 Remember a hallmark card when you care enough to send the very best Tonight from Hollywood the makers of hallmark greeting cards bring you miss Rosalyn Russell in Louis Brumfields Mrs. Parkington on the hallmark playhouse Each week hallmark will bring you Hollywood's greatest stars in outstanding stories chosen by one of the world's best-known authors They distinguish novelist mr. James Hilton Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is James Hilton tonight on our hallmark playhouse We are delighted to present a dramatization of a well-known story by one of America's best and most popular writers Louis Brumfield Mr. Brumfield who won the Pulitzer prize for one of his novels is many things besides the writer He's widely traveled. I remember I first met him at a party in London And he's also a farmer whose land in Ohio has become famous not only because of the books He has written about it, but because of the excellence of its methods and produce a good writer and a good farmer quite a combination that The story of mr. Brumfields that we have chosen for tonight is mrs. Parkington And we're especially privileged to have starring in it one of Hollywood's most famous actresses Rosalyn Russell But before we raise the curtain here is Frank gas who has a brief message from hallmark For a Christmas greeting your friends will long remember make your selections now from the complete hallmark collection On display at the friendly store where you buy hallmark cards Whatever your taste whatever your budget you'll take special pride in sending hallmark cards And on the back of everyone is the identifying hallmark that says you cared enough to send the very best Hallmark playhouse starring Russell in Russell in Louis Brumfields mrs. Parkington face records The past where you are always young is only a memory away Leaping Rock, Nevada is 67 years back into time for me But I have only to close my eyes to be that age again To live those hours over I have only to close my eyes to see my mother shutting the kitchen door and leaning warily against it. I Have only to close my eyes to see major Parkington our star border from New York Coming in the kitchen door He had on a silk shirt and a purple cravat and a checkered waistcoat and a diamond pin and a diamond ring and A gold Watson chain He'd sit there straddling a chair while we cooked dinner. I'd tell you your love New York Susie It's color noise excitement adventure. It's the Arabian nights. It's poetry. It's music. It's Delmonico's It's dancing it's laughter. It's enchantment the city for the young Susie a challenging fabulous city Belongs to anyone who can conquer it It's at the moment when I sat in the kitchen Telling him about New York and told me about it when I fell in love with him that moment It was a child Was it in that dark hour after my mother and father died in the mine explosion? When he tried to shut out all pain of loss and death, but I first loved him That hour he was a father Or did I wait to fall completely in love that snowy wedding night? When he carried me across the threshold of the Brevard Hotel You're happy Susie it is like the Arabian nights Red velvet curtains and white roses and candlelight. No Susie. You're so young and so lovely Across the room I saw my husband eyeing me over a coffee cup Get up and have some breakfast sleepyhead. I certainly will How did that breakfast get in here without waking me up came by magic? I waved my hand there it was I'm so hungry. Yeah, have some coffee. I sent a note to a friend of mine asking you to come and take you on a shopping expedition today Huh, uh-huh a spazier Conti. She's a French woman who knows more about everything than any woman has a right to know about anything She'll help you in a lot of ways Help me Susie darling I'm a very rich man, but while money can buy a lot it can't buy everything New York is a tough place. I'll have to fight for what we want I've always had to fight. I don't mind for myself. I want to make it easy for you There must be a spacey Susie this is mademoiselle Conti mademoiselle. This is my wife I'm very happy to know you mademoiselle Conti It is a pleasure to meet the wife of my very good friend major Parkington She is much more beautiful than you deserve Gus I want you to take her out and buy her the most fashionable things in the city Because tonight I'm gonna show Susie, New York, and I'm gonna show New York Mrs. Parkington It was all he said it would be music and laughter poetry and waltzes Winter melted into spring and my life was at its spring time too And when I learned that I was going to have a child it seemed to me I had reached the fullest happiness that can come to any woman. I began to wish then That we could leave the hotel and find a small cottage somewhere outside the city. I told Gus and that afternoon He drove a spacey and me down to 34th Street. We are Susie. No careful now I'm all right girls. Well, I don't believe I know anyone at this address What is it a hotel? How does it strike you as a cottage? A cottage? It strikes me as being just about what would strike you as being a cottage I'm not so sure about Susie. I bought this today as a surprise for you Susie You may not believe it, but this house has 30 rooms 30 rooms for two people. Don't forget. There's gonna be three of us pretty soon Even so we don't need 10 rooms a piece here. Look at this door solid mahogany Never seen so chandeliers. Oh Gus the gas bills are going to be ferocious See that staircase marble every inch of it. You like it Susie Like it. Oh Gus, it's a palace. I knew you'd love it. Come on. Let me show you the rest of it. Here's the ballroom What a room for a party and I'm giving a party in three weeks I'm gonna have the cream of New York society. Oh, it's time. We launched ourselves. We've got the house We've got the money the spacey a you can help me with a guest list and Susie You'll stand right there by that window in a white satin gown There'll be flowers everywhere and music playing and the best people in New York bowing before you Later, I stood in that ballroom in my white satin With Gus and a spacey a facing an empty room There was a Dresden Shepherd and shepherds on the mantle behind us and Suddenly Gus picked up the shepherd and hurled it across the empty ball Oh God, how could you have could you so they didn't come they'll pay for this every last one of them Up to bed Gus the evening is bad enough for her without you shouting and carrying on like that. It doesn't matter It doesn't matter that no one came I'm just so tired. You had better carry her upstairs. No, no, I'll be all right up I'll be all Susie Susie carry her upstairs to bed. I will send one of the men for the doctor So tired I know why don't you go out doors and walk? I'll pay them back if it takes every set I've got Hadn't been for those snobs. I might have had a son today And you wouldn't be lying there with all that pain behind you or nothing to show for it Probably have happened Dirty rotten snobs Susie, I swear to you. I'll pay every one of them back There was nothing I could say or anyone else could say that would ever change him I Forgot about the episode as the months and in the years went by and Herbert and Elliot and Alice were born And it wasn't until long ago Much later than that that I found out that he'd been getting his revenge That was an hour when I feared him almost hated him an Hour when I met a completely new major Parkington Gus. Have you seen the newspaper? Prominent financier commits suicide Radna Beaumont dies. Yes, I saw it He was one of the people you invited to the party wasn't he yes According to the papers he was facing bankruptcy It can be very dangerous to refuse an invitation to a party you give cut it very Good you Blair's cousin was here. She begged me as a favor to ask you not to ruin her cousin She said he would kill himself. Good you Blair won't kill himself. He hasn't the guts. I'll try to explain it to you Those same men would have ruined me just as ruthlessly. They were trying to do it, but they weren't strong enough I Can tell you one thing If they had I wouldn't have hanged myself in a cupboard. I'd have gone back to work and made another fortune Was an ambitious man Ambitious for himself ambitious for his wife Ambitious for his children They went to the best schools dressed like royalty and had everything money could buy I Tried to keep him from giving them too much But he was determined they should have all the things that neither of us had in our childhood And they certainly did and so it happened when our daughter Ellis was still too young to know what she wanted She decided to marry a French Duke Espasier I know this marriage is wrong. Do you realize that Gus is settling a hundred thousand dollars a year on the Duke? I cannot sanction a marriage like that. You may be right, but it is too late for that Or let her marry him Susie if she does not marry the Duke it it would be another like him She is doomed Why do you say that? It is the same with her brothers their father has implanted in them a sense of being possessed of some special privilege of being outside the rules which govern the conduct of ordinary people So Alice will marry Not for love, but for a title and there is nothing you can do about it Espasier I'm so afraid you're right Would you like to send a personally imprinted Christmas card this Christmas so unusual your friends will show up to all who visit them during the Holiday season and then see the new hallmark creations at the friendly store where you buy hallmark cards There are five distinctive types of hallmark cards for imprinting with your name each designed as only hallmark craftsmen can design them There are hallmark cards with beautiful designs and silken tapestries Richly engraved formal cards and cards that speak a man's language with sporting scenes by Edwin McGargy Lynn Bogue hunt Lacel Ripley There's the hallmark blue book with sophisticated designs and surprise features and there's the hallmark gallery artist series Open the hallmark album at any page and what a treasure lies before you quaint winter scenes by Grandma Moses Delightful Christmas scenes by Norman Rockwell here, too You'll find Salvador Dali Marcel Vertez Cezanne Renoir go get money Van Gogh Yes, more than 50 foremost artists contribute their genius to the hallmark gallery artist collection Personal Christmas cards on which you will be proud to have your name imprinted Remember these are hallmark cards when friends receive them and look on the back as you did They'll see the hallmark and know you cared enough to send the very best And now we continue with part two of Louis Brumfields Mrs. Parkington Starring Rosalind Russell close my eyes to enter the past randomly Three years after Alice's marriage was a summer. I shall always look back on It's the most terrible summer of my life My son Herbert was killed in June in an automobile accident leaving a widow and two small children and In August came a letter from Alice saying her marriage was unbearable and impossible She wanted a divorce a Spacey and I left for Paris immediately and when we arrived there we learned that the Duke was contesting the divorce This was obviously a move to extract blackmail money So I decided to match the Duke at his own game. I Hired detectives got a complete file on the Duke's past and present activities and then arranged a meeting He was as charming as ever Mrs. Parkington your lovelier than even my memories of you. Thank you Jacques. You needn't be flattering This is hardly a friendly meeting. I Understand that you have treated Alice abominably and that you have absented yourself from home for weeks at a time It is all quite true But from the beginning it was complete misery to live with her nothing is worth that Jack Understand this there isn't going to be any more money. My husband was too generous to you in the first place Last time you dealt with him This time you deal with me I have a dozier here on you that was compiled by six of the finest and possibly the most unscrupulous detectives in France It is in complete order ready to be released to the newspapers You are very good at your games as parking for instance Do you know a madam? It would be more foolish to say no an Exposure of that little episode in your life would drag in the names of other important people you need not continue I'm forced to say that your investigators are remarkably good My lawyer and yours will get together. I will not contest the divorce I've missed you a spacey. I love you. You look grand Alice darling. It's good to see I've arranged a wonderful summer for you You'll soon forget all this business. Oh, it's so good to have my family home again Suzy let me tell you about that when we get home. Come on the cars right over here dead my son My son did don't darling. There's nothing that can be done now, but to kill himself. Why? Why we don't know that he killed himself. It happened in Denver. The gun may have been discharged accidentally Get out of this house Suzy. I have to go for a while Can't bear this house. I can't bear to look at it to be shut up in it if I stay here I'll die too Suzy. I hate this house. I tell you I hate this house I hate the money. We're choking smothering strangling in money. Can't you see that? Haven't been for the money Herbert wouldn't have had money to buy a car Alice wouldn't have married that fortune hunter Eddie wouldn't have had everything and been tired of it before he was 25 I hate the money and I hate this house. I Wanted you and my children to have everything I Wanted to find a dynasty where you founded your dynasty. I hope you're proud of it. I Remember thinking I'm a surely died brief and bitterness But the heart has a way of reconciling itself and going on Just as Gus had said New York was there to conquer or to be conquered So it is with life if you've read blood in your veins you conquer life and go on And only when you're long past the hours of trial Do you discover that what you conquered each time was yourself? Knowing this I was able to go on When the major died Suzy you have been wonderful. I know the funeral and all was a great trial to you It was a great sorrow for you to aspatia. I Know that Gus might have married you if it hadn't been for that explosion in a leaping rock No, Suzy Gus Parkington was in love with youth And I have been old from the hour of my birth just as you have been young He he was a splendid man. He was a happy man. I Think people are really happy in proportion to how much they give He wasn't always a good man But he gave a great deal He gave a great deal more than he took one of us Leaping rocks is 67 years back into time 67 years from the moment when the major first told me about New York To the moment when my granddaughter's husband Amory walked into my sitting room on Christmas Eve The whole family was gathered downstairs for a Christmas dinner And I was just about to go down when he came in Hello there granny Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Amory. I hate to bother you before the Christmas dinner, but it is rather important How much do you need this time Amory? $750,000 $750,000 That's the amount I've stolen I took funds I had access to that weren't mine to invest. I thought I had a sure thing and that I could put the money back Why Amory? Why Amory? You had plenty of money. You knew there was more much more in the background You only had to wait until I died. I wanted to make more money. I wanted to be successful If I give you this money Will that stop the whole thing? I hope so. It's just a matter of putting it back now And if I don't give it to you, I shall have to stand trial She's getting cross about it. Come Amory. Let's go down I'll think this over and let you know my decision before you leave tonight I sat at the dinner table looking around at the faces of gusses and my descendants and Suddenly I knew with a cold sense of defeat that not one of those faces was a happy one And I remembered Alice's face when she was young and Herbits and I knew that they had not been happy either But Gus and I had been happy and suddenly realizing that I knew what I had to do Quiet everybody quiet, please grandmother has the floor a Merry Christmas to you all. I think perhaps I had better say that first Because I don't know how Mary you're going to think it is when I finish first of all Amory is in trouble that calls for some financial assistance, which I am going to give him Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to give it to him Because I don't blame him for the trouble he is in any more than I blame the rest of you for being selfish and spoiled Amory like you is a product of the things. He had no control over the era that preceded him. I Think now he has learned a lesson But something must be done about him and about you So for all of you when I die a Small trust fund will be set up the income from which will pay your rent and food and very little else If you want anything else, I very much hope you will go out and earn it Well, I hardly thought it would be pleased but grandmother the rest of the money It's going back Where it came from you mean a memorial for the major no indeed I'm not interested in creating a legend at this late date that Gus was a great man Gus did a lot of good. Most of it was done accidentally. I stayed married to him all these years Because he was a scamp on a gigantic scale and because he was fascinating And because I was in love with him Right up to the end. I was kind of Gus's Gun now when you come right down to it No The money is going to things like hospitals and settlements and libraries And now let's get on with this party because tomorrow I am going on a trip And I want to be good and rested to go on it. Where are you going granny? I am going back to leaping rock Nevada And so I went back to finish the days In the land where I had begun them And now I was content with a hot sleepy slowness of the days For I knew what lay beyond the mountains What do York and most of the rest of the world was like And I knew that here was what all the rest of the world was seeking Simplicity and a sense of freedom and well-being and Happiness of spirit It had been there all the time But it had taken me 67 years James Hilton and Rosalyn Russell will return But first may I invite you again to see the new hallmark Christmas cards now on display at your friendly hallmark dealers If you prefer to select cards to individually fit each one on your list You'll find a hallmark card that says just what you want to say the way you want to say it There are hallmark albums from which to select cards for imprinting with your name and there are the many boxes of assorted Hallmark cards. Yes, whatever your taste whatever your budget there are hallmark cards You take special pride in sending and when your friends receive them and look on the back as you did They'll see the hallmark and know you cared enough to send the very best Now here again is James Hilton. Miss Rosalyn Russell I want you to know how much we've enjoyed having you here with us tonight For all of us here and for every member of the hallmark family our grateful. Thanks for a great performance I never know quite how to respond to introductions or words of appreciation. I Guess like your hallmark greeting cards. The best practice is simply to say The appropriate and the sincere thing So thank you. It was a great pleasure to be here We shall inscribe your name on our roll of honoured guests and we invite you to listen next week when we shall present Oh Halloran's luck by Stephen Vincent Bernay and starring Edmund O'Brien Ladies and gentlemen in the workshop behind our hallmark playhouse. It's Christmas. Oh, no, we are not exchanging gifts yet But we've been doing a lot of thinking about Christmas about the hallmark Christmas radio program We've already made our selection and I won't tell you what it is. I'm merely using it as an illustration of how far ahead we work Long before you hear a story on the air. We've been through libraries and bookshelves reading making notes and discussing dramatic possibilities We try to select the kind of person the author had in mind when he created the character and Therefore we try to visualize the particular star who will fit the leading role It's a long careful process, but I'd rather think we've been successful if your comments are any gauge We like to hear from you as a matter of fact. I'd like to hear from you about stories You're especially fond of it might help me and all of us in making the hallmark shows your best entertainment So if you'd care to write to me and I'd welcome that just address James Hilton care of hallmark playhouse Columbia Broadcasting System, Hollywood, California. And now until next Thursday. This is James Hilton saying good night Tonight story was adapted for radio by Gene Holloway with music composed and conducted by Lynn Murray our director producer as D Engelback Rosalyn Russell is currently starred in the independent artist production of Elvett touch Look for hallmark cards that are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service Hallmark cards when you carry enough to send the very best This is Frank Goss saying good night to you all until next week at the same time when James Hilton returns to present Steven Vincent Benazo Halloran's luck starring Edmund O'Brien in the following week Claude Jarman, Jr. In Mario Harris my friend clicker this program came to you from the hallmark playhouse. This is CDS the Columbia Broadcasting System