 Remember a hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. This is Parkinson Kays' Joy Street on the Hallmark Playhouse, chosen by one of the world's best known authors. And this is James Hilton. Tonight on our Hallmark Playhouse, we present a dramatization of Francis Parkinson Kays' latest novel, Joy Street, which has recently been heading the list of bestsellers throughout the country. Mrs. Kays is not only a writer of quality and popularity, but her novels always leave the reader with something to think about, and Joy Street is no exception. Its setting is Beacon Hill in the city of Boston today, charming and ancient Beacon Hill, whose narrow streets and squares rise steeply from the heart of the city, and whose inhabitants, proper Bostonians all, are apt to look down on the rest of the world in more ways than one. Mrs. Kays portrays her Bostonians with humor as well as sympathy, and the result is a novel well worth the acclaim it is received by the public and critics. To play the leading role in Joy Street, we welcome again to our Hallmark Playhouse, that distinguished actress, Miss Irene Dunn. And now a word about Hallmark Cards from Frank Goss before we begin the first act of Joy Street. For every occasion important to your friends and loved ones, there are Hallmark Cards to carry your thoughts across the miles, across the years, often merely across the way. That's important in these fast-moving days when families and friends are separated on short notice, when a word of thoughtfulness can mean so much. On special days and every day, a Hallmark Cards says what you want to say, the way you want to say it. And that identifying Hallmark on the back, as always says you cared enough to send the very best. And now Hallmark Playhouse, presenting Frances Parkinson Kays, Joy Street, starring Irene Dunn. This is the story of a way of life which is all too rare nowadays, a life in which pride in the past sometimes clashes against the need of the present and the promise of the future. Emily Thayer Field was born to the aristocracy of Boston, Beacon Hill, and Joy Street. But tonight she wanders aimlessly through room after room of the great brick house on Joy Street. There's no light except the moon and the discreet glow of a street lamp through the plate glass windows. Emily seems to look round without seeing but the white covers draped over the pictures, the rolled up carpets, the furniture shrouded in pale linen. It is a house prepared for sleep. You're sounding like grandma. And mother, you know? No, you mustn't be. She's really a dear. Well, I feel somehow she doesn't approve of me. Emily, I hope I'm not dragging you into something. You love me, don't you? If I didn't love you so, it wouldn't matter. Do you have any idea what a junior makes in a Boston law office? It doesn't matter. We can draw on my trust fund. It's a husband's responsibility to support his wife. Well, I shouldn't have brought it up. What's the matter, dear? What are you looking at? That house. The three-story brick one on the corner. Why, it's for sale. Property at this end of Joy Street is almost never for sale. How much do you smoke there asking? More than I'll ever make in a lifetime. He looks run down and cold. But it has great possibilities, that house. We're dreaming. Well, we've got a right to dream, Roger. Dreaming's the best part of happiness, you know? Sorry, Uncle Russell. Of all the idiotic choices you could make. Oh, Dubic, because you happen to be a member of the United States Senate, does not give you the right to filibuster in my drawing room. Yes, Mama. Emily has my blood in her veins, and she can be just a stubborn. No sense in the fur when screaming at the avalanche. Emily? Yes, Grandma. Am I to understand that Mr. Roger Field has proposed marriage to you? And I have accepted him. The scrawnyest fish in the back bay. The fields are a fine old Boston family. What are his prospects, Emily? I can tell you, nil. He's a caroling brain who barely squeezed to Harvard Law School. No respectable attorneys in Boston would hire him as an errand boy, let alone as a junior partner. Oh, he's had an offer from Cutter Mills and Swan. Those upstarts? Of course. They want an old Boston family in the firm to borrow a little prestige. They want his name, not his brain. I know that's the reason. Roger knows it too. But it's still an opportunity, and he'll make the best of it. Then you're going to say he can't support me, and I know he can't. So does he. But if you give him a chance, he'll prove that he can hold down a job and get better and better all the time. But you next, you're going to say, I don't know my own mind. Well, I do. You can say that Roger'll never set the world on fire. Well, I don't want the world to be on fire. I want it to be peaceful and pleasant and safe. I want to share my place in it with Roger Field, and I'm going to. But, Emily... Senator, why don't you go downstairs and talk with our guests about the terriers? It's time they were going home. Yes, Mama. Now, my child, do you love Roger Field? I've loved him all my life, ever since we first went to dancing school at the Somerset and riding on the swamboats in the public garden. And if I asked it or demanded it, would you be willing to postpone the happy day? Oh, we expect a long engagement. Roger wants to save up the money for a house we found on Joy Street. Oh, that down payment anyway. Well, would it hurry things along if I gave you the house for a wedding present? Oh, Grandma! It's yours. Leave me the address and I'll buy it the first thing in the morning. Why are you doing this? I know you don't approve of my marriage. I have nothing against the field boy. To hear your Uncle Russell rave on, you'd think he'd broken all the ten commandments. I don't think he's ever broken a piece of brick-a-brack. It isn't what he's done or may do that worries me. It's what he has not done and never will do. That doesn't worry me. Good. Then marry him and get him out of your system. Grandma! If you were rarely in love with him... Well, I am. You'd elope within a week. I'm not a school girl. No, not yet. Would you go to school with Roger Field? He'll prepare you. For what? For a world that is on fire. No sign of him yet. No sign. Our first dinner party, Roger. The first time we have guests in Joy Street as man and wife and your business partner, Mr. Brian Collins, doesn't even show up. Brian will get here. The souffle is ruined. The duck's a charcoal. There. I'll answer the door, Roger. I want the pleasure of answering the door. Mr. Collins. How are you, Mrs. Field? We've been terribly worried about you. Worried? Oh, a beautiful woman like you should never worry. What were you worried about? Oh, say, I guess I am a little late. Roger did say 7.30, but I stopped off to chew the rag with some of the boys. All right, Brian. Sure, sure, Roger. Say, hey, look at you. Glad rags and everything. I guess I should have dressed up, huh? I think we can go directly in for dinner or what's left of it. This way, everybody. Roger. Yes, Emily? He didn't even apologize. Well, Brian's a little careless, but he's a brilliant lawyer. Well, I don't care if he's Blackstone or Oliver Wendell Holmes. You're never to invite that flannel-mouth clown to this house again. Roger, you look exhausted. I am. I had my first jury case today. Oh, what happened? Nothing. My client didn't bother to show up. Oh, you poor darling. What did you do? Well, I managed to stall until adjournment time, but I have to be in Salem courthouse at 8.00 tomorrow morning. With that, I promise, we won't stay late at the walls' evening. What? Well, you didn't forget. It's the best dance of the year. We're going with Grandma and Uncle Russell. I think they're coming up the stairs now. Emily. Now, now, go on. Hurry and change as fast as you can, Roger, dear. Hello, Emily. Hello, Emily. Hello, Mrs. Forbes, Senator. Roger was in court today. Oh, the corporate case, was it? Minority, stockholders complaining. I'd rather not talk about it, Senator. I'd be interested. We are. Did you cover yourself with glory, boy? I'm defending a cheap restaurant in New Salem over a shipment of lobsters. Lobsters? My client refuses to make payment on the grounds that some of the lobsters weren't acceptable. Well? Well, meet the Solomon of the Seafood. Is that all the case is about? And because of it, I won't be able to go to the walls' evening. You what? Oh, Emily, I tried to tell you before. My client wasn't informed that his case was coming up. He doesn't have a telephone. I have no way to reach him. I must go to his home, his restaurant, if necessary, search the streets of Salem in order to get him in court tomorrow morning. Otherwise, the case is lost. Well, they can't expect you to miss the most important social engagement of the year to go searching for our lobster merchants. I'm truly sorry, Emily. Well, perhaps one of your colleagues could take over the case for justice once. No, ma'am. With all due respect, Mrs. Forbes, this is my case, my first case. And I intend to win it, if humanly possible, by myself in my own way without floundering to anyone else for help. The other juniors that cut a mill and swan don't have to stoop to such trivial cases. The other juniors at the office are brilliant men. David was summa cum laude at Columbia. Brian Collins is a master of strategy. Don't quote Brian Collins in this house. And he's brought a wealth of business to the firm. But as for me, I'm a hack. Oh, my God, you're not in front of me. They know it, Emily. I know it, why pretend. The only way I can even hold my ground is by grinding hard work. What takes David ten minutes may take me ten hours, and then I may not have it as well as he. Well, my heavens, I'll try. You may scoff at my lobstermen, Senator Forbes, but I shall win his case whether he cares or not. Roger Field, would it add materially to your stature with the firm? If I should appoint you to handle my legal affairs. Grandma Ma. You aren't serious, Mama. I should like to have my legal interests attended to with such bulldog determination. If my present attorneys had shown Roger's devotion one Friday morning in October 1929, I should be half a million dollars richer today. If you will appoint me your counsel, Mrs. Forbes, I'll do my best. Of course you will. Now go chase your lobsterman. Emily, you come along with us if you're going to the Waltz evening. Really, Grandma Ma. I don't very well see how I can go to a dance without a partner. I am, sorry, dear. I'll arrange for one of the fellows at the office to take you. Well, Kel's got a date, I know. David's on his vacation. Well, that leaves. Yes, dear, I know. I know the person that leaves. Brian Collins. Second act of Joy Street, starring Irene Dunn. They tell us that Shakespeare used about 20,000 different words in his plays. Now there are many more than 20,000 words in the English language and undoubtedly he knew most of them. So his reputation as a master of English must rest on the way he used those words, wouldn't you say? How he must have scrutinized and selected, refined and rejected until he had the one word or phrase that best expressed his thoughts. Outstanding writers in every age have done this and if you could see the care with which the words on a hallmark card are chosen, you'd know that deliberation over the choice of words is not confined to the classical writers. You see, we feel we have a double responsibility in writing the messages you read on hallmark cards. We must find words to help you express your thoughts and feelings and they must be words you would use if you were personally talking with a friend. In short, the cards you send should say what you want to say, the way you want to say it. But you can always find a hallmark card to do just that. This is why so many people look for cards with that familiar hallmark on the back. For having made certain of that, they know the words inside the card will be the right words for the occasion and the person they're sending it to. And remember that hallmark on the back has an additional meaning. It tells your friends you cared enough to send the very best. Now back to James Hilton and the second act of Francis Parkinson Kai's Joy Street, starring Irene Dunne. In the first act on Joy Street, Emily Field stands alone. She runs her hand over the dust covers that drape the furniture. She seems to be talking with someone hidden in the near darkness. But there's no one there. You remember that song, Roger? Well, I loved you with all my... But other times, I hardly loved you at all. I swayed back and forth, a pendulum of a woman loving you. Not loving you to be the last one to leave at night. I'm sorry, Emily, but with Pell and David and Brian all in the service, he just got his commission. Navy, Lieutenant J.G. I'll have to do his work along with all the rest. And mine too. Oh, I'm sorry, Roger. I'm complaining when I should be a comfort and a help made to you. You're coughing again. I'll be fine. I'll get a little rest after this case. Must you go clear up to new bed for the game? Yes, dear. Well, then let me drive the car. No, it's really not necessary. It may be quite late when I get back. Well, I'll be waiting for your grandma. Watching won't bring him any faster. It's after midnight. He should have been here hours ago. Your husband's a spendthrift, Emily. Oh, no, that's not true, Grandma. In the three years we've been married, he's managed to save all... Oh, I don't mean money. He spends himself. Well, that's because of the war. Roger's very sensitive because he wasn't accepted for the military. And I shouldn't be keeping you up, Grandma. No, you must go to bed. No one tells me what I must do, Emily. You know that. I'm an old woman, and there will be sleep enough soon for me. Don't talk like that. Why not? I fancy it will be quite interesting, my dear. It's not as if I alone were singled out to leave Boston and the world. Dying's very commonplace, Emily. Every declarative sentence in this world ends with the same period. A question mark? But I'm not going yet. I shall put off the final punctuation with a few more modifying phrases or dangling participle. Here, take this. Your ring, Grandma. I want you to have this, Emily. Not through a drafty probate, but as one warm hand touching another. This ring is yours. Was it a gift from Grandfather? Well, it was a gift, but not from your grandfather. I understand, Grandma. This ring is fire, my child. It's Roger. What's happened? You're so late. You won the case. In my honor, I couldn't be... There's no mood. We've been worried sick about you. Mother thought you might be here on Joyce Street. I was talking to Roger. Roger's gone, Emily. We're all very sorry about it, but he died months ago. You've got to accept that. Yes, of course, Brian. You all right? It's not good for you, Emily, to go on to this house full of echoes and dust covers. Yes, I know. I'm foolish. I hardly expected you here, Lieutenant Collins. I know what you think of me, Emily. And I'm sorry I've been rude. Thoughtless. But people can change. Time and war. People grow different. Have you come here to dance with me, Lieutenant Collins? The way we danced at the wall's evening? No, Emily. That was a long time ago. Time's all mixed up for me. I'm numb, Brian. Numb all over. There's no feeling left in me since Roger. Don't brood about it, Emily. Roger's a hero, don't you know that? He's as much a hero as he'd flown a fighter plane or let an attack on some Pacific at all. I failed him. No. Nothing was ever really right in this house. I never really helped him. You made him happy? What more could you do? I don't know. I can't feel anything anymore. Listen to me, Emily. I've got to talk fast. My ship sails tonight. No, Brian. Where? I can't say, but it's far, far off. And I've begun a long time. And you've got to remember this, Emily. You aren't numb anymore. Or apathetic either. You're just waiting. You've got lots ahead of you to wait for. What do I have to wait for? Everything. You're young, Emily. You're lovely. Half of Boston is in love with you. I'll be coming back here after the war. I hope. Well, of course you will, Brian. And there'll be great things to do. I intend to go full force into politics, Emily. I want to take your uncle's seat in the United States Senate. Give him a run for it, anyhow. And by heaven, Emily, we could set the world on fire. Fire? On fire? Brian. I want to give you something to keep you safe. What? This ring. Grandma's ring. Keep it for me. Thank you, Emily. Good word. I'm late. I've got to dash. Goodbye, Brian. No, no. Or a wire farewell so long. I'll be disaing. Emily, will you hold a good thought for me? More than that. And remember what I told you. I remember. I'm not none anymore or apathetic either. I'm just waiting. And I have much ahead of me to wait for. And thank you, Roger, dear Roger, for taking me to school, for teaching me so many things that the older you grow in years, the younger you can be in spirit. And a hallmark card is selective, so they will be the words that best express your thoughts and feelings when you want to send a card to a friend. As it is with the words, so it is with the design to illustrate those words. Only the most beautiful colors, only the finest of paper and craftsmanship meet the standard. Then you have a card that's a worthy ambassador of your good taste. Then you have a hallmark card. And it's because each hallmark card must meet these exacting standards that people everywhere have come to look for that identifying hallmark on the back of every card they send. Like the sterling on silver, it's a sign of distinction and quality that all who see quickly recognize and realize. You cared enough to send the very best. Here again is James Hilton. Thank you, Ms. Dunn. It was a joy indeed to have you in Joy Street and on our hallmark playhouse again. A joy to me too, Mr. Hilton. I always have a good time when I'm here. There must be something in the friendly atmosphere here. It seems to be in your hallmark playhouse, just as it is in your hallmark cards, friendship. And goodness knows that's what the world needs today. That's the kind of compliment we like. Talking of compliments, you yourself received a notable one recently when you appeared in England at the command performance before the King and Queen. Yes, it was a wonderful experience and something I shall never forget. And now, Mr. Hilton, what have you arranged for next week? Next week we shall present a story called F.O.B. America, whose theme you may be able to guess. It certainly is as exciting as its title and to start in it, we shall have that fine actor Robert Cummings. And now, before I say good night, may I remind you of a course for which I know Ms. Dunn as well as all of us has a very deep sympathy, the Cancer Fund. If you haven't yet subscribed, please do so without delay because it's a way you can join the crusade against one of the worst scourges of humanity. So please send your contribution to cancer, care of your local post office. Our Hallmark Playhouse is every Thursday. Our producer-director is Bill Gay. Our music is composed and conducted by Lynn Murray, and our script tonight was dramatized by Lawrence and Lee. Until next Thursday then, this is James Hilton saying, good night. There are so lonely in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. Ms. Irene Dunn may currently be seen starring in the 20th Century Fox production, The Mudlark. The role of Roger tonight was played by Whitfield Connor, Eleanor Audley was Mrs. Forbes, Lamont Johnson-Brian, and Ted Osburn Russell. This is Frank Goss saying good night to you all until next week at the same time. When Hallmark Playhouse returns to present Robert Cummings in Bellamy Portridges, FOB America. And a week after that, Richard Henry Dana's classic, Two Years Before the Mask, on the Hallmark Playhouse.