 Ladies and gentlemen, the railroad hour. And here comes our star-studded show train. Tonight, the Association of American Railroads presents two hearts in three-quarter time, starring Gordon MacRae and his guest, lovely Marion Bell. The operetta is by Robert Stoltz, Daily Passman, William A. Drake, Walter Reich, and Franz Schultz. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. Yes, tonight another great musical success is brought to you by the 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. And now, here is our star, Gordon MacRae. Thank you, Marvin Miller, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Well, we have a festival of waltzes for you tonight as we visit the city where the waltz was born. The city of palaces along the Ringstrasse, and the gay cafes of the Prater, the city where the Danube flows blue and bright beneath the arches, and music in three-quarter time flows from a thousand violins, the city of the great names of Franz Joseph and Count Mennonick, of the Strausses and Mozart, of Leihar and Litton, the city where music is king. Any song, drink with a throng, help life along. Life in Vienna can be a delight for a successful composer, and tonight I shall be Tony Halt, if not the waltz king, at least the crown prince in Vienna's music royalty, for the melodies of my operettas are sung throughout Europe. Marion Bell is Haiti, the charming young daughter of my producer. But as our story begins, I haven't the slightest idea that old Blaustingle has such an attractive blossom on his family tree. Eddie, dear, Eddie, welcome home. Oh, Father, it is good to be home from school. Now, my dear, you may do anything you like. I put the city of Vienna at your disposal. Father, there's just one thing I want you to do for me. Name it, Eddie. I want to meet Tony Hofer. Tony Hofer? Why do you want to meet him? I think I'm in love with him, Father. Ha! Nonsense. I'm sure I'm in love with his music. No one else can write waltzes as he does. Yet school his melodies keep running through my head, all day and in all night. Well, be... Me to the man who wrote that song. No. You produce all his operettas. Yes, but Tony's a playboy. Different girl every night. Oh, he sounds most attractive. Eddie, I warn you, forget this schoolgirl crush on Tony Hofer. Wake up, Tony. Wake up. Bloustingle, you barbarian, waking a man at four o'clock. It's four o'clock in the afternoon, Tony. Time when all civilized people should be in bed. Now, go away, Bloustingle. Come back after the sun goes down. Your life, Tony, all the hours are upside down. Can I help it if daylight makes me nervous? Get out of bed. Have you completed the score for the new operetta? Well, I have a new love song for you, if that's what you're screaming about. Of course. There's the piano. Let me hear it. Very well. It's not easy to be romantic before breakfast, but here goes. Why not? What's wrong with it? We need a waltz, Tony. Vienna wants its love songs in three-quarter time. Bloustingle, a man can only write waltzes when he's in love. Truly and hopelessly in love. Fine. Fall in love. You're pretty quick about it. We open in two weeks. Bloustingle, you commercial clown. I'll give you 48 hours to come up with a waltz. And if you fail, Tony, you're through. What's the matter, father? I'm worried about Tony Hofer. He's having trouble with the waltz for the new operetta. Says he can't write one unless he falls in love. You're his producer. Why don't you produce a romance for him? A splendid idea, Heddy. I'll engage an attractive young girl to pursue him. That'll be a novelty. I know just the girl. Yes? Mitzi Reitmeier. Oh. He's a splendid actress. You'll have Tony head over heels in love with him. I watch her number. Mitzi Reitmeier, Leopold star 4177. Mitzi Reitmeier? This is Mr. Bloustingle's secretary calling about the engagement tonight with Mr. Tony Hofer. Well, you won't have to come. Someone else is going to be in your place. Oh, thank you, Ms. Reitmeier. Bye. What have I done? You shouldn't do that. Very hard on the piano. Do you usually say good evening to your guest? Yes, yes. Good evening. I wasn't aware that I was expecting a guest tonight. Please, no one as lovely as you are. Oh, you talk exactly the way you write music. Are you alive or some dream creature out of fairyland? I'm an angel. Oh. Angels are very important in the theater. I'm told. Well, yes, but they usually have bald heads and mutton chop whiskers. I know why you slammed the piano just then. You do, huh? Huh? You're having trouble with your new waltz. Oh, how the deuce did you know? Oh, you can't write a waltz with your head. It has to come from your heart. You're right. My heart's been as empty as ashes until you came into the room. Why don't you try a phrase like... Angel? Angel, where are you? She's gone. Inspired my best waltz, and I don't even know her name. Arts in three-quarter time in just a moment. Today, America hears again the sounds of a mighty defense program, the busy hum of machinery in factories, the staccato chatter of riveting hammers, the excitement in the voices of men in a hurry, men on the move. But back of all those sounds, listen for the long and lonesome whistle of mighty locomotives, endlessly hauling mountains of freight that will never stop. Endlessly hauling mountains of freight the length and breadth of the land. For the materials of defense come from mine, forest, and farm in every state of the Union, and they must flow smoothly and swiftly to mill and factory and out again to assembly plant, warehouse, and seaport. Today, this task of knitting together the productive might of America calls for railroads, the only form of transportation big enough and flexible enough to handle this essential job. And their ability to keep pace with America's defense program grows out of the fact that for the past five years the railroads have improved and expanded their facilities and equipment at an average rate of one billion dollars a year. For example, 350,000 new bigger freight cars are helping right now to shoulder the nation's new transportation burden. 11,000 new more powerful locomotive units have put their pulling power at America's service in the drive toward full fighting strength. Yet those new cars and engines did not exist at the end of World War II. To continue this important program of improvement and expansion, the railroads must be able to count on getting more steel, more of all the materials that make a railroad tick. It's as true today as it was during World War II that one good measure of the nation's productive and fighting capacity is the hauling capacity of its railroad. Now here is the second act of two hearts in three-quarter time, starring Gordon Macrae as Tony and Marion Bell as Haiti. Once in a lifetime, if you're lucky, you meet a girl who's a vision of loveliness. If you're a poet, she inspires an immortal sonnet. If you're a painter, she becomes a masterpiece on your canvas. Or if you're a writer of waltzes, as I am, she gives you a melody that all the world will sing. But if you're unlucky, as I am, the girl slips away from you and the song becomes only an empty echo of your love. But although the girl had vanished into the night, her face, the scent of her perfume, the warmth of her presence lingered in my memory. What does my heart keep saying? He's had the waltz for Blau Stingel's new operetta. And so I set out for his house to play it for him. I've got to go over a new song with Tony Hofer, and I forbid you to have any schoolgirl infatuations with fly-by-night composers. Oh, I wouldn't dream of disobeying you. Well, you can dream of it, but don't you do it. Good morning here, Blau Stingel. Good afternoon, Tony. Come in, come in, come in. I have your waltz for you. Good, good. Fall in love together. You know the strangest thing happened? A girl came to my studio last night. I'm not sure now if she was real or a dream. As I looked at her, the words and music flowed into my mind like the waters of the dead. A girl, you say? I'm curious. Well, there's a piano, my boy. I consider this my best work. I'm anxious to hear it. I call it two-heart beat in three-quarter time. Vienna will like that. So, it goes... Well? Two-heart beat with a... What's wrong? I've lost it. Lost it? I can't remember how it goes. You didn't write it down? No, no, I never write things down. Inbeseal, it's the greatest song you ever wrote and I'll never hear it. You won't even hear it. I've lost the girl and now I've lost the song, too. Oh, the girl? Did Mitzi hear it? Is that her name? How did you know it? Of course I'd know it. Who do you think sent her? Operator, operator, get me Lillpo, start four, one, seven, seven and hurry. You sent her? My angel? Angel, nothing. She's an actress. I hired her to put you in a romantic mood. Blau Stingel, you boor. Mitzi has a voice like a sick sparrow, but maybe she can remember the tune. She sings like a lark. Hello, hello, Mitzi. Blau Stingel. You have no taste. Mitzi, sing me that song. Blau Stingel, you're a commercial club. What song? Tony Hofer's New Waltz. With a bank ball for a soul. No, shut up, Tony. I can't hear her singing. Look at that, huh? You're not singing it? You don't know what I'm talking about? My secretary did nothing of the kind. I'll fire my secretary. I can't do that. I fired her two weeks ago. I haven't got any secretary. No, Mitzi, you've failed me. I'll see to it that you never speak a line on the Vienna stage again. Well, now what do we do? Tony Hofer, you're fired. I think I'll fire me, too. Listen, that's my Waltz. Fine. How does my daughter know it? Your daughter? Come down here, Heddy. It'd be dangerous for me to meet the terrible Mr. Tony Hofer. Angel, too hard to meet with a joy. I never could have written it without your daughter. Without her, I never would have found it again. Heddy, didn't I forbid you to get a crush on a songwriter? Oh, this isn't a crush, Father. No, we're in love. But a son-in-law who's never even seen sunshine. Dear Flossing, I'll be a completely new man if Heddy will marry me. I'll never look at another girl. I may even get up as early as noon. I'll live my life all over again. In fact, I'll even write a song about it. If we all could live life over It would be nice. It would be nice. And our thanks to Louis van Rooten, who played Blousting, and to our entire company. The musical score of two hearts and three-quarter time is by Robert Stoltz with lyrics by Daley Paskman. The operetta was written for the stage by William A. Drake from the motion picture of the same name by Walter Reich and Franz Schultz, and was dramatized for the railroad hour by Lawrence and Lee. The railroad hour is brought to you each week at this time by the American Railroads. You know it makes sense, folks, that if we're going to roll up our sleeves and produce more, the railroads are going to be called on to haul more raw materials and finished products. Yes, it's a fact that America's productive capacity and the railroad's hauling capacity go hand in hand. And that's why the railroads must get the steel and other materials they need so that they will be able to keep pace with the transportation needs of our rapidly expanding defense program. And now here again is lovely Marion Bell. Thank you, Gordon. This was fun. I liked it because it contained my favorite theme. Well, what's that, Marion? The fella chases the girl until she catches him. Well, we had a good time in three-quarter time, didn't we? And next week we're going to have a ball in four-four. What do you have scheduled? Well, ma'am, we have Frimo, Francois Villon, and the Vagabond King. And Irrepatina will be our charming guest star. I'm sure you'll be a gentleman's thief and steal everybody's heart. Good night, Gordon. Good night, Marion. But it looks as though we're ready to pull out and so until next week, this is Gordon Macrae saying goodbye. It can be seen starring in the Warner Brothers production, the West Point Story. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Drag. This is Marvin Miller saying goodbye until next week for the American Railroad. And now keep tuned for your Monday Night of Music on NBC. Thomas L. Thomas sings on Voice of Firestone. Hear him on NBC.