 Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to thin the very best. Here's of Hallmark greeting cards bring you Jane Wyman in Whistler's Mother on the Hallmark Playhouse. It brings 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 most appropriately tell you the story of a distinguished American mother. Born of an old Carolina family of Scottish descent, she married a young West pointer named Whistler who distinguished himself in the United States Army. Their son James, born in 1834, went to England in his 20s and soon became celebrated as a painter. Like many another successful son, he made his mother famous, but there was also a special sense in which his mother made him famous. For one of his paintings was of the old lady herself and done with such tenderness and skill that it has since become one of the best known paintings in the world. No one who has ever admired this superb work of art, either the original which is in Paris or its countless reproductions, can fail to derive from it the feeling of that utmost serenity and devotion which is the essence of motherhood. To tell our story of Whistler's mother, we have drawn on an interesting biography by Elizabeth Monford and to take the honoured role we are fortunate indeed to have with us that fine actress Jane Wyman. And now here is Frank Goss from the makers of Hallmark Cart. When you want to remember your friends, there is one way to be sure the card you send receives an extra welcome. Look for that identifying hallmark on the back when you select it. For words to express your feelings and designs to express your good taste, that hallmark on the back is your guide. Like the sterling on silver it's a mark of distinction that all quickly recognize and it tells your friends you cared enough to send the very best. And now here is the first act of Elizabeth Monford's Whistler's mother, starring Jane Wyman. A pale sunlight streaming through an artist's window. Anna Whistler at ease in the straight back chair, her hands folded in her lap. Now then she smiles quietly as she hears the mutterings of the painter. For he is hard to satisfy this young man who loves her, who loves her very dearly, her own son. This light, this ridiculous London daylight, hardly bright enough to cast a shadow. That's better. Now if something's wrong, perhaps it's me. I know the effect I want, the mood it must have on yet, it escapes me. My dear, you've worked so long, it feared only rest a bit. No, no mother, not until it's right, until it's perfect, absolutely perfect. Oh mother, please, you're smiling again. I can't help it dear, at times you're so much like your father, so intense, so restless, so ambitious. Yes, but with a difference mother, he realized his ambitions. And so will you, because you have the same touch of greatness. I wish you could have known him as I did, Jamie. But perhaps only a woman can completely know a man, a woman who loves him with all her heart. I think I loved your father even before I'd even seen him. When he was still just a name, the name of my brother's classmate at West Point. I was 14, and completely awed by my brother's cadet uniform and his stories of the academy, and of a boy he called Pipes. His name is George Whistler, but we all call him Pipes, because he plays the flute. Yes, really he does. He was born out on the western frontier and grew up in a fort. He's seen Indians on the warpath and he's shot wolves and wild panthers. And yet, from his manners, you'd think he'd spent his whole life in a New York drawing room. I tried to imagine what Pipes looked like, how he talked, and the sound of his laugh. For the first time in my life, I felt there was someone even more wonderful than my own brother Will. And then one summer vacation, Will came home unexpectedly. I remember the exact moment. It was just before dinner. I was carrying a tray of glassware to the table. Hello Annie. I want you to meet my best friend. This is Pipes. Annie. He was standing there smiling at me, and then helping me pick up the broken glass and laughing away my blushes. He came often to visit us after that. And by the time Cadet Whistler became Lieutenant Whistler of the Army Engineers, he was almost a part of our family. On my 17th birthday, he gave me a present. And then followed that surprise with still another. Anna, you notice anything different about me? Different, George? No, I don't mean my new mustache. But surely I must show some of the symptoms. Symptoms? George, are you sick? No, in love. I haven't told anyone else yet, but I'm engaged. Anna, don't you understand? I'm going to be married. Doesn't it mean anything to you? Yes, it does. I hope you'll be very happy, George. I wish you and your wife every happiness. They were happy, George and Mary. But for only a few pitifully short years, Mary died and George was left with three motherless children. He tried to forget his sorrow through work. The Army granted him a leave of absence to become a construction engineer. My own life seemed empty and without point. I was a woman in love and with no hope for her love. Not even George Whistler guessed my secret that summer when he came back to visit our family. He was no longer the carefree boy from West Point. He was very serious now, a man with a vision. He talked about it one evening. The night he took me in the carriage to attend a concert. Anna, do you think I'm a wild-eyed dreamer, a tinkering fool, and an enemy of the public welfare? What? Oh, good heaven, George. A lot of people think of Anna. I've been told that railroads are a ridiculous experiment. That if a man has the courage to ride on one, he'll be killed by the speed of traveling eight miles an hour. Oh, but surely you don't care what people think or say? Anna, the railroads are going to mean a new America. They'll open up new territories. They'll push back the wilderness. They'll bring friends closer together and make it truly United States. Then you mustn't let anyone or anything stop you, George. It's a future worth fighting for. It's got to be lived for, too, Anna. Today counts as well as tomorrow. Anna, do you think it's possible for a man who is loved to love again? No, don't look away. Tell me. You should know the answer, George. Did you close your heart to your second child because you already loved your first? Oh, never. Oh, Anna, I was hoping you would understand. My dearest, if you could love me... If? If? Oh, my darling, if I ever stopped loving you, I would stop living. On the day we were married, I became the stepmother of three wonderful children. Two years later, we moved to Lowell, Massachusetts. George was to build the new railroad to Boston. I'd never seen him so happy. It's so excited. I remember the day he took me down to see the company's machine shop. What have we had shipped to us from England? I've dismantled the whole engine and figured out dozens of ways I can improve it. How fast will it go, dear? It'll go about 12 miles an hour if it doesn't have to pull more than 10 passengers. But now, here's the locomotive we're building ourselves. The first really good engine built in America. I'm going to drink it and it'll do 20 miles an hour. You hear me, dear? 20 miles an hour. Hi. I think it's the noise or the fumes. Oh, George. Take my arm. We'll get some fresh air. Are they all right in a moment? Darling, you're crying. I'm not with happiness, George. Oh, my dear, at last, at last, I'll truly be the mother of your children. Even as a baby, you were so much like your father, Jamie, eager and restless and oh, so curious. The day your little brother, William, was born, you spent hours and hours just staring at the sky to find out what the stork looked like. And then later, you wanted to be an explorer. Do you remember, Jamie, the day you disappeared and I hunted everywhere for you? Jamie? Jamie? Yes, Mama. Jamie, what are you doing up here in the attic? I wanted to see what was in Papa's old truck. Oh, I ought to spank you. Haven't you heard me calling you over over the house? Mama, who's the lady in this picture? I found her in the truck. She's your grandmother, dear. Your father's mother. He painted this picture of her when he was a little boy. Mama, I'd like to paint a picture of you, too. Perhaps someday, dear. Mama? Mama? I'll put the picture back where you found it. I will. Oh, dear, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting you home for hours. I had to talk to you, dear. We've got a big decision to make. A tremendous decision. Darling? A colonel, Boutets, came to see me at the machine shop. He represents the Tsar of Russia. The Tsar? It seems the Russians want to build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The Tsar's engineers have looked over all the available men in Europe and America and they've decided I'm the man for the job. Thank you. More important, my dear, the world is recognizing America. American ideas and methods and machines. Oh, it could be a magnificent proof of what we are. My dear, it's a big decision. A decision only you can make. You want me to make the decision? Darling, why? Because of what it would mean to us. For you and the children. It would mean separation at first. For how long? Well, Colonel Boutets says at least a year before I could send for you and the children. Even then, my darling, we'd be gone from four to seven years, living in a strange land among strange people. You know what that means. I do. To leave America, our friends, our home, schools for the children, everything we know and love. Mama! No, no, not Jamie. Don't let Papa go, I'm afraid. You mustn't be, dear. Jamie, listen to me. You tell me your prayers. What do you say? God bless Papa. And then? God bless Mama. And then? God bless Deborah and Charlie and George and William and me. And he has, dear. As long as we trust in him, no matter how long we're separated or how far away, everything will be all right. George. Tell Colonel Boutets that his offer is accepted, that you leave for Russia at once. We will return to the second act of Whistler's Mother, starring Jane Wyman. Something happened today that made me realize more than ever that good intentions have to be helped along. A 13-year-old niece of mine had a birthday the other day, and as she opened her presents, her mother said, now you must be sure and write your thank-you notes right away. Since I received my thanks in person, I was pleasantly surprised to find a thank-you note in the mail today. And my thoughts went back to the time we were being trained by our own mothers with almost the same words and the time she had to repeat them. As I looked at the note in my hand, I decided the difference was not in the training, not in the children, but in this matter of receiving help along the way. My niece had used a hallmark note, a beautiful design filled the cover, and she confined her writing to a simple sentence on the inside. The whole effect was charming and spontaneous, much more so than our labored notes of years ago when we were faced with a whole blank page to fill up with thanks. These hallmark notes come in a wide variety of designs, designs that really serve as inspiration to young and old alike, because they're styled by those same famous hallmark artists who know how to express beauty and good taste in color and design. You'll find there are special hallmark notes for those many extra note writing occasions, weddings, showers, baby gifts and the like, as well as delicate forward designs that you can use at any time. They come in boxes of 12 and 20, and you'll find them at all stores that feature hallmark cards, the cards you send when you carry enough to send the very best. Now back to James Hilton and the second act of Whistler's mother, starring Jane Wyman. So the artist concentrates with brush and palette, seeking to capture on canvas the face that means so much to him. Across the room Anna Whistler gazes fondly at her son, the son who in so many ways reminds her of another man. Jamie, the son's going down. I could still paint a little longer, mother. I can just catch that expression in your eyes. Strength, courage. Oh, now, Jamie. I know, you always laugh. You laughed when everyone insisted it was dangerous for you to follow father to St. Petersburg. I remember what they said, a lone woman and her children setting out for some strange foreign country. One does what one must, Jamie. I shall never forget our first sight of the golden towers and dunes of St. Petersburg listening through the morning haze. No, nor that magic moment when I heard your father's voice calling across the water to us. Remember that enormous house he rented for us, Jamie. I felt like the Empress of Russia herself, but I wanted nothing except to see more of your father. I've got to be off again in the morning, dear. Oh, George, you look so tired if you'd only rest. Oh, there's no time. I've got 200 locomotives and 6,000 cars to build and 60,000 workers depending on me to direct them and feed them and house them. It's work, Anna, but I love it. For 17 hours a day, George was on horseback riding the construction line. The months and years slipped past. On your father's 47th Thursday, the opening section of Russia's first railroad was placed in service. The Tsar hung the ribbon of the order of St. Anne around George's neck. And that evening there was a great reception. The ballroom was lighted by a thousand candles and there were nobles and beautiful women and handsome generals. George whirled me round and round the floors, gay and as light-hearted as if he were still Pipe's whistler of West Point. Any previous thoughts, Mrs. Whistler? Or, should I say, a ruble? Oh, I was just remembering something, dear. Was it the day that I first walked into your life and you turned white and dropped the dreary glasses? George, why, that's almost uncanny. Hanukkah and dreary is perfectly natural, but two people are in love. We don't need to talk or reach out our hands to each other. Because we're one, Anna. Mines, hearts and souls. There will always be one, darling. Always. And then you know the rest of what I was thinking. Yes, you're homesick and so am I. Well, only two years more, Anna. Two years. Oh, George. George, what's wrong? Nothing, my dear. Let me just sit down. I'm so tired. But he was more than just tired. Late one night when the rest of the house was asleep he called me to his bedside. Anna, I failed. Oh, darling, no. I have. I wanted to finish the railroad, but it's too late. I wanted to spend so many more years with you and to raise our children. George, you mustn't give up. Jamie and William are so young, Anna. So young. You've been a wonderful mother to the manna. But now you'll have to be a father, too. Be brave, darling. He's so very brave. Madame Witzler. General Melnikoff. His Imperial Majesty has sent me to express to you his profound sympathy. Your loss is also the Emperor's. For your husband was more than a great engineer to his Majesty. He was a dear friend. Now, madam, the Emperor wishes to know how you desire him to be of service. Please thank his Majesty, General Melnikoff. But my only desire is to return with my sons to America. The Emperor has anticipated that, madam. And has praised at your disposal his Majesty's personal ship. May God go with you, madam. It was six years since we'd last seen the shores of America. The good old Russian California were on everyone's tone. But for us, there was no excitement, no challenge. Except the struggle to survive. But we really didn't care. We were home. And then almost overnight, I realized my two boys had grown up. Mother. Mother, I thought you'd be gone to bed hours ago. Oh, I was just going over the bills, Jamie. There never seems to be time during the day. I know. All the cooking and washing and sewing for Bill and me. Mother, you've sacrificed enough for us. I want to make it easier for you. Oh, now, Jamie. I want to go to West Point, mother. If I can only get an appointment. Why shouldn't you? You're the son of Major Whistler. I'll write some of your father's old friends. Would you, mother? On one condition, dear. That when you get to West Point, you don't draw caricatures of your teachers right before their very eyes. I promise. I've easily made, and even with the best of intentions, so easily broken, West Point soon knew that the son of Cadet Pipe Whistler had arrived, and a little later that he had left, all because of a slight difference of opinions. Well, at least, mother, I almost passed the examination. If silicon had been a gas, I'd be a major general. Jamie, you can't laugh your way through life if I could only help you. Oh, you can, mother, by giving me your permission to go to Paris. Paris? And now I want to study part. May I, mother? My dear, once I helped your father make a hard decision, I told him he must do what was right for him to do. And so must you, Jamie. I'll pay your passage to Europe, and I'll send all the money that I can save. Being a parting, I'd come to know it so well. With you in Paris, Jamie, Deborah in London, William away at medical school, stay alone for the first time in my life, but life was still full. There were old friends to see and books to read and letters from all of you to answer. London, June 2nd, 1863. Paris was magnificent, mother, but London is where I can really work. With Deborah's on here at hand and children to call me Uncle Jamie, it's almost like being home. But actually I have only one real home, mother. That's wherever you are. I know, mother, the Deborah is writing to you about my health, but you must pay no attention to her. I have been working too hard, painting too much, but all I need is rest. Don't worry, but surely you knew me better than that, Jamie. I was visiting with friends in Wilmington, Delaware when your letter reached me. The armies of the North and South cut off all chance of my going to New York and take ship for England. Tell me, ma'am, my ship is no place for a woman. The Yankee gunboots are laying two off the coast primed and waiting for a blockade run. I'm aware of that, Captain, but my son hates me. When you sail tonight, I sail with you. Ma'am, I'm warning you. You may never see the light of another dawn. Captain, I taught my children to trust in God, and now I can do no less myself. You did need me here, Jamie. You were sick. You were a nurse and the right food. Someone to take your paintbrushes away from you and to send you to bed before the night was half gone. And now, now, Jamie, it's time for you to stop again. Yes, and for me to fix dinner. Goodness, I, I didn't mean to go on and on and so. I've loved every moment of it, mother. Perhaps this will tell you how much it's meant to me. Jamie, the painting's finished. Yes. And it's the best work I've ever done because my model is the greatest inspiration an artist ever had. His mother. Oh, my dear. Jamie, were you expecting callers? No, not in the usual sense of the word, only two old friends. One of them just landed at England. And Deborah, I'll go let them in. They're here, George. There's no more. And you, my dear, you too. Through all these years, through all the uncertainties and separations, the words you spoke so long ago have never lost their truth. We don't need to talk or reach out our hands to each other because we're one. Our minds and hearts and souls will always be one, darling. Always. James Hilton will return in a moment. Sunday is Mother's Day, so there's still time to select the Hallmark card that will help you say what you want to say, just the way you want to say it to your mother. There's also time, but not much, to select and send an expression of your thoughtfulness to all these other people you want to remember on Mother's Day. The ones who've been especially kind to you during the year. You'll find Hallmark Mother's Day cards designed especially for grandmother, and all the others you'd like to greet on this lovely day in May. And of course you'll know when you make your selection from those cards having Hallmark on the back. You're not only telling your friends you care, but that you cared enough to send the very best. Here again is James Hilton. Thanks for the beautiful performance tonight, Jane. We are very grateful to you. Well, thank you, Jimmy. It's always a pleasure to be on the Hallmark Playhouse. You know, that picture of your life before she sat in that chair. The story was quite an appropriate choice with Mother's Day on Sunday. That was rather how we felt when we chose it. Well, you have a reputation for choosing appropriate stories for the Hallmark Playhouse, but I guess that's as it should be, because I've noticed there's always an appropriate Hallmark card for every occasion. So the kind words, Jane, and thanks again for being with us. What story do you have scheduled for next week? Well, I'm going to show you the story of the Hallmark collection, the Marquis de Lafayette. We shall base our dramatization on PC-Headlit biography, and to play the role of Lafayette, we shall have as our guest Jean-Pierre O'Mont. Our Hallmark Playhouse is every Thursday. Our producer-director is Bill Gay. Our music is composed and conducted by David Rose, and our script tonight was adapted by Leonard Sinclair. Until next Thursday then, this is James Hilton saying, I'll be selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. Jane Wyman will soon be seen starring in the Warner Brothers production of the story of Will Rogers. The role of George Whistler tonight was played by Whitfield Conner. Lamont Johnson played the part of James Whistler with Barbara Jean Wong portraying him as a boy. General Mel McCormick was Ted DeCorsia and William was Eddie Firestone. We'll bring you the story of interesting people on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Tomorrow, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas celebrates its 125th anniversary and beginning Sunday, May 11th, the nation will pay tribute to all branches of our Armed Forces during Armed Forces Week. The makers of Hallmark cards and the fine stores that feature them join with all other Americans in saluting these great guardians of our freedom. This is Frank Goss saying goodnight to you all until next week at this same time. When Hallmark Playhouse returns to present Jean-Pierre Lamont in PC head lays the Marquis de Lafayette and the week following Virginia Tapno Peacock's Marsha Burns starring Barbara Stanwick and the week after that Donald Coras pts forward the nation on the Hallmark Playhouse. This is KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri.