 The Mutual Broadcasting System in cooperation with Family Theatre Incorporated presents Blue Memorandum starring Lionel Barrymore. Ricardo Montalban is your host. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Here is your Family Theatre host for tonight, Ricardo Montalban. We as parents sometimes think we can measure the happiness and security of our homes by the amount we spend on food or housing or clothing or even by what we can spend on fun. No, it isn't how much we spend on our homes that determines the happiness of our families. It's how much we give of ourselves, what we give our children of the true values of life. These are the things that make a real happy home. And the greatest gift we can give our children is an understanding of the important and powerful part that our faith and trust in God play in our own lives. The best inspiration and example we can give them is the simple and sincere expression of that faith by the daily practice of family prayer. Family prayer is a sure way to happiness, security and peace in most vital and wonderful way because it's God's way. Now the Family Theatre presentation of Blue Memorandum starring Lionel Barrymore. Now take words for instance. Consider the inflection, the renunciation, a few simple words like good night. Maybe it was the way JJ Rowland said good night that accounts for it. Lemon JJ? Yeah. You were saying something about Johnson. Johnson's the fourth chauffeur I've had in three months. Yes. And he's the most abominable one of the lot. Fire him darling. I've already fired him. Good for you. He ran me into the thickest, foulest traffic I've ever seen. No excuse for it. I told Johnson. I told him exactly explicitly. Route 57 was a bottleneck. You think the dunce would learn? 20 minutes completely wasted in a crawling mass. Stupidity. Crass and stubborn stupidity. And how about the contract darling? I swung the contract personally. Good for you. I don't know what I'm paying those monkeys for down in the office. Who is it now darling? Bippins. Bippins? Edward J. Bippins, my general manager. Fire him darling. Bippins tried to advise me on pig iron. Wouldn't you know? Tried to tell me I shouldn't pull a pig iron deal under the present market trend. You showed him JJ. I pig ironed him. Trying to tell me about market trends. Bippins must be a dolt. I don't know where he studied business administration but if brains were altitude that boobs 10 miles below sea level. You made him see your point though. Listen Ethel. When JJ Rawlin says do it's done. Good for you darling. Where's Millicent? She's getting dressed. There's a birthday party. Oh yes she comes now. Good evening Millicent. Good evening dad. Good evening mother. Ah did you study your French today Millicent? No dad. Why not? It's that new tutor dear. She's incompetent. I'll get another tutor. We've had seven tutors this past year. I got a better idea. Send Millicent to that bobble ink on Bampton College. But it's so far away JJ. Only 200 miles. A few hours trip. Darling would you like to go to bobble ink on Bampton? Well I don't know mother. I was hoping to stay near home this year. Oh it's a lovely school Millicent. A very very lovely college. Really? I don't want to go away mother. What did you say? Are you questioning my decision? Oh it's not that JJ. It's just that she is a bit young to send away to college. She's only 17. I don't care if she's 70. Millicent? Yes dad. You're not a child anymore. You understand that. Oh daddy I was only trying to say that. And you want to grow to be a lady someday. You want to make me proud of you don't you? Yes dad. All right then go to bobble ink on Bampton like a good girl and learn how to speak French. Mother and I will have you home for your birthday. Now you like that won't you? Yes dad. That's the girl. Now you better run along. Oh dad. I'd like to go to Mary Scott's birthday party. Eddie Oliver promised to take me and if it's all right with you. Now Millicent. I'm not saying that recreation is necessary. It's good. It has its place but wasting time in a lot of parties is a different matter. But dad I haven't been to a party in three minutes. Please please Millicent. It pains me to see you so headstrong when I say that you, a girl of your position, your background, rearing and training. When I tell you that it's a complete waste of time to be running round with every Tom Dick and Harry to parties. I expect you to be listened to. You understand? Yes dad. Perhaps you better go to your room Millicent. All right. Good night dad. Good night. Good night. Yes maybe it was the way JJ said good night that accounts for it and consider two other words happy birthday. Maybe it was the way JJ said happy birthday that accounts for it. Sit down gentlemen. Sit down Bebens. Gentlemen I call this conference to remind you that we're supposed to be running an organization. At least I was always under the impression that JJ Rowland's incorporated was supposed to be an organization. Now Bebens. Yes sir. Bebens. In my absence I've been made to understand that the gentleman at the board commissioned you to close the Eddington contract. Yes sir. It was imperative that we get the plan one moment please one moment. You purchased the plan. As your representative yes sir. On whose appraisal? Well on the regular licensed appraisals. Yeah yeah sure sure. I'm employing you to tell me what the licensed appraisals tell everybody else. Yes but Mr. Rowland's under the circumstances acting as I did as your purchasing agent. The only logical routine was to- Routine! Don't talk to me about routine Bebens. I appraise that plan. I personally I made it my business. You signed the papers for forty thousand dollars. Yes sir. That plan's not worth forty thousand. Mr. Rowland's the licensed appraisal. I don't give a tinker's to about your license appraisals. You Bebens you sold me down the river for at least four thousand dollars. Mr. Rowland's and gentlemen of the board. It may be that I've made a mistake. I'm merely trying to be and I believe I have been a competent manager in this. I didn't ask for speech Bebens. But excuse me sir. We were discussing that Eddington contract. I was coming to that. Now as for this contract I wish to say only this. I consulted the best real estate brains. I even went to the trouble to investigate six prior bank estimates. In my opinion sir forty thousand was the fair and equitable disposition. Is that all you got to say Bebens? Yes sir. All right. Now I'm telling you something. That deal doesn't go. But the contract is science. I'll handle that contract Bebens. Well the courts can be pretty strange about it. Never mind the courts. Another thing Bebens. Yes sir. One more mistake like that and you'll be getting a memorandum. Yes. You won't be the first. And you probably won't be the last to get a blue slip. I see sir. A blue. That's all gentlemen. You were late tonight darling. Oh that new chauffeur's worse than Johnson. Fat head can't read. Mint sauce with your lamb darling. Yeah. Another hard date at the office I suppose. Oh so so so so. I finally gave that parasite a going over. That Bebens creature. Yeah. Good for you. It's about time that you brought him to his senses dear. I don't know why you tolerate such. Tried to put on a sister act too. He did. Yeah. Wouldn't you know. You said I was unfair. The insolence. JJ why do you stand for it. I told him off don't worry. I said to him Bebens like. Wait wait you hear this Apple. It was inspired. I said Bebens as far as I'm concerned you've been nothing but an embolism in the artery of progress. Oh. Too shy. Too shy darling. Yeah stopped him cold. Oh you should have seen his face. It floored him. For the count. I think that's so cute. Embolism in the artery of progress. JJ you're a digger. Then I straightened out that little contract detail to the Eddington plant I was telling you about. You're buying it. Sure I'm buying it. But not for forty thousand they thought they could scare me with the lawyers. Oh high pressure stuff. Can you beat it. The cheese. But I told him when JJ gets on the phone they come to terms and they come to terms fast. They saw your point. At my point. Good for you. I could break that Eddington outfit tomorrow morning if I wanted to. Wouldn't you think they'd learn. Human nature. Human nature. But you think that people would. People. As old Jay senior used to put it what can you expect from a pig but a grunt. People. By the way it's Millicent's birthday. So how old is she now. Seventeen. I thought it would be nice if we had her home for the entire weekend. Oh good. Where's she now. Upstairs resting. I'll have Frida tell her to come down. Yes madam. Millicent Frida. Yes madam. So who cooked this lamb. Elsie. Elsie. She came yesterday. A green star agency recommendation. What's the matter with her. I don't know darling. You know how it is with the help these days. Well there is no excuse for a piece of meat like this. The stuff tastes as if it was basted with arsenic. I did think it was a little on the dry side. Get rid of her. See if you can't get a little civilization into that kitchen for a change. Get a mix master. I've gotten enough worried of the office without coming home something like this. There's some ham in the refrigerator. I hate ham. I thought you know that. Hello dad. I didn't know you were home. Good evening Millicent. Well you look quite the student. Wearing glasses and all. Okay it's her birthday. Wish her a happy birthday. Happy birthday Millicent. Thank you dad. And thanks also for the beautiful fur coat. Fur coat. What. The coat you bought her Jay. Oh yes yes yes the fur coat. It's a beautiful coat Jay. A cute mink. Cut it Bond tell us. Fine fine good. Yeah you needed the fur coat Millicent. Oh really dad. It's the most beautiful coat I've ever seen. Sure expanded. Well our school coming Millicent. Okay dad. You put in a good day at the books. Well today. I mean mother told me. Her birthday Jay. We thought we might have a little celebration didn't we Millicent. And we're going to have a party tonight dad. Wait I'll bring in the birthday cake and let you see how lovely the frost. That's all right that's all right that's all right now. Don't bother. Matter of fact I won't be here tonight. Got to look after deal upstate. I see dad. Run along now and enjoy yourself. Yes dad. Good night. Happy birthday darling. Wish her a happy birthday Jay. Oh yeah yeah happy birthday. Happy birthday Millicent. Yes maybe it was the way he said happy birthday that accounts for it. Maybe or maybe it was that inflecturing his voice when JJ said bibbons bibbons. You bought 12 plywood monstrosities build at 1240 dollars. Just a minute Mr. Owens. I think I know a good desk when I see one. And I can tell you that these are genuine white molten. I don't care if they're genuine pikes peaks. Your responsibility around here general manager is to see that we function is a going concern instead of subsidizing a lumbia to the tune of 1240 dollars. All right all right. This is just another example of your incompetence. Mr. Owens I've worked for you for over two years. And that time to the best of my knowledge I've done a good job. If at any time I've consciously deliberately failed to carry out your well we're talking about desk bibbons I didn't ask for a backlog on your life. Well as for the desks I bought them I installed them. If you don't approve them that's your privilege. All I'm trying to say is that you can't get good desks any cheaper. I can't Canada. Well bibbons let me tell you something. First of all those desks are going out here tonight. Tonight? Tonight. And another thing bibbons I want to teach you one more lesson in the art of business administration. Take a good look at your own desk tonight bibbons. Maybe you'll find something there that'll interest you. Is that all sir? Did you have a hard day? Oh routine routine routine. I got rid of that boob at last. You mean that horrible bookkeeper you were telling me about? No bibbons I fired him. Well I should say it's about time you asserted yourself darling. I told him. I suppose he tried to raise the usual objections. What objections could he raise? How do you do it darling? Slap him with a memorandum and sign it J.J. Rowland. The wheels turn when they see that blue lip. Oh J.J. J.J. you're marvelous. Really you are. When J.J. says do it's done. Want me to take it darling? No I'll get it I'll get it. Yep. J.J. Rowland's. Biggie. Can you locate some ready cash? Right cash in a hurry. Who's talking? I'm asking you the questions. Can you locate some ready cash? I don't like your tone mister. You're gonna like my tone Rowland's? You're gonna like it with no questions asked. I want cash and I want it in a hurry. Look here what are you trying to do? You've got a daughter haven't you? Yes I have. Well she's up there. She's supposed to be up at some fancy college. Barbell Inc. on Bempton? Yes I sent her there. Now wait a minute. Now you're getting the idea. Do you mean to say that you... I didn't say anything. Where's my daughter? Where is she? I'll ask the questions you understand. I warn you if anything's happening. I have also did the talking runners. Now get this straight. Don't you make any phone calls. I want no mucky shines. You follow my orders. I want $40,000 in a paper bag. A brown paper bag and I want... What did they say? No Traceburg Barbell Inc. She'd been missing since this afternoon. Those fools. What do they think I'm paying them for? They let her go off anytime she wants to. Jay, what do we do? Shut up. Let me think. Hello. Mr. Rollins. Mrs. Phillips of Barbell Inc. speaking. What about my daughter? I'm frightfully upset, Mr. Rollins. We've continued to check all possible sources of information. Yes, yes, yes. What did you find out? We have another witness. One of our girls here at Barbell Inc. Who claims she saw Millicent enter an automobile this afternoon. She got into a car this afternoon. A blue or a black sedan. As for other details... Whose car was it? That we don't know. But we're continuing to check all possible... There you are. Missing for hours and nobody knows anything. Nobody reports anything. I can't stand this much longer, Jay. I'll sue that college. I'll drag him into court just to assure... Hello, hello. Rollins. Oh, gee. About that 40,000. Where's my daughter? Don't ask, Christopher. I'll do the talking. What do you want? I want you to make it 50,000. But you can't do it. I said 50,000. You understand? If anything has happened to my daughter, I'll... Easy, Mr. Talk like that can make a fella nervous. All right, all right now. All right. What do you want? I want 50,000. I just told you. All right. And I want it in a Manila envelope. You said a brown paper... Some instructions. I said a Manila envelope. You understand? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'll do anything you want. Only tell me... Tell me where my daughter is. Where is she? What's happening? Quiet, Rollins. I can't afford to waste any time on this phone. Yes, sir, yes. Right now, I don't want you to do anything except get that Manila envelope ready. All right. And I want you to wait until you hear from me again. Yeah, yeah. Did you do what I told you, Rollins? Yes, yes, yes. Where do you want me to deliver? Everything's on the up and up. Yes, yes, I'll pay you anything, anything. Only get my daughter here. You'll get final instructions at seven o'clock tonight. All right, all right. Please, Mr. Give me a break with my wife, my daughter. But, oh, wait a minute. Please don't hang up. What did he say, Jay? Seven o'clock. We've got to wait till seven. Past seven. I doesn't need call. I've got everything ready. Money, the envelope. Why doesn't the phone ring? What's the matter, Jay? What's holding you? He said seven. I don't know. I don't know where. Oh, please don't keep asking me questions. I don't know what the... I don't know where I am. Stop bothering me, will you? But he said seven. Seven o'clock and it's eight minutes past. Will you be patient? You just sit there and be quiet. We have to wait, I saw. We just have to wait. Further instructions. That's what he said. Maybe we'll have to wait another 50 or 60 minutes. Maybe another 50 or 60 days. I don't know. I wish you'd do something. It's waiting. I'm doing everything I can. All I can do is follow orders. Oh, for heaven's sake, I have to... Oh, I don't know what I'm thinking. That phone. Why doesn't it ring? The door, Jay. I'll get it. I'll get it. I'll get it. I'll get it. I'll get it. Simon, just a minute. Just a minute. This door lock is you, Millicent. Hello, Dad. Millicent. I'm baby. Oh, what are you crying for, my friend? You all right, Millicent? You all right, aren't you? You're not hurt? The man didn't... That man who drove you here. Where is he? He just drove away in his car. He didn't want to come in. Who is he? What's his name? Oh, I can never remember his name and I didn't like to ask him. But you know him, Dad. He works for you. Works for me? What's he look like? Oh, middle-aged, thick glasses and sort of bald. Wait a minute. Wait. Thick glasses and a slight scar along his chin? Yes, that's the man. Bibbins. He's one of the nicest men I've ever met, Dad. Why that? That criminal? I'll have the police. Just a second, please, Jay. You say Mr. Bibbins took you away from Barber Link this afternoon. Well, he didn't take me exactly. He drove by the college this afternoon and asked me to hop into his car. He said you wanted to see me because there was a big surprise at home. Millicent. How could you? Oh, but, Mother, he was always so kind to me at Dad's office. I'll have that more on in jail in less than 24 hours. I'll get the police. What in the world is the trouble, Dad? Do you know that you have almost been the death of your father, Millicent? Mother, I'm trying to tell you what I merely thought that... Didn't you have sense enough to see through Mr. Bibbins? I don't know what you mean. You sat there in the car and let him take you. I mean, a man who's almost as strange. He'll let him take you wherever he wanted to go. Dad, please believe me. Mr. Bibbins is a kind man. I know he's kind. I knew he was taking me home. Didn't you expect me? Maybe he does have a peculiar sense of humor. He gave me this for you. What is it? It's a note. Some kind of message. For me? Mr. Bibbins said I should give it to you. What is it, JJ? It's a memorandum. Read it. It says there wouldn't be any use telling my name. You wouldn't want to remember me anyway. You wouldn't want to remember me anyway. I happen to be only another number in your files. That's about all any of us were, JJ. Just numbers in your files. You remembered only numbers. I don't think you ever really got to know people. The fellas and the girls who worked with you and for you. Looking back over all the weeks, the months that I spent in your employ, I can say this now. The office was swell, JJ. The workers, the fellas and the girls in the office, they were friendly, kind, a great gang. And the wages were good. There's no kick there. It was only you, JJ. You're a man of distinction, your friend said. But you ranted and bullied, JJ. Oh, sure, I took orders. When you have a wife and kids to support, when you have bills to pay and a house to keep going, you learn how to take orders, your kind of orders. And then you broke me with a blue slip. A blue memorandum. My services were no longer required. Okay, okay, JJ. Now I'm giving you a memorandum. I had my innings too for a few hours today. I had you taking orders and you took them and why? Because for the first time in your life, you had something else besides numbers to worry about. Your daughter is a sweet girl, JJ. I hope you never stick that kid in the miscellaneous fire. And I hope you remember this. Numbers don't sweat and bleed and cry for you. People, people do those things. People. And this is my memorandum. P.S., give my love to Millicent. Do you like the way I tell a story, Millicent? That's the funniest story I've heard in years, Dad. Yeah, you're marvelous. You're a genius. Speaking of geniuses, Ethel, I must tell you about my special genius, Splendid Worker. Magnificent instincts. Who is he, darling? Bibbons. Oh, he's back again. Of course he's back again. When JJ says, come, they come. Bibbons is the swellest guy, Dad. Good old... It was the inflection of JJ's voice when he said, Bibbons, that accounts for it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am not posing as an authority on human relations when I say there is a nice capacity in people for being kind. It's a virtue, really. It means being helpful and considerate. In the truest sense of the word, it is actually loving our neighbor. And that's important. It's fundamental elementary procedure, as JJ would put it, and it's the procedure that JJ forgot for a time. You know, we'll never be able to solve the real problems until we stop talking about numbers, about majorities and minorities. We'll never solve our domestic, social, even economic problems until we get away from numbers and get back to flesh and blood. Back to people. Our country takes in just about everybody. It takes in all the segments of the land, high and low, rich and poor, capital and labor, all one family. To work together, all of us, as one big family should be our ideal. And there is no better way to reach these ideals than to work together and pray together. To pray not only as individuals, but as a family. It's important, family prayer, for families that pray together stay together. Before saying good night, I would like to thank Lionel Barrimo for his performance as JJ. Our thanks to Timothy Mulvey for writing tonight's play, and to Max Turr for his music. This production of Family Theater, Incorporated, was directed by David Young. Others who appear in tonight's play were Lila Webb, Howard McNeer, Barbara Fuller and Nancy Shields. Next week, our Family Theater star will be Mark Stevens in The Hound of Heaven. Your hostess will be John Caulfield. This is Ricardo Montalvan saying good night, and God bless you. This series of the Family Theater broadcast is made possible by the thousands of you who felt a need for this kind of program, by the mutual broadcasting system which has responded to this need, and by a friend of the New York Foundling Hospital, which cares for homeless and motherless babies without distinction of race, creed or color. Join us next week at the same time when our Family Theater star will be Mark Stevens. Joan Caulfield will be your hostess. Tony LaFranco speaking. Remember next Sunday, September 28th, daylight saving ends for this year. For those of you who are on standard time, Family Theater will come to you one hour later. For an exact time in your community, consult your mutual station or newspaper radio listing. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.