 Remember a hallmark card when you care enough to send the very best Tonight from Hollywood the makers of hallmark greeting cards bring you Virginia Bruce in Edna Ferber's so big on the hallmark playhouse Each week hallmark will bring you Hollywood's greatest stars in outstanding stories chosen by one of the world's best known authors They distinguish novelist mr. James Hilton Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is James Hilton tonight on our hallmark playhouse We present another story by an author whose works have proved increasingly popular on our Thursday night shows and I mean Edna Ferber whose colorful and romantic stories of American life have lost none of their appeal Our choice for dramatization tonight is that grand novel so big a story of the Middle West back in the 80s It's particularly noteworthy for its portrayal of a woman in whom strength of character And charm are well combined and for this reason you'll doubtless agree with me that it's appropriate to have in the starting role that fine Actress Virginia Bruce and now Frank us. How about a word from you? There are hallmark cards for every memorable occasion on your calendar for birthdays anniversaries holidays Yes for every occasion that calls for remembrance for a friendly greeting a word of good cheer and expression of sympathy There is a hallmark card that says just what you want to say the way you want to say it and that identifying hallmark on the back That says you cared enough to send the very best Now hallmark playhouse presenting Edna Ferber so big starring Virginia Bruce They say to me You must get lonely sitting there alone before your fire through the long winter evenings But they don't realize how many old friends sit beside me They don't realize the words I listen to or the laughter that wraps itself warmly about me Yes They don't see that my father Simeon peak sits across from me dapper soft-spoken ironic It's there in his shiny boots with his hat a little on the side of his head And I listen to his laughter, and I'm 19 again that easily I discard the years What are you laughing at? That's what a proper young lady it is indeed Sometimes I wonder if miss fist is school for young ladies Isn't much too proper a place to send a girl. I Wonder if your mother had lived What she would say I couldn't go any place but miss Vista's my best friend goes there Julie and I have decided to be the Jane Austen's of our time I'm going to observe life and write about it. No, don't observe it live it Like you and I have done There are two kinds of good people in the world Selena wheat and emerald We're emerald you and I we know that life is a grand adventure a fine show The trick is to play in it and look at it at the same time The more kinds of people you see and the more things you do and the more things that happen to you The richer you are My father died a short time later Leaving me with four hundred dollars in cash Two diamonds and a philosophy of life Yes, sometimes they say to me you must get lonely sitting there alone before your fire But they don't realize the words I listen to or the laughter that wraps itself about me Klaus Paul. Yes Klaus Paul sits beside my fire too of an evening Klaus Paul rode me out on his wagon when I went to high prairie to teach in a Dutch country school How he laughed at me as we rode how he laughed My sight's ache from laughing Coppages is beautiful I'll be just as beautiful But they are look at them in the fields. They're like jade and burgundy, but they're like jewel Here we are mr. Lena Hey jump down teacher. Oh My job here's school teacher. How do you do? Please to meet you make you welcome. You know what she says Marcia. She says Coppages is beautiful Coppages is beautiful I must be lonely of the words I listen to and the laughter I hear Why sometimes Sometimes I hear a whole room full of laughter. I hear it and I fight back the angry tears Just as I fought them back the night of the box lunch supper when I met Shoebox should be most tempting is a dandy lunch prepared by I can't see a thing and it's my box Oh here teacher. I lift you up. You'll be able to see over their heads then. Oh, thank you You're a perv is the young aren't you? Oh, yes. I'm the school teacher. Selina peek. I know I've seen you in church Five change Maybe I just a so not see what's going on. Don't mind them laughing It's just that all the women try to outdo themselves packing hampers with pies and cakes and chickens and yours is so little I've sent sign bit for this tempting titbit put up by the school teacher's own Fair hands five cents 50 cents I'm being one dollar And to match the count of the girl who brought it to chance chance remember it ain't only a lunch It's a picture It pleases the eye. Do I hear one dollar and a half in two dollars? and Five The young you must listen to me. It's only jelly sandwich I I didn't like them making fun of you. That's a very foolish reason for throwing away ten dots I'm a truck farmer. I can't hardly write at all only to sign my name things like that When I take my vegetables to the market in Chicago, the fellows are too sharp for me They do numbers in their head quick like Like that Would you like me to teach you? Oh when? Evening, couldn't you come to the house? I I'd be glad to teach you It's almost time for Purvis to come. Yes, Martin. He has made good pupil. Oh, yes, very good Yes, handsome man. Yes has been many caps set for him since his wife died Yes, I'm sure there have been look I Show you something in the chest. How beautiful you said Dutch bridal gown a Captain bridal shoes. It was my mother's and mine So you get married to a high prairie Dutchman like I'll let you wear it. Marge you can't think that I Mean even if I did love young and it no good dust to try to run away from life Yes spring for you as well as for the world No No, it isn't going to be this kind of thing for me. No, Margie. No Would you mind repeating the problem Selena? Oh, I'm sorry Purvis The owner of the Southwest quarter sells a strip 20 rods wide along the south side of his farm How much does he receive at $150 per acre? I don't know. Let's see the square root is here it on the state. Oh Yes, ma'am the square root is the square root of 576 the remainder must contain twice the product of the tens by the units plus the square of the And twice the tens times the units plus the square of the units Is the unit? Yeah, but therefore add four units to the 40 and Multiply the result by four Therefore the square root of 576 is 24 What did you say? Now then suppose you do that for me. We'll wipe everything off the slate there. What must the remainder contain? The remainder must contain twice product tens Units Plus the square of the units. He is the same as the sum twice the tens twice Tens or Selena Selena Will you marry me? Will you please marry me? We were married in May Just two months later I The daughter of Simeon Peek was married to pervest a young truck farmer. I Loved him But as the long days started at four in the kitchen I found need of my father's words and said them over and over The more things that happen to you the richer you are No, no one realizes how many friends sit beside me in the firelight Or how the warm web of laughter spins itself around me Dirk was a happy child Some said he was born laughing. I do know he laughed most of the days after he was born Well, I better get out to my hoeing soon it will be time to start taking the vegetables to market I have to get a good price this year their wife and son to support Have a big dinner Selena. I'll be hungry Here Dirk darling hold up your arms and let mother pick you up That's right That's my big boy There. Oh, he's so big So big Oh, yes, he's so big that he's a whole fat wonderful world in himself I'm not so big Not nearly as big as I used to think I was going to be You are going to do all the things I dreamed of doing You're going to be so big Dirk so big Moment James Hilton will return to present the second act of so big starring Virginia Bruce An obscure Scottish plowman left his farm one day a century and a half ago and entered the drawing rooms of Edinburgh They're mingling with Scotland's most gifted scholars They recognize the importance the power of simple carefully chosen words That's why you always find a hallmark reading card that says just what you want to say the way you want to say it And the hallmark on the back that says you cared enough to send the very best And now we present the second act of Edna fervor so big starring Virginia Bruce Sometimes they say to me you must get lonely sitting there alone before your fire Through the long winter even so they don't realize how many old friends sit beside me They don't realize the words I listen to or the laughter that fills my memories Dirk's laughter He laughed when he was happy Sometimes when he was sad and sometimes when he was frightened and didn't know quite how to act Dirk dear don't laugh like that Someone might hear does it matter someone here does today You see your father's dead and everyone has come to mourn. I want my father. I know I know so do I Dirk You're the man of the house now and the farm has got to be taken care of Only after the vegetables are pulled hauled to market and sold Will there then be time for grief? Shall I take the garden truck on the wagon to Chicago again Monday? No, young You're a fine hired man, but I'm afraid as the salesman you leave something to be desired You brought back over half the load yesterday I'll go myself Monday a woman a high prairie farmer's wife drive to market like a man alone at night in the market The hay market is no place for woman the vegetables are rotting in the ground Dirk and I must live I'll take care of mama. Of course you will You're so big Look at that wagon load a minute. Isn't it beautiful? Look at the carrots. Don't they look like golden spears and the radishes and the beets and the cauliflower Look at those colors crimson and green and white and Gold and purple aren't they beautiful what mama? Someday you'll know Dirk Someday you'll look at cabbages and see jade and burgundy They won't buy from a woman at the market, but if they won't I'll peddle the vegetables from door to door Did you say license officer? Yeah, you heard me license. Where's your peddler's license? You got one. I suppose I know No, oh mama, what do you think you are peddling in a neighborhood like this without a license? Oh, it's a woman peddling without a license Mrs. Miller not get along with you wait a minute just a minute officer Well, this is saline Selina look at It's Julie. Don't you remember? I went to school at miss sisters with you, of course Julie oh Selina look at you It's all right Julie. It's all right. Don't cry What's there to cry for? We all change. What's there to cry for? It's all right, officer This is a friend of mine. All right, Mrs. Miller, but she'll have to get a license Come in the house Selina, what are you laughing at? You see those cabbages do it you remember how I used to hate boiled cabbage at school. That's nothing to laugh at Now stop laughing stop it stop it. I was just laughing at my ignorance Sweat and blood and health and youth go into every cat Did you know that Julie? One doesn't despise them as food knowing that Come climb down Duke Here's the lady mother used to know Thousands of years ago Yes, as I sit here before my fire of a winter evening Many are the friends that sit beside me and sweet as the sound of their laughter Julie's father August temple and Julie sat in this room and August laughed at me How he laughed I Wish I could have seen the expression on their faces when you said that cabbages were beautiful Well, I still think they are Well Selina you must get down to business I've been all over your property. What do you want to do with it? I want to stay here and Work the farm make it pay I Want to have all the worthwhile things in life leisure color travel books music pictures People all kinds of people Work that he can love a chance to grow himself and watch other people grow To feel strong about things and then develop that feeling and make something fine come of it I want to create and feel and know I Want him to stand high among the people who appreciate and respond I Want him to be big both financed my with the money Dirk went to good schools and finally to the University. I Was proud of him But of all the laughter I remember It is only Dirk's laughter that hurts a little bit Why do you keep all this rubbish in this chest mother? Look at the silly old dress collecting moths. Well, it's the dress I wore at the rally the night your father paid ten dollars for my lunch box Look here pressed flowers. They went out with them in your wet, didn't they? Your father walked five miles to pick me Funny how people treasure all stuff like that Useless stuff it isn't even beautiful Why Dirk you don't even know what beauty is if you can say a thing like that Mother there's something I've got to tell you I'm not going into architecture after all I've been offered a job as bond salesman in the Great Lakes Trust Company. Oh Oh, I see well, I can make more in a week there than I can in a year in an office doing architecture Well, there isn't much fun in that is there But architecture think of it Steal and stone and brick with engines throbbing inside it like a heart and people going in and out Part of a city a piece of actual beauty conceived by you. Oh Dirk Yes, mother Cabbage is a beautiful. I Know you're disappointed. I haven't got it inside of me like you had I'm not a creator Fray them. That's a big afterlaw. No No, don't say that You've had a full life and a rich life and Successful life You've suffered and you've worked and you felt things deep inside you Your beauty and your light and your home to me But I just don't have your fires and your yearnings I'm conventional rubber stamp See cabbages just aren't beautiful to me Dirk My father used to tell me when I was a little girl That there were only two kinds of people who really mattered in the world One kind was sweet and the other kind emeralds Your wheat dirt like your father He never thought cabbages were beautiful But I loved And I love you sometimes they say to me You must get lonely sitting there alone before your fire through the long winter evenings They don't realize how many old friends sit beside me Or the laughter that wraps itself warmly about me And as I listen I laugh too I sit here rocking laughing to myself because Because cabbages are beautiful and I seem to be the only one that knows it And as I sit and rock Small things I have known and loved in my lifetime Cabbage colors Dreams tears laughter Loom so big So big James Hilton and Virginia Bruce return. I'd like to tell you of a little incident I dropped in on a friend of mine was in the hospital the other day and it was amazing How many greeting cards that man had received one card in particular was giving him a lot of entertainment It's called a hallmark seven-day cheer card actually seven different cards with seven envelopes The idea is to send a card each day for a whole week Each card contains a riddle not a difficult one But a riddle that does require some thinking and your friend has time for that because the answer doesn't arrive until the next day When another card in the series comes along bringing the answer and a new riddle to start thinking about I Got my friend between cards four and five and he was really interested Next time a friend of yours is ill why not send a hallmark seven-day cheer card the entire package of seven cards Costs only 50 cents and I can't think of a better way to give a whole week's pleasure to someone who is ill Each card has the hallmark on the back and that tells your friend you cared enough to send the very best Here again is James Hilton Well, I think that's just another proof that Edna Ferber stories are full of human understanding They have an insight into people and a true flavor of America and miss Virginia Bruce May I compliment you on capturing those qualities in your performance this evening. Thank you, Mr Hilton, I share your view of Edna Ferber Those of us who have come come from the heart of this country recognize people we know in the characters she creates and We recognize the human qualities. She paints with words Things like always hoping that tomorrow brings the fulfillment of our wishes that tomorrow will be a better day That we must always look to the future. It's curious, but I guess that's the way we are Tell me is that why your hallmark people created that wonderful little seven-day convalescent card? It's the nicest idea I've ever seen. Well, I don't know if that was the reason but it certainly fits the philosophy, doesn't it? Well, thank you miss Bruce for being with us here in the playhouse tonight And we invite you to listen with the entire hallmark family next Thursday when we will present John Balderson's beautiful play Barclays Square starring that distinguished actor David Niven and the following week We present a play that lives up to its amusing title and there I stood with my piccolo by Meredith Wilson starring Meredith Wilson And the week after that in Patrick's Day, Edward McSaul is our own kind starring Barry Fitzgerald Our hallmark playhouses every Thursday our director producer is D Engelback Our music is composed and conducted by Lynn Murray and tonight's script was adapted by Jean Holloway So until next Thursday then this is James Hilton saying good night Look for hallmark cards that are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service Remember hallmark cards when you carry enough to send the very best this program came to you from the hallmark playhouse This is CBS the Columbia broadcasting system