 And this is Henry Fonder. Tonight's cavalcade story is about a man in a mound of earth on a mound of earth. The idea was oral. What happened when fate made the two together on the mound? The idea was just one of the most chilling moments in the story of 1895. Place? The home of David Jefferson, a famous American actor on Pope Collins, an island of the region of the country. The Delta region of Louisiana. That's it? Yeah, that's it. Oh, Mr. Jefferson, you know? Well, actually, we were sitting under an umbrella just around that head. There was some paint on canvas and crushed it like a mule driver with a misery. Bad mood, eh? Yeah, it was biting back at the mosquitoes. What's our debt? We're about 2010 feet. Was this the last time you took us? That's right. We're about to 2,000 foot further. Smell it? Yep. I'm great as scunt wood. Ah, that's true, my boy. You can't see further than your nose and smell. I'm going to feed it to Jefferson. I smell as far as any man, and further than most. You're right, Pat. See farther than the force that would reason to. Hello there, Mr. Jefferson. Well, so there you are, Lucas. Uh-huh. Chaining, I see. Well, what's this supposed to be? It's supposed to be a landscape. That's right. That's a tree there, isn't it? Hmm, no. Yeah, sure, it's a tree. It would look more like a tree if that damnable derrick of yours wasn't in the way. Not to have a derrick to do the well. Better chose the whole composition out of quitter. That's what you mean. But you're asking to come down here and put down a tough wall for salt. And what have you found? Salt. What's your sample? Here, smell this. Oh, what is it? Salt. Garnished with oil. Not a dish from my palate. Oh, way with it. Mr. Jefferson, I think there's oil on your side. But I'm not interested in oil. Lucas, I'm sorry I even started this. I never intended to make my estate into a machine shop. Oh, I'm sorry, Lucas, but you'll have to stop and immediately. Yes, sir. Bring me down the curtain. Exactly. Let's show it just starting. Hold it down right now. Well, it's your property, Mr. Jefferson. But I think you're making a mistake. I don't. All right. Fastly. Fastly, stop the bill. Cut it off. I'll have the rigging down by tomorrow. Good. Good. Well, and what are your plans now? I'm going west. California? No, Texas. I found an underground mountainous salt here on your land, Mr. Jefferson, and I found traces of oil. Everywhere I put down a well here about that, I found the same thing, salt and oil, and it follows a pattern, a line that points west, points like an arrow to Texas. Sounds like a wild idea. Maybe it is, but I'm in a policy on it. I'm sending this to my family, my wife and son. I'll have them eat me in Beaumont. You're letting yourself in for a lot of trouble, Captain Lucas, just to follow through on a wild idea. But I can't figure out why you're doing it. It's not hard to figure out, really. Why do you keep returning to the stage, season after season? You're a rich man. Oh, that's different. The stage, the smell of grease paint, it's in my blood. With me, sir, it's the smell of oil. It's in my blood. Here we are, like a carillon. Oh, it looks like a wonderful house here. I'm dying to see the inside. Please, no India. We'll dig some up for you tomorrow, Tony. Come along. You like it? Well, yes, it's nice, but it can't see you. Where's the furniture? That'll come. I needed the cash. I had the supplies for the bigging. Anyway, I wanted you to take it out yourself. Meantime, I've got some packing cases we can use for tables and chairs. And plenty of wide-open spaces. Well, I suppose wide-open spaces is exactly what one has to expect in Texas. Oh, it's good to be here, Anthony. It's good to be here with you. It's nice out here. The movie goes big in Texas. The movie is nice, but we have some chairs to sit on. What's the matter? We're sitting on the porch. Good old American questions. You mean there wouldn't be patriotic news questions even? Oh, oh, oh. Shag. Hmm? You know it's a gamble, don't you? What's a gamble, Anthony? The truth and the whole idea of mine is you can find oil by finding salt bones. There's no proof. Put your head far in sunflower oil. You wrote me a deal. What's the truth? Not only to keep your sewing machine going, but I need to get me started. I know a lot of side ideas a man never had. I suppose it's the time the whole world is spinning around on wheels these days and if somebody needs oil, millions of barrels of oil to keep it going. Well, I hope there were plenty of oil in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. No, we're near enough. New fields have to be opened. New supplies of oil have to be found. And there's only one thing that's going to find them. Science. The old days of drill and pray are over. It's going to be geology now that finds oil and engineering. It'll bring it up. Let's show them something. Brother, there's not many others to deal with me. Matter of fact, hereabouts to your loving husband has been building up quite a reputation as a local crush part. What? That's right. Most of the people think my idea of finding oil by locating salt bones is a mild form of insanity. Well, I don't care what they think they want to me. It doesn't matter, but... Well, there is more. We've built up a wonderful reputation as an engineer. We can always get along fine. We don't need oil wells to be happy. We don't need the money. It isn't the money. It's the idea. Either I'm right and the others are wrong or they're right and I turn out to be the village idiot. Wait a minute, please. What are you doing with all this? There's one thing. I'm going to see a chap of the improbable name of the pillow Higgins tomorrow. He has a piece of property I've heard about and I want to investigate it. And if I get it, I start drilling. With me? With me? One hundred and fifty. I'm looking for Pachillo Higgins. That would be me. My name is Wilka, a chap from Anthony Lucas. Glad to know you. What? You have a student. Thank you. You have some property to sell? There is a man who will never buy it. I've got it to sell. I'm interested. Why? Oil. Oil? Well, I'll look ahead, Mr. Higgins. Listen to me. Get out of that chair and walk to the door. Climb it behind you and take the next train out of Beaumont. I'm warning you for your own good, because I'm talking from experience. You're not a very good salesman, Higgins. I'm an honest man, Mr. Years ago I got the idea that there'd be oil here about. First place I decided to drill was on a mound of folks around here called Spinner Top. You ever hear of it? Yes, I have. The least I knew ahead. Everything I had in the world I sunk in that hole this every last red sand. First we couldn't get enough water to flush out the grills. Then the floods came when we had too much water. Then the windstorm blow down the derrick. Then we hit quick sand at the 40-foot level and couldn't get it to circulate even with three pumps blasting away. That trouble I'm talking about, brothers. I couldn't see that. You think that? You think that's all? You just think some more. At 60-foot level we hit a gas pocket and the gas was all over the place. Well, sir, a wild Irishman who was roused about decided to light a match. He picked the Irishman up in the next county. There's my rigging. For all I know it's still sailing. Now you want to buy it? Lucas will be a singing man and wise. What will you take for your interest? Hopefully I'll take what I can get. I'll give you a 10% interest in the lease. Done. I'll move my bill over to the property tomorrow. That's okay, Lucas, but listen to me, son. It'll break you. It'll smash into little pieces. You hear that? Spin on top of it. Break it just like it broke me and all the others. Oh, man, now that thing ain't just a mound. It's a nasty, hungry devil. It eats up our kind. Oh, I tell you, you're walking into a trap, Lucas. Spin on top of it. Break it. You mark my words. It'll crush you the way that I crushed this stove. Just like this. You've ruined your cigar, Mr. Higgins. Here, try one of mine. It's a basalt dome near Beaumont, Texas called Spindle Top. An engineer named Anthony Lucas is determined to drill it for oil. Working with a small drill, he's managed to get down about 500 feet in about six weeks of drilling. Yes. Morning, asleep? Uh-huh. I kept him up as long as I could. I couldn't get home before. Well, I'd hate to separate you for any more. You know, it seems to me you might leave just a little dirt at the well. You don't have to bring it all home with you at night. Yes, there's extra special dirt. Come here. Smell it. Oh, I don't have to get any closer. I can smell it from there, fully. You know what it is? Or whatever it is. Oil sand. That's right. We hit it today at the 575-foot level. A good showing that we're going deeper. But you found oil. It's a trace, but it shows we're on the right track. We've got to get... Who's that, I wonder? Come in. What is it, pasty? What's happened at the well? He's killed it. What do you mean? It's right after your left. He pulled up the bit and the whole size came in like it as if it were made of custom pie. We've got no more wells. We've got nothing. Quick sand. I reckon. Going back out in the morning. Yes, Captain. I'm sorry for you, Mr. Lucas. Oh, sorry I am. It's all right, Captain. Folks have always said the devil was in that mound. Sure enough, he is. He'll laugh until they kill that bit. Well, bye. See you later. Oh, Anthony. I know. They'll have a picnic in town, all of them. The eye told us those will be flying thick and fast. What do we do now, Anthony? We dig another hole. Our savings are just about gone. I know. We haven't had enough money to dig a post hole. But I'm not giving in. I'm fighting spindle top and a dozen different devils that are dancing in that mound. I'll get help. I'll get back. But who? There's one mistake I've made, Caroline. I've tried to be a lone wolf. I found out something. Having an idea, no matter how good the idea, having it isn't enough. You've got to have know-how, the right equipment, enough money to see it through. Yes, but you know anyone who can go in with you, Winston? No, I don't. Joe, can't you see me? No, he hates the world. Hakin'? He starts shaking with just so much his face spindle top. Well, who else? Well, there's a man in town, Dr. Hayes. He's head of the United States Geological Survey and step number one. I'm going to get him out the spindle top, get him to back up my findings. He carries weight hereabouts. If it is okay, I'll get the help I need. Will he do it, Anthony? Why shouldn't he do it? I'll show him my logbook, my sampling. He's a scientist. He's got to see the truth. Now, if you'll come over to the workshop, Dr. Hayes, I'll show you some of the samples I've taken. Yes, it's very hot out here, isn't it? He's got to admit it, Dr. Hayes. All the wells I put down in the museum show a clear crystal. Wherever there's salt, bone, there's evidence of oil. I've shown you my logbook, my chart, and I let me sit down for a minute. I'm exhausted. Dr. Hayes, all I want is your statement that my theory has a sound, scientific basis, that's all. You do agree that it has, don't you? Captain Lucas, you have a fine reputation as an engineer. But as a geologist, now, look here, there's nothing to prove that this particular hump here means that there's a salt dome below it. What else could it count for? A thousand things. The folding of subterranean rock structure, an anticline perhaps. Yes, but I know... Let me go on. Even if there were a salt dome below surface, that still is no proof of oil. And I found that after all, Captain Lucas' facts affect. So I at Galveston, they put down a well to over 3,000 feet and had no trace of oil. No, I'm afraid I can't agree with you. But I tell you, I'm right. And I tell you, you're wrong. Now, sir, I'd appreciate you taking me back to my hotel. I need a bath. Anthony? Oh... I spread it out before him, spelled it out in simple sentences. My law books, my samplings, everything. The only thing he knew was that he wanted a bath. That means you won't be able to get the help you need. Not around here. Right now, I haven't got the credit rating of a homeless prairie dog. What do we do now, Anthony? Captain Pittsburgh is a firm called Guffey and Galey. They're wildcatters, specializing in opening up new oil fields. They're supposed to like tough propositions. Well, okay, I'll bring them up beauty. Everybody who knows anything about or else has my ideas hogwash, Mr. Guffy. They do, eh? They call it a wild and wooly idea. Is that a fact? Everybody I know is turning me down cold. Well, now, Captain Lucas, that's real interesting. One man I spoke to said he'd sooner bet on a mule having pups than put a 10-cent piece in his spindle top. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Bye, Gully, that sells me. I'll back in. How far? Till a mule has pups, if need be. But, uh, understand, Lucas, if we take the risks, we take our share of the pups. Agreed. It's not the money that's important to me now, Mr. Guffy. It's never been the real thing. It's just the idea, the chance to prove it to myself and some others. Tell me what I'll do. I'll get off the wire to Corsicana. Know all the Hamel boys out there? No, can't say I do. Best drillers in the business. I'll have them haul the biggest drill they've got to spindle top and bring a prize crew along with it. Now, you'll need supplies. Drillers can't eat pipe. I'll write you a blank check. How's that? Wonderful. Yep. And if spindle top comes in, that'll be even more wonderful. Good morning, Al. Good morning, Captain Lucas. I don't like the sound of that drill. I don't like it myself. She's rearing like a year old drunk. Have you been able to log anything at all? Not much. Every time we have to stop the pump to put in another length of pipe gas pressure from below, it mokes up the hole and we lose whatever we've drilled. Past two days, we show minus 40 feet. Stop drilling. What? Stop the drill. There's no use going on this way. Either we find a way to control that gas pressure or we give up. I don't like giving up. I don't like it either, Al. I'm not wasting money, especially when it isn't mine. Would you like a bun with your teeny afternoon? Might be nice. Look, Daddy, Mommy bought this kettle today. It whizzles. Listen. Just shows you. You spend money on toys and they pay no attention to them. You buy a little tea kettle that whizzles and they stand for hours watching it. When you put your finger on the hole, it stops. Like this. Careful, Tony. You'll burn your fingers. It's not so hot. Who is your mommy's best, Tony? Well, it doesn't burn. I, uh, heard in town that you stopped drilling. Yes. I told some furniture and bad news that was so... What are you doing with that kettle? My lord, it's bad enough that Tony keeps playing with it. It stops the steam coming out when I do this. Take my finger off. It starts again. A bell. A check bell. What in the world? Carol, I never mind my dinner. I'll grab a bite out of the well. Captain Lucas, that's the dirtiest-looking contraption. I hope that'll work. It does look funny, though. You're out of an old pine box and some rubber sheeting. Oh, it's clever, sure enough. Any idea you're using the checks of? Well, that may be okay, but, uh... That's their thing to never hold. Why not? The pressure coming up will slam the door to the valve shut like this. It'll keep the bore clear of sand and gas. Uh, maybe, but I doubt it. Fix it in between the cuppings of the casing. Try it out. Well, this is it. We'll find out now. Dr. Pomp? All right. Hold it, Joe. Hold it, Pomp. Rig on another length of pipe in a hurry. Dr. I'm going to punch, Joe. Do that, buddy. Gas pressure, valve removal. Uh, maybe... Okay, five cents. Not pumping. Now, throw her in. Let her dig. Hey, sweet, she's diggin' sweet. That check valve worked quite golly. Like I said, it wouldn't work. Now... Where's Captain Luke? Didn't him this morning? Yeah, he was out early. He went into town to fetch the new fish-tailed relic. What's that? I don't know. She's blown. Turn it down off that rig. Get down, turn it down. That looks like the business. We're really wide-stepped now. Yeah. We're gonna wear that flying pipe smash that Derrick. And the mud must be six foot of mud over everything. Well, I suppose you ought to try and pull it up. Hey, let's get out of here as she comes again. Come on out of that little ground you're gonna... Ow! Ow! Kurt, come in. Get to the telephone. Get Captain Luke. Great jump on the horn. This thing ain't spot mud. It's spot oil. I'll send that along as soon as you can, Mr. Campbell. Yes, sir, Captain Lucas. I'll just pardon you. Yes? Yes, he's here. Wait a minute. For you, Captain Lucas. Thank you. This is Captain Lucas. Wait a minute. Kurt, don't shout so I can't make out what you're saying. What? When? Yes. Yes, I'll be there right away. I'm the wrong Captain. Spindletop keeps going her head. Ow! Ow, it's oil. Well, it is, Captain. Smell it, taste it. Anthony, Anthony. Caroline. You're a wonderful Anthony. A million years of power blasting out of the earth. Look at it, Caroline. We worked for it, we fought for it. It's a gutter. Let it pour! Spindletop, the pioneer well that passed the tremendous petroleum resources of the Texas Gulf region, has since produced over 130 million barrels of crude oil. Oil for America's machines, automobiles, and homes. And today, with more than half a hundred producing wells in the Spindletop field, with modern oil scientists constantly locating new underground reserves beneath the United States, nearly 27 billion barrels ready to be tapped for 1,001 uses. The men of oil continue to find it faster than we can use it. These are the accomplishments of an industry. This year celebrating its 90th anniversary that grew because it was free to grow. Grillers in the field, pipeline engineers, scientists, tanker men at sea, investors, gas station attendants, and refiners. The men of oil who tonight turn their thoughts back with us to the dawn of the 20th century. And a man working with a crude rattlesnake grill at Huffa Salt Dome in the hot Texas sun. A pioneer of American oil, Anthony Lucas. Griller of Spindletop. Next week, Cavalcade presents one of Hollywood's loveliest stars, Jean Kearney. In a dramatic story of courage and hope, the wall of silence. It's a true story of a gallant young woman who, afflicted with deathness, refused to admit defeat. Be sure to listen next week to Cavalcade and our star, Jean Kearney. Tonight's Cavalcade play, Spindletop, was written by Earl Tunick and was directed by John Zoller. The music was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Voorhees. Featured in the cast were Gertrude Warner as Caroline, Malcolm Keane as Joseph Jefferson, and Larry Haynes as Al Hamill. Your narrator was Ted Pearson. Our star, Henry Fonda, is appearing in the current Broadway success, Mr. Robert. Cavalcade of America comes to you from the stage of the Belasco Theater in New York and is presented by the DuPont Company of Wilming Condeleware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Stay tuned for The Baby Snook Show on NBC.