 The Cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents Dick Powell with Ono Monson in The Sailor Takes the Wife, the first gain-whitman speaking for DuPont. One of DuPont's better things for better living is speed easy. Speed easy wall paint makes redecorating an easy job. When you decided the last minute to fix up a room for that special furlough visitor in your family, try DuPont's speed easy. Two is from eight beautiful colors, thin with water, apply one quick coat of a wallpaper or plaster, and you can count on speed easy to dry in one hour. And now our Cavalcade story, The Sailor Takes the Wife. Tonight the Cavalcade of America takes you to a fighting front that most Americans haven't heard so much about. Our story is the story of ships, of printers, ink, and ships, and a boy and a girl and just plain ordinary guys. It's a story of a boy and a girl who find out something about war and about themselves, and it's the story of the men who deliver the goods, the United States Merchant Marine. But these are the men who haven't made so many headlines, but who by the end of our first year of war had a greater percentage of casualties than any other branch of the armed services. And so DuPont is proud to tell a story of America's Merchant Marine starring Dick Powell as Barry Arthur, ordinary seamen, with Ono Monson as Kathy, star feature writer. In The Sailor Takes the Wife by Alan Sloan on the Cavalcade of America. The city room of the newspaper. Rattling packing busy place. News. The pulse of a city. Passing through the brains and fast typing fingers of competent and unrattled people. Coming out and marching words and headlines. Legmen, copy readers, photographs and rewrites and a city editor taking the master pulse. City desk. Well, this is the city editor. Okay, I'll turn you over to a rewrite man. Hold on. Hey, Buck, pick up this call in three, will you? Okay, Barry. I got it. Oh, Barry, are you pretty tied up? Not for you, Kathy. Why? Well, what did you do with the snapshot of that corporal Saunders? The one we ran is my story yesterday. Oh, it's around here. Well, I promise his mother I'd return it and they haven't got it back in engraving. It's here. It's here. There. Oh, Barry, you might have had them clean it up a little. She's lucky to get it back at all the way this paper's run. Oh, by the way, that was a swell yarn on that soldier's sweetheart. Nice. Lots of feelings. That's more than I can say for you sometimes. Now, where did that come from? And don't call me sweetheart. Now, here, look, let's just get this straight down, honey. Buck, watch the desk for a while, will you? Okay, pal. Let's go back into my office, Kathy. I want to talk to you. In your capacity as city editor, Mr. Arthur. No, no. This is me talking, Kathy. Me, Barry, the guy you, uh, oh, well, skip it for now. Watch the door. Now, Kathy, honey, what's wrong with you? Is it me or what's bothering you? If you're sick, I can get you a couple of days off. I am sick, Barry. Heart sick. A tough little reporter like you? And I'm sick of being a tough little reporter. Oh, Barry, that's all you think of nowadays. Reporters, bylines, headlines, deadlines. Don't you know there are people in the world? Well, Kathy, I, I know, honey. I've been awfully busy lately. We both have. Don't flatter yourself. I'm not thinking about me. I'm thinking about those kids. What kids? Those servicemen you've had me writing the feature stories about. Those poor, plain, Main Street Johnny's that maybe won't come back. I know, yes. You've been doing a swell job, Kathy. Sure. Warming my way into some soldier's family, trying to get a picture out of them to the paper, wangling the worrying heartbreak out of them just so you can make a Roman holiday and headlines out of, oh, what those boys go through. Now, wait a minute. Don't you think the public ought to hear about those things? Don't kid me, Barry. You're not thinking about that. You're thinking about news, headlines, circulation. Kathy, that's not fair and it's not true and you know it. A newspaper man at wartime has a responsibility to let people know what those kids in the service are doing, to let people know the sacrifices and the hardships and the horrors they go through. We're doing an important job, Kathy. There's only one job in the world that's more important than that's the job those kids themselves are doing. All right, if it's so important, why aren't you doing it? Oh, so that's it. Well, why am I sitting around here protected by a deferment? Where's my uniform? Is that what you mean? Oh, Barry, I didn't say that. Well, it's what you mean, isn't it? Isn't it? For you, I've got to be a hero. I've got to wrap myself in a flag and do something noble. Oh, Barry, please, it isn't that. It's just that, oh, well, sometimes I wish you had a little more real feeling for what those boys go through instead of thinking of them as just good coffee. And you think a fine way for me to get that feeling would be to go through a little myself, hmm? Okay. Okay. Why don't you come right out and say it? Oh, Barry, I don't want you to go rushing off to an induction center just to prove what a big boy you are. Induction center, me? Hey, listen, Center, I'd take more than you're needing to get me to an induction center, but you couldn't get me down in a straight jacket. All right, you may keep in line, this is an induction center, not a bargain sale. Next, name? Barry Arthur. You got your card? Right here, Doctor. Hmm? To the editor, huh? Thought you fell as great a deferment. Oh, we do. Any physical disabilities? I, uh, no, none that I know of. What's the matter with that leg? Hold on. Oh, that's just a trick knee, football. Let me see it. That's a good, is it? Well, I can get along in it, Doc. I get along fine. Can you? Here. Now, let's see you walk across the room. Sure. Well, I, oh, Doc, what did you do to it? Just put a little pressure on it. Same thing you do to it about 15 times your first day at basic training. I'm sorry, son. You can't take me? Give me that leg? This is not a chance. Next. Okay, who didn't make it over this way? No, they shouldn't turn me away. I got the right to join up. Oh, come on, Pop, you heard them. You're too old. Well, I wasn't too old to send my son to the army to worry about him, was I? Oh, no. They should take me. They should now skip it, Pop. You tried, so call it quits. Yeah, well, maybe I ought to give up hating too, huh? What do you mean, hating? But my boy's fighting. That's what I hate. Maybe I ought to call that quits, too, huh? No, no, you shouldn't. But where do you go from here, Pop? Where do I go from here? Back to the desk and sit the war out? Sorry, brother, bad me. Go home and get sweaters. You're no good for the army, the navy, the marine, the coast guard. Well, I still got my seamen's papers way back anyway. So what? Well, haven't you heard of the civilian navy? What do you mean the civilian navy? Merchant Marine. Well, what about it? Who do they ever fight? Listen, the first year of the war, the merchant marine had plenty of casualties. Plenty. Don't you ever read the papers? Yeah, yeah. Now that you've mentioned it, I think you've got something there, Pop. Those guys really are heroes at that. Well, I never heard any of them describe themselves that way, but... But they might take in a man who's too old to carry a rifle, huh? Could be. And a young fellow with a bum knee? Could be, son. Could be. And what are we waiting for? Come on. Hiya, Buck. I'm to see to be a city editor at last. Oh, hello, Barry. We were just wondering what you were gonna do now that... Yeah, now that I've been turned down. You heard, huh? Yep. Well, you can ask Kathy after I leave. After you leave? You heard me. Why, Barry, where's your straight jacket? Oh, okay. Go ahead. Kid me. Kathy? Oh, Kathy, could we go someplace and talk? Oh, what's the matter with right here? Oh, Kathy, I just wanted to tell you... How about you're being rejected? We heard about it. Listen, Kathy, I've signed up with something just the same. I... I did want you to know about it. It took me to the merchant brain. Oh, Barry, you didn't have to do that. Well, I'm in it. I'm in. All right. How do you want me to head the story? The city editor joins up? Isn't it wonderful? Well, what did you want me to do? I didn't want you to make a grandstand play to impress me or anybody else. Well, I didn't... I didn't do it for that. I did it because... Well, I... I felt that... Oh, I'm sorry, Barry. Maybe it's partly my fault too. Maybe you will do some good somewhere on a ship or something. Kathy, suppose I do some of this good you're talking about. Will you...? Will I what? Barry, when are you going to realize that I don't count in this? That's what I keep trying to tell you. A real person doesn't go to war just to be a hero for a girl, but girl doesn't count. You count to me, Kathy. And I... Well, I thought maybe I'd get to kiss you goodbye, but... Please, Barry, don't. Oh, all right, all right. Let's drop the whole thing. I'm taking... taking off now, and... Well, I wish you luck. Oh, in two, three months I'll be at sea. A lot can happen out there. It's a good place for a newspaper man. I'll do all right. I do wish you luck, Barry. Oh, you poor, mixed-up guy. Hoffman Island. A two-by-four chunk of man-made land on the rim of New York Harbor with the Atlantic at its very doorstep. Cleaning station. The beginning of 13 grueling weeks that it takes to make a merchant seaman out of a boot black or a banker or a city editor. And remember this. Every one of you is here by choice. You didn't get picked for this service. You volunteered. Whatever you're in for, remember you asked for it. Okay, section leader, carry on. Okay, form in squads and follow me. What do you know about that, Pop? You asked for it, he said. Well, didn't we? Sure. But what? Don't worry, we'll find out. Drill and more drill. Climbing ladders, climbing ropes, toughening up. Man, it's not easy on a man who's 50 years old. It's not easy on a man who's always earned his living behind the desk, like a city editor. There's no time to belly ache. There's too much to learn. Big things and little things. Okay, you guys have had enough time now. Hold up those sheepshank knots. There you are. How's this, Bolton? And let me see. Hello, Twila. The loop wants to run over and through, see? Like this. Not tying, sailmaking, signal recognition, boat handling, engine take-down, life drill, and practice. For a moment that may come to any merchant seaman, that every merchant seaman dreads the most. When you're on a tanker and she's hit, then all around the sea is covered with a flaming slick of oil and gasoline. At Hoffman Island, a squad of men are lined up at a diving board above a practice. Okay, light her up. Line up that oil slick. Come on, look at her burn. First man, jump. Feet first, hands over your mouth. Okay, Pop, here goes nothing. Made it. Your next, Pop. Okay, hands over your yack. Take a deep breath. Stay under the burning oil and swim, blast your swim. Thirteen weeks of it. Night and day on that little island, and then... I do solemnly swear... I do solemnly swear that I will abide by the rules and regulations of the service... Then I will abide by the rules and regulations of the service... And obey the lawful orders of the persons in authority. And obey the lawful orders of the persons in authority. First one, thereto, during my enrollment. First one, thereto, during my enrollment. And I seek enrollment in the service in good faith. Run to the rules, somewhere in the Atlantic. It's a long haul across the Atlantic in wartime a nameless ship out of a nameless port beating down the coast heading for your rendezvous waiting for your convoy two days four days five days Where we'll be picking up our convoy about daybreak. How can you tell that Mac? Fingers is the name sailor Call me fingers. Okay fingers. How can you tell? me Listen pal if you've been doing this as long as I had you can smell it Everything that's going to happen. You can smell it Most of all trouble. I wish I had been doing this as long as you have Oh, so you like the racket, huh? Yeah, sure Uh, how about you pop? I like it fine. I got a boy over there on that side somewhere Yeah Are you kind of old ain't you? Yeah, just turned 21 What's it to you? How old am I you oh we'll say about uh 40 maybe 38 39 uh-uh 28 no now yeah 28 going on a hundred I look old, huh? Well, I listen baby. Listen You get yourself torpedo three or four times last off ship after ship Living your life out on these worse fucking state Well, I'm off watch now get me some jabber. I'll be seeing Fingers been sounding awful in yeah kind of jumpy, isn't torpedo tappie four times The last time he lost the fingers in his left hand. Oh, oh hints the moniker. Yeah But he's got a right to be jumpy this trip. How come you know, we're carrying sun gas About a million gallons of high octane gas You are listening to dick powell as barry arthur ordinary seamen and onamunston as caffeine in the sailor takes a wife On the cavalcade of america sponsored by dupont maker of better things for better living through chemistry Our play is a story of the merchant marine and the men in it who man the ships of america's lifeline to the battlefront As the play continues we find that barry arthur a newspaper city editor who has joined the maritime service to vindicate himself in the eyes of Kathy his star reporter has completed his training and he and his shipmate have received their first sailing orders And a reward ship on their first cruise down for a convoy rendezvous somewhere in the atlantic It's a long haul and convoy across the atlantic speed held down to the pace of the slowest freighter Five days 10 days 15 days The lame the halt and the blind That's what they're giving us the lame the halt and the blind cut it out fingers. Yeah, well, you know as well as I do What good are guys like him and pop going to be to us if we get into a jam right down? Hey, what's going on? Say, what is this? Nothing what's the matter this private argument or can anybody get here? There wasn't no argument. No Well, I'll tell him Look at him look at him the lame the halt and the blind Listen Listen to what? Don't you hear it? Don't you hear it your dummies? Don't you hear it? I'm going below What was the matter with him? Nothing Just scared that's all was he talking about us me and barry Tell you just torpedo taffy. That's all Lot of guys get like that when they're sailing through the same waters where they were torpedoed a couple of times before Yeah, there's more to it than that. It's right what finger says anything that's going to happen. He can't smell it most of all trouble Now it's a plane So that's what was a matter with fingers. Where is it there see? There it is Probably high, but it's up there What's one little plane got the rule gets so excited about the listen son Have you ever seen a vulture hanging around up in the sky waiting for son at some animal to die? Well, that's what that plane is He'll just watch us for days And when we get near enough of those Nazi air bases, he tips them off and blowy Oh a vulture. Yeah Just waiting Just waiting What's it like up there all about the same. Yeah, give me some more java Vulture's still hanging around. Yeah Where's fingers? Well, I haven't seen him lately. She's watch isn't it? I'm not so sure he's gonna be able to keep his watch What's the matter? He's sick. Yeah, sick in the head ever since that plane's been following us. Well, you're blaming him He just been dumped once too often. That's all fingers. It ought to take it a little bit easier. Who's yapping about me Nobody said nothing against you fingers. Relax Relax You think i'm nervous, huh? You think maybe i'm scared, huh? Yeah, you punks How about some coffee for you young punks if you're getting all the brakes guys like me had to fight for Mama's boys Send them to school make semen out of them in three months Flip them into monkey suit and ship them out your trap fingers mama's boys The new merchant marine Gonna man the great american fleet of the future, huh? What do you build you have to know about the merchant service? You wet behind the ears you What do you know about what a guy has to take? Did you ever have guys making cracks behind your back because you didn't wear no uniform If the short patrol of a wish you back on a ship after 40 days and see when you were just dying to put your feet on dirt again Did you ever catch it? Don't carry on like that fingers. Oh I'm sorry, but somebody had to hit him You did the right thing that's that plane up there follow us just waiting and watching That's what was a matter with him. Help me get him back in his bunk. I'll take his watch. Yeah, of course. Come on Listen the plane. Yeah sounds like he's coming down to have a good look. Yeah It won't belong now All right, Barry. Where are you heading? It's my figure the wheel going up to relieve fingers. How is he today? Oh, he's been okay since that plane stopped tagging us Want to come up to the bridge with me for a minute? Maybe yeah, I might make him feel better if we both kind of come on Hi fingers, huh? Oh, hi barry pop fingers. Hey, uh, what's your course? 040 040 it is. Okay, fingers. I'll take over say barry. I About my blowing my top last night. I don't forget it. No, I shouldn't have gone overboard. I'm sorry Your kids are swell. Yeah, and pop too skip it fingers. We've all been kind of jumpy Say our power up there seems to have left us. Yeah, it's not so good Hey, maybe I spoke too soon Hey, that's not that same plane Hear the difference. Look, I can see him. Where up there fingers. Well, they're dive bombers. Tell them to sound the alarm, right? Look, buddy, two of them are dropping down on it. Oh, we're gonna get it. All right All the course zero was zero evasive action. Hi, I said Well, here we go again. Yeah, it's a funny thing though. It's not so bad once they really come at you It's the weight and that's murder. Yeah. Here comes the first one hit the deck Just thereafter. All right. Yeah, them hinders can spot a tanker 100 miles away. Here comes another one. I go He's hurt fingers fingers. You all right Come on fingers. Come on. We got a jump. Give me a hand with him. Leave me alone. Stay here Don't be a chap. You guys will never make it through that burning gas with me. Go ahead jump Leave me alone. Will you go on? Go ahead yourself. Here we go What do you know about hey, Kathy? Well, what's up buck anything hot? Yeah, I got a little jump For you service man interview. Oh, please buck. I can't not uh, maybe you'll like this one You read the story just came over the ticket. Hmm Mediterranean convoy the tanker went down in less than five minutes The lone survivor reached port today and is recovering in the navy hospital Making headlines for the second time in his career as a merchant seaman The first was when he joined the merchant marine four months ago The former city editor Barry Arthur Oh buck Is he sure? He's all right. Rita. He's burned some but he's all right. Oh, but I want you to go down and get his story But no, I couldn't not after what's the matter. You wanted a hero, didn't you? No, not like not like this Listen, Kathy, you go down and get that story and that's an order There's not you No I'm well who uh, who is it? It's me Barry Kathy Kathy Oh, you're still covering the hero beat. Oh Barry, please For a while. We thought you were We heard about the ship three weeks ago and we thought you were oh take it easy, baby. I'm all right no kidding there No, I'd take it easy. Oh Barry. I'm so ashamed of myself. I've been such a fool. You know you haven't Kathy, but I have You know what buck said when we heard about the ship He said there goes a swell city editor And suddenly I realized that I'd sent a great guy was doing a swell job out to look, uh, baby Maybe we were both mixed up a little bit. I You were off all right about some things. I did do it for grandstand play. I was showing off to you But I won't do it again Then you're not going back. I am going back But for another reason this time Because there's fighting going on and there's all those guys over there that need this stuff And because it was a guy named pop who went to see because he had a kid in italy And for a guy named fingers who went back again and again Even when he was half crazy from the strain and for A lot of guys who would never make the headlines Oh, Barry. I'm so proud and Kathy When I get back your first assignment Will be to marry me Thank you owner munson and dick paul To the men of the merchant marine who carry the materials of war across the seven seas to our battlefronts everywhere Dupont sends its good wishes and deep appreciation Mr. Paul will return in a few moments Gain Whitman speaking for dupont will tell you of two chemical developments that have resulted in a new shortcut to air power Even metal airplanes have quite a few parts covered with fabric For instance the control surfaces of nearly all planes Including the great flying fortresses the rudders ailerons and so on are fabric covered The fabric is treated with a finish known to aircraft engineers as dope a liquid that draws it soft and smooth Under the usual way of making these parts The fabric is laboriously stretched over the framework by hand and coated and recoated with liquid dope at least half a dozen times Because of the nap on the fabric the first few coats of liquid have to be put on with a brush That takes time Still more time is lost waiting for the dope to dry and not only time but space as well Because the parts have to stand somewhere while they're drying and wherever you put them they take up room Sanding the parts smooth between coats of dope demand still more time But dupont has now developed a pre-doped fabric a fabric to which the first coat of dope is applied before it is sent to the aircraft plant Using this dupont fabric time consuming brush coats are done away with Because dupont pre-doping flattens down the troublesome nap on the cloth and assures a smooth surface Later coats can be applied with a spray gun The final finish is much smoother with less sanding At the very least a half hour is saved on every part every rudder or whatever it may be And the saving in space is so important that the process and materials engineer of one aircraft plant Calls this new pre-doped fabric a prime example of space saving On top of the saving in time and space Further streamlining of plane production is made possible by a new high salvency lacquer also developed by dupont After months of research this new lacquer is now ready for the aircraft industry It will still further reduce the number of operations required to paint airplane fabric With an additional saving in time of 20 or 30 percent The two developments used together the pre-duped fabric and the new lacquer means savings not only in the manufacture of combat planes But also in the manufacture of training planes and gliders Many of which are entirely covered with fabric Both developments represent wartime achievements of peacetime dupont Better things for better living through chemistry. And here is dick paul star of this evening's cavalcade Thank you ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the cast this month and myself. We hope you like our play tonight Me I learned something from it because I think that Barry Arthur's early lack of realization about the vital and dangerous job Being done by the men of the merchant marine is perhaps shared by many of us And so miss monthson and I hope that through the parts we played for you tonight We may have helped in some small way to do honor to those brave men who have done so much And are doing so much For all of us The dupont cavalcade joins the nation in celebrating abraham lincoln's birthday as we present raymond massie and a radio adaptation of ep conkel's famous play Prologue to glory the play revealed with wit and emotion the young lincoln as he started up the road to glory Lincoln is a very young man when he first left his backwoods home and set up store keeping in new sale in illinois Next monday's broadcast will mark the third year that raymond massie has starred in his now famous role of lincoln on the cavalcade of america Cavalcade is pleased to remind its audience that dick powell appeared tonight through the courtesy of paramount pictures whose current release is the miracle of morgan's creek The musical score this evening was composed by robert armrester This is james bannon sending best wishes from cavalcade sponsor the dupont company of wilmington delaware Who invites you to join cavalcade's audience again next week when raymond massie will be starred as abraham lincoln In a story filled with rich humor and romance That is also a stirring portrait of lincoln's early years on the front here of a new nation This program came to you from hollywood. 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