 Family Theatre presents Marshall Thompson and Peter Loughard from Hollywood the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theatre presents Tom Summit starring Marshall Thompson and now here is your host Peter Loughard Thank You Tony Lafranco Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a Practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves Peace for our families and peace for the world Family Theatre urges you to pray Pray together as a family And now to our transcribed drama Tom Summit starring Marshall Thompson as Tom In the early life of our nation the years following the war of 1812 a Movement began in America when a few intrepid men set out to really discover the prize that had been worth fighting for In too long and bloody wars This is the story of a young man who was involved in that movement a young man who made his mark in America because of a promise made to a friend and Because he and God had different ideas about the manner of his keeping it Everything I've been telling you has been true the truth with a fork in town Ah What be the name of the man that calls me a lie easy old man. I believe every word of it Well, you're a fool boy. I am not a fool. He's the only one of you smart enough to keep dry powder in his pan Come on boy. Let's get away from the smell of these wettied mice and good ratings to you A little music Do you believe me? I believe you. It's true. Every word gospel true What I told you is nothing to some of the things I could tell but Which ways to the door? This this way frontiers miss me and you can stop calling me that it wrangles me. I'm sorry. I don't know your name It's because Davis ensure I'm not too steady on my feet It's a demon rum is what it is. I Cursed day. I took my first drink When I come in I had a hundred blue Now thanks to rum I can scarce buy salt and back in camps that alone powder We better sit away. Yeah, this log. All right the ground that logs got ticks and I ain't yet If you stuck up for me in there You're all right. I had to stick up for you guys. Yeah, I do. I believed you You always speak out for what you believe. I'll try You're all right You got a name and Thomas summit Well, Thomas summit you figured the beating pretty high off in the hog for a while There's all gone now. It's the rum that did a boy's a rum Look, I I won't call you frontiersmen and you don't call me boy. All right, that's fair bargain Now when you tell me more about the West about the things you've seen Things you might not believe Tom summit. Well, try me Yeah, you hear me talk about the great mountain. Tell me more about them. Are they much past st. Louis past st. Louis You get that for and you ain't even started out Yeah, I don't feel so good if a man wanted to see him. How far would he have to go? Long way Rum must have been a bad luck. Well, how long how long what go to the great mountains? Long way past Little Cherokee Kansas apple Blackfoot country two three months Hmm That'll fix me. You're going back Gus. Going back for certain. Sure. I'm going back Man get wealthy in two seasons trapping. You bet your boots. I'm going back You ain't think I'll stretch out right here Um Gus Hmm Will you take me with you? Gus Hmm. Will you let me go with you when you go back? Gus Go away boy. Not tell you tell me I can go with you when you go west again You can go with me now leave me be All right, Gus now I'll leave you be A long time Thomas summits at watching the sleeping figure of Gustavus Henshaw Wondering how it'd feel to wear the buckskin clothing made grimy by a thousand campfires How it would feel to explore the wilderness Face the unknown with no more civilization than you could carry in a sack slung across your back And no more protection than what was afforded by a long rifle a skinning knife and your own wits After the moon had gone down Tom summit took a precaution against being left behind And then he too Slapped Yeah, you wake up. Come on up your seat Morning Gus What'd you do with my rifle? I hit it. You hit it. I thought you might forget and go off without me Oh, I'd have gone off without you. All right. You said you take me along I said that and I'm holding you to it Are you figured to do that? You don't want to go without your rifle, do you? I'll find it You think I can't look us last night. You told me you'd take me with you when you went west Look, I'll pay my own way. All I want is to have you show me a few of the ropes. Where's my rifle? Up on that tree Lynn. Good enough I should have seen that It tracks her all over the place and I would have I was feeling good Which I Hey Did I have a good time last night? You seem to be having a good time. Well, that's something anyways She's two seasons worth gone in a week That's why you want me to take you west the money a man can make no It ain't worth it For work for the money. I mean Every minute you're out there. You can figure some engine brave is looking you over looking for a way to part you from your hair You mean scalping that's what I mean, right enough It's a big coup for a young buck to get a trapper scalp And there's plenty you get some too Never heard area mountain ran down old age. Well, that's part of the reason I said I wanted to go I I don't figure to die of old age either. Why? Yeah, my father and my mother a brother too. They They died of a weakness of the lungs. You know what they say about that. I don't Well, they say when it starts in the family, it just doesn't stop And you figure to go that way too, huh? Maybe That way or being killed by Indians. It doesn't much matter. That's what you say now It's it. Well, it's just that I want to do something before I die I want to see some of the world I reckon that's not much to ask I'll give you a lifetime full of things to see even if you don't figure to have too much time ahead of you There's just one condition tom and what's that? Don't ever forget anything. I ever tell you at the mountains for the engines They traveled overland to st. Louis where they bought their provisions And then took the paddle boat up the Missouri as far as franklin The jumping off place for those who sought the wilderness Or the sudden wealth that might be had from the beaver Even though it might be risking a much more sudden death from Indians With a group of fellow trappers they traveled without incident through the lands of the kansas and the pawny The crow and the snake and the Cherokee And all along the way gust talked and thomas summitt listened and remember I've been watching you. You're still too slow I thought I was loading fast. Not as fast as you can. Don't get me wrong time You come a long way in more ways than one But you got to learn to load and fire faster or some young buck's gonna lift your head Guess I thought I was doing real well. I've been practicing. Sure. I know you have but don't take my word for it though Hey luke luke miller you come over here Why call him over he hasn't been watching me isn't a man here ain't been watching you There isn't a man here who hasn't had to go through the same thing tom As slow as gust says I am. Well, how slow would that be slow enough to get dead? Oh now gust nobody's fast enough to keep him getting dead at some time or another. Oh, you know what I mean How about it luke? That's a good question You see tom Most of the Indians you'll be running into it kind of quite a coup quite an honor to bring back a trapper scout Why is that bravery I guess To most Indians an act of bravery is a powerful thing The Indians faith almost makes it impossible for him not to scout the trapper if he gets a chance Now our religion says we have to stay alive as long as we can There's only one answer to that we have to well out Indian the Indians You've got to learn to fight harder than he does You got to be more wary than he is and act faster than he does And I'm not fast enough to beat him yet. No not by a long shot But you will be well, if that's all you wanted to see me about I got an argument going over at the other fire Well, thanks luke. Oh blides to you. Oh and tom if he gets too cantankerous for you come along with me I could use a good partner. He'll be all right. I sure he will He sure doesn't talk like the rest of them then He ain't like the rest of us used to be a school teacher I hid Mightn't be though. I never asked him school teacher. Hmm. That sounds about right. He's got a way of thinking about things I never thought about the Indians having a religion. You know what I mean? Oh, they got one. All right Never ran into a tribe. It didn't but I don't know somewhere along the line. They got it all bent up Gus Yeah Luke Miller, do you suppose he meant what he said about being able to use me for a partner? You're figuring to move. No He meant it. All right. He wouldn't have said it if and he didn't Yeah, you could do a whole lot worse than to go ahead with luke miller Be a smart engine who hangs luke miller scalp. What a waste that would be. That ain't likely to happen You see he can load and fire in less than half a day. Now Gus, I promise you before we get to towels I'll be loading and firing are the best of you. I promise They spent a week at the Spanish settlement of towels, New Mexico Where they heard that general ashley of the american fur company Would hold a rendezvous each spring on the eastern slope of the Rockies For the first time it would be possible for trappers to sell their furs Without making the long trek to franklin or st. Louis The two spent the last of their money for another year's provisions Then they set out for the beaver country The far reaches of the upper colorado The heart of the rocky mountains and The heart of the blackfoot country At the end of the second season when they were getting ready to leave for the rendezvous They had a visitor try to drink some more of the broth Leave him be he's been a long time without too much lonely sickening more He closed that flap will you Gus try to keep some of the heat in here. Yeah, I should have thought of that Do you think we'll be able to get him to the rendezvous? We have to We can hide some of the pelts put them on a pack animal We'll never get away Never you feel like talking now. They caught us cold No warning no sign blackfoot About 20 young braves Almost boys Who was with you? Jebediah gallon And miller luke Gus they got luke miller Any chance they got away? No chance And there's no chance for us There get us, you know they followed you here They've been following me for days I didn't know you were here I'm sorry Sorry Tom come on What do we do now? Take the pelts to that cave on the hillside and bring all the pack animals back We'll need them all for mounts if we're gonna stay ahead of that war party I'll try to get him fit to move. All right. Have we got a chance Gus? I don't know Tom You better get a move on And Tom if you hear firing don't come back Till the firing began Thomas summit didn't look back then it was almost too late The Indians had come following the tracks of one man. They had found two And because they were young braves and at war it was a cause of rejoicing And because of their rejoicing they made a mistake their tribe would remember They missed seeing the tracks of tom summit The victory was accomplished and the victors had ridden off with the spoils before tom could get back to the camp Gus Gus Gus where are you? I'll make them pay for this If this is war i'll show them war I swear i'll teach them to make war on us I swear it Gus I swear it It was at that moment that a legend began It was at that moment that tom summits personal war against the blackfoot took its form He trailed the victors back to their village by following the advice of luke miller by using his cunning He out indianed the tribe long held the most dangerous of the mountain nations He studied their weaknesses and used them He baited them into sending scouts out from the village and then he killed the scouts He waited for the young braves to ride out in war parties And then he sniped at them till there was only one to carry back the tale He crept into the village itself and stole arrows from one clan to fire into the tents of another And thereby broke the enemy into factions working against each other He became a legend Feared and respected among the blackfoot as a vengeful spirit Invincible insatiable and invisible Then after almost two years to the astonishment of the blackfoot and the disappointment of the trappers The war came to an end What is this place? It is my tent Your tent? Who? I've seen you before You are at rendezvous. I am sublet. I used to pay you for your beaver Oh, you know now, eh? How did I get here? Smith and Luzon found you in the mountains going this way, that and burning up with fever Did they get me? There are no marks on you that the blonde deer did not put there They killed Gus Henshaw Yes, we heard this We've heard a lot of things since that happened How long ago was that? It seems sometimes it seems like a day, sometimes like a lifetime Two years this rendezvous Yes, two years I thought I must have been about that long There, there are no marks on me, you see? None, oh, I cut here and there, old scar, it's nothing more It's finally come then What is that? The lung fever Well, my family died of it I knew it was coming It is not that, Thompson Not that, how would you know? When a man gets sick in the mountains, who do you think they bring him to? There is nothing wrong with your lungs They are as good as mine, better probably And what is wrong with me? I do not know Perhaps you went too long without good food Perhaps something bit you Perhaps the good God just gets tired of seeing you do what you do You really think that? Okay, it was their wars, the blood, I didn't start it And you think you ended by killing all of them You can't do that, and you know it The mountains are full of the villages of the Blackfoot If you want to know what is wrong with you I think it is just that God was tired of seeing you making your war So he sends you to me, to a man with good sense How long have you been working with the trappers? A long time Don't you know what the Indians do to us When they find us in the mountains? Why, if you knew... Ah, but I do know And I promised Gus I promised him I'd teach them to make war on us And you do teach them But a dead student cannot use what he has learned What do you mean? The urine, the blackhawk, the Delaware Not even the Mohawk make war on us anymore And you know why? No, not unless they're all dead But they are not dead They make no more war because someone, a priest Or some other peacemaker may devour like yours To teach them that it is wrong What do you want me to do? You think I should walk into the nearest Blackfoot Village And tell them that it's not nice to carve up us poor trappers You think I should teach them like a schoolmaster with a bunch of children? Why not? They are children in a way Pure foolishness But they would listen to you as they would listen to no other To me? You think they'd listen to me? Now they'd shoot me on sight Maybe save me for one of their special ways of dying No, they have learned to fear and to respect you They would listen to you I'll do my talking with a powder and ball You came here to die In two years' time you have gone stronger, not weaker You have lived with death, even courted it But God has not let you die He must have a very good reason, Tom Summit You rest now And you think about what I have said You talk foolishness You have a good mind Do not close it too soon, Tom Will you at least think about what I have said? Why? Because you might do much good Because it might be the best way of keeping your promise to Gus Henshaw I'll think about it In the late 1820s, Tom Summit went to live with the Blackfoot He endured the rituals of initiation, was accepted into the tribe And shortly thereafter married one of its women She gave him four children Hostilities between the whites and the Blackfoot Ended in the late 1830s And the securing of peace was the work of many men But Tom Summit's part in it was enough to make him continue as a legend Among his new people while he lived And to be remembered as such for many years after He died of old age around 1870 The date is uncertain There is no written account of his life This is Peter Lofford again Recently an article appeared in a national magazine about George Bernard Shaw And it brought a whole new facet of the man's personality to light It seems that Shaw, a widely professed atheist, corresponded regularly with the nun And that the subject of this correspondence was nearly always God Although to the world Shaw claimed to be an atheist In his letters to the nun some of the tenderest religious sentiments were expressed Tending to disprove his claim to atheism It would seem then that he did believe in God But that he kept his religion buried within himself A lot of people are like Shaw in that respect They feel that a man's relationship with God is a deeply private and personal thing And should therefore be kept private and personal And that's a mistaken notion The one prayer given us by God himself begins with our father Not my father We all share the fatherhood of God And our relations with him should be as open as our relations with our earthly parents That's one of the reasons family theater recommends family prayer When the members of family pray together They share their faith and make it as much a part of life As eating or breathing which is it should be And they present an excellent example to each other and to their friends Then too the family that prays together stays together More things are ought by prayer than this world dreams of Um, Hollywood Family Theater has brought you transcribed Tom Summit starring Marshall Thompson Peter Loford was your host Others in our cast were Barney Phillips, Vic Perron, Howard Culver and Robert Emlin The script was written and directed for Family Theater by Robert Hugo Sullivan With music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you Who feel the need for this type of program By the mutual network which has responded to this need And by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio Who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage To them and to you our humble thanks This is Tony Lofrano expressing the wish of Family Theater That the blessing of God may be upon you and your home And inviting you to join us next week when Family Theater will present A matter of potential starring Joan Leslie Vic Demone will be your host Join us won't you? Family Theater has broadcast throughout the world And originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network This is Mutual, the radio network for all America