 The story of Dr. Kildare. Whatsoever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick. Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, I will keep silence thereon. Counting such things to be held is sacred trust. I will exercise my ox only for the cure. The story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought you those famous motion pictures. Now, this exciting, heartwarming series is heard on radio. In just a moment, the story of Dr. Kildare. But first, your announcer is Dr. Gillespie. Gildare, please, wait a moment. Dr. Giro? I'm so glad I spotted you, Dr. Kildare, spotted someone there. I'm just leaving for my table, but there's something in your manner that suggests I'm going to be very much on. Oh, but this is extremely urgent. Dr., one of our interns hasn't appeared for ambulance duty this morning. I'll get on it, Dr. Thank you, thank you so much. The driver's waiting for you. Hello, Tom. Dr. Kildare, what are you doing this part of the hospital? Well, Dr. Groove tells me you've got an ambulance without a doctor. Well, Tommy, you're standing in for Bailey. Standing in for somebody? Guess his name is Bailey. Let's get moving. Right, up in. Your set. Let her rip. Hold on. He's turned him over to surgery. Well, that's relief. What happened to this Bailey fellow? I don't know. I can tell you that Dr. Bailey will never miss another assignment around this hospital. With all the troubles I have to endure as head of their general, I have never had to put up with an intern not appearing for his assigned duties. Yet, I certainly appreciate your cooperation in this matter, Dr. Kildare. It was most kind of you to help out. I appreciate it too, Dr. Kildare. Well, Bailey, it's nice to see you favoring us with your presence even at this late hour. I'm sorry, Dr. Groove, I got here as fast as I could. I suppose you want to take over now, Bailey. He most certainly will not take over. I can understand your anger, sir. However, I can't explain why I wasn't here on time. Yes, Dr. Groove, things sometimes happen and... They certainly do. You've been drinking, Bailey. I can smell it on your brain. Please, Dr. Groove, you're jumping the conclusions. If you'd only listened to me for a moment... Bailey, according to reports I have received, this is the third occasion you've been late for duty. I think the time for excuses is long past. You are jeopardizing not only your own career, but the efficiency of the hospital. Sir, I've always tried to remember the efficiency of the hospital and everything I do. But unusual circumstances... Young man, you are preparing to become a doctor. Well, let me inform you that nothing should stand in the way of your medical obligations. If you fail at this job, you will fail at the bigger job of practicing later on. You think I'm a failure now? We will discuss that at a special board meeting to be held in my office at 2.30 this afternoon. I'll expect you there. If you can make it on time without an excuse, sir. Well, have you ever witnessed impertinence like that, Dr. Kildare? I've never seen a face so angry. Well, before I am finished with that young man, he will have something to be angry about. Hide your carousel all you had to do. Look. Oh, wait. Did you happen to find those charts that have been missing for the last three days? I did. There you are. Ah, you've been sitting on them for two weeks like a mother hen. What are you hatching, a dictionary? You were the one who misplaced them, not me. I never lost anything in my life. Oh, no. Whatever happened to your good humor? Yeah. Parker? Oh, hello, Jimmy. Hello. Come in. Come in. Come in. You will regret it, Dr. Kildare. He's as crusty as an old piece of fudge today. I'm going. I'm going. I've had enough for one day. Hey, Jimmy, what are you doing around here? Oh, that's getting off work. It was my day off, but Dr. Karoo commandeered me to stand in on an ambulance assignment. The intern didn't show up until late. Oh, Bailey, eh? Well, yes. Did you hear about it? I had to sit in on a special board meeting this afternoon. How did it come out? Oh, we had to suspend Bailey from our staff. Suspension? Yeah. What did Bailey have to say for himself? Nothing. Nothing? What, this morning, when I met him, he said he could explain everything? Well, intern Bailey didn't appear at that board meeting. No. The very fact that he didn't appear displayed an irresponsibility that can't be overlooked. Well, that's unbelievable. I know he was terribly angry this morning, but so was Dr. Karoo. And Bailey has his whole career. Yes, that's right. That's true. But negligence is absolutely intolerable, Jimmy, as you know in medicine. Costs lives. On the face of things, I have to agree with the board's decision. All Bailey was negligent. And is this decision final? Yeah, it is. Jimmy, what do you got on your mind? Well, Bailey's had to spend a lot of hard years just to be an intern. He didn't look like the kind of man who would deliberately avoid his medical obligations. I'd like to hear his side of the story. Packing up. Far as my 13 bucks will take me. Far enough to get the smell of that hospital out of my nostrils. Why weren't you at the board meeting this afternoon? And sit around to one of those stiff back chairs while Karoo and Gillespie and the rest of them read the riot act to me? Not on your life. I figured that was one thing I didn't have to take before they suspended me. They did suspend me, didn't they? Yes. Bailey, you know, every doctor has to go through an internship and live in rooms as miserable as this. He had little sleep, practically no pay, and a lot of abuse. Grinds your nerves down sometimes, and you say and do things that you regret. I'm all done, and I've done it. I'm not here to ask you why you were late or about the liquor on your breath, but you said you had an explanation, and I believe you. Now, why don't you swallow your pride and go to Karoo and straighten this thing out? Don't you remember I tried to talk to him, but you didn't see him trying to listen to me, did you? But he was angry, and you were angry. I won't go whining back to him for another chance. Sooner or later I'd make some other mistake that he could jump me for to be the same thing all over again. Now, where will you go? You'll need a recommendation for another hospital. Don't you get it, Kildare? I'm through with medicine. Finished, kaput, finita mest. You can't mean that. Now, look, it isn't just Karoo and what happened today. It's what's happened before, and what'll keep right on happening if I don't stop kidding myself that I'm going to be a doctor. What's happened before? I don't want to talk, Kildare. Why don't you get out of here and let me finish my packing? Look, I've got a temper that comes out sometimes. Beat it, will you? Just beat it. Jimmy? Oh, Jimmy? In here, Dr. Gillespie. Oh, you know, Dr. Kildare, the optic nerve demands a reasonable amount of assistance to perform its correct functions. My advice is electric lights. Thanks. I didn't notice it was getting so dark. Maybe I should have left him off. All right, what is it? What's been on your mind for the past three days? Oh, maybe it's just a personality displacement. That's a nice vague answer. Yeah. All right, I've been thinking about Paul Bailey. There's a question I can't seem to erase from my mind. There it is. How would I feel if I were in his position? It's a very unlikely hypothesis. But I have an answer for you. You'd probably come down to earth, go to the powers that be, and tell him a story that would exonerate you. The if you had a story, of course. I suppose so. Well, then... It's just that I've been inquiring around about Bailey. He's a fairly good record as a student. No one in the hospital seems to know anything else about him. Never mixed. He's a lonely sort. The drivers who worked on the ambulance with him said that Bailey was all business. Nothing else. Excuse me. Now, what is it this time, Parker? Well, you know that intern, Paul Bailey. The one that got the sack. Yeah, well, what about him? He's back. Paul Bailey's back on the staff here? No. No. He's back as a patient. They found him in a cheap hotel on Gimper Street. Collapsed. Collapsed? What happened? Well, all I know is when they brought him in, they said he was a very sick boy. A very sick boy. We return to the story of Dr. Kildare in just a moment. Class B, I've just completed a rather thorough examination of Paul Bailey. Roughly what other results, Jimmy? Neurostenia. Pretty complete nervous breakdown. That's bad news. But it could be worse, I guess. Bad enough. He's at the point of excessive psychological, as well as physical fatigue, and he has ulcer symptoms. I see. What do you think brought all this on, Jimmy? Any ideas? It wasn't very cooperative, but obviously, the decision of the hospital board to suspend him didn't help any. Now, Jimmy, that was the result, not the cause. Well, tell me what you're thinking, and maybe I'll agree with you. I'm thinking that this boy, who was almost through his internship, decided that he had this job of becoming a doctor late. And so we relaxed. And his relaxation took the form of alcohol. Yes, but he wasn't actually intoxicated. No, not wood-standing. He didn't explain it. Jimmy, I'm not unnecessarily cruel, you know? Becoming a doctor is hard work. If you pamper a man when he's learning, you'll be no good when he practices. But suppose we could find out what's behind all this possible alcoholism and emotional disturbance and cure. Wouldn't you be willing to give him another chance? Certainly, Jim. Yes, certainly. And so would the board of this hospital. But judging from Bailey's attitude, that's just a pink cloud green. I'm sorry to interrupt, Dr. Glass, but there's a Mrs. Burke here who said she'd like to speak to both of you. It's about Paul Bailey. About Bailey? That's got to come in, Parker. You may come in, Mrs. Burke. Thank you, Conley. How do you do, Mrs. Burke? I'm Dr. Gillespie, and this is Dr. Gillespie. Sit down, please. Oh, no. What can we do for you, Mrs. Burke? Well, I run the room in-house where Paul Bailey used to live. Been handling the overflow of interns from Blair General for years now. No, I've seen your place. It's always clean. Well, Paul left real suddenly. And he forgot some of his books and things. I wonder where I could follow with them. We'll send the man over to pick him up. Then I've done my duty, and that's all I come to do. Just a minute, Mrs. Burke. Is that all you came here to say? I... No, it is not. I want to tell somebody what it is grace it is for a hospital to drive a man to the inhuman point of physical collapse, the way you did him. We did what? There are two of you calling yourselves doctors. You should be ashamed for being a part of the system that allowed that boy to think he was a failure when he had more courage than any ten other interns in my house. Not that I don't love them all, and not because he's Irish either. Oh, Mrs. Burke, you found out about his collapse very fast. I was the first to know about it. Sure, didn't I find him? Find him where? Three days ago, I come to his room. He'd been up all night studying as usual. He was collapsed, and I knew he had to be on duty. So I forced some brandy down his throat. You poured brandy down his throat? And what's wrong with that? It's revived many a good man before him. You hear that, Dr. Cheen? I heard you, ma'am. And it worked. He got up sputtering and coughing and dashing down the stairs and out the door with his coat tail flying, headed for the hospital. Oh, that's how it happened. I thought it was something like that. Mrs. Burke, did Paul ever have any visitors or receive any letters? Visitors? No. The only male he had come from a girl in Plainville. Her name, as I remember, was Catherine Miller. Catherine Miller? Mrs. Burke, we want to thank you. You've been a big help. Now, I'm going to give you some news. We found Paul Bailey in a hotel room downtown quite ill. He's a patient here now, and we're going to do everything we can for him. Oh, could I see him? Could I see the poor boy? Do I? I think you could. Just tell Parker outside of the door that we said you could go. Oh, I hope everything turns out all right for him. Now, let me be the first to say, I guess, I was wrong about the drinking. What isn't a question of right or wrong in this situation, Dr. G, but we know he wasn't guilty of drinking. We know he was just guilty of trying too hard. Now, we have to find out why. Yeah. Well, let's see. Her name's Catherine... Catherine Miller. Plainville, New York. First fight, Dr. Gillespie and Dr. Kildare. Will he be all right? Physically, he'll recover, but there are some other complications. Can you take it, Ms. Miller? Yes, of course. Paul's quit medicine. Oh, no. I'd hoped he'd go through with it. You sound as though you didn't expect him to. I'm the only one who ever did. Everyone said it'd be a failure. They said he came from a long line of failures, his whole family. Failure, failure, failure. Everybody's mentioning the word failure. Failure didn't fail here. He used a compromising situation to make his exit from medicine, but it was only an excuse. We want to know what it's all about. Can you tell us anything? I think so. Paul killed my brother. I see. It all happened long ago. Even seems unreal now. It was an accident. They went out hunting together. Paul tripped. His gun went off and shot Billy. And Billy died because they were too far from help. Paul didn't know what to do. Now I'm beginning to understand. So he decided to learn what to do. He studied medicine, right? Of course. He wanted to pay the world back for the life he took. But I haven't told you the other important thing yet. The one you're really trying to find out. What's that? When he announced in Plainville that he was going to study medicine, everybody laughed at him. They said that he'd be just as big a failure as his father was. You see, Paul's father was a town joke. He was always starting big projects he could never finish. They said Paul was the same kind of person. I'm beginning to see everything clearly now. Do you still have those x-rays and charts on that Cuxity or my Coase's case? Mr. Franklin? Well, let me explain, Dr. G. This is important. Paul Bailey is being discharged as a patient today, you know? Oh, I see. I just don't believe he's through medicine. Not in his heart. I have an idea that today's our last chance to salvage him. We have to find some way to get him. I'll be in your office in about half an hour. If it doesn't, we've lost him for good. I'm discharged. Yeah, this is the day, all right. I just thought I'd come in and say goodbye. How do you feel? Fine. Never felt better, any. You know, it's going to be great getting up at 10 or 11 in the morning instead of 5. Getting the smell of ether and iodine out of my clothes. For quite a while, I'm just going to lie around and forget everything I ever knew about medicine. That's a good idea. Look, suppose I help you carry those suitcases down to your car. Oh, no thanks. I can handle them. Oh, I'd like to, if you wouldn't mind. All right, suit yourself. I'll take this pigment. Ready? All right, yeah. Ready as I'll ever be. You know, every time I walk down this corridor, it makes me think of the years it took to build a great medical center like this with all its equipment and knowledge. The walls need paint. More I think of it, Dolan, the medicine isn't just equipment. More than anything else, it's people. The men and women who experimented and learned passed their knowledge along the way. So we turn left here. A man who can absorb and imaginatively use the great body of medical information is a rare man. It's hard to find. We turn right. Oh, I almost forgot. This is Dr. Gillespie's lab. I was supposed to drop in. It'll only take a second. We were just going to make a small decision. Just wait here by the door. I'll be out in one minute. Yeah, but look. I'll only take a second. Now, please, just wait here. Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, I thought you forgot all about our appointment. I almost did. I'm sorry. I was just walking Bailey here to his car. Oh, I see. Well, come in, Jimmy. Just you. Let's get this over with and make our decision. I'll snap on this X-ray lamp. Oh, so those are Mrs. Franklin's X-rays, huh? Yeah. This was taken three months ago. And this one two weeks ago. The last one was taken this morning. Well, if I remember her lab reports, the said rate and blood count both abnormal. There's nothing really positive on her cultures. Those X-rays look like pulmonary tuberculosis to me. That's what I said, Jimmy. So I guess we'd better not waste any time in having pneumothorax operations. It's too bad. I guess that's the only thing to do. Operating room D is open at four. How about then? Sounds fine. Thanks for concurring, Jimmy. If I can give an opinion, you can't conduct a pneumothorax operation on the basis of the lesions and those X-rays. Young man, who do you think you're talking to? Practical SPI. I seem to remember Bailey did some thorax work at U.S. Naval San Diego during the war. Oh, this is a little irregular. Look, look. I'd say that patient was about 38 female and from lower California. And I tested for coccytomycosis. It's peculiar to that area. We had a few cases. The onset looks very similar to ones I've seen. I'd take some more pleniographic into a lot of thinking before I operate it. Really, Bailey? Yes, sir. I'm almost positive. What are you looking at me like that for? No, you're just trying to kid yourself, Paul. You really want to be a doctor, and you know it. It's in your heart. I shouldn't have opened my mouth. Bailey, you couldn't have stuck with medicine as long as you did through all the late hours. The weeks of study, the self-sacrifice, unless you really wanted to be a doctor more than anything else in the world. It's too late now. I'm washed up. Oh, I don't think you are. We know a lot about you, Paul, that we didn't know two weeks ago. We know you've just been working too hard, trying too hard. We think you'll make a fine doctor. You may not be kidding me, are you? We certainly aren't. What do you say? Shall I help you take your bags to your car, or back to your room? Well, Dr. Kildare, it's a pretty long trip to the car. The room is a lot closer. In just a moment, we will return to the story of Dr. Kildare. Dr. Gillespie. Hello, Parker. Good afternoon, Dr. Kildare. What, Dr. G? Oh, who knows? He's been gone all day. He went out with the ambulance this morning. Ambulance? I don't understand. Well, he heard you'd been riding an ambulance. He had to do it, too. Oh, I see. Well, Dr. Kildare... I don't believe it. Oh, good afternoon, everybody. Hello, Dr. G. I hear you've been riding the ambulance. He certainly has, Dr. Kildare. The ambulance driver said he'd never had anyone, like Leonard, to less be aboard. Do you feel... Well, tonight, I was just after a little exercise. Well, I thought... You thought I couldn't do it, you old witch. Well, you're wrong. If every day of my life were that easy, I'd be 20 years younger right now. Well, I guess I'd better get to my desk. You've got to work. All right, Dr. G. See you around dinner time. Why not, Jimmy? Why not, indeed? I'll walk along with you, Dr. Kildare. Dr. Garoo, you know I am really surprised at Dr. Gillespie. So am I. Of course, I didn't tell everything the ambulance driver said about Leonard. No. No, if the truth be known, he dropped him off at the zoo this morning. Zoo? Yes, and picked him up just before he came in tonight. You have just heard the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. This program was written by E. Jack Newman and John Michael Hayes and directed by Joe Bigelow. Original music was composed and conducted by Walter Schumann. Virginia Gregg was heard as Nurse Parker and Ted Osburn as Dr. Karoo. Others in the cast included Gloria Gordon, Larry Dobkin and Ann Diamond. Dick Joy speaking.