 The Mutual Broadcasting System, in cooperation with Family Theater Incorporated, presents, Mother's Halo was Tight, starring Virginia Bruce and John Beale. Jean Kelly is your host. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Family Theater makes a special dedication of this program to the mothers of America. To the women who, through the generations of our history, have played an important part in the work of building not only the homes, not only the schools, but the spirit of this nation. They have brought to their work the ideals of belief in God and in the principles upon which our democracy is founded. The light-touch of humor in tonight's play is done with a feeling that under the dignity, poise, and charm of American womanhood, there is the same understanding, tolerance, and humor that have become our basic national traits. In this program, therefore, we pay tribute to the American mothers, rich in kindness and faith and unafraid of sentiment. We pay tribute to all they are doing to bring back spiritual values into home life and to return all families to the important practice of daily family prayer in their homes. Jean Kelly will return following tonight's Family Theater play, starring Virginia Bruce and John Beale in Mother's Halo Was Tight. Sometimes things happen in the springtime that don't usually happen at any other time in the year, and in a household it isn't always easy to face these situations. In this particular case, father had decided that the solution of the problem was a spanking for Bobby. If you were Bobby's father, you might have decided the same way. And of course, if you were Bobby's mother, you'd be listening outside the door, and you might hear something like this. Well, son, I know this is a corny old phrase, but it seems to fit. I just want to say that this is going to hurt me much more than it does you. The spanking, as you mean? Yeah, that's right. Well, I suppose we might as well get it over with. Bend over my knee, son. But look, dad, how can it hurt you more than me? Because it hurts in a different way. You mean in a different place? No, I mean it. I mean exactly what I said. Come on, let's get this over with. But look, dad, you always say you want me to understand things. I don't even know what you're talking about. Um, you're not just stalling, are you, Bobby? No, I'm not, dad. There's no use trying to put this off, you know. It's going to hurt just as much later on. I'm not trying to put it off, dad. I just don't understand what you mean, honest. Well, all right, I'll try to explain it. And when I say a spanking hurts me more than it does you, I mean it hurts me, well, here in my heart. Gee, dad, you mean you got some kind of heart trouble? No, there's nothing wrong with my heart. What I'm trying to say is that it hurts me deeply to think that you'd do a thing like what you did today to deserve this punishment. And I think you do deserve it. I'm sorry I did it, dad. I'm awful sorry now that I thought it over. You should have thought it over before you did it. Yeah, I know that now, dad. I guess it was kind of a dopey thing to do. Playing hooky is a very serious offense, Bobby. And besides, think of the worry you caused your mother. Yeah, dad, but there wasn't much doing in school and it was a nice warm afternoon. I am not talking about the weather, Bobby. Yes, sir. I'm speaking of your poor mother. Just think how she must have felt when your teacher called up and said you disappeared during recess. Well, she didn't know what could have happened to you. Maybe you'd wandered off the school grounds and got lost or been in an accident or something. Did she really think that? Of course she did. And there she was, helpless. She couldn't go try to find you because I had the car. She couldn't call me at the office because I was out on the golf course. She couldn't... The golf course? What are you doing out there, dad? Playing golf. Oh. Well, there wasn't much doing at the office. It was such a nice warm afternoon. I thought I wouldn't... You mean you were playing hooky too, dad? Well, in the manner of speaking, I guess she, um, yes. Oh. Oh, what? Nothing. Just, oh. Oh. Let's get this over, dad. Get what over? The spanking. Oh, oh, oh, yes, the spanking. Um, I've been thinking, son, maybe we could put this off for a while. No, you're trying to put it off, dad. It's going to hurt just as much later on. I'm not trying to put it off. I just want a little time to think this over. I'll tell you what, you pile in the bed now and I'll come back a little later. I'll come back a little later. It's awful early to go to sleep, dad. Well, get in the bed anyway. You can read or something. Hey, I know. I almost forgot. I gotta do some homework. Well, this is a fine time to remember that. Well, you see, dad, with everything happening and I didn't have a chance. I can do it right in bed. All I gotta do is write a composition on Mother for Mother's Day. On Mother, huh? All right. Hop in the bed. Here's your pencil and your tablet. You do your work and I'll be back in, oh, half an hour. To give me a spanking. I've told you, son. I haven't decided about that yet. Now you get to work. I'll be back later. Okay, dad. Let's see. You've been eavesdropping out here in the hall, huh, Kathy? Why not? It's my own house, my own husband, and my own son. How'd you make out? Well, you must have heard. As I'd say in court, the defense produced new evidence, requiring a recess to consider parallels and precedents. In other words, the prosecutor suddenly realized that the prisoners had chip off the old block and the spanking's out. Quiet. He'll hear you. Let's go in the living hall. Besides, I'm not so sure the spanking is out. I haven't made up my mind yet. You're so funny, Bob. Funny? Oh. When you came home, you were bound and determined you were going to give him a spanking, whether or no. And now you're weakening by the minute. No, I'm not. I still say he deserves punishment for his ranked disobedience, for the worry he caused you. No, he won't do it again, Bob. And besides, spanking, well, you know how I feel about that. Yeah, I know. You're one of those women who think you can't get anything into a boy's head by paddling the other end. Well, that isn't the way I put it, but hey, Bob, don't sit down there. That's my speech. What? All these papers? Speech? About what? Well, here, let me get it out of your way. It's a talk I'm going to give at the Women's Club tomorrow for Mother's Day. That's all? Say, this Mother's Day is certainly turning out to be a major industry around here. Bobby's writing a piece about it, too. So I heard. You two ought to get together. You might be able to swap a few ideas. I'm afraid my ideas wouldn't go very well in his composition. Oh, advanced, huh? You could almost say revolutionary. How can you get revolutionary about Mother's Day? What's the title of your speech? Mother's of the World, Fight Back? Oh, don't be silly. I'm not being silly. I just want to find out. Well, if you're really interested. Of course I am. Well, you know our Women's Club, Bob. Just to tip my hat, too. You're not interested. Sure, I am. Honest. Go on. I'll listen. Well, we always feel that we ought to be independent, progressive. We women should keep up with the world. Nothing too much wrong with that idea. So I thought that at our meeting tomorrow, I'd ask the chair's permission to give a short talk on a modern mother's viewpoint on Mother's Day. Fine. But what's so revolutionary about that? Well, I'd really have to read the speech to you to explain it, Bob. Why don't you? Oh, you'd rather read the paper, I know. When I can be read, too, by my lovely wife. Do I look crazy? You're sweet, Bob. Yeah, that's what I keep telling him down at the courthouse. Well, let's hear the speech now, huh? Come on, Cathy, darling. Give out. Well, I would appreciate your opinion of it. That is, how it would strike you if you were the Women's Club. Oh, well, that'll take a bit of doing, but I'll make a stab at it. Okay, I'm the Women's Club. I'm seventy-five beautiful and intelligent ladies, modernly progressive. You have the floor, Madam, and I'm giving you all my attention. Now, go ahead. Madam Chairman, fellow members of the Women's Club, since the time of Mother Eve, I wonder if I should wear my blue gabardiner, or maybe that flowered print would be better, do you think so? No, that's a great opening for a speech. Fool's the audience. They think you're going to talk about Mother's Day, and it turns out to be claws. Oh, you. Oh, you, too. Let's have the speech on, darling. Blue gabardine, I guess. Speech, speech. All right, all right. Here I go. Since the time of Mother Eve, we mothers have been the recipients of more poems, songs, and hymns of praise than any other group of mortals. Lyrics have been written in our honor. Put them all together, they spell Mother. Hear, hear. Poets have composed verses like... Well, there are a lot of verses, Bob, but I haven't got a quotation for that yet. And on May 10th, 1913, Congress passed a resolution commending the annual observance of Mother's Day. Incidentally, Bob, I checked that date in the encyclopedia. As the women's club, I was just about to rush home in a body and look it right up. Go on, darling, go on. Don't then stop interrupting. I am not saying, ladies, that such adulation is not pleasant. We all like to be honored and revered. But as a modern, progressive, busy mother, I feel that there's a danger of letting our halos go to our heads. This Mother's Day, let's be honest with ourselves. Let's admit we're not endowed with any extraordinary powers, that we're not the saints or always the angels the songs say we are, but that we do appreciate how important is our job of raising our families. And there, too, let's be honest. Let's admit that many times it's the families who raise us. In other words, well, let me give you an example. One Saturday afternoon, last year, about this time, Bobby, he's my oldest, well, he came into the kitchen. Oh, my goodness. Sometimes I think you're just an appetite with skin on it. You'll find some cookies over there in the jar, I think. Okay, Mom, I'll take a look. Don't take too many, Bobby. It's only a couple of hours till dinner. I only took six. Who makes slow cookies, Mom? Where have you been all afternoon, darling? Playing baseball down the street. Oh, I looked down there a few minutes ago. I didn't see any boys playing. We played around the corner. Oh, I didn't think to look around. Bobby, let me look at you. Something to matter? How'd your hair get wet? Uh, one of the kids had a squirt gun. Bobby? Yeah, Mom. He shot it right at me. Gee, I had an awful battle with him. Robert, you're not telling me the truth. You can ask any of the kids. You've been swimming, haven't you? I wish you'd tell me the truth, son. Have you been swimming? Yeah. Down at the river? Yeah, Mom. I think your father talked to you about that just last week, didn't he? Didn't he tell you that water's contaminated? And that he didn't want you going down there under any conditions? Yes, ma'am. I realize, Robert, what a temptation a swimming hole can be on a warm day, particularly if the other boys were all going in. They were, Mom. I'm honest. But the thing I can't excuse is you're telling me a direct untruth. You mean a lie. Well, that's an ugly word, but it's the right one to use because it's an ugly thing. I don't want you ever to lie to me again, Robert. Okay, Mom. I won't honest. When you've done something wrong, you make it worse by trying to lie out of it. No matter what happens, always tell the truth. You'll find as you grow older... Oh, you answer that, will you, Bobby? Sure. Hello? Hello, Bobby. Is your mother there? Yeah, just a second. It's for you, Mom. It sounds like Mrs. Smith. Hmm. I wonder what she wants. Hello? Oh, Mrs. Williams, how are you? Rather busy, as usual. And you? Oh, I'm in a state, Mrs. Williams. Jim's coming in on the chief, and I've got to drive down to the station to meet him. And the girl who was coming to stay with the baby hasn't shown up. I don't know what to do. Oh, dear. I was wondering, would it be too much trouble for you to come over and sit with him, Mrs. Williams? It'll only be an hour or so. Only an hour or so, she said, but I knew from past experience it would be two hours at least. Two hours out of a busy afternoon. Hello, Mrs. Williams? It would be so easy to say no. No, I couldn't come. I was just going out on an important engagement, and Bob was waiting for me in the car to tell her a white lie. Mrs. Williams, are you there? And then I looked around at Bobby at those clear, steady, child's eyes watching me and perhaps guessing my thoughts, perhaps knowing that lie that was in my mind. I turned back to the phone. Hello, Mrs. Williams? Yes, Mrs. Smith, yes. I'll be right over. Oh. That's what my son taught me that day, simply by all look. I guess for all of us telling the truth is a hard lesson to learn. But since then, whenever I think alive, we'll get around something, I see his eyes watching me and I think, and I hope, that I'll always stick to the truth. I know that every mother in this women's club may have had similar experiences. I had another one that I'll laugh at for a long time to come, though it didn't seem very funny at the time. Bobby had been at summer camp, so I went up to get him, and we were driving back in the car. Somehow we got to talking about... I mean, cops will never hurt your mom. Never ever hurt your mom? No, Bobby. Policemen are your best friends. Never be afraid of them. But they carry guns and things. Well, of course. That's to protect you against bad people. That's what policemen are for. And traffic cops? Same thing. They protect you against bad drivers. They arrest people who drive too fast. Is that why that one is following us right now, Mom? Yes, probably. He's...what? Where? Right behind us on a motorcycle. Don't you see him? Oh, I better slow down. Hey, what gives? Pull over, lady. Gee, Mommy, I almost bumped right in the back of our car. What are you trying to do, lady? Pile up a whole string of cars. No, I'm sorry, Officer. I saw you behind me, and I slowed down. Well, I guess the brakes grabbed. Anybody ever tell you you're supposed to put your hand out when you're going to stop? Well, of course I know, but I stopped so quickly I didn't have time. All right, let me see your driver's license. Yes, sir. It's right here in my purse. Well, that's strange. I was sure... I think maybe it's in my other purse. Oh, no driver's license. Oh, I have a driver's license, Officer. The trouble is, well, I don't have it with me. I understand. That's something else for this ticket. Ticket? Driving without a license. Stopping without a proper hand signal. But, Officer, I told you my brakes grabbed. Yeah, and faulty brakes. Thank you, Officer. Now, if you'll get in touch with my husband, I'm sure he'll explain this to you. He's Robert Williams, the attorney. Well, that's good for you, lady. You'll need an attorney for this ticket. You know, you could have caused a serious accident on a main highway. But you don't understand. The only reason I slowed down at all was because I saw you behind me, and I was afraid I was driving too fast. You've got a guilt complex, lady. You weren't driving over the speed limit. Oh, dear. The cops aren't anything to be afraid of. He's a nice man. Isn't he, though? A lovely person. That was one lesson I tried to teach Bobby where I ended up impressing myself. But the finest thing that Bobby helped me teach myself was another law, the greatest of all laws. It was one Sunday morning. Hurry up, Bobby. You'll be late for church and Sunday school. Oh, gee, Mom, I have to go to school every day and then on Sundays, too. Why do I have to go to Sunday school? Well, because Daddy and I want you to learn about God, Bobby. Did you ever go to Sunday school when you were a little girl and learned about God? Of course I did. Every Sunday. Didn't you know all about God, Mom? Yes, a little. You better run along now, Bobby. You'll be late. Okay, Mom. See you after a while. Goodbye, darling. Bye. Be careful crossing the streets. But that morning he wasn't careful crossing the street. The car that swerved around the corner I don't want to tell you about it, but I do want to tell you what he helped me learn that afternoon in the hospital. Lying so still and pale in that little bed and when he opened his eyes and looked up at me. Bye, darling. Didn't get to Sunday school. No, but you'll go again. You're sure? I'm sure. Would you ask God if I can, Mom? Ask God? You're not asking, Mom. You said you learned all about him. Yes. Just ask him for me, Mom. Will you? That's all you got to do. Just ask him. All right. All right, baby. Yes, that was something I learned. Something I had forgotten. The simple faith of my own child. His trust in me and in God. We mothers sometimes don't deserve all the credit we get because it's through our children we often learn a little more of the real meaning and purpose of life. You know, there'll be a lot of sentiment directed at us on Mother's Day, but oh, let's take it with a grain of salt. Between us girls, we know we're not wearing wings and halos. We're just women who are trying to do a good job in our own homes and we're learning the job as we go along. Thank you for your attention. Well, how was it, Bob? As the 75 ladies of the women's club, I'm now applauding you round here. Thank you, ladies. However, as your husband, I'm disagreeing with you. Disagreeing? Why, Bob? Well, there's something wrong in that speech. I can't put my finger on it, but let me think about it. Maybe I'd better go into Bobby's room and settle that spanking first. Dear, I'd forgotten about that. I'll bet he hasn't. He's been lying in there waiting for me to make up my mind. You mean he isn't going to get his spanking? Give that lady 64 silver dollars. Thanks for deciding against it, Bob. Oh, I guess I just got steamed up and I came home and found him out of line. Excuse me, darling, I'll go break the news to him. No, I'll come along and talk him in. See, Bob, I'm anxious to know now why do you disagree with my talk? I don't know exactly, Kathy. Your premises sound enough. Your illustrations are good and your summation is all right. That's faint praise. If I ever heard faint praise, well, I have. It's just that... Well, we'll talk about it after we say good night to Bobby. Well, young fella, I came to break the news. He fell asleep right in the middle of that composition he was writing. Take a look at this, Kathy. My mother. A composition by Robert Williams, Jr. My, what a handwriting. That is mine. Let me see if I can read it. My mother is a very nice lady who is married to my father. Well, that's what the theater people call second billing. Well, at least I get mentioned. My mother is kind and good and never tells lies. She always obeys laws. She's a good cook, too. I think my mother is a saint. A what? S-A-N-T. He means saint, of course. Just left out the eye. Well, I'll certainly straighten him out on that in the morning. In the first place, I'm not a saint. And in the second place, his spelling is terrible. It's as good as yours. I bump Williams. That's true. You know something, Kathy? I've just realized what's wrong with your mother's day talk. The thing I couldn't quite put my finger on before. You spoke of mothers as a class and of motherhood as a job. It isn't that. Then what is it? Well, motherhood to everybody in the world means just one thing. It means the best mother who ever lived. His own mother. And she, that one mother, stands for everything Bobby's put down here. For kindness, goodness, truth, and... well, for sainthood. But, Bob, that's the point I was trying to make. Modern mothers don't want that kind of reverence. I know. And that's why I said your spelling is as bad as Bobby's. You left out the eye, too. What you mean to Bobby. And that's the whole significance of motherhood to everybody. All mothers mean only one mother. That's the way it's got to be. You mean I've got to wear a halo, even if it's too tight? That's right. Mother. Mother. You know something, Bob? What? That's a very beautiful word. This is Gene Kelly again. Well, mothers, it looks as though we gave you a halo tonight. But it's a halo with a lot of happiness. For there's a lot of happiness in homes that are blessed with parents who give their children the ideals of good home life. Today, you hear many opinions about what children should be taught. But the greatest lesson children learn is from the example of their parents. As wife and mother, the American woman is the soul of her family and upon her depends in great part the awakening of spiritual values in a home, the harmony and unity that should be in every home, the continuous remembrance of God, and the daily practice of family prayer. For in praying together as a family, there is the inspiration of example. There is the strengthening of family bonds. It means the family that prays together stays together. Before saying good night, I'd like to thank Virginia Bruce and John Beale for their performances this evening. Our thanks to D.H. Johnson for writing tonight's play into Max Turra for his music. This production of Family Theatre Incorporated was directed by David Young. Others who appeared in tonight's play were Henry Blair, Florence Ravenel, and Charles Maxwell. Next week our Family Theatre stars will be John Lund and Donna Reed in Song for a Long Road. Your host will be Glenn Langen. This is Gene Kelly saying good night and God bless you. This series of the Family Theatre broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this kind of program, by the mutual broadcasting system which has responded to this need. Be with us next week at the same time when our Family Theatre stars will be John Lund and Donna Reed with Glenn Langen as host. Dick Wynn speaking. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.