 The Cavalcade of America, sponsored by Dupont, presents the Sydney Howard dramatic masterpiece, Yellowjack. More significant than ever this year, when the gallant saga of the American Fighting Man is being written every hour from Bataan in Australia, from Pearl Harbor in Salon. So it is especially fitting for us to recall on this day, that the heroism of our time is the legacy of yesterday, as well as the guarantee of tomorrow. It is a proud company, the company of America's Fighting Suns, and there are none with more right to march in it than the soldiers stationed in Cuba in 1900, who offered their lives not in war, but in peace. Our play tonight is about the army heroes who defeated a mortal but mysterious enemy, freed the western world of the plague of Yellowjack, and made possible our inter-ocean lifeline, the Panama Canal. Tonight, with Tyrone Power as Major Walter Reed of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, the Cavalcade of America does homage to the heroic army men of 42 years ago, spiritual forefathers of the heroes of today. How do they keep on singing in the middle of this choir? Maybe they don't realize. They mustn't know how bad the Yellowjack is. They know. They know. They've seen their comrades dying. It's still very hard to sing. War was over, and the Columbia Barracks at Comedo near Havana, Cuba, shimmered in the poo-perfect heat of a broiling tropical sun. It was the summer of 1900, but still the soldiers of the U.S. Army stayed on at their posts. There was little for them to do, except think of home, and sing, and talk of home. Is Cuba sure the wrong place to spend the summer? War is over. What have they sent us home? Drill and tote stretches. Swab out the ambulance. Swab out everything. I don't like that smell of carbollet. All the time, waiting for our turn to go out. Feet first. There's still Yellowjack, such afflictions or questions of fate. Who's us to be philosophers? Were fates concerned? Which the Irish are, so long as their fate remains agreeable? I want to be a home, raising a family, living a normal life. These docks think we enlisted and came down here so they can cut us up and squint at our insides. Now, now, I've been thinking a major read in these men of science. Now, they expose themselves to the perils of this, worrying after the unknown truth like a bevy of bulldogs. I say it's a... Watch it. His major read. I heard you. 10th chump. All right, man. That is. What's your name? Clinton. Warranty, sir. Private Transportation Unit. And you? Bush, Levi-Pheaser. Private quarter vested apartment. Or Harrod, John J. Sir. You charge the operating room, sir? You, I know, Mr. Brickerhoff. Yes, sir. Mr. O'Hara, you'll do well to be less eloquent about doctors. You'll all do well to talk less about this epidemic. Epidemics are best not talked about. There's retreat. You'd better be off. Yes, sir. Dr. Reed. Will you come into the laboratory, please? Dr. Callaghan, yes, come back. Carol. Carol. Marie. What's news from the camp at Pinar? There's no doubt about your diagnosis, chief. The missus malaria, my eye. It's the yellowjack. Going great guns, too. Dropping like flies. At least that all you have to tell us? Do you expect anything? After two months of this and how many autopsies? Made a record for thoroughness at any rate. I can't stand much more of this. I look out there to see and watch our transport steaming home and I dare not think what they may be carrying. Now we've taken Cuba on. Taking it on with this awful thing is smoldering in it. Waiting its chance to jump over home to us. To Philadelphia and New Orleans. And to know that we've had it under our microscopes a thousand times and never seen it. General Woods lost a third of his staff in the past month. He knows it was yellowjack, not rough riders that licked the Spaniards here. And it'll lick us. If we don't lick it first. And our commission. You, Agramonte, and you, Carolyn, Lazir, and I, we were sent down here to stop this horror. Or isolate a microbe and find a cure. And we failed. Failed completely. It isn't easy to admit that. We'll try every angle, Chief. Give it up. It's no use. I'm calling the commission tonight to disband it. It won't be a long session and then we'll go home. Well, the most we could do would be to keep on working. We have at least discredited everyone else. You know, I ran into one puzzler out there, Pinard. Oh, I've heard enough puzzlers I can't solve. This is a funny one. In the case of a soldier, 6 July 12 died on the 18th. But he hadn't been near the disease for over a month before he was took sick. What was that? They had him locked up in the guardhouse. There, he lay in that guardhouse for three days after with eight other prisoners. And they didn't catch it. Not even the one who slept in his blankets after he died. How about contaminated food or water? The whole outfit ate and drank the same. A man may have been extra susceptible, maybe. If we could explain why we don't catch it. What did you say? Nothing. I'll see you tonight. Go clean up. At 8.30, gentlemen. All right. Good night. What was it that crawled or jumped or flew through that guardhouse window, bit that one prisoner, and went back where it came from? What was it? What was it? Reed, you really have reached the end of your tether. My advice to you and the members of your commission is call it a day. Go home. My friend Major Gorgas can assure you you are leaving this epidemic in worthy hands. The Marine Hospital Corps, with which I have the honor to be connected. Excuse me, Colonel Tory. I called the commission to disband it tonight. Three hours ago, I was certain we should disband. Even now, I... I hesitate to suggest that we go on. The only course which remains open to us leads us so far afield, seems so... beset with danger that I stand appalled before it. Don't be mysterious. What is the course? Beset our microscopes aside... and concentrate on new methods of investigation. How? By turning our minds to how yellow fever spreads Agra Monte, from man to man and village to village and even across the sea. How about that, Gorgas? I should like to know something about that. I've come to suspect a middleman here. An infection carrier. In all likelihood, an insect. Probably a mosquito. Did you say mosquito, Reed? No, can't be serious, Reed. These fads are the curse of modern medicine. Is medical science going insect-mad? Where have you been, Tory? You never hear of Smith's Texas fever tick? How about Bruce and the African sea-sea fly? And malaria's just been nailed to a mosquito. Oh, God bless you, Reed. Mosquitos are meat and drink to me. Enough of theories. We must draw the line against this somewhere. Major Gorgas, I should like to hear what you have to say. Well, why the mosquito, Reed? Why not the flea, the louse, or the homely bedbugs? Because yellowjack's not confined to the louse and bedbug belt. The cleanest parts of town may be the deadliest. And it's at its worst in summer, the mosquito season. Reed, let me speak. Speak on, Lisea. We're not going home. We're not going to quit because we haven't got the guts to exceed instructions. Read right about this, and I'll go it alone if I have to. Only I won't have to. As a crazy old troglodyte here in this town, an old Scotsman with spectacles and side whiskers, thinly his name is... You don't propose going to... Why not? He's been working in this angle for years. He's got his particular guilty mosquito all picked out. He's a crank. No more, a harmless crank. He may be, Colonel. He may be completely mad. If he is, though, he has a brave kind of madness. The jumping forward kind that's always too risky for the completely sane. You have your convictions. I have only my curiosity. What do you others think? Carol. This isn't my line, but go ahead. Well, I can't think of nothing better to suggest. Finley's got to be tried. There's no doubt of it. There is a very grave doubt, Doctor. The scheme isn't possible. Why not? Aren't you forgetting that yellow fevers, unlike other diseases, you don't give it to guinea pigs or monkeys or mice. You can't give it to any animal except man. I'd forgotten that. Well, think it of now. How can you test Doctor Finley's mosquitoes by an inconceivable experiment? By experimenting on men. You've got to read. You don't propose to use human guinea pigs. Do you realize this is human vivisection? Well, you are, Dorothy. All right, all right. If we fail a few harmless mosquito bites, if we succeed, we shall have risked a few dozen lives to save countless thousands. No, no, you've got to be stopped. You're not independent of Washington, American public opinion, the press and the pulpit. You know how they stand on animal vivisection. You're ready, Major Gorgas. I'll bid these gentlemen good evening. Good evening, Colonel. Good evening. Good night, Gorgas. Good night, Gorgas. Good night. Well, Azir, Carol, Agromonte? Well, if you only told us, Reed, we could have backed you up. You know what Colonel Tory can do to you, Chief. Yes, there's no doubt of what Colonel Tory can do. I see no reason, though, why he or anyone should know what we're up to from now on. Uh-huh. But, Doctor, would it be possible to experiment on men in secret? It's got to be. Rightly. Men, though. That's got to be true. I'm afraid so. I'm afraid so. I have the honor to present my colleague, Dr. Finlay, for these many years, a distinguished leader of our profession here in Havana. How do you do, Doctor? Dr. Finlay. This is Dr. Azir and Dr. Carol. How do you do? We shall sit here in the patio, if you don't mind, gentlemen. My office is dark. I see your face is more clearly here in the sun. Dr. Finlay, shall we omit the preliminaries? I suspect you can guess what our errand is. My fellow scientists do not come often here, Major. We come to join you, Doctor. In the war you have waged many years alone. Anything we can do, we'll do, if you will help us. We need your knowledge. We want what you have learned about your mosquito. The eggs will do. For 19 years, science has laughed at me, Major, at the crack of Finlay and his mosquitoes and nowhere more cruel than through American army doctors. Now you come running to me to save your faces. Will you be surprised if I have no impulse to share my secret? We shall be deeply disappointed, Dr. Finlay. And we shall hope to persuade you. We're likely to prove your case for you, Doctor. Prove my case? You mean you doubt my discovery? I doubt everything. Well, I'm sure. I have cherished my great discovery for 19 years. Do you expect me to give it up to you to make use of it and get glory from it? Glory is the idea, Doctor. I'm no stranger to waiting, Dr. Finlay. All my life long, my prayer has been that I might in some way alleviate human suffering. I think this may be my chance as well as yours. The proof you demand lies beyond any man's power. We don't feel that. You cannot test my mosquito without risking life. There's an army of occupation outside this town with nothing to do. I'll let the soldiers wait, Lazier. They'll keep. They'll be there any time we need them. We'll start this off with ourselves. You, gentlemen? Yes. But only three. Hagrimati's had yellow fever. Yes. You after me, Carol. You have five kids. I have only one. But hold you in reserve. Why didn't we think of this before? But the risk, gentlemen, you must put this mad idea out of your mind. And you said we would need to be ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagrimati and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagrimati? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I'll swim the river. I'll dive. Delirious. Fever. Ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you ought better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I know you. No, you don't. I bet that the best I know. Sickest men we have. Cheers. Over here, please. Cheers. Pat me with some water and swim the river. I'll dive in. Delirious. Savor. Ruthless, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellowjack, sponsored by DuPont. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Agramante and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellowjack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Agramante? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Cheers. Over here, please. More some water and swim the river. I'll dive in. Delirious. Savor. Ruthless, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellowjack, sponsored by DuPont. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Agramante and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellowjack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Agramante? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Cheers. Over here, please. Cheers. More some water and swim the river. I'll dive in. Delirious. Ruthless, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellowjack, sponsored by DuPont. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Agramante and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellowjack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Agramante? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Cheers. Over here, please. Cheers. More some water and swim the river. I'll dive in. Delirious. Severe. Ruthless, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellowjack, sponsored by DuPont. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Agramante and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellowjack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Agramante? I have three here. I would like them to bite you. I know. Sickest men we have. Cheers. Over here, please. Cheers. More some water and swim the river. I'll dive in. Delirious. Severe. Ruthless, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly.