 The Cavalcade of America, presented by Dupont. In our chronicle of the passing scene, which we call the Cavalcade of America, you've heard stories of pioneers in government, in industry, in art, and in science. The kaleidoscope of events has pictured the role of the covered wagon, the advent of the railroad, the steamship, and the airplanes. And woven into this ever-changing picture of American life, you've heard America's songs. Just as the songs of a country truly reflect the manners of their times, so the work of the scientists typifies the progress and advancement of a nation. The writers of our songs try to bring pleasure into the lives of the people. So also are research chemists such as those who work in Dupont laboratories, striving to provide more comforts and conveniences, hoping to make the world a happier place in which to live. Their goal is the objective expressed in the Dupont pledge, better things for better living, through chemistry. The singers you will hear on this evening's program are Gladys Rice, Mary Hopple, Alden Edkins, Charles Harrison, Wallace McGill, and Everett Clark, with Don Voorhees and the Dupont Cavalcade Orchestra. This evening we present songs of that colorful period in American history, the Gay 90. The songs of no other decade picture so vividly the temple of their times, and because these songs were first heard in the theaters, music, and concert halls of New York, we invite you to turn back the clock with us and join a group of young people, a city pair and a country couple, as they're making their way to Broadway, not the Broadway of today, but the Broadway of the Gay 90 centered around 14th Street. The conventional way to reach the theater section is by handsome cab, but a new marvel of transportation, the 3rd Avenue Elevated Railroad, is the talk of the town. And now we find our young friends standing on a downtown platform, waiting for the steam train, the predecessor of the electric train that runs on the ale of today. I'm so excited, this is my first ride on the UL, isn't that the curious engine? Well, just wait till we get on it and start whizzing past folks upstairs windows. In case you better put blinkers on Johnny, you country folks aren't used to such sites. Johnny and I may come from the country, but we're not hasty. Come on, let's get aboard. Be careful of your petticoats, Kate, don't get caught on the steps. There are some seats over there. Come on, hurry up. Four, three, two, one. Golly, we're moving. Sit down, Johnny, don't look out. Where are we going first, Golly? Kate and I want to see everything. Well, you're not going to be able to see much of anything if you really want to see something of everything. Well, that can't be helped. I got to go home tomorrow. I said I was going to see New York in one day and I'm going to see it if it kills me. It'll probably kill all of us. Well, that's a good one. Well, I've already seen the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, Central Park. Oh, Johnny, look at those electric lights over there. Oh, yeah. Say, Charlie, do you believe what they say that they'll have them all over New York in a few years? Yes, they're getting to be pretty popular. Oh, say, speaking of lights, have you heard that new song? Oh, Charlie, you mean the one about the new electric lights? Oh, yeah, Kate brought a copy of it yesterday. Let's see, it goes, um, All our ballroom beauties who look so nice at night will not seem half so charming by the new electric lights. There are some of us who are welcome and some of us will hate the sight. Of this latest greatest wonder, that's the new electric lights. Show us how our sweetheart curls along in bright what makes the blushes we can see by the new electric lights. Oh, come on. Take it easy now. First, we'll take in Tony Pastor's music hall. But we'll have to hurry if we're going to be there in time to catch Lottie Gilson. Oh, Lottie Gilson? Yes, a little magnet. She made Annie Rooney famous, remember? Oh, yes, and they think he's singing You're not the only pebble on the beat, right? That's right, that's right. All right, now, careful going down these elevated steps. They're very slippery. All right, here, take my hand. I hear this Lottie Gilson's up, pipping. Oh, she's a peach, all right, Johnny, she's a peach. Yes, but I'd rather hear Minnie Schulte any day. Well, it's shorter going down than coming up. Right over this way. That's it. All right, take that off. Oh, Lottie, there goes Lillian Russell in that Victoria. Oh, she isn't she beautiful. Look at those clothes. Say, do you suppose those diamonds are real? Oh, sure they're real. But come on now, let's hurry up. Look out for those bicycles. Oh, there'll be a law against those scorches. They almost ran over me. Oh, gee, I'm sorry, kid. Are you all right? I think so. Oh, good. Well, here we are. Hey, get out your quarters, Johnny. Tony Pastor doesn't put on a free show, you know. Take it, please. Take it, please. Come on, Johnny, you can see the pictures on the way out. Let's get in there to see the show. Come on, Jeff. We've just met the comedian. Yes. Oh, but look, we're just in time to hear my favorite song. Here you go. Not too old. Not too tenured. Not too bold. Just the kind you'd like to hold then. Old makes sense, but the boys sort of a naughty play. Just a little. Well, perhaps Kate would prefer to eat in USA with the wax words. But we better take a handsome. Right here. Now get in everybody. And? All right, Kate. Take it easy there. All right, Johnny, after you. All right, Caby. Do Custer and Beals. Right, y'all. Custer and Beals. Get up. Yeah. Take it back. All right. Here you are, Caby. Here you are. All right, let me help you there. There you are. All right. Now let's go in there. A few more champagne corks to the cork room, eh? So what in the world is Charlie talking about, Anna? Well, they take the corks out of the champagne bottles and pin them on the walls. They have one whole room just lined with corks. And most of them are autographs. Oh, golly. Won't that be something to tell the folks about when we get home? OK. Johnny, if you tell anybody about our having even touched champagne, I'll never forgive you why it'd be the scandal of the town. Hey, come on, you two. It's no longer young. And we've got plenty of places to go if you want to make the rounds. Come on. No longer young. That's good. Little girl's nothing, eh, Johnny? That's one of the famous sister acts. Come on. Let's find a table. Oh, yes. For four. Anna, you know, this is the most gorgeous place I've ever seen in all my life. I want to watch some things. With her rendition of the famous Little Lost Child and Mother was a Lady and other favorites of the day. Minnie Shultz was her rival for popular acclaim, as was Imogene Cumber. But no trip around the town was complete without a visit to Proctor's famous Pleasure Palace. So let's join our friends as they continue their round of old New York in the gay 90s. Hey. Here we are. Listen, we're just in time for the big number. Daisy Bell. Oh, I love it. Oh, that's the bicycle song, isn't it? Yeah, that's right. Everybody's thinking it. I don't dare lose all my programs. I'm saving them to show the folks back home. Come on. Let's find out. Come on. All right. All right. Sometimes it's hard to tell. Yes, I am. Love you, people. You look sweet. Apologies. Come on. We call the gay 90s was the golden age of vote bill. Dozens of music halls and variety theaters flourished along Broadway. But perhaps the greatest of these was the one that bore the name of a comedy team. Oh. Well, you're getting tired for it. No story. What's next? Well, you just haven't seen New York unless you've been to Weber and Field. That's right, Anna. And here we are. Let's see what we get in the bag this time. My head is full of tunes. I'll be humming from now on for Christmas time. Three dollars each. Three dollars each. Three dollars. Ten minutes. You'll be missing about half the show, sir. Oh, that's all right. We're just hitting the high spot. Three dollars a seat. Johnny, you'll be sure to get a program here. Over his pockets of bulging with programs now. Pickets, please. Here you are. Second hour to the left. Thank you very much. Come on. Come on. Hurry up. Doggon it, Charlie. I bet we missed the best part. Not much. We are just in time to hear Lillian Russell sing, Come Down My Evening Star. The earlier presentation of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas had brought on a wave of musical comedies. The Wolf Hopper, Digby Bell, Francis Wilson, Jefferson the Angelus were the stars of the day. Victor Herbert was beginning to give America the nearest thing it had to classic light opera. The best remembered operettas was Reginald de Coven's Robin Hood. Let's join our friends as they take their seats at the old standard theater. All right. Come on now. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. race their sleighs through Central Park over the first snow to win a magnum of champagne at McComb's Tavern, when the sayings of Mr. Dooley were the talk of the country, when the Gibson girl was the ideal for the girls of the day to copy, when the stage glittered with such names as Maud Adams, Mrs. Fisk, Augustus Thomas, William Gillette, when beautiful Lillian Russell and Gay Faye Templeton were the talk of the town. It was the mold of the decade, the gaslight era, and its like will not be seen again. But it was a colorful and important period in the onward march of the cavalcade of America. Important item in my lady's wardrobe was her perfume, and there's a legend about perfumes that goes like this. In the course of a walk along a beach, a woman sat down on a large rock to rest. When she got up, she noticed that the rock stuck to her dress. It later developed that the rock was a huge chunk of a substance called ambergris, worth its weight in gold to the makers of perfume. And of course, she made her fortune. Whether that story is true or not, the fact remains that ambergris, which comes from the sperm whale, was essential to perfumers for centuries. It is what is known as a fixative. And a fixative does what its name implies, fixes a perfume so that its fragrance will be uniform and will last longer. Percumers used to depend on three sources for their fixative, ambergris from the whale, musk from the musk deer of the high Himalaya mountains in Asia, and a fatty substance derived from the snarling civet cat of northern Africa. But whales, deer, and cats are to say the least somewhat uncertain sources for substances essential to a large important industry. It was logical, therefore, for the research chemist to enter the picture and go to work. Various substitutes were found, but after years of study and experiments to plant chemists developed a true synthetic musk containing the essential ingredient of natural musk. This product is now distributed by DuPont under the trademark astrotone. Even though it sells for $200 per pound, astrotone costs so much less than natural musk and so little is required that it enables you to enjoy fine perfumes at a much lower cost. The development of synthetic musk is probably chemistry's most important contribution to the perfumer, but it is only one of many. Before science entered perfumery, it took 25 tons of violet to make one ounce of natural violet oil. Lilac and Lily of the Valley perfumes couldn't be produced at all, or crushing these delicate flowers destroys their odor. Not only has chemistry found a way of creating these odors from such raw materials as coal tar, but it has developed many entirely new ones. And where 200 fragrances existed before in the form of natural products, over a thousand are now available. So you see the research chemist produces new and longer lasting fragrances for my ladies' perfumes and cosmetics for silks and sprays and dozens of other household articles that we use every day. Here again the DuPont chemist has helped make life a bit more pleasant, and in laboratories all over the country, he is continuing his efforts to provide as DuPont expresses it better things for better living through chemistry. The golden touch, a story of Johnny Sutter and the discovery of gold in California, will be the subject of our broadcast when next week at the same time DuPont again presents the Cavalcade of America, is the Columbia Broadcasting System.