 Family Theatre presents Ruth Hussie, Mona Freeman and Rory Calhoun from Hollywood. The Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theatre presents Rory Calhoun and Mona Freeman in the Courthouse Battle. To introduce the drama, here is your hostess, Ruth Hussie. 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 their lives. If we're 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. Tonight, Family Theatre takes great pleasure in presenting the Courthouse Battle, starring Mona Freeman as Sally and Rory Calhoun as Marty. The folks of Valley Dale still talk about the great Courthouse Battle, a controversy that raged for days and days and nearly split the town wide open. All this turmoil began about the time Martin Jones was elected Mayor of Valley Dale. In fact, the very first day Martin Jones walked into his office, things started to happen. Good morning, Miss. Why, Sally? Hi, Marty. You should say good morning, Your Honor. I'm the Mayor now. And I'm your new secretary. Well, I suppose, huh? I'm your secretary. Well, how come? How come? Why, Marty Jones, you promised me the job a long time ago. Ever since you were a kid, you've been saying, some day I'm going to be Mayor of this town. Well, I know, but... On our very first date we had, when we were freshmen in high school, you said to me, Sally, when I get to be Mayor of Valley Dale, you'll be my secretary. I said that? Positively. Well, now, why do you suppose I majored in shorthand, typing, business management, office methods and stuffy stuff like that? To be my secretary. Truly and absolutely. Well, how about Miss Maddie Jenkins? Well, Maddie Jenkins, having been the Mayor's secretary for 32 years, has finally retired to raise geraniums and her sister's grandchildren. So you do need a secretary, and here I am. Well, well. You know, come to think of it, if I've got to get a secretary, I would hire you anyway. How about that? Of course. So let's have no more talk about it. The Office of Mayor Jones. Oh, yes, Mr. Wiggins. Did you say a rooster? Well, no, I don't blame you. Yes, indeed, Mr. Wiggins. Yes, sir. I'll have Mayor Jones looking to the matter at once, Mr. Wiggins. Yes. Yes, you're welcome. Goodbye. For the past three mornings, T.P. Wiggins has been crowed at by a rooster. Must be one of Tom Foley's roosters across the road. So what? So you've got to put a stop to it. Listen, Tom Foley has enough trouble right now. His little girl is sick with polio. I know. I'm sorry about that. But you also must remember that T.P. Wiggins is the richest man in Valladale. And the stingiest? No wonder they call the old codger tightpockets. Well, just the same, you better do something. Oh, here's Fred Appleton. Hello there, Marty. Hi, Fred. Hi, you silly. Hi. Well, don't tell me you're the mayor's secretary. Well, is there any reason why not? Ha-ha. Let's hear you spell municipal. Municipal? M-U-A- Well, just the same, I'm the mayor's secretary. And the very good one, too. What's on your mind, Fred? Well, I see by the Valladale Gazette, they're going to enlarge the courthouse. Oh, they are? Why? Well, to accommodate our new mayor's swelled head. Oh, pithful. That's only one of the reasons. The draft board, the farm bureau, the sheriff's office all need larger quarters. How are they going about it? Well, they'll probably tear down the west wall and make the building whiter. I suppose you want the job. You bet I do. I'm a good contractor. Get it for me, will you? Well, this is a county job, but nevertheless, Mr. Appleton, I will use my best efforts on your behalf. Oh-ho-ho, now there's a good line. Hang on to it. I'll be seeing you, Honorable Joan. So long, Fred. M-U-N-I-C-I-P-A-L municipal. You looked in the dictionary, I saw you. So long, BBD. What does BBD mean? Beautiful, but dumb. Marty, am I dumb? Sally, you're beautiful. Oh, thank you, Your Honor. So they're going to make the courthouse larger. Yeah, even the pigeons are complaining. Not enough room on the roof. Oh, Marty. Now, Sally, if I have any visitors, you call me on the intercom. The inter what? This gadget here on your desk. It looks like a radio. You talk into it and then flip the switch and I talk back to you. Oh, this thing. Oh, I get it. Very well, Your Honor. Carry on, Miss Secretary. I better practice what I'm going to say to people. His honor is very busy now. His honor is in conference. Have you an appointment with him? Oh, dear, oh, dear, I don't know what I... Well, good gracious, Sally Carrington. Where's Miss Jenkins? Well, Miss Jenkins is retired. I'm the mayor's secretary. His honor is very busy now. Do you have a... Oh, Sally, I've just got to see him at once. It's a matter of life and death. Oh, most. Oh, golly. Well, just a minute. I'll intercom him. Your Honor. Your Honor. Oh, dear, maybe this switch will work. Your Honor. I can just shake it sometime. Oh, that's a good idea. Your Honor. Oh, fiddle sticks. Hey, Martin. Well, hello, Clara Barkley. Good morning. Oh, Martin, I'll see you immediately. Something terrible is about to happen. Well, come right into my office. Oh, thank you, Martin. I hope you can prevent this awful tragedy. Well, I'll do my best. Miss Karen, can I'm in conference? Yes, Your Honor. Well, sit down, Miss Barkley. Allow me. Thank you. Did you see the trouble? Did you see the Vallydale Gazette this morning? Yes, sir, with my picture right on the front page, our new mayor, Martin Hallowicious-Jones. Oh, I don't mean that. Of course, it was a very nice write-up. I mean, the item about enlarging the courthouse, is it true? Well, they're considering it, yes. Will they tear down any of the courthouse? Oh, just the west wall. Oh, no. Martin, do you realize the west wall is the one that holds the corner still? Let's see, yes. Yes, so it does. Oh, Martin, you have to stop them. If they tear down that wall, I'll just die. Well, Miss Barkley, what in the world could be... Well, can't you see? They'll open the corner stone. And there's something in that corner stone I don't want anyone to see, not anyone. Oh, that corner stone must not be opened. If they tear down the west wall, they'll surely open it. Why do they have to enlarge the courthouse? Can't they build another building to get the room they need? Well, a separate building would cost more than they have to spend. Well, Martin, you're the mayor now. You have influence. Oh, don't let them touch the courthouse. Miss Barkley, this is a county matter. I can't tell the commissioners what to do, but I'll talk to them. Well, get them to postpone it a week or two. Give me a little time to stir up some opposition to this dreadful thing when you do that. Miss Barkley, I'll use my best efforts in your behalf. Oh, thank you so much. If you... Not now, Joe. His honor is in conference. Clara Barkley's in there. The old girl is throwing fits over something. Oh, boy! Sally, your switch is open. You mean this thing is working? Miss Barkley, I... Good day to you, Mr. Mayor. Good morning, Miss Carrington. Hi, Marty. I mean, good morning, your honor. This is my second day as mayor of Valley Dale. How am I doing? Real fine. Any calls? Yes. T.P. Wiggins was crowed out again this morning. By a rooster? Correct. A heat chicken belonging to Tom Foley. He wants you to ring his neck. Foley's neck or T.P's neck? Now, don't be silly. You're supposed to do something to abate this nuisance. That rooster says T.P. is a menace to the peace of this community. Oh, all right. I'll go talk to T.P. You better talk to the rooster. My dear Miss Carrington, a rooster doesn't vote. T.P. does. I'll talk to T.P. It's an outrage. That's what it is. Well, Mr. Wiggins... The loudest crowing rooster I ever heard in my life. I'm entitled to a good night's rest, am I not? Well, yes, T.P. Well, I ain't getting it. I do my best sleeping along about dawn. Just when that confounded rooster cuts loose. You're the mayor, are you not? Yes, T.P. Well, then exercise your authority and enforce the law. There. There. Now, you hear that? Yes, but that's not very loud. Well, he's a lot louder at four in the morning. He's pressure. Well, what are you going to do about it? Well, Mr. Wiggins is a solid citizen of Valley Dale. You are entitled to the protection of all its laws and ordinances. And rest assured, T.P., that I will exercise my best efforts on your behalf. Shut up! Hi, Tom. Okay. Mr. Mayor himself. Say, is this an official visit? Well, kind of, yes. Uh-oh. I know. Old Tight Pocket sent you over here. Yeah, it's about that rooster of yours. Why, the old fuss budget? Now, wait a minute, Tom. Let's forget I'm the mayor. I'm your old pal Marty Jones. I want to buy the rooster. Marty, that rooster's not for sale. Okay, Tom. Say, old Tight Pocket gives you quite a bit of travel, I guess, huh? Oh, we fuss over this and that, but Marty, I feel sort of sorry for the old codger. Ever since his wife died, the old boy's been all alone up there in that big house. Alone with his books. Books. What good are books when a man's lonely? Fighting with me is about the only pleasure the old coot has. If it wasn't the rooster, beef's up melt. Probably. So you won't sell the rooster? Marty, the rooster belongs to Helen, my little girl. Oh. Oh, well, that's different. How is she? She's getting some better. Moves her feet a little now. They say she may get all right. Maybe. I know, Tom. It's a heartbreaking thing. Well, as I say, the rooster belongs to Helen. She can raise up just a little bit and watch him when he's out by her window. She calls him Sparky. About the only time she smiles is when Sparky crows in the morning. Sure, I'll sell him for one million dollars. A T.P. I tried to buy the rooster, but Tom wouldn't sell. Yeah, of course not. He wouldn't do me a favor. Well, the rooster isn't his. It belongs to his little girl Helen. You know Helen, don't you? No, I don't. But you must have seen her, haven't you? Oh, I used to notice little girl playing in the yard. I haven't seen her lately. No. Because she was stricken with polio. She's still partially paralyzed. Oh. It'll be a long time before you see her playing in the yard again. Well, why don't people tell me these things? Why don't you find them out for yourself? Get around more. And I'm busy with my books. I'm making a catalog of all the books in my library. 12,000 books. A lot of first editions. Come on, I'll show you. Thanks. I'd like to see them. Hey, this is a grand old mansion here, Mr. Wiggins. Yes, sir. Four generations of Wiggins have lived here. When I go, there won't be no more Wiggins. Well, there it is. Wow. Books clear up to the ceiling. Yeah, more books in the basement. Some an attic. Well, you certainly have enough books to keep you busy. Too many books, maybe. I guess I'll spend more time with people. And all people are almost as real as books, T.P. You'd be surprised. Now, about that rooster. Tom says he'll move the henhouse back a bit. Jones, you go over and tell Tom Foley to send that little girl to the best hospital he can find. I'll pay all expenses. Providing she takes a rooster with her. Hi, Sally. Any calls? Tara Barkley called up. Thank you. She says she got the commissioners to postpone the courthouse remodeling. Yeah, I talked to Homer Stone. He's putting it off a week. Why is Clara so upset about it? Sally, can you keep a secret? I don't know. I never tried. Well, here's one to practice on. If they tear down the west wall of the courthouse, they'll open a cornerstone. Yeah, so what? Well, so it seems there's something in a cornerstone that Clara Barkley doesn't want anybody else to see. Well, what is it? Well, she wouldn't tell me. But the way she carried on, it must be something terrible. Maybe she shot someone and hid the body in the cornerstone. Look, beautiful. The space inside a cornerstone is only about this big. Well, it could have been a midget. Find out if any midgets disappeared 50 years ago. You find out. It's your idea. Well, maybe she hid the gun in the cornerstone. Hey, that'd be more like it. But all kidding aside, it must be something pretty serious. And how? Now, I wonder what's in there. Hey, look out the window. There goes Clara now, walking with some fellow. Oh, yes, didn't you know? Clara finally caught herself a ball. That's George Hemstad, a newcomer here. Kind of saw it off, isn't he? Well, Clara can't be too choosy. She's not very young. Well, this may be her last chance to hook a husband. Has she hooked this one yet? Well, he's on the line, but she hasn't got him reeled in. Say, maybe that's what it is. What what is? Something in that cornerstone that will cause a big scandal and frighten her boyfriend away. Yeah, it could be. And unless they open a cornerstone, we may never know. Oh, Marty, I've just got to know. Marty, do you need me for the rest of the day? I guess not, Sally. Why? Clara's going around selling people on the idea of leaving the courthouses, it is. I'm going to start a campaign to offset that. Remodel the joint down with the west wall. But Sally, hey, you can't do that. Oh, all right then, go ahead. I'd like to know what's in that cornerstone myself. Homer, why don't you and the commissioners make your next meeting an open meeting? Let both sides have their say and let them argue it out. Then make your decision. Now, why didn't I think of that? We'll do it. It ends up in a row. And it probably will. Thanks, Marty, for your help. You're the smartest mayor we've ever had. In the county on my side. Already I have the Ladies' Civic Improvement Society back of me and the West End Bridge Club. And tomorrow I'm speaking to the businessman's luncheon club. You tell him. I certainly shall. I even wrote a poem for the Balladale Gazette. Oh, leave our courthouse be. Touch not a single stone. In youth it sheltered me, so now leave it alone. Well, Miss Clara, how touching. Confidentially, Miss Clara, what's in that cornerstone? You won't tell. A mayor is like a doctor. He never tells. All right. You see, wait a minute. I don't want Sally Carrington listening in on this. Is that thing with you on your desk shut off? Yes, it's off. Here, I'll show you. Sally. Sally. See? But all right, I'll tell you. I'm going steady with a new fellow. George Hempstead. Yes, him. George isn't so much to look at, but as far as that goes, neither am I. But George seems to like me real well. Has he popped the question yet? No, but I think he's going to. So he mustn't find out. Well, he says he'll never marry a woman older than himself. He's 48. Well, you're not 48. Oh, thank you. I'm 46, and my driver's license. But one of the things they put in that cornerstone 50 years ago was a copy of that week's Vallydale Gazette, and my birth notice is in that paper. Oh, that happened to be the week you were born. Yes, I'm 50 years old, and that paper proves it. Now do you see why the cornerstone was stay sealed up? It holds the only record of my birth. Well, how about the birth records here in the courthouse? They didn't keep that far back. Well, how about the back files in the Gazette? I used to work for the Gazette, and that week's papers out of the file. People may suspect that I'm around 50. They may even say it. But they can prove it unless they open that cornerstone. Oh, Martin, I don't want to be an old maid all of my life. Well, Miss Claire, I don't know what I'm going to do, but somehow, in some manner, I'll keep them from opening that cornerstone. Oh, you dear boy, I could hug you. Clara Barclay, don't you dare! It was on! Well, Sally, the big meeting starts in half an hour. Boy, I wish I could skip it, but I can't. Marty, what's the matter? Well, I promised Claire I'd come up with something to help her out, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to let her down. Well, maybe you'll think of something at the meeting. Where is this cornerstone we've talked so much about? Oh, that's right over here at the corner of the building. There you are. Is that the cornerstone? Oh, I've noticed that inscription lots of times. Valley County Courthouse built 1901 architect Norman Taylor. Builder Ebenezer Wiggins. Cornerstone laid... Hey, wait a minute. What? What was that about Wiggins? Well, right here. Builder Ebenezer Wiggins. Ebenezer? Uh-huh. Why, that was T.P.'s brother. Sally, I've got something. You go on to the meeting and stall him till I get there. Mayor Jones to the rescue again. Something in my pocket. I won't tell you people just two things. Brother Ebenezer built this courthouse. Put his heart into it. It's his monument. And as long as I live, I don't want to change. Good. Now, second, for good many years, I've had a clause in my will providing $25,000 for a building to house my library. Mayor Jones tells me that the way prices are going up, by the time I kick off, 25,000 won't buy a good hen house. So I want to build that building right now. I'll give the county 25,000 if they'll put their 15 with it and build a two-story building with my library and historical collection on the main floor and the new county offices upstairs. Well, Sally, they're putting the roof on today. The T.P. Jones Memorial Library will soon be finished. Yes, Marty. The town is about back to normal again. I'm afraid it's too good to last. The mayor's office. Oh, hello, Clara. Oh, the nerve. That was Clara Barkley. She wanted to know if you could marry her. Look, beautiful. What she meant was her man has just popped the question and she has asked if the mayor has the authority to perform a civil wedding. Oh, you mean... Oh, Marty. However, the answer gave her with substantial correct. What was that again? This is Ruth Hussie again. An interesting question to ask of oneself is this simple, little one. What was the best prayer I ever said in my whole life? The most sincere one, the one that came most naturally. The reason I mention this is because we often hear it said that we, all of us, tend to dramatize prayer whereas it ought to be as natural as breathing. We're inclined to think that prayer should be accompanied with mood music or that it should be like a tender and romantic moment. Or, on the other hand, that it's only for the time of crisis, the last desperate stand when only a miracle will save the situation. Well, it is for these times, but these are special times. The best prayer, like the best love, is the constant one. It burns brighter at times, but it always burns. It comes into the mind like the recollection of the constancy of a beloved friend or husband or wife. It asks a petition simply as a child asks his father or mother for a little piece of bread or cake. It's the rise of gratitude within us for the sudden realization that we're fortunate in what life has given us. It's like an exclamation in appreciation of the sudden appearance of beauty as when the sun rises in purple to light a new day or sets in crimson and gold to mark the close of a finished day. The best prayers are like that. Natural movements of the souls of all of us. And family prayer that is natural and the familiar thing in a family is one of the best of the best prayers because it illuminates the very reason of the family and by illuminating it binds it together so that the family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood Family Theater has brought you Rory Calhoun and Mona Freeman in the Courthouse Battle. Ruth Hussie was your hostess. Others in the cast were Ruth Perret, Herb Vigran, Ralph Moody, Howard Culver and Bill Irwin. The script was written by Harry Lawrence with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed for Family Theater by Joseph F. Mansfield. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you type of program, by the mutual network which responds to this need and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen and radio will 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 LaFranco 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 at the same time when Family Theater will present Don DeVore, Otto Kruger and Nancy Gates in Seeds of Promise. Want you? 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