 Great Scenes from Great Plays, tonight starring Jessica Tandy, with less to remain in the world we make by Sidney Kingsley. Tonight's play is based on a novel by Millen Brand and adapted for radio by Elizabeth Hart. Now here's your host, the distinguished actor-manager, Mr. Walter Hamden. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another transcribed half hour of Great Scenes from Great Plays presented on behalf of the families of the Protestant Episcopal Church of your own community and the Episcopal Actors Guild. Our play tonight is the story of a woman who made a new world for herself after her old one had gone down in ruins. Now the world we make. That morning I woke happy. For a few seconds I didn't know where I was or who I was. Only that the Sun was slanting across my bed and that I felt light and strong and free. I sat up eagerly and looked toward the window. Then I remembered. This was Greendale Sanitarium and I was Virginia McKay. Virginia McKay who everybody politely pretended was a living woman. Although they knew well that she died a year ago. In the afternoon Miss Regis took me to Dr. Schiller's office. She kept smiling at me and giving me little pats as though I were a good child about to be rewarded with ice cream. I was very glad when she left me along with Dr. Schiller. Sit down Virginia. How nice you look. Thank you doctor. Are my parents here yet? They will be very soon. I don't think they'll come. Yes they will Virginia. They never had any time for me before. When my brother and I were little we never saw them. Yes but all that is the past. I do not say that they were right but I do say that you cannot go on living in the past. You stopped growing up when your brother died. Your development halted at that point. You want to get well don't you. Yes yes I do want to Dr. Schiller. Then you must live in the present. Now today. Do you want me to go back to my parents. What do you want Virginia. I want to live again but I'm still afraid. I had a dream last night. I was alone in a long dark corridor and I tried to find a lighted room. At the end of the corridor I saw a beam of light coming from under a door. I ran to the door and opened it. And when you went into the lighted room. It was as dark and cold as the corridor and there were voices whispering hateful voices. They didn't want me there. Excuse me. Hello Dr. Schiller speaking. I see. Hold on a minute please. Your parents are here Virginia. Do I have to see them right away. You didn't see them at all. I'll send them away if you like. But if you talk to them and try to understand their viewpoint it may be easier for you to decide whether you want to go home. I see them Dr. Schiller. Well Virginia you look splendid. Build out a bit haven't you. I've gained 12 pounds father. It's most becoming darling. My pretty daughter will put me completely in the shade when she comes home. That may not be for some time. Oh Dr. Schiller was most encouraging. I'm going to Europe this summer and I'm counting on you as a companion darling. Can you come to father. Why. Well I'm afraid there isn't much chance of my getting away. Are you still so busy. These are panicky times Virginia. Got to watch your business every minute or you won't have any. You know father's one track mind Virginia. I don't pretend to have your choice variety of interests. And just exactly what do you mean by that. Oh please please please. Stop it Carolyn you're upsetting Virginia. I'm upsetting her. Oh very well. Mother. Where is my brother buried. In St. Andrew's cemetery. Don't you remember Mrs. Grave covered with flowers. I. Oh yes dear. Why did you hesitate isn't it father. Well I I'm sure it must be a Virginia. And is he resting in peace. We trust so. I'm not. I'm dead too but I can't rest in peace. You mustn't talk like that. Everything's going to be all right darling you're coming home soon and we'll have lots of fun. No stop it. I haven't any home and I'm never going back to your house never. It's cold and dark and empty with voices whispering. Those were your voices I heard in the dream yours and father's whispering that you hate each other that you hate me. You hated my brother so much you killed him. How dare you. Carolyn she's a sick girl. You killed my brother I know. I found you out you killed him. Dr. Schiller Dr. Schiller get them out of here get them out. Relax a little Virginia. Would you like a cigarette. No no thank you Dr. Schiller. You don't mind if I smoke my pipe do you. My my pockets are like a lady's handbag. It is necessary to take out everything and hope to find anything. Pencils change matches keys. At last the pipe. Yes next time they visit it will be better Virginia. No it won't Dr. Schiller. I hate them I can't go back to them but I don't want to stay here I don't want to stay dead. Let me out please. But where would you go. What would you do. Adaptation to your parents as child's play compared to facing the conflicts and stresses of the world alone. No you're not strong enough. Dr. Schiller speaking. Who. How's the breathing. Give him a hypo of adrenaline and set up an intravenous glucose 200cc so I'll be there right away. Virginia I must see another patient I'll tell Miss Regis to take you back. Miss Regis. Miss Regis. Where did that girl go. He stood at the door with his back turned. Upon the desk with the other things he'd taken from his pocket was his key ring. The pass key that unlocked all the doors in the cemetery was on it. I knew that because I'd seen the nurses use that key a hundred times. I reached out and slipped it off the ring just before Dr. Schiller turned and hurried back to the foam. Dr. Schiller speaking. Find Miss Regis please and send her to my office for Virginia McKay. We'll talk again tomorrow Virginia and don't be discouraged it's slow but you have much cause for hope. He put the key ring back in his pocket automatically without glancing at it and hurried out without bothering to pick up the other things. There was a big pile of change and I waited long enough to roll it up in a handkerchief so it wouldn't jingle. The car door was empty. I forced myself not to run to tiptoe to the great thick door at the end. My fingers were clumsy and stiff with the key. Then I was looking at a stretch of green grass. A clump of trees and beyond them a highway golden in the long late sunlight of the spring afternoon. Thank you. Oh thank you. I got two more lifts and then I took a bus the rest of the way to New York. I had only enough money left for subway fare and a paper. That night I spent in the subway. I didn't mind it at first but when it grew late men spoke to me in a way that frightened me. Next morning I began to answer the warned ads in the newspaper. Late in the afternoon I applied at a steam fat laundry. Something I can do for you miss? I wanted to see about the job for a laundry worker. They told me that the boss is back here. You want a laundry job? Works pretty tough. I don't mind I've gone eight places today I've got to get something. Hey Louie will you come here a minute? Yeah what do you want John? Look Louie we're shorthanded and we got to get that stuff out today. Stick the car on the sleeve and let this girl be a shaker huh? She'll pick that up easy in a minute. Well okay I'll give you a try. What's your name? Virginia. Virginia? Well Virginia what? Hope. Virginia hope. Address? Well what's your address? I just got to town I'm staying with friends but I'm gonna move tomorrow I'm not sure yet. You can fill in the rest of her card tomorrow Louie. All right. Pace 38 cents an hour. Hours 8 to 5. Tell one of the girls to break her in tomorrow John. Thank you for getting him to take me Mr... Mr... It's John Kohler. We don't use mister around here. Say you know you look ready to kill over why don't you go home and go to bed? I haven't any place to go. I'm not staying with friends I haven't any. I slept in the subway last night. How long since you wait? I had lunch yesterday about noon. Well we'll fix that right away. Then I'll take you to Mrs. Briskins. That's my landlady. One of her rumors moved out this morning and I'm pretty sure she won't have rented the room yet. But I can't pay for it. You can pay her Saturday when you're paid yourself. You mean she'll trust me? Well why not? Nobody can get along without trusting other people's son. I don't trust anybody. At least I didn't. Until just now. Oh good morning Mrs. Briskins. Good morning. I hear you moving in room so I know you're awake. You're sleeping nice long time. Be eleven almost. Eleven? I told you I had to be at work at eight. You said you'd call me at six thirty. Mr. Kohler's saying let you sleep. You're needing rest bad. Here be later he give me for you. He knows what that job meant to me. He had no right to... Oh he says he left coffee for me on the gas plate in his room and not to worry about my job. He'll fix it with Louis so I can go back tomorrow. Oh if Mr. Kohler say he fix he fixing. Why are you so sure of that? With people like Mr. Kohler you can be sure because they sure see. Yes yes I do sure inside themselves you mean. My husband like that once now he wanting hide away from everybody. What happened to him? He working ice cream factory ten year factory by new machines fire many men Stasho look for other job but always they asking how old and when he's telling them they not take. Oh you needing breakfast come I show you where is Mr. Kohler's room. It'd be nice room eh. In corner he a little stove two burners shells for putting things and unwinner see little ice packs. It'd be pity Mr. Kohler not marry. Why you say that? Single man is fixing only breakfast for self coming home from work hungry like bear wanting nice supper at home but too tired for fix. Mrs. Ubrisky could you teach me to make spaghetti? Biscuity what for biscuity? I teach you making pierogi Polish style. That'd be better. No no spaghetti Italian style. John Mr. Kohler said last night he loved it. He was disappointed it wasn't on the menu at the restaurant where we ate. Oh look he put two dollars in that letter. I want to spend it on a dinner he'll like and I want to cook the dinner myself. I've never made anything for someone else in my life. You got the table all set with a fancy cloth and everything it's like a party. Mrs. Ubrisky loan me the cloth and she told me how to fix the salad and the spaghetti. Oh it was fun doing it. Gee you know I I couldn't get you out of my mind all day. Talked about you so much to my brother that if you'd been any other guy you'd have kidded me. You have a brother? Yeah I sure have. Jim works at the laundry too. Goes to law school at nights. With all that he's found time to get himself a swell wife and kid. Not bad for a little shrimp but a good breeze could blow away. You love him very much don't you. We're pretty close. After my mother died I more or less brought him up. It's dangerous loving someone else so much when he's all you have. Dangerous? I don't get you. With you it wouldn't be though. You're so strong so sure of yourself. Today when I was coming back from buying groceries I I got a little frightened again. The street was dirty and noisy. This old house looked as though it were about to topple down. I ran upstairs to your room. Everything was alright. It was firm it was sure. It was stand forever. It was your room. You give things your own strength. Virginia I don't know who you are or where you come from but I know you don't belong here. I ought to lend you the money for a ticket and tell you to go back. No I can't I I don't want to. And I don't want you to. That's the trouble. I want you to stay. I suppose if I'd been a normal woman I would have known that I was already in love with John. Would have hoped that he was falling in love with me. But since my brother's death love of any kind meant only pain and loss to me. It was one evening in September. Jim had walked home with John and me after work. Because John seemed to live in a world without shadows. I listened to him scold his brother Jim about his health and never heard the deep anxiety in his voice. Look shrimp you're taking a bus the rest of the way to your place. Now see a doctor like I told you to listen to him just because I don't weigh as much as this big ox he wants me to take pills. You are too thin Jim. He's nothing but bones and they're turning to water. He sweats till the sheets are ringing wet at night. He can't sleep anymore. He don't eat a bite. What have you been doing? Shattering me? Sally told me she's your wife she ought to know. You know you've got less sense than your own baby. Why don't you quit the laundry? I'll help you out. No dice Johnny. I can't let another man support my wife and child. What'd the neighbors say? If I was Sally I'd leave you. Here it is Saturday night. No law school. You could take it easy. But will you? Oh no. You gotta trap around pushing doorbells and telling folks to register for the election. If they don't register they can't vote next month. So what if they don't? You know the answer as well as I do Johnny. Took all history to get guys like us out of Hock. I want democracy for keeps and we aren't going to keep it if we let any part of it lie around unused till it rusts. Okay shrimp here's your bus. Come on. You can save the country later. After Jim left John and I sat on Mrs. Everest's stoop in the twilight. I talked about how much I liked Jim and his wife. How happy they were. What a good feeling it gave me to see them together. John was very quiet for a while and then he said you know we could have just as good a life as they have Virginia. We you and I together. I'll stop stalling. You've managed to hit me off from saying it long enough. You know I love you. I think you love me too. Virginia. I do love you John. I do. And you marry me. No. Well you act like I'd hit you. Give me one reason why not. Because I can't. I can't. That's not a reason. All right John I'll tell you. I was in a sanitarium for the insane. I just escaped from it when I met you. Virginia. It's true. Oh don't be frightened. When the sickness comes I just get terribly lost and numb. But you're all right now. You're all right. It happened when my brother was killed. It was my father's and mother's fault. They didn't want us. They hated children. They gave us things. Anything just to let them alone. We had too much. We had nothing. Nothing except each other. Then when Tommy was killed. How was he killed. They bought him a car. A very fast car. He was too young. He crashed into a train. They knew the car was a death trap. Virginia wait. All this happened a long time ago. Hasn't anything to do with you now. It hasn't anything to do with the life we're going to make together. Let me go John. Leave me alone please. Please. All right Virginia. I'll leave you alone. But only for tonight. You see I love you. And I can't get along without you. Oh John. Can't you see I'm dead. I thought I could be alive again but I can't. Never never never never never. I didn't go to bed that night. I sat by the window in the dark. Looking out at the ugly street. Listening to the hideous noises. When it was morning. I went out to a drug store. And telephoned Greendale sanitarium. Virginia McKay. Please come and get me Dr. Schiller. Please come and get me as soon as you can. When I went back to the rooming house. Everything was unreal and far away. I started up the steps to my room. Miss Hope where are you been? Mr. Coller looking for you before he go to hospital. Hospital? Him getting message. His brother taking to hospital very sick. Gone there to see him. What's for matter Miss Hope? You act like you're not hearing me. I'm saying Mr. Coller's brother bad sick. Bleeding from mouth. Not breathing hardly. I've told you everything Dr. Schiller. Can't be gone now. I want to be gone before John gets back. Why? If you feel nothing again. If you're dead again as you put it. Why do you dread telling him goodbye? Take me back. You were right when you said there was no place for me in the real world. Oh I never said that. I said you weren't strong enough then to face it alone. You've done far better than I thought you could my dear. But you haven't been quite alone. There's been this man who loves you. When he asked you to marry him. Did you want to? More than anything. It was as though everything I ever prayed for could be mine if only. If you had the courage to take it. Yes sometimes when we see health within our grasp it frightens us so that we try to retreat into the old sickness. Marriage would mean a full and permanent commitment to life. It would mean cutting the ties that bind you to your brother's grave. John this is Dr. Schiller. He's from what's the matter? What's happened? It's Jim. Jim. He died three hours ago. Oh my darling. Oh dear. His dear is John. It's TB. The first kind. His lungs collapsed. The doctors did everything they could but we didn't do anything. You tried. You begged him to see a doctor. Yeah that was a big help. Well I guess I'll go to my room now. He loved his brother so. Oh how can anyone go on in a world like this? Through faith in people's good instincts in oneself. In a world which after all we make ourselves. Through a compulsion to help others who need us. Go to him my dear. That's your job. Better John. Just to give in to it. What's there to give in to? He's dead. It's over. He fought hard to live. Lying there so white saying to Sally and me I can't quit now. I've got so much to do. How do you like that? That little runt too sick to live still wanting to save the world. But that was Jim. That's what made him so. He never stopped taking a licking. Never had a thing out of it. Nothing was wasted. That's not true John. He had a great deal. He cared so deeply about everything. He had love not only for Sally and the baby and you but for everything that would make life better for people. Virginia. Virginia. Come closer. Oh my darling. I know. Cry for Jim. But be glad for him too. It's not dying that's so terrible. It's failing to live. My brother's life was wasted. He died empty poor. Jim went away rich. He was triumphant. He never surrendered. And we won't either my love. We have so much to live for. So much to fight for. In tonight's searching play Virginia finally found the strength to conquer her fears. She learned how to make a solid new world for herself to replace the empty one that had been shattered by her brother's death. But she didn't build her new world alone. She did it by God's grace with the help of young John Kohler. By example John showed her the happiness that comes through service to others. By example he showed her how love and faith in others can conquer self-interest and the soul corroding despair that often comes from great personal loss or misfortune. Millions today are affected to some degree by much the same kind of fears distrusts and unhealthy self-interest that sent Virginia to Dr. Schiller sanitarium for mental cases. Like Virginia these millions need help and sometimes need it desperately. Where can they find it in this troubled and confused world? The answer is simple. They can always find the help they need in God through the church and with the help of an experienced clergyman. Yes in the church we can all of us find the basis for a set of living values that can help us know the only real true happiness there is to know in the world. If you're not already a member of some church you certainly owe it to yourself and to your family to discover just how much a church and an experienced clergyman may be able to help you. Of course you're always welcome at your nearest Episcopal church and its clergyman is ready and eager to meet and talk with you to explain to you what the Episcopal church stands for and how it offers you a faith to live by in these trying times. Why not decide right now to visit your nearest Episcopal church at morning services next Sunday. This is Walter Hamden. I want to thank our cast and especially you Jessica Tandy and Lest Remain for a moving performance. Next week ladies and gentlemen the families of the Protestant Episcopal church of your own community and the Episcopal Actors Guild will present one of the theater's most exciting and provocative plays Sidney Kingsley's Dead End. Our guest will be the popular screen star John Payne. I hope you'll join us. Jessica Tandy appeared through courtesy of 20th Century Fox, producers of The Snake Pit. Music on tonight's transcribed program was composed and conducted by Nathan Crowell. Now an invitation from the church. You are cordially invited to attend services this coming Sunday morning at the Episcopal church nearest your home. If you're not familiar with its location or of the hours of service, you will find both listed in your local newspaper or church directory. Your rector will be happy to have you join his.