 Family Theater presents Maureen O'Sullivan. From Hollywood, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theater presents Once on a Golden Afternoon. And now here is your hostess, Maureen O'Sullivan. One of the great joys we as parents have is to see our children growing up in the knowledge and love of God. Yes, and maybe growing up with them is the way to keep young always. But certainly their faith and trust in God is always an inspiration to our own faith. You know, children have a wonderful way of knowing that God is always close to them and that he can and will hear their prayers. So often it happens that we lose much of the happiness of life because we forget the simplicity of childhood. The direct, simple way children have for love and laughter. Yes, and insight into the happiness of children, how we can add to their enjoyment and lightheartedness is a way to recapture the joy of that as adults we often lose. Love of God and daily family prayer in our homes gives lighthearted happiness and peace and harmony because praying together as a family brings God close to all of us. Tonight is a special program, Family Theater presents a story for children, for all children from six to 65. A story that happened Once on a Golden Afternoon. Maureen O'Sullivan will return after tonight's Family Theater story Once on a Golden Afternoon featuring Jean Bates as Alice. There have been through the ages many dedications and inscriptions on the fly leaves of many books, but one that stands out among the time-worn editions of literature reads. To the little girl who has been my inspiration, Alice Pleasance Liddell. I dedicate this book, signed Lewis Carroll. And this was Lewis Carroll's dedication of the absurdly delightful rollicking tale of that lovely child of fantasy, Alice in Wonderland. And so from the myriad pages of literature, from the countless writings of the English language, this unique and fanciful tale emerges and lives, not as a travesty of the times, but as the story of a child for children everywhere in the world. Lewis Carroll was a professor of mathematics at Oxford University. He was a man who authored five of the most scholarly books on mathematical determinants, but all are forgotten. Even his true name, Charles Ludwig Dodgson. For the world remembers only Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice in Wonderland, written on a Golden Afternoon 100 years ago. And so we turn back the clock of time to the year of the inspiration of Alice, Alice in Wonderland. Across the great flagstone quadrangle of Oxford University stands the Great Tower Clock. I was watching it from my window where I confess I was rather absent-minded in lecturing to the class on an algebraic problem. The square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Now, if any of you students have any trouble with this theory, I suggest you consult Millen's text. And that concludes the day's session. Thank you. Alice, Alice, how are you on this, this golden afternoon? Well, aren't we on speaking terms? I'm angry. Angry? At whom? At you, Mr. Dodgson. At me, Alice, but won't you tell me why? Well, if I have to tell you why I'm angry, then I can't be angry if I speak to you, can I? No, you can't because when you speak to a person at whom you are angry, then you are no longer angry. But I am. And what is all this about? Well, didn't you forget something? Hmm, now let me see. You promised to take me on a picnic and you forgot the picnic basket. Oh, good heavens, I did forget. Now, you wait here. I'll dash up to my room and get the picnic basket. I'll have it filled up and we'll be rowing down the river in no time. I know just the spot for our picnic. So, that's the story of Fair Rosamund and over there near the old monastery is her burial place. Oh, that's a beautiful story. Tell me another before we land, Mr. Dodgson. Oh, my Alice, I've almost run out of stories. Oh, well, that bridge yonder has a little story. That bridge has been here ever since the time of the Romans. And that's how Oxford got its present name. You see, it was a ford for oxen to pass over and so long before the Christian era was called oxen ford. Oh. Well, here we are. Now, isn't this a perfect place for a picnic? Oh, I love it here. Now, I'll take the picnic basket, Alice, give you the blanket and you can shaper on the landing of the troops. Are you ready? Prima, Secunda and Tersha, forward. Well, now, what is this, Alice? Mutiny, I say forward and you don't move. But you said Prima, Secunda and Tersha. And they aren't here. Oh, well, Prima is the first contingent. Secunda is the second. And Tersha... Which is the third? Correct. Now, let's be off to that shady tree out of the sun. So, an apple for you and we've cleaned the picnic basket. Here you are. Catch. Alice, catch it. Oh, honey, it's rolling down to the river. Oh. It'll take a longer hand than yours to reach it. No. Oh, I'm afraid we've lost it. You see, it's a rabbit hole and it goes down very deep. What does the rabbit do down there? Does he live down there all the time? Oh, but he can't. Why? He has to get air. He comes out and he eats shrubs. Oh, look, there he is over in the bushes. He's a white rabbit. I'm going to catch him. You can't now. He's gone down the hole again. Why did he want to go down that dirty hole? Oh, well, that isn't a dirty hole. It's a rather wonderful place down there. You see, up here the world is sometimes filled with things that are hard and cruel. And people who are sometimes thoughtless and unkind and selfish. You mean like the jealous queen who killed Farrah Rosamond? That's right, yes. But down there, oh, there's a wonderland with, um... muck turtles and lorries and griffons. Oh, tell me about it. I'd like to go down there. Well, it... Well, you see, there's quite a story about this wonderland. Please tell it to me. Well, um... Is it about the white rabbit and the muck turtles? Yes. Yes, it is. And about a little girl who followed the white rabbit down into the hole. And suddenly she found herself dropping down. Down. Down. And while she was falling, she was clutching the things on the way. Such a fall as this. I'll think nothing of tumbling downstairs. I wonder how many miles I've fallen. I must be somewhere near the center of the earth, I'm sure. What's that? Oh, the Duchess. The Duchess. Oh, won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting? If you please, sir. Mr. Rabbit. Oh, my fur and whiskers. Where are my gloves and fan? I'll have to be on my way. On my way. On my way. Dear, dear. How queer everything is down here. I wonder if I've been changed. I feel so different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is... Who in the world am I? Well, if I'm really Alice Liddell, I remember my little poem. Now, let's see. How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail and pour the waters of the Nile on every golden scale? How tiffly he seems to grin how neatly spread his claws and welcome little fishes in with gentle smiling jaws. I'm sure those are not the right words. I must be somebody else after all and I shall have to live in this pokey little hole and have no toys to play with. Hello, Mr. Mouse. Where is the cat? What? Oh, I beg your pardon. I quite forgot you wouldn't like cats. We won't talk about that any longer. As if I would talk on such a subject. Our family always hated cats. Nasty, low, vulgar things. Don't let me hear that name again. Mouse dear, do come back and we won't talk about cats anymore. Well, very well. Tell me your history. Why do you hate C-A-T-S? Oh, yes. Mine is a long and sad tale. Certainly is a long tale. But why do you call it sad? Silly girl, what are you talking about? Oh, look, look at all those funny things near the pool. Funny? What is so funny about a dodo, a lorry and a caterpillar? Oh, I know what a caterpillar is. But what is he doing over there? Smoking his pipe. That's a funny thing. He's sitting on top of a mushroom. And why not? Oh, I'm sure I don't know. But he has large lonely eyes. I know he must be very unhappy. Who can tell? Who can tell? I'll go and talk to him. Hello, Master Caterpillar. Who are you? I hardly know, sir. Explain yourself. I can't, sir, because I'm not myself you see. I don't see. I'm afraid it's very confusing. It isn't. Maybe not to you. But I'll go away if you don't want to be friendly. Come back. I've something important to say. What, sir? Keep your temper. What? Keep your temper. Is that all you have to say? No, but that's most important. So you think you've changed, do you? I'm afraid I have, sir. I keep growing and shrinking. And I'm not the same size for ten minutes. And I can't remember things. Can't remember what things. I tried to say how doth the busy be. But it came out different. Then recite, you are old, Father William. All right. I'll try. You are old, Father William, the young man said. And your hair has become very white. And yet you incessantly stand on your head. Do you think at your age it is right? In my youth, Father William replied to his son, I feared it might injure the brain. But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, why I do it again and again. You are old, said the youth, as I mentioned before, and have grown most uncommonly fat. Yet you turned a back somersault in at the door. Pray, what is the reason for that? In my youth, said the sage, as he shook his gray locks, I kept all my limbs very supple. By the use of this ointment, one shilling a box, allow me to sell you a couple. You are old, said the youth, and your jaws are too weak for anything tougher than suet. Yet you finish the goose with the bones and the beak. Pray, how do you manage to do it? In my youth, said his father, I took to the law and argued each case with my wife. And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw has lasted the rest of my life. You are old, said the youth, one would hardly suppose that your eyes were as steady as ever. Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose. That made you so awfully clever. I have answered three questions and that is enough, said his father. Don't give yourself airs. Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off or I'll kick you downstairs. Kick him downstairs? I'm ashamed of you. It is not said right. Not quite right, I'm afraid, sir. It's wrong from beginning to end. That's because I've become so small. You're quite big enough. Oh, but three inches is a wretched height to be. It's a very good height indeed. I am almost three inches. But I'm not used to it. You will be in time. One side will make you taller and the other side will make you grow shorter. One side of what? Of the mushroom, of course. You mean you eat it? Of course. Oh, here he comes. Here he comes. I must be away. The ditches, the ditches. Oh, my dear paws, oh, my fur, my whiskers. She'll get me executed as sure as ferrets are ferrets. Oh, Mr. Rabbit. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. Wait, Mr. Rabbit, where are you going? Don't leave me here alone. Oh, Mr. Rabbit. I must be lost. If I were only home again, I'd love everybody so much more, if only... Oh! If only what? Well, you're back, Mr. Rabbit. See, who is that over there? That's a Chessor cat. The Chessor cat? What is he grinning at? He's mad. Oh. And you're mad, too. We're all mad here. How do you know I'm mad? You must be. He wouldn't be here. Would you tell me, then, which way I ought to go? That depends on where you want to get. I don't much care where. Then it doesn't matter which way you go. Over that way lives the mad hatter. In the opposite way is the March Hare. They're both mad. I've seen hatters before, so why don't we go and visit the March Hare? Well, he's mad, too. But let us go. Look at the Chessor cat. He's vanishing. But he's beginning to vanish at the end of his tale. Yes, and he's now up to his grin. Oh. He's all gone. All except his grin. Goodness, I've often seen a cat without a grin. But a grin without a cat. It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life. He's mad. Wait till you see the March Hare. He's completely mad. May I go in there, Mr. Rabbit? There's no room in there. But I can see there's plenty of room. I'll just sit down at the table with you and the door mouse and the hatter. Oh, there you are. Oh, hello, Master Caterpillar. Do you know the March Hare? He's mad. Have some milk. I don't see any milk. There isn't any. Well, then it isn't very civil of Mr. Rabbit to offer it. It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited. Your hair wants cutting. Personal remarks are very rude. Then why is a raven like a rating desk? Now we shall have some fun. I love riddles. If you mean you can find out the answer. Exactly so. Then say what you mean. I do. At least I mean what I say. That's the same thing you know. You might as well say I get what I like is the same thing as I like what I get. Or I breathe when I sleep the same thing as I sleep when I breathe. Have you guessed the riddle yet? No, I give up. What's the answer? I haven't the slightest idea. No, I... You're just wasting my time, Mr. Rabbit and Master Caterpillar. Speaking of time, what time is it? It's six o'clock. And it's time to eat. I'm getting very hungry. Have you seen the Mark Turtle yet, Alice? I don't even know what a Mark Turtle is. It's the thing Mark Turtle soup is made from. Are you hungry? I don't think... Then don't talk. It's time to go. I'm sure the Mark Turtle should be somewhere on the seashore. Oh, there he is. Yes, I see him. I wonder if I can talk to him. Sit down, Alice, and don't speak a word. Not a word, but I was going to tell him a story. Nobody's asking you to... Well, sir, I don't see why it's your business if I want to talk to the Mark Turtle. You know, once he was a real turtle. That's very interesting. What's very interesting? When he was little, though he may not believe it, he went to school in the sea. Oh! He was an old turtle. We call him tortoise. Why did you call him tortoise if he wasn't one? You know, you really are very dull. We called him tortoise because he taught us to. Oh, but how many hours a day did you do your lessons? Ten the first day, nine the next, and so on. That was a curious plan. Well, that's why they're called lessons because they lesson from day to day. Oh, look! What is that? The lobster quadril. They're going to dance? Of course. Form July! Beautiful dance. Where are you going, Master Caterpillar? Everybody's mad here. Oh, my whisk isn't fair. The duchess, the duchess. She'll have me executed as sure as carrot to carrot. Why, Mr. Rabbit? Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. I'd like to see the duchess. She's in a stew. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. Well, wait, Mr. Rabbit. I'll go with you. What is she cooking, Mr. Rabbit? Don't ask because I can't tell you. Oh, look at the duchess. I didn't know she looked so big and funny. You don't know much, and that's the fact. Careful, duchess. You'll ball a pot over and we'll all be burned. If anybody minded their own business, the world would go around a deal faster than it does. Which would not be an advantage. Why? Just think what it would do to the day and night. You see, the earth takes 24 hours to turn on its axes. The feeling of axes. She'll chop off your head if you make her mad. Don't tell me she's mad, too. And hot tempered as well. Maybe it's the pepper that makes people hot tempered. I can't tell just now what the moral of that is, but I'll remember it in a bit. Perhaps it hasn't one. Touch, touch. Everything's got a moral if only you can find it. Everything's got a moral. Oh? There it is. Oh, it is love. It is love that makes the world go round. Somebody said that it's done by everybody minding their own business. And the moral of that is, birds of a feather flock together. How fond you are of finding morals in things. Oh, yes. And the moral of that is, be what you would seem to be or more simply said. Never imagine yourself to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that you are or appear to be. That isn't more simple. Careful of what you say. The Duchess will order your head chopped off. Oh, dear. My fan and gloves. Oh, dear. I must be going. I'm going. I must... Mr. Robert. Wake up. What? I said, wake up, Alice. Why? Why? What's the matter? White rabbit is so unfriendly. Well, we'll have to give him a good talking to the next time. But you didn't finish the story. No, I couldn't very well in the middle of it. You went fast asleep. Then I must have dreamed about the mouse and the Duchess and the rabbit. Well, no, not exactly. No, I started... I started telling you a story about them and... Oh, I remember. It was a wonderful story. Is that what you were writing, Mr. Dodgson? Well, no, no, I was just writing a little poem about this golden afternoon. Please read it to me. Well, if you promise not to go up to sleep again. I promise. All in the golden afternoon, full leisurely we glide for both our oars with little skill by little arms are plied while little hands make vain pretence, our wanderings to guide. And on to sudden silence one in fancy they pursue the dream child moving through a land of wonders wild and new, in friendly chat with bird or beast and half-believe it's true. Thus grew the tale of wonderland thus slowly one by one its quaint events were hammered out and now the tale is done home we steal a merry crew beneath the setting sun. Alice, a childish story take and with a gentle hand lay it where childhood's dreams are twined in memories mystic land like pilgrims withered wreaths of flowers plucked in a far-off land. Oh, I like that. Are you going to put it in a book, too? A book? Oh, you mean the story I just told you? Oh, yes, because no one will believe me if I told them about all those things I saw in wonderland. All right. By Joe, we will write it in a book. For you and all your little friends we'll call it once on a golden afternoon. Oh, no, I don't like that. I like Alice in Wonderland. Splendid. I like that, too. Yes, yes, we'll call it Alice in Wonderland. By Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. And just so that your little friends won't laugh at this nonsense by a stodgy old professor of mathematics writing about the lorries and griffons we'll give them a new name. Oh, then let's see. Yes, in Latin Charles Lutwidge is Carolus Ludivicus and translated back... I have it. Let's settle for Louis Carroll. I like that. Louis Carroll, creative Alice in Wonderland. It seems like a different person. And I won't tell a soul. That's good. Now, it's time we were getting you home. Still she haunts me, phantom-wise Alice moving under skies never seen by waking eyes. Children yet the tale to hear eager eye and willing ear lovingly shall nest all near. In a wonderland they lie dreaming as the days go by dreaming as the summers die ever drifting down the stream lingering in the golden gleam. Life, what is it but a dream? And inscribed below that lovely poem was Louis Carroll's last dedication to the little girl who has been my inspiration Alice, Pleasance, Liddell my Alice in Wonderland. You know, sometimes it's good to be able to daydream into a child's world of wonderment where life's most beautiful lessons are learned. Most of us can recall at least one golden afternoon an afternoon away from the world of reality that's often so thoughtless. If the world today needs anything it's first a renewal of faith a renewal of trust in God and in his eternal providence. If only all of us could get back to those simple truths if only all homes would get back to the daily practice of family prayer this indeed would be a better and a happier world a world where there would be true brotherhood of all men in the lasting fatherhood of God. Let us tonight make this simple dedication of our families to God. Let us dedicate a short period every day to the practice of family prayer in our homes for there is a joy and a happiness and daily family prayer and there is this lasting assurance that the family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood family theater has brought you transcribed once on a golden afternoon. Maureen O'Sullivan was your hostess featured in our cast were Jean Bates Ben Wright Richard Beals Marvin Miller and Howard McNear the script was written for family theater by Jonathan Slott and directed by John T. Kelly with music composed and conducted by Henry Mancini. This series of family theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program by the mutual network which has responded to this need and by the hundreds of stars have stayed screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our family theater stage. To them and to you our humble thanks. This is Tony Lofrano expressing the wish of family theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week when family theater will present. Jeannie with a light green hair starring Marion and Jim Jordan better known to you as Fibromiggy and Molly. Stephen McNally will be your host. Join us, won't you? Family Theater is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.