dedicated. This is the Saga of a Nurse, whose life is dedicated to her country and to the cause of freedom. We'll have the curtain for act one in just a moment, but first here is Wendell Niles with an important message. Here is a new career opportunity for young physicians. United States Air Force is accepting applications from professionally qualified physicians to serve with the Air Force Medical Service. Qualified applicants will be commissioned in the U.S. Air Force up to the grade of Lieutenant Colonel depending upon professional and educational experience and will have an opportunity to broaden their professional experience as officers on active duty. For further details, write to the Surgeon General, United States Air Force, Washington 25 D.C. Now once again at the microphone, our host, C.P. McGregor. The curtain rises on act one of Dedicated, starring Nancy Kelly as Mary Hodley. In the town of Garden Grove, Iowa, in the year 1909, that blessed event occurred in the household of the Hodleys. They were so happy because it was a baby girl. Her name was carefully chosen from the family Bible. She was christened after the beloved mother of mercy with the beautiful yet humble name of Mary. So Mary grew, as all young things do, learned the boundaries and capitals of all the 48 states, committed to memory the multiplication tables, and finally entered high school. Mary was a thoughtful, pensive girl, not given to the rowdy-ism of adolescents at all. But in this, she had a boon and faithful companion. He was the boy who inevitably lives next door and his name was Paul Stafford. One bright afternoon, when the sun was sifting flecks of gold down through the leaves of the elm trees, Paul and Mary were sauntering their way home from school, swinging their books from their bookstraps. Paul, do you ever think very much about, oh, about tomorrow? Heck, yes. Especially when old Lady Cooper hands me out and overdose the homework and treat. Oh, I don't mean that kind of tomorrow. Oh, what other kind of tomorrow is there? Well, I mean the future. Oh, the future's a heck of a long way off. Oh, but it's not so very far off, Paul. We'll both be seniors next year, and when we graduate, then what? Gee, I don't know. The marks I'll probably get, but the only way I'll ever graduate is to have old Grove High burned down. Don't be silly. You get the best marks in the class. Have you figured out what you're gonna be, Paul? Well, Papa wants me to be a civil engineer, but personally, I like things more mechanical, like making stuff and fooling around with engines, you know? What about you, Mary? Have you still got that bugging year about being a nurse? Naturally. Gosh, you've been talking about being a nurse ever since you were a knee-high to a skeeter. What are you seeing at being around sick people all the time? Oh, I think it's wonderful doing things for other people, helping them to... I don't know, to maybe feel a little better. It's... it's romantic. Romantic? Holy mackerel. That's a goofy idea of being romantic. I don't mean that kind of romantic silly, not like Romeo and Juliet. I mean, like... more like Florence Nightingale. Paul was more right than he knew, which I certainly found out after I ended nursing school at the Washington Boulevard Hospital in Chicago. Being a student nurse is a lot of drudgery and hard work. It was taking orders and doing a lot of things that weren't very pleasant and very easy. But then finally came that wonderful day in 1931 when I stood erect and proud in the cape of my profession and listened to the solemn music of the Pilgrim's Chorus. And something rose up in my throat to almost choke me, and I... I wanted to cry more than ever before in my life. This was my beginning. This was the commencement of the little girl from Garden Grove, Iowa, Mary Holdley, R.A. You will repeat after me. I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life... I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life impurity and to practice my profession faithfully. I would abstain... As I repeated that nurses' oath, there came crowding into my mind a flood of fear and an engulfing feeling of inadequacy. I was faced with an almost paralyzing question. Was I capable of accepting the tremendous responsibility which I'd had in those words dedicated my life? For seven and a half years I scrubbed for surgeons. I did floor-duty OB work. I took whatever calls to which I was assigned, and I watched the passing parade of birth and life and death. And then one day, a day that was perhaps to become the most important of my life, I received a call from the chief physician of the famed River Forest Hospital. Won't you sit down, Miss Holdley? Thank you, Dr. Fielding. Miss Holdley, have you ever considered specializing? Well, no, sir. That is not exactly... How would you like to turn your hand to something completely different than anything else you've ever done before? What would that be, Dr. Fielding? Polio. Polio? Yes. Miss Holdley, polio is one of the most vicious diseases that confronts the medical profession. We have quite a famous case here, one that's been somewhat publicized as the Boiler Kid. You may have heard of him. His name is Fred Snyte Jr. Oh, yes, yes, I have heard of him. Fred was stricken with polio in 1936, Miss Holdley, and has been confined to an iron lung ever since. He needs a good nurse. Would you like to try to be that nurse, Miss Holdley? Oh, but, Doctor, how am I qualified? In more ways than you can possibly imagine, my dear girl. Do you think that if you weren't, we would have sent for you? You're kind to say that, Doctor. Then you will accept. With all my heart and soul, and I'll do the very best I know how. The very best. I know that, Miss Holdley. I know that. It's the only thing you could do. Because that's the kind of a nurse you are. And so, for two and a half years, I worked with Fred Snyte Jr., the Boiler Kid. Freddy and I became great friends. He used to call me an old wet blanket for many visitors. And he taught me what it means to smile when the pain swirls down like a fog. Freddy taught me what it's like to be totally crippled and to live or exist surrounded by a round iron boiler. Working with Freddy was a tragically wonderful experience. I remember one particular night when I was off duty. I was in my room at the nurse's quarters when suddenly I was told that I had a caller in the reception room. Did you wish to see me? Hello, Mary. Good to see you. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, it couldn't be. It really isn't, is it? It sure is. In the flesh and twice as natural. Look, Paul Stafford, and look at you. Look at you. What are you, a general or something? Oh, no, no. Just a lowly lieutenant. Oh, but you look wonderful, Paul. Perfectly wonderful. And what are these things over your pocket? Right, you are, Mary. I'm in the Army Air Force. You have wings. You're a pilot. I'm passing through Chicago on my way to a new base, and, well, I had to look you up. Your mother told me where you were. How is she? She's fine. Well, well, sit down, Paul. Let's talk. We've got so many things to say. All right, you are. You know, I was thinking, are you off duty, Mary? Uh-huh, yes. Well, my train doesn't leave until five something in the morning. Why don't we go out and splurge a little, some nice place for dinner, maybe dancing? Would you like that? Oh, I'd love it, Paul. Go put on your Easter bonnet and your Sunday go to meet and dress. We'll hire ourselves then. All right, Paul. I'll just be a few minutes. There's some magazines there on the table. Yeah, I know. The nurse is quarterly from the year one. You know, Mary, you've grown up to be a very pretty girl. Thank you, sir. You don't, uh, gangle anymore. Not nearly so gawky as you used to be. Oh, and may I return the compliment, Lieutenant, by saying that you've grown up to be a very handsome young man. Thank you. Whatever happened to your freckles and your buck teeth and that corn shock hair of yours used to fall in your eyes all the time? Nothing. I still got them. I just grew around them. And so now you're a pilot flying with the birds? Yeah. Papa always told me, hitch my wagon to a star, and this is the best way I know of doing it. How's your work going, Mary? Is it as romantic as you used to think it would be? Florence Nightingale with her lantern and stuff? Romantic, Paul? No, no, I don't think it's very romantic, but it's wonderfully interesting. It's even more than that. Oh, it's something deep down inside that I just can't quite explain even to myself. Well, what about this case you're on now? Fred and Snipe. He's become pretty famous, hasn't he? You've read about him in the paper. Oh, well, I think famous is hardly the word, Paul, but... he's wonderful. Very wonderful. Well, the way you say that, Mary, I... well, just how wonderful. Not that way, Lieutenant. Freddy's wonderful in a way that few people could ever understand. He's taught me a great deal, Paul. Not only about polio, but about... oh, about goodness and faith and real strength of character. Mary, well, I know this isn't a time or the place to talk about such things, but for me, time is of the essence. I wonder... in fact, I've been wondering ever since we were kids in high school if maybe someday you'd be my very special nurse. Take care of me. Of course, Paul. Anytime you get sick, you just let me know. Oh, I'm sick now. Really? It's nothing fatal, I hope. Well, I think it's been known to be. It's my heart. Your heart? Sitting here looking at you, it goes... boom, boom, boom, boom. I get all loosey spots before my eyes. I seem to hear birds singing. Oh, maybe you should take something for it. Maybe it's just a vitamin deficiency. Well, seriously, Mary, when I finish this tour of duty, may I come back and ask you a very important question? I'll have some money saved up by then. Might even be a captain. Who knows? What do you say, Mary? Of course you can, Paul. You any idea what the answer might be? No. Not the vaguest. I never know what an answer is going to be until I know what the question is first, but... but I'll wait till you come back, Paul, and in the meantime, I'll struggle along being very, very curious. But I was never to hear Paul ask me that important question because Paul never did finish his tour of duty and wasn't given a chance. The day that Paul left for his new station was a Sunday, one of the most tragic Sundays in our history. Perhaps you remember it. It was December the 7th, 1941, and Pearl Harbor had been bombed. The following morning, another victim of polio stood before the nation's greatest assembly and declared war. A few months following, I returned home to Garden Grove for a short visit. And while I was there, Paul's father showed me a telegram that he just received. It began in the usual way. The army regretfully informs you. But you know the rest of this. Then and there that I made up my mind to dedicate the rest of my life wholly and completely to nursing and to fight with all my strength against another vicious enemy, another wanton bomber of open cities, a cute anterior polio myelitis. Let's pause briefly for my story dedicated, starring Nancy Kelly, to bring you an important message from our government. Registered nurses, here's a special message for you. United States Air Force is offering you an opportunity for security and advancement in your chosen profession. To qualify, you must be between the ages of 21 and 45, married or single, and must be a graduate of a School of Nursing acceptable to the Surgeon General United States Air Force. You must be commissioned in a grade up to major, depending upon your educational qualifications and the number of years of professional experience. After receiving your reserve commission, you may apply for extended active duty for periods ranging from one to three years. You may serve in one of the military medical installations in this country or abroad. You also have an opportunity to apply for training as a flight nurse and receive full pay and allowances while attending school. For full information, United States Air Force Base, a right to the Surgeon General, U.S. Air Force, Washington, 25 D.C. The curtain rises on act two of dedicated, starring Nancy Kelly as Mary Hoedley. Those were bleak and terrible days following the treachery of Pearl Harbor and for ten long and weary months, Fred Snyder and I followed together the bitter headlines, the fall of Corregidor, and the Philippines, and the tragedy of Little Midway with its pitifully small but valiant garrison. I often thought of my sister nurses out there helping in their way to fight back the invaders who were fanatically bent upon our total annihilation. But I had a job to do, and my job was Frederick Snyder Jr. One morning in the mirror attached to his iron lung, I noticed Freddy's eyes following me about the room. On his pale, drawn face, there was an expression that made me wonder what was going on inside that patient-wise mind of his. And then, as I was bending over to adjust his pillow, he suddenly said... Mary? Yes, Freddy. War's a rotten thing, isn't it? Oh, you should know, Freddy. You've been fighting one for a long time. I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about the one we're fighting all over two oceans. Mary, you'd like to be in it, wouldn't you? Oh, I've seen it in your eyes. Now, don't blame you. All your nurse friends have left, haven't they? And you're stuck here with me. Freddy, be snite. Don't you ever dare say that again. Stuck with you indeed. You look very good in uniform, Mary. Oh, cool. Those guys out there need you, Mary. They need you a lot more than I do. Go to them. We've got to win this war, Mary. Before we can win the battle of Polio. Oh, but, Freddy... The losing you as my nurse means a great deal to me. But that's why I want you to go. You're the only thing I can sacrifice. That I can give. Oh, Freddy, I... Hey, hey, what's going on? You crying? Or have you got a cold? Neither one, darn you. It's... And so I went. In October of 1942, I was commissioned second lieutenant in the Army Nurses Corps, and never did anyone wear bars more proudly than I. All war experiences are more or less alike. Some of them are more adventurous than others, and some of them are more hazardous. I was assigned to a medical air evacuation squadron, whose mission it was to receive the incoming wounded from the combat fears, and to provide them with medical care during transit to the Great Service Hospitals in the United States. But there finally came, as you remember, that wonderful day. They called it V.E. Day. And a few weary months later, V.J. Day. I was sitting in my quarters talking to Captain Fenwick, another flight nurse, a buddy of mine. Jeepers, Mary. I feel like a blown-out tire now that it's all finished. Oh, but it isn't finished, Joan. Not really. There's a lot of mopping up to do in the hospital. I'm afraid it's going to be a long, long time before we can say, position secure. I suppose. What are you going to do, Mary? I'm going to stay in the service, if they'll let me. Oh, you're glutton for punishment. But maybe that's why you're the kind of nurse you are, Mary. Oh. You really take it seriously, don't you, Captain Hoadley? Well, serious things should be taken seriously, shouldn't they? And anyway, Joan, I feel that the Air Force Medical Service can give a nurse something she... well, that she just can't find anywhere else. No, ma'am, Joan, I'm staying in, and I'm still going to make polio my job, if I can. The Air Force Nurse Corps took a favorable view of my desire to stay in the service, and I was assigned to the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Air Force Base. And a lot of water went under the bridge. Somehow or other, mostly luck, I think, I became chief nurse. One day, orders came in from a War Department to evacuate a patient from Mexico City, the wife of a government official stricken with polio myelitis. And so, with but sketchy information as to her condition, we took off across the Rio Grande and Air Force C-47. There were three of us, Colonel Don Flickinger, flight surgeon, Master Sergeant Russell Johnson, aeromedical technician, and myself. When we arrived at the Mexico City Hospital, we found the mission ahead extremely precarious. No, we didn't get here any too soon, Captain Holdley. I don't know about our chances. No, we'll make it, Colonel. We'll make it somehow. Captain, look at the head collar on this here lawn. Rubber's all rotten and cracked. It's losing pressure. That's why it's not helping you to breathe. Look, quick, Sergeant, go out somewhere and get an automobile tire, too. Now, don't ask me where. Bake, borrow, or steal it if you have to, but get it, and I'm the double. Yes, ma'am, I'm on my way. Colonel, Colonel, she's turning blue. Can you help me get her out of this respirator? I'll give her artificial respiration until the sergeant gets back and we can get the iron lung fixed. We'll have to work fast, and we won't have any patient to work with at all. It was a desperate job trying to give our patient life-saving oxygen by the Schaefer method in order to keep her pulse flickering while Sergeant Johnson refashioned a rubber gasket out of an old inner tube and repaired the leaking head collar of the dilapidated and outmoded iron lung. But somehow the job was accomplished, and the young wife was returned to the pulsing rhythm of the miracle machine. When do you think we can move her, Captain Holdley? Get her back to Tucson. I don't know, Colonel. I'm afraid it would be fatal to move her now. She's very weak, and her mental attitude is anything but good. She's so terribly frightened. Yes, I know. Hang it, we've got to get her into the Tucson hospital within the next few days or else. There won't be any or else, Colonel Flick, and you there mustn't be. Maybe somehow I can ease up her mental tension sufficiently to get her ready to fly. Let me keep working with her. Let you, Captain Holdley. Great Scott Girl. With your knowledge of polio, you're the only one who can give us any chance at all. And I realize that that chance is about as slim as leading a camel through the eye of a needle. The next few days were a series of nightmares. Night and day we worked around the clock fighting, battling with every ounce of strength and knowledge that we had. And finally, on the sixth morning, our patient opened her eyes and for the first time smiled. It was a wan, feeble smile, but it was nevertheless a smile. I would have yelled Geronimo had I not been afraid of frightening her back into a coma. Hello. Good morning. How do you feel? I don't know. I know I don't feel like I did. I can see by that pretty smile on your face. How's the pain? Better? Either it's better. I'm getting used to it. You think you're ready now to take an airplane ride? I don't know. Do you think I should? The doctor thinks you should. Do you? Of course I do. It hurt very much to move me. I've never been in an airplane before. Oh, it'll be just like riding in a feather bed or even better, like traveling on a fluffy cloud. And then when we get you to the Tucson hospital, we'll put you into an iron lung that'll be ever so much more comfortable. And you know, you'll start to get well again. Thank you, nurse. Nurse, I don't even know your name. It's Mary Hoadley. Just Mary to you. Mary. That's a wonderful name for a person like you. Mary. Sister of mercy. Well, Colonel Sickens, you were ready to go. Well done, Captain Hoadley. You've done a wonderful job. And now you'd better get some rest, young lady, or we'll have another patient on our hands and frankly, one's enough. Oh, don't you worry about me, Colonel. When we get back to base, I'm going to go to bed and not get up for ten years. Oh, I'm going to sleep and sleep and sleep, and then I'm going to turn over and sleep some more. The sleep of the just. Mission accomplished. Oh, it's a nice phrase that. And oh, by the way, Captain, when I make my report to the general, there'll be a few things I'll have to say about you and all of them good. Commendation. Your Captain Mary E. Hoadley, Air Force Nurse Corps, Chief Nurse, U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Captain Hoadley did overcome numerous obstacles and difficulties to successfully prepare, mentally and physically, the patient for air evacuation and he'd provide superior nursing care without which the mission could not have been accomplished. This service reflects highest credit to Captain Hoadley and serves as an outstanding example to all flight nurses of complete devotion to duty. Signed, Brigadier General, Otis O. Benson, Chief. And that's the story of how the little high school girl from Garden Grove, Iowa, who dreamed of one day becoming a nurse. It's been a long road and sometimes not a very easy one. There have been smiles and there have been tears and there's been pride and sometimes despair, but the Air Force to me now is home. The Air Force Medical Service is an instrument of peace as well as of war and one which will never cease fighting to preserve our nation's health and our nation's welfare. In polio, our enemy is invisible and sometimes our weapons are futile against its onslaught and we have to retrench, but this much I do know will never retreat. The Air Force Nurse Corps will never, never give up the fight. The curtain falls on the final act of dedicated. Our star Nancy Kelly will return for a curtain call after this timely message from Wendell Niles. College trained young man, here is your opportunity to become an aviation executive. You receive the finest aviation training in the world from the United States Air Force if you can qualify and are selected for aviation cadet pilot or navigator training. To qualify, you must be single between the ages of 20 and 26 and one half and have at least two years of college. When you successfully complete one year of training, you win your wings and a reserve commission in the U.S. Air Force. Outstanding graduates receive regular commissions immediately. All others have excellent opportunities to earn regular commissions while on active duty. For complete details, visit your nearest Air Force base or U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force recruiting station right away. And remember, only the best can be aviation cadets. And I'll back to our star Nancy Kelly and your host CP McGregor. Nancy, I can say in all sincerity that it's good to have you back in Hollywood again. Oh, thank you, CP, but, you know, as soon as I finish doing light up the sky out here, I'm going to do another Broadway play this fall. Well, I really can't blame you. After your New York success in The Big Knife with John Garfield, another hit right now would be in order. Is this the play Eddie Dowling is directing? That's right. It's called Take It to Nowhere by Arne Gusty. And it's, well, I hope that it is a grand story. I wish you lots of success. Thank you. Now, if you don't mind my changing the subject to a abruptly, there's something else I want to mention. Oh? In connection with your recent tour of Veterans Hospitals for the Hollywood Coordinating Committee. Oh, I'm glad you brought that up, CP. You know, as many people in pictures as possibly can during the year try to give as much time as they can to these tours, because I think, and we all think that they're very important. And my trip was an unforgettable experience. In fact, I've asked Irving Landy to put me down for another tour just as soon as it can be arranged. You know, a lot of your friends in those hospitals are hearing this broadcast, so just for the record, I want them to know that the Surgeon General said you did a remarkable job. Oh, well, that's very good to hear, but I really love doing it. And now, CP, I'm anxious to know what you've planned for your listeners next week. Next week, Nancy and ladies and gentlemen, we're going to bring that perennial motion picture teenager, Mona Freeman, to our microphone, but in a very grown-up part as a young and beautiful schoolteacher. The story is called The Teacher Had a Principle. When Mona starts carrying the torch against certain contract restrictions, you can rest assured that her school principal wishes he had another teacher. Well, I'll be listening, and thanks for having me over again. Goodbye, CP. Goodbye, Nancy. We'll kill it the way it's next week, ladies and gentlemen. When Mona Freeman joins us to star in the comedy romance The Teacher Had a Principle, till next week, then, this is CP McGregor saying thanks for listening and Cheerio from Hollywood. Nancy Kelly appears with the courtesy of the Hollywood Coordinating Committee, for the appearance of all stars in this program. The script was by James W. Bastion with the music of Eddie Dunstead. This program is transcribed in Hollywood for at ease at this time. Wendell Niles speaking.