 The Romance of the Ranchos Monterey, 1818 Privateer's Sacks Capital of California Santa Barbara, 1818 Privateer's captured at Ortega Rancho Santa Barbara, 1822 American Wynn's Senorator who saved his life The Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles presents the Romance of the Ranchos a program dramatizing the colorful characters and the historic events in the building of our Southern California Each week our wandering vocero Frank Graham returns with another fascinating tale of the days of the dawn The business of the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles is to protect owners and investors in real estate against the risks of defective titles Today our country, and each of us individually face far greater risks through the treacherous assaults of the desperate enemies of democracy America has the resources to crush these threats once and for all Let us mobilize these resources at once, all of us by buying more and more United States defense bonds and stamps Only by such united effort can we win the war The sooner we do it, the more American lives we can save And now here's Frank Graham to tell us the story Buenos noches, señoras y señores Our story tonight is concerned with a man who many historians credit with being the first American to settle in California and with one of the most romantic incidents in all the history of early California It's a story which has been colored by many retellings until, in its many versions, it has become almost legendary with the authenticity of many details obscured by time But the essential facts concerning the life of the young adventurer Joseph Chapman are unquestionably correct And the colorful and romantic tale is worth the telling for it is filled with the romance of the ranchos Joseph Chapman was born in New England Little else is known about his early life until his ship before the mast on a New England whaling ship bound around the horn for China It was a long, rough voyage before they finally reached port in the Hawaiian islands then called the Sandwich Islands And it was there that late one night Chapman talked to a chance acquaintance But, monsieur, you are young, adventurous, ma'am You will not care too much how it was done if you could earn a nice spot first Well, what are you driving at? Come, monsieur, step back here Back farther and you shall come See, listen Monsieur, you do not know whose crew I asked you to join? Well, no, I don't Monsieur, have you ever heard of look-up-it-then Bouchard? Not the privateers, ma'am Yes, listen Oh, no, monsieur, I'll have no part in that crew I'm well satisfied with what I have Monsieur, surely you would like much gold? Well, I'll get it some other way You need not waste any more breath, monsieur, I'm not interested But wait! Good night, monsieur Very well, monsieur Ici, vite, mes marins Au fort, d'accord Bien, good work, monsieur So, you will have no part in that crew like ours, hein? Bien, we shall see I'm bored with him, I'm quick And so Joseph Chapman was carried aboard the Argentina flagship of the much-feared privateer the Palatou Bouchard A few hours later, when he awoke he was confronted by the master of the ship Eh, monsieur Chapman You are awake What hit me? Just a bling pin, my lad Just a bump on the head, nothing to worry about You're Bouchard? Oui, je suis Bouchard And you, monsieur You are my new first mate First mate? Oui, do not be surprised I know you, you are an handyman, monsieur A navigator, a carpenter, a good fighter, perhaps? Hmm, I can use you Is that so? Well, you've got another guest coming, Bouchard Oh, take a look over there, eh What? Well, we're moving Oui, we're on the sail, out of sight of land headed for the coast of California It's a long swim, monsieur Perhaps you will change your mind Yeah, perhaps I won't Come, you are a man with a sense of humor You can take a joke, eh You will not hold the little bump on the head against me, eh You're quite a character, monsieur Oui, I knew you would see reason You are here now, there's no use in arguing You have the good sense to take what fortune offers you, eh Yes, I guess I have, captain Ha, ha The young American, out for adventure and romance found it in plenty Here he was, first mate to a privateer who was the terror of the seas Bouchard sailed under the flag of the recently liberated Republic of Argentina His object was to help the Californians and their Latin American neighbors gain their independence from Spain But his reckless manner of winning other people's freedom for them won him only the fear of the Californians Chapman got his first taste of this When early one morning the privateer hold two off the procedure of Monterey Before they could put a boat down the short man sent a volley across their beam Bouchard, enraged by such fearless reception put about and landed at Point Pinos From there his men marched in to sack Monterey They swept through the little capital of Alta California spreading terror before them Joseph Chapman led his command into a town chapel Voila, here is much cold, eh We shall reap their fortune here All right, get it, be quick Oh, look, monsieur, a woman and a pretty woman hiding from us Come here, my pretty Leave her alone, get to your ornaments and get out Leave her alone, I say Here, take this gold candle Look out, senorita, you're courting yourself on the torch You brute, trying to burn down the church Stop it, I tell you, stop it Senorita, I warn you, get out of my way I should hate to have to hurt such a beautiful creature as you I will not get out of your way You shall have to kill me before you desecrate this altar Stop me from obeying orders Go take your hands off me All right, men, grab that stuff and hurry Can you, can you on my hair? Oh, your hair's on fire Senorita, here, I'll get it, just a minute On my hair, you'll burn to my hair Well, I warned you about that torch You should have stayed clear Just look at him Yeah, burned off a chunk of your hair Just as clean as if you'd cut it with a knife I'm sorry, senorita, to march that beauty is yours But it'll grow long again You are a beast Senorita, I'm sorry Take your hands off me, I hate you Go away, you have gotten what you want You have desecrated the host of God and me Now go, get out Senorita, I am truly sorry After sacking the town, Bouchard and his men weighed anchor and continued down the coast intent upon further looting but words sped ahead of them In Los Angeles, Sergeant Antonio Maria Lugo started north post-taste gathering a company of soldiers as he came to honorable or take a ranch north of Santa Barbara the word came Papa, papa You are safe Yeah, papa, but it was horrible Papa Lupe, your hair What is the matter? It was burnt, by a torch No, it was not entirely his fault Not his fault? If I could only catch the rich I would kill him with my own two hands Papa, forget that, now there is no time to lose they come this way Take everything of value to the mission, santi See, see, you are right That is all we can do That and pray that the soldiers will get here in time Sergeant Lugo's detachment arrived just in time Don Jose Maria Ortega had moved all his valuables to the nearby mission and the soldiers hid themselves in the bushes on the shore just as Bouchard shipped home to the outside of the surf On board Well, Mrs Chapman, I see no sign of life for the glass, the buildings are deserted not a deep stares Perhaps it's an abandoned ranch house See, abandoned for fear of Bouchard Look at the well-kept fields, the corals They run away, and not many hours ago This will be easy We can take our own time to ransack each building Captain, this will not be like the last time No, Monsieur, much easier I mean, it will not be necessary to burn and destroy Of course, after we have what we want burn everything Where's Chapman? Those are my orders They are not a bed I have a way of dealing with mutiny and not just a little bump on the edge Now, you're in charge of the landing party Over you go, go away In toward the surf came the boat bearing Chapman's landing party, waiting in the bushes with the men of Sergeant Antonio Maria Lugo And then I'm not going to try to learn through that surf, surely? It looks like it See, he's bringing it on in What's in your? That is too large a port It will strike it It looks like they're going to save us some trouble There he goes, look, look He's breaking up The men will be drawn Now is the time to catch them Brutus, around there Save your power, they cannot shoot Use your lassoes Yeah, rope them, pull them out of the surf Watch forth Like pulling out calves stuck in the mud See, look at him There, my hearty up your spine Ha ha ha ha Pull them in, hombres, pull them in We're almost all of them now And without a fight That's so cool, I'll give you a fight Oh, me big buffalo You want to play, huh? Grab him, hombres Take your hands off of me Take me without a fight Hold him still Ah, there, now Me buffalo Now will you hold still? Hey, don't trick me, you slippery ponders Can't you fight fair? Take this rope off of me Oh, me buffalo The little lassoes, they come in handy She make even a big buffalo like you Lie down nice and quiet Ow, ow, you kick me, senor Well, never mind You shall be kicking something else Only not so solid You'll be kicking the air Are the ropes ready? See, he's either climbing up the tree to fix them now We'll be ready in a moment Now you'll see, my buffalo It does not take to go sailing around the world Robbing people, burning, killing Someday, sooner or later You meet somebody just a little bit smarter And you are finished, swinging at the end of Europe Well, it has to come sometime It may as well be now Oh, but no, senor You are so young, so handsome So, why, you have everything to live for But I'm not going to No, it is too bad I'm sorry, senor I like you Thank you, senor I've never been hanged by such a gentleman as you Gratis, senor See, senor Otega I am glad that I got back in time I have brought my family back from the mission To see the men who have robbed and plundered Maybe even killed them You are just in time, senor The robes are ready And now you shall be able to see your men Wait, wait There is one thing I must do first Guadalupe, come here Look Are any of these men the one who struck you? Oh, but the father, he did not exactly strike me Oh, so he is here, eh? Man, which one is it? I did not say he was the father Which one is it, I say? Let me get my hand on him Why not tell him, senorita What is this? Oh, senorita You know him? Ah, then this is the one Not the big buffalo You strike my father, eh, senor You burn her head Well, I... Thanks to good for him Now, he shall be tied to a wire branco And dragged across the plane until he is dead Papa, no You shall learn, senor, not to harm a woman Papa, I am shocked at you That you would do such a thing Worse than anything he has done But, senorita, he might have killed you No, no, he did not kill me And you have no reason to kill him Sada, Lugo I am surprised at you You are so kind No, no, you are a brute, all of you Guadalupe What do you make of this? I do not know, I cannot understand Papa, I stand before him If you want to kill him, then you will have to kill me too But I should never want to leave knowing That my father had done such a thing Guadalupe Senorita, why are you doing this? Guadalupe, I cannot understand you I should not want the blood of any man On the sole of my father Guadalupe, I do not understand this But, well, if that is the way you feel See, see, that is the way I feel Papa, you must not kill him Very well, sergeant You must not kill him But, senor, what am I to do with him? How should I know? Take him back to Los Angeles Los Angeles? Oh, but, Papa, I... See, what is it? Do, do not think Perhaps they should be kept here They might escape Oh, no, senorita, they should not escape I shall see to that But you will not harm them, senor You must promise me that Oh, senorita, of course not I must have enough to have to hand them I do not know what I should do with them in Los Angeles But perhaps the governor will tell me Perhaps, perhaps if you were to give assurance Of their safe appearance, they could That is, some of them could stay And help you with the work Guadalupe, I do not know what you are thinking of I will have none of them Oh, see, but I will, senorita That's a very good idea I, myself, will go shorty for this one This great buffalo, I like it Oh, gracias See, senorita What do you think of that, senor buffalo? Can you be trusted? Go watch, I go Yes, I think you can trust me, senor You're very kind Oh, wait, senorita You too are kind I don't deserve such treatment from you But I thank you I would have done the same for any man, senor Oh, well, thanks anyway I hope that someday perhaps You'll forgive me Perhaps, someday I will, senor Today's war efforts are resulting in Necessary curtailments Priorities and restrictions on sales Of certain essential materials Along with some other factors Which are only psychological Have seriously affected some lines of business It is important for all of us To remember, however, and to point out To others that the general picture In Southern California is relatively bright For one basic example Let us compare the volume of real-estate Transactions in Los Angeles County For December 1941, most of which Occurred after the beginning of the war Were those of the same month the year ago We find that in 1941 The transfers of ownership of real-estate Actually increased almost 12% At the number of investments in real-estate Actually increased over 8% At the same time, foreclosures on real-estate Decreased 39% And we find further, despite alarming An exaggerated eastern newspaper Stories about the Pacific Coast That the large eastern insurance companies Are still actively seeking and making loans On Southern California real-estate New people needing homes And new money financing these needs Are still pouring into the Southland To the benefit of all of us So title insurance and trust company Urges you to remember that in most fields Southern California is still The white spot of the nation Still the land of opportunity And still the best of all places To work and to live I'm Don Antonio Maria Lugo Sergeant in the armies of Spain And true to his word He gave Joseph Chapman his liberty Trusting in the young man's honesty In fact, staking his place in the community on it And he was not mistaken For given a chance Chapman endeared himself to the population He was put to work supervising The building of the first church of Los Angeles The old plaza church still standing And in use And it was on this job that he won the admiration And earned an unusual nickname All right, swing that theme across the top We'll brace it here Who is he, my son? What brings you here? He was for another laborer I bring you this man, one of my best Indians From the mission Pedro, come Pedro Don't hang around, come here No, please, do not make me work here Take me back to the mission Pedro, what is the matter? I cannot understand you Well, this is not such hard work, Pedro No, no, I want to go back But Pedro, why are you acting like this? He looks scared to death Yes, Pedro, what is it? What are you afraid of? Him, El Diablo I did not want to work with him Me? El Diablo? Pedro, why do you course in your Chapman such a name? Because he worked with the black art in magic And we chopped down a tree He make it fall whichever way he want He's El Diablo Oh, I see now Why, Pedro, that's just a trick I learned In the woods of New England Anybody can chop down a tree and make it fall the way he wants You can do it yourself, want to learn how? No, no, I will not Never mind, Jose, I shall talk to him He will make a good worker Me, El Diablo That's good I can hardly blame him, senor For you have done more work here in a year Than we have been able to do in three before you came It may not be black magic But your ingenious ways of doing things Have certainly speeded up our work enormously I'm glad you're satisfied, Padre Satisfied, oh, my dear Jose I don't know what we would do without you Just this morning, Father Sanchez And I had the rather heated words over you Over me, Padre? But why? He wanted you down at the mission to help with the grist meal He's in need of repair And I would not let him have you For I need you here Well, Padre, I hope I don't cause you trouble Oh, but you do, a great deal Just trying to keep you for my own purpose You may cause a great split in the ranks Of the Padres yet El Senor Diablo Joseph Chapman won the affection of the Padres But he became almost a son To old Don Antonio Maria Lugo He visited his spiritual godfather often What troubled you? You have been sitting out here alone For hours staring at the moon I'm sorry, Don Antonio I've just been dreaming Ah, dreaming And when a young man dreams It is usually of a young lady And it is right you should dream that way, my son You You would not dream of the sea Of going off again back home to New England Oh, no, no, nothing was further from my thoughts This This is my home now My boy, I have hoped to hear you say that That is wonderful Wonderful The Padres and I have talked many times We all want you here to stay You see, we are feared There is no need to fear my running away Don Antonio I'm still your prisoner, remember And I give my word Oh, no, no, I did not mean anything like that That means nothing anymore I have already asked the governor to grant you a pardon Wipe out your score Really, sir? I shall be glad for that And you shall have it soon I should have replied from the governor any day now But that is why I was afraid I was afraid that once you were free You go back Sit away from here No, I don't think I'll ever want to leave here again No, you will write the first time About my dreams Ah, senorita That is good I was hoping that too, my son Before you should marry and settle down Raise your family of Californianos You're getting ahead of me, senor I haven't even found the girl But you were dreaming I was thinking of a girl I Saw just twice A beautiful girl With her lovely hair, burnt Ah, my son, senorita Guadalupe Don José Ortega's daughter See I wonder if she's forgiven me yet My son, she did not risk her life And save yours for nothing I wish I could believe that Perhaps you will have a chance To find out soon Senor José, my son Ah, don Antonio Lugo What brings you to the challenge? Oh, padre, I'm looking for Senor Chapman Oh, I'm sorry, he's not here Not here? Not working? He's gone, left this morning Gone? You mean he ran away? No padre, that's impossible He's a good honest man Oh, of course I know I did not mean that, senor He did not run away He was sent away and mort by the order of the governor The two were sorry to lose him But he was needed to build a flower For the mission of Santé Inés Ah, that's his battery What? Santé Inés? Well, that is, that is Don José Ortega Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful The governor sends me news That senor Chapman will soon be found Now he is sent to Santé Inés Where he will see This is wonderful, wonderful Senor Chapman, come in You sent for me, Padre? Yes, I have a job for you You mean you want me to stop work on the flower mill? Oh, no, this will take only a few minutes I understand that you know something Of the art of medicine Not a little Well, the senorita From a neighboring ranch So has suffered a broken arm She is here now You will help us fix it perhaps, no? Of course, where is she? Right this way, go Yeah, my dear, we shall have you where in no time Senor Chapman, this is... Senorita Oh You know each other? Si Buenos dias, senorita Buenos dias, senor Well, then you may start, senor I shall go get the pantages you will need Si, gracias Senorita Does your arm hurt? Not too much You ought to fix it See, in just a moment I've been hoping to see you, senorita I'm almost glad this happened Senor, you must enjoy my being hurt First, my hair Oh, senorita, haven't you forgiven me yet? See, I have And I have heard much about you What you have done in Los Angeles I am glad that you were not as bad as my father thought Oh, that's forgotten now You see, even your hair has grown out See, nothing remained to recall that day Nothing but this Senor, what is it? A little pouch of leather See, that I always keep close to my heart Always But why? Because in it is this Oh, this round of hair See, your hair I've kept it ever since that day Oh, senor, you kept it See, so that I might always have something to remind me of you I didn't know then that I might ever meet you again But I thought of you, a great deal And I of you, senor Senorita, you mean then You really did save my life because See, because I... Even in my anger, that day when you held me so roughly in your arms And burnt my hair I knew that I could never Never forget you I never will Oh, querida mía You never have a chance to now One of the many feats of Joseph Chapman Was the building of the first field vehicle in California An ox-drawn curator Which had two large wooden wheels Hand-hewn from native timber Brought down from the mountains For some time it was the only vehicle in this area Which today leads the nation In per capita ownership of swift modern automobiles Since that time Southern California Has also become a leader in many other fields Including the volume of real estate transactions For nearly 50 years the service of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles In verifying and ensuring land titles Has been an important factor in making this volume possible The company has grown to be a national leader too And the number of policies of title insurance issued In the speed and completeness of its service And in the efficiency by which it is able to render This service at minimum cost to its customers Now Frank, what's the story for next week? Next week we'll take you to the great rancho Which once stood on the present site of Azusa And tell you the story of a town that was raffled on It's a tale you're going to enjoy, I know And so until then this is your wandering vaquero Frank Graham saying Hasta la vista, señoras y señores The romance of the rancho Is a presentation of the title insurance And trust company of Los Angeles Featuring Frank Graham as the wandering vaquero Is dramatized by John Donkel And produced by Ted Bliss With special music arranged by Erwin Yeo Bob LeMond speaking This is the Columbia Broadcasting System