 Family Theater presents MacDonald Kerry from Hollywood the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theater presents Song for a long road, and now here is your star and host MacDonald Kerry Thank You Tony Lafranco Family Theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives If we're to win peace for ourselves peace for our families and peace for the world Family Theater urges you to pray Pray together as a family And now to our transcribe drama song for a long road starring MacDonald Kerry as Joyce Kilmer This is the way the story should begin. Are you listening? Yes, I'm listening Lean Will you marry me? I most certainly will Not all but a poet is made of stern stuff And so we shall try once more. This is the way the story should begin Lean look at me. I'm looking will you consent to be my wife your wife Certainly not But how does the poet say it if at first you don't succeed try try again Lean listen, please. I'm listening. Look at me. I'm looking Will you Would it be asking you too much to become Mrs. Joyce Kilmer? Well This is the way the story should begin And this is the way it did begin one beautiful day in June 1908 For he said himself Joyce Kilmer did he said Can only I can't understand the interpretation which makes marriage the end instead of the beginning of a splendid adventure If there should ever be the perfect novel of love it would begin rather than end and they were happily married And should I add and they lived happily ever after? Well now that would depend upon one's Naturally that would depend upon one's interpretation of happiness for example Lean You happy I was never happy or Joyce Quiet home here in New Jersey a baby. Yes. Yes. I know but Well hang it I was never meant to spend the rest of my life teaching Latin to a bunch of high school students If you had your way you'd sell poetry the rest of your life for a dollar a pound perhaps two dollars a pound stop squeezing my hand Lean, I'll leave it up to you. You leave what up to me I'll let you decide whether your husband is to stagnate henceforth and forever in the swamps of a regular Latin verbs or whether He's to take root on the immortal hill of poetry. Oh dear. It's time for the baby's box your answer madam The milk is in the icebox speak oh vision speak stop squeezing my head nothing so exquisite as that slight hand Could raffle a Leonardo trace joys the baby'll start an answer princess shall we or shall we not go to New York? Well, I I knew you'd say yes Yeah Tired come here and sit down down here There now lean You happy Why do you keep asking me that question joys kind of question man has a right to ask his wife occasionally I'm looking You know Selling books in a store for eight dollars a week isn't exactly a thrilling occupation is it joys? I've told you it's going to take time getting started lean. I'm not even a good book salesman too much No too much arithmetic connected with the confounded thing What has arithmetic to do with selling books and stop squeezing my hand arithmetic my little princess arithmetic has a lot to do with Selling books as Charles Scribner's sons will soon discover. What happened now? Oh Sold a rare book today sold it for dollar and fifty cents. Well Well made a slight mistake manager told me the book wasn't worth a dollar and fifty cents. No No It's worth a hundred and fifty dollars Oh And so an aspiring young poet his little princess and their babies for a second child rose had been born to them managed to live in New York on the magnificent sum of eight dollars a week and Did they live happily ever after? Well, that depends upon one's interpretation of happiness These are my sentiments a lean joys you've changed so much in three years. Yes, yes, I suppose The man can be forgiven the sin of getting tired of times And I'm tired. Oh, I know there are thousands tens of thousands like us who are tired I've seen him in subways street cars seen them outside offices waiting for interviews Nervous tired people who stare at the wall over your head when you look at him. You're in a mood joys It's a fact I tell you the world's lopsided with selfishness There are people walking the streets who don't know where they're gonna get their next quest of bread And do you think your socialist friends can solve the problem? Well, the socialist might have the right idea It's getting late Joyce better get some sleep. There's too much time sleeping Writing for the socialist papers again. Oh, I know what you're thinking I'm just a naughty little radical with a pen in my hand. You might take up typing I'm not going to take up typing Joyce aren't you getting a little loud lately? Not half loud enough for a lopsided world Do you do me? Saying my prayers you're not going to say your prayers Joyce what in the name of heavens heavens God There is no God. You hear joy. There is no God All the good things a man holds precious in his life All the long cherished hopes and dreams All the faith that he is ever placed in his God and himself and his family all these are candlelight for living But there are times when the flame of faith wavers when the flax begins to smoke and smolder And then it takes only the slightest the very slightest It happened this afternoon doctor. This is your second child miss a killer Yes, doctor. How old nine months? Well, I'm sorry. There's not very much we can do now. The germ has already struck Yes, doctor infantile paralysis is a strange affliction. We don't know where it will stop for when The only thing you can do now is wait and hope for the best Yes, doctor Where's she? Where's Rose in here? So my my baby, he's going to be paralyzed Nothing we can do choice. There's nothing we can do nothing Yes, the time comes when the candle flame of faith wavers when human flax smokes and smolders But comes the clean healing breath of pain the smoking flax leaps to flame and Man lives by blessed candlelight again Joyce Yes, I didn't know how you were going to take it. I was afraid that it's all right. I mean Simple and clear now You can't build a home on rhyming couplets poetry you build it out of flesh and blood and spirit and Faith in God you build it out of pain and love Tonight I know what love is It's poignant and a custom pain help my little girl He'll rose but even Even if my child should never walk again. I know this I Know she taught me how to walk again a little child had led to him I've got it. I've got it Your beloved spouse Whisker's joy Look at me. I'm looking good. You now have the unusual privilege of beholding a New York Times book reviewer This is the life It's quiet here in the polka-nose lane Man couldn't want much more in this life. Could he? little house for children That's a present a wife who's beautiful with black ribbons at her throat the world full of sight and sound The world is good except I Watch her lying there in the grass a little paralyzed angel my daughter 16 years the doctor says Joyce. Yes 16 years before she will walk. That's a long time. Yes Still I was just thinking I Was just thinking Alina How light a cross can be when the cross you're carrying is someone you love When loves the burden I was thinking how tightly the arms of a cross combined the husband and wife But more than 16 years Joyce for always Nothing could ever separate us. I'll Nothing I'm looking You're a very young wife am I What's troubling you? Nothing nothing Joyce My little princess is younger than her babies Hey stop crying in my ear tickles What's the matter with you? I I Just want to hear you say it again say what? say Nothing can ever separate us Nothing can ever separate us War horizon Proceeding to the sixth area You say you left the seventh regiment. Yeah, that's right. And your name is Kilmer Right. I'll come you joined the fight in 69. I didn't join I adopted the fighting 69th. I'm Irish Irish with a name like Kilmer Half Irish half Irish well my great-great-great-great grandfather was Irish Proceeding to the sixth area and this was No man's land. Yes, this is no man's land Little Eddie couldn't believe it was no man's land this afternoon. He said to me Kilmer it gets awful quiet around here but then Just like that it came in the afternoon a clumsy wobbling torpedo shell Something dangerously casual that catches a man tying his shoe or opening a pack of cigarettes It caught Eddie It caught Kennedy and sage in Finn and Galvin and Sullivan and 21 of them buried them alive and a dugout Major Donovan called the engineers Called everybody But the soft earth kept slipping in on them. I saw the engineers crying this afternoon So I wrote it for little Eddie and the rest of them and the major read it under the trees and Stokes Stokes was trembling when he reached for the bugle and a wood they call the rouge bouquet There's a new made grave today Built by never a spade and a pick Yet covered with earth ten meters thick There lie many fighting men Dead in their youthful prime Never to laugh nor love again No taste the summertime For death came flying through the air and Stopped his flight at the dugout stair Now over the grave abrupt and clear three volleys ring and perhaps their brave young spirits here The bugle sing Go to sleep go to sleep Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor. You will not need them anymore dangerous past Now at last Go to sleep What is it? I'm not troubling you major. It's all I heard we're moving up tomorrow. That's right. Your battalion is going to lead the way You pick up a lot of information, don't you? I'm in the intelligence section major No, I was wondering if you couldn't arrange for me to go along. Why I don't see how I possibly major you do need a battalion adjutant All right. All right, you win. Thanks major You can make out this writing Helene I Have your picture before me tonight Can almost hear you speaking again with a voice Coming across the white roads of France and like the voices of all the women of the world It keeps saying Say a choice Say clean You won't mind my writing this I've never quite Recovered from the wonderment of being husband to a wife Aline You're always before me and with me in my heart and brain But it's dangerous to write this It draws so tight the cords that bind me to you Well We're to be together sometime inevitably and Soon in terms of eternity, but we are absolutely one incomplete apart And in heaven is completeness How unhappy must lovers be who haven't the gracious gift of faith and People and things at home. I'd like to be there again I'd like to see Kenton and Deborah and Michael and Christopher And sit dry sherry and see a roast of lamb with mitzvahs and blackwoods magazine I'd like to see a straw hat and a circus, but most of all I'd like to see you Goodbye now. I've got a little work to do And love me exceedingly Keep low Kilmer. Yes, major. They're setting pretty up there on the ridge God doesn't declare. Do you think we could possibly? Better be careful major. I'm going ahead Kilmer. Watch us. Okay, major All right, just remember the manual Kilmer keep flat and if you've got to move move fast Machine gun nest is up there over the ridge of the hill picking up boys off What do you say Kilmer do you know don't you? Oh You don't have to move. You don't want to get in the order to move But you're gonna move Kilmer just crawl like this That's the bike is to the top of the hill All you have to do is take a look Kilmer spot that nest that's all Suppose they're waiting for me just as soon as I lift my head over that ridge they'll Just remember the manual Kilmer remember every second you lose may mean life Yeah, I come bridge wonder if Still parking That's all right, it's all right you go Big breath Kilmer you're gonna see something right now goes They found him lying still and his eyes were looking out over Away over the ridge They buried him where the scarlet poppies nod by the river or rock and so sergeant Joyce Kilmer Patriot and poet died with wait a minute mister. Oh Well, what is it you wish you? Didn't answer the question for the people what question the question you've been asking all night Did they live happily ever after excuse me there's been a slight interruption exactly Who are you sir? Who am I? I? Am the interruption I Am the question lingering on the tongues of millions and The voice of the kids who fight the wars The voice of the guys who screamed across the continents and across the world I'm the voice of human pain and They're trying to choke me again with speeches and Promises They're choking me with new headlines new suspicions new hates Did they live happily ever after? did they Who will answer the question? There is a tree planted on a hill It is a dead tree which has blossomed with the terrible contradiction of man's planting For trees were never meant to blossom blood God our father Did they live happily ever after? Can we live happily ever after? Did one soldier die in vain on a hill with half his songs unsung Have thousands died and will other thousands die in vain on the other hills Or is it possible that in our days? We shall at least see love love of neighbor Strip the spikes of cruelty and suffering from the crossbeams of a world in contradiction Grant that it be so Be thou the patience in our planning and the humility in our heart and Grant good Lord that all men the men of the north and south and east and west May rest always in the soft shadow of peace Where trees are not crosses, but living things that look at God all day And lift their leafy arms to pray a Soldier poet would have it so Then shall all men Live happily ever after now. Here's your star again McDonald's carry This is McDonald's carry again This Saturday May 19th marks the seventh annual observance of armed forces day the day when you the public are invited to visit The military installations of our country to see what's on hand to defend our country in case of war the highlight of this observance is power for peace in Commemorating this day we should keep in mind that our strength as a nation should not depend upon jet planes or hydrogen bombs or flying missiles But upon prayer For prayer is the only weapon that will give us that piece we seek We as a nation can only be strong When we as a family are united together in prayer You know, it's been said and I suppose there's some truth in it that we Americans have a way of taking our flag and our freedom for granted But I never hear that complaint without recalling the experience of a friend of mine in New York some years ago She was watching a parade come down Fifth Avenue when two boys about 12 pushed up beside her in the crowd One of them was blind. He kept tugging at his companion sleeve and inquiring Where is it Billy? Is it coming? Where is it? The other showed him no not yet not yet. It's way down the street My friend though unable to contain her curiosity leaned over and tapped the blind boy's companion on the shoulder What's he waiting for she inquired quietly? Oh said the boy. He wants me to tell him when the flag comes by Why my friend asked you can't see it No explained the boy, but he likes to know it's there Well, perhaps that sentiment puts into words the proud feeling that most of us Americans have for our flag We like to know it's there to know that it's been there ever since 1776 it's a star-spangled reminder of the unity which enabled that first family of 13 colonies to grow Under God into the great nation that is America today It was true then it's true now of the nations as well as of the families that make up that nation The family that prays together stays together More things are brought by prayer than this world dreams of From Hollywood family theater has brought you transcribed song for a long road starring McDonald's carry Others in our cast were Jean Bates Howard Culver Herb Butterfield and Frank Gerstle the script was written by Timothy J. Mulbay and Directed by John T. Kelly with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman 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 is responded to this need and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio Who give so unselfish leave 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 Citizens arrest starring Virginia Mayo and Michael O'Shea Richard Denning will be your host join us Won't you family theater has 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