 by transcription. Ladies and gentlemen, the railroad hour. And here comes the summer show train. The association of American railroads. The same railroads that bring you most of the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the fuel you burn, and all the other things you use in your daily life brings you the railroad summer show train, starring Gordon MacRae and featuring Lucio Norman with the music of Carmen Dragon in the orchestra, stripped by Gene Holloway and the choir under the direction of Norman Lubon. And now here is our star, Gordon MacRae. Thank you, Marvin Miller, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Well, tonight and in the weeks that follow, we're going to ride the summer show train back through time and memory to a year that you lived yesterday. Tonight's destination is the height of the roaring 20s, 1927. Through the dark of night, I gotta go where you are. 1927, America, a year that you lived yesterday. Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States. Jimmy Walker was mayor of New York City. Fashionable ladies wore the hemlines of their dresses as down to their hips and diverted continually to achieve that voice figure. Babe Ruth was king of the diamond. And Texas Guinean was queen of the New York nightclub. That's right, Lucio. The times were gay and high-spirited, and a brilliant young composer named Vincent Jeumans put that gayness and high spirits into music. Remember, America? This was the way you felt in 1927. Sing hallelujah, hallelujah, and you'll sing the blues. When Casper Suia had you through the darkest day. Remember 1927, America? Remember? It is the evening of May 20th. You are now standing with 40,000 spectators in New York's Yankee Stadium, where you have come to watch the Maloney-Sharky fight. An announcer comes out to the center of the ring. May I have your attention? May I please have your attention, ladies and gentlemen? Before this evening's part, I have been asked to remind you of another fight that has taken place this evening. One boy alone is fighting a great fight against the element. As far as we know, he is winning that fight. Will you join me in a moment of silent prayer for the safety of Charles Rindberg? It's a sight to remember. 40,000 spectators, it's a sight to remember. 40,000 boxing fans standing with bowed heads praying for the safety of a kid in a small plane called the Spirit of St. Louis on his way across the Atlantic. They said he was alone, but 120 million Americans rode at his side every hour of the way and screamed themselves hoarse when they heard the news that he had landed safely in France. 27 was Lindberg's year, and it was the year of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert and Janet Gaynor and Charles Ferrell. And of a haunting and unforgettable young woman named Helen Morgan, who sat on a piano in New York Ziegfeld Theatre and sang her way into the hearts of America in one of Jerome Kern's most honored works, Shobo. Headlines in 1927, you read Calvin Coolidge's Terse Farewell to History. They do not choose to run for president in 1938. Papers, and you read the books that everyone was reading. Soil and song. Jalna. And Elmer Gantry. You listen to your radio well mixed with sattie. And sometime during the year, if you were around New York, you took your wife to see what a couple of up-and-coming boys named Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart had done for an old story by Mark Twain called The Connecticut Yankees. It was one of 1927's biggest hits. And its hit song was destined to become one of the great song hits of all times. Remember America? A perfect picture of how research has made railroad progress possible. For what was the last word in locomotives of the early era looks like a midget compared with today's giants. The proof back of these improvements on the nation's railroads is the unending search for better methods of railroading. Another milestone in railroad research was reached just a few days ago in Chicago. There, a new million-dollar research laboratory built by the Association of American Railroads on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology was formally opened. This new laboratory is the nerve center for research in the railroad industry. Here will be the headquarters for engineering, mechanical and sanitation research. Here also will be devices for testing shipping containers and many other kinds of railroad equipment. This laboratory will be a valuable addition to railroad research, but much other research will continue to be done by individual railroads and by the Association of American Railroads. This research will be carried on in universities, laboratories, technological institutions, industrial research laboratories, and laboratories of companies which supply the railroad industry. And, as always, research will also be carried on by railroad workers in offices, shops, and out along the right-of-way, where day-by-day operations are the real proving ground for technological advances. Yes, the kind of research which has already given us the most efficient transportation system in the world is being constantly broadened, all to the end that you shall continue to enjoy even safer, more economical, more dependable rail transportation. Back to Gordon McRae, Lucille Norman, and the second half of the show train, good for the year 1927. 1927, America. A year that you lived yesterday. Say, remember the marathon dances? Grace didn't matter. Technique didn't matter. Steps didn't matter. All you had to have was the stamina to keep moving longer than anyone else. And remember the excitement over the opening of the Holland Tunnel, which connected New York and New Jersey by a tube under the Hudson River? Yes, it was an exciting year, all right. In September, the American Legion held their convention in Paris, France. Yes, the American Legion went to Paris with new suitcases, new clothes, but the same old spirit. It had Paris with new American song hits, like this one. You hardly noticed at the time achieved momentous importance. Now then, Secretary Hoover, President Gifford is at the other end of his telephone in New York. And unless something goes wrong with the receiving screen, this will be the first demonstration of a brand new medium, a television. Yes, on April 7th of 1927, Secretary Hoover talked to President Gifford of the Bell Telephone Company, and the first successful demonstration of television was made. There were many firsts in 1927. A man in New York picks up the phone and hears an operator say for the first time in history... We're ready with your call to London. Yes, 1927. The beginning of transatlantic telephone service between New York and London. 1927. Paper money brought out by the Treasury Department in smaller sizes. 1927. The year Al Jolson played the jazz singer on the screen and moved right into America's wide-open sentimental heart. 23 years back from where you sit tonight, America, 23 years back into memory, 1927. The year of Lindbergh and Al Smith and Coolidge, Jimmy Walker, of college boys in raccoon coats, of flaming youth and the roaring 20s. Remember, America? Remember, 1927? And this great song? The summer show train and travel from 1927 to 1949. You remember, 1949, don't you? And old couple went riding up on dark and windy days. And she rested as they went on. In 1949, the nation's newest heartthrob was the bass baritone from the Metropolitan Opera Company in its late 50s, who walked down the stage of the majestic theater of the overnight sensation in South Pacific. It's your pizza. His love song in some distant tomorrow may bring memories of shingle hair and canasta and the early days of television. A love song that even today we know belongs to the ages. Let's see what we have in store for you next week. The summer show train is written by Jean Holloway and brought to you each week at this time by the American Railroad. The service these railroads give you today is the result of never-ending research. This research started with the beginning of railroads and is now carried in more directions and with greater intensity than ever before. The opening of a new million-dollar railroad research laboratory in Chicago a few days ago further emphasizes the importance of research to the railroads and to you. And it is another efficient rail transportation system in the world. While you recognize that true, it's once in a while. And it was a tremendous hit in the year 1937. Next week the summer show train will take us back to 1937 to live again some of the important events of that year and to hear some of its great songs. Songs like Where Are When, Whistle While You Work, and The Moon...