 The Mutual Broadcasting System presents the family theater starring Bing Crosby and Irene Dunn with Dana Andrews as your host. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Good evening, this is Dana Andrews. A few seconds ago you heard me say more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. I bet when you heard that some of you said what a strange way to begin a radio program. What are those people in Hollywood thinking about anyway? Well, I'll tell you what we're thinking about. We're thinking about our families, just like you're thinking about your family. You see a lot of us in the entertainment business, well, we think the same way you do. We think that a happy family is the greatest gift a guy can have. And that's why this program is called the Family Theater. And each week we remind you that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Because we want to remind you that prayer, that's right, prayer, family prayer, can help keep your family happy and well and together. That's all. Simple, isn't it? Are we not here to preach to you? We're here to put on a radio program and we hope you'll enjoy it. Tonight's story is by a well-known writer, Charles Tazwell. The story's kind of strange and unusual. A story that might never happen on earth or even in heaven. But then again, well, why don't you listen to it? Listen to the music of Meredith Wilson's orchestra and to the story of J. Smith and Y. Starring Irene Dunn and Bing Crosby. Therefore speak I to them in parables because seeing they see not and hearing they hear not. Neither do they understand. Gee, it's awful pretty, isn't it, Johnny? Yeah, it's all right. It looks something like the gardens in Central Park. Only different somehow. Yeah, it does, Mary. I wonder how you'd get in there. Well, I guess there must be a gate somewhere. People got to get in and out. Sure they do. They couldn't go climbing over the fence, could they? I guess not. They look pretty funny. There's got to be a gate. You suppose they'd let us go in there? Why not? Gee, that is swell, wouldn't it? I guess it would. You could walk around and look at the flowers. You always kind of liked them. Yeah, remember the time that friend of yours took us up to Long Island? Charlie Brown? Yeah, that was him. We rode in the rumble seat and we brought back all those flowers. Dogwood, they said it was. We had a good time, didn't we? Yeah, we had them around the apartment for more than a week. I never saw flowers last so long. Well, you kept them till they were all dried up. Well, I just kind of hated to throw them away. Well, they was around. I could sort of look at them and remember what a swell time we had. The geraniums and things I raised on the fire escape were pretty, but somehow they weren't like the ones we got out on the island. You could close your eyes and smell them and think you was right out in the woods. Well, I guess that was because they grew kind of wild-like. Those flowers inside the fence are something like them. If we could get inside, I don't suppose they'd let you pick any, but you could look at them. Well, that'd be just as good. There's got to be a gate. Well, let's walk and follow the fence and come to one. Come on. Say, ain't that a gate over there? Yeah. Looks like it. It's all gilt or gold. What'd it be gold? They wouldn't have no call to use nothing else. Oh, it's so bright it sort of hurts your eyes, don't it? It's bright and shiny like my wedding ring when I first wore it. I wish I only had a chance to get you a good ring, Mary. I've been planning to for a long time. I know, Johnny, but don't you think about it. I was always happy and sort of proud wearing that ring. Well, but that was a cheap one. Only gold-plated. I'd have liked to have got you a swell one, you know? Solid. But that one was just as good, and it meant the same thing. I wouldn't have wanted a better one. It'd just been ruined with my hands in dishwater. Been a waste of money. Just the same. I'd have liked to have got you a better one. I didn't have the money at the time, and then later on it seemed like I'd always come along to take the money, gas bills, and rent, shoes for Tommy. Oh, now don't you worry none about that ring, Johnny. I was crazy about it. I wouldn't have traded that for one with 50 diamonds in it that somebody else would give me. Hey, ain't that a guy sitting over there by the gate? Yeah, you suppose he's a kind of a guard? Well, he'd have to have somebody to kind of take care of things. Do you think you might ask him if we could go in and just kind of look around? Well, there's no harm in asking. Lots of guys used to stop me on the street and ask me how to get places, you know, strangers in New York for the first time. What they could tell you was a New Yorker knew your way around. I guess that was it. I could always tell them too, and how they'd get their easiest on a bus or subway. I always thought you ought to have that job and information booth down at Grand Central. I bet you'd have been swell there. Maybe I would. Remember how we used to meet then, go to lunch before we got married? We used to always get their food. When I came down the steps, I could see you standing there reading the timetable. Like he was a big businessman, going out to Chicago to lead our Detroit. I bet you I read every timetable they had. The guy back at the desk must have thought I was a world traveler or something. He used to say, hello, where are you going today? You remember the trips we used to plan out of those timetables? While we was eating lunch at that one-arm place? For our honeymoon, we was going to Washington, D.C. Yeah, we decided on Washington instead of Niagara Falls. It didn't cost much. And it was more educational, too. I'm sorry we didn't get to go. Why not, Johnny? No, it's better like it was. Yeah, it gets so dirty traveling and, well, we might have got sick of something eating in hotels and a change of drinking water. It's the same. I wish we could have gone. But the furniture cost more than I thought it would. And the first months met on the apartment in advance. It cost a lot to set up. Gee, wasn't we broke when we moved in? I'll say we were. The place looks swell. Of course, the elevator went right by the window. But I didn't mind that. Why, it was sort of company when I was there alone in the daytime. Well, it wasn't so much, I guess. But it was home. When I brought some of the girls up from the store, they were jealous as could be. I shouldn't have pictured you. You know the one you had taken out of Coney Island in the airplane. Well, they all thought you was so handsome. They did? Sure they did. What Maisie Greenbaum said you was handsome enough to be in moving pictures. Well, I always try to keep best up a little. That kind of makes a guy better looking than he really is, you know. I guess I must have been wearing that coat with the bell around her when he took that picture. I always meant to have Maisie come up for dinner some night. That would have been nice. Now, why didn't you? Oh, I don't know. We just sort of lost track of each other. I got married and gave up a career like you did. Oh, I didn't give up anything. Well, if you hadn't married a mug like me, there's no telling where you'd ended up. I'd ended up just the way I started. In love with you. Gee, that's well. I always kind of wondered if you might not be sorry that you... Sorry? No. No, I'm glad. Have you ever been sorry, Johnny? Me? I should say no. Well, I don't know what I'd have done the last ten years without you. Well, you'd have got along all right. No, I wouldn't. Well, how do you suppose I'd ever work my way up to be head shipping clerk if you hadn't encouraged me? Gee, I never knew you felt that way before. I thought sometimes you might have felt the baby me was sort of holding your back from getting someplace. I don't see what ever made you think a thing like that. Not if you'd asked me and I'd have told you. You don't want to go around thinking things like that. It doesn't matter, Johnny. Nothing matters as long as you love me. Sure, I do. Yeah, let me show you how much. He said he not do that, Johnny. The old guys looking at us. Maybe they don't allow you to do things like that here. Say, I don't see why not. Well, I can't kiss his own wife. Well, but he may not know we're married and there's no way he could tell just by looking at us. You know, he might think we was being sort of mushy. Come on now, you'd better speak to him. Ask him if we can go through the gate. I'll ask him. You better come along with me then in case it's all right. We'll go right in. Sure, I'll go with you. With those whiskers, he looks something like the old man we used to see riding on the 2nd Avenue L, don't he? Yeah, he does. Excuse me, mister. Welcome, my children. Oh, thanks, thanks. You've just arrived. We've just got here. We've been looking around. Some nice place you got inside the gate there. Are you the watchman? I'm the keeper of the gate. She shows a nice place. What do you call it? The Elysian Fields. Gee, gee, that's a swell name. The Elysian Fields. Is that a swell name, Mary? Yeah, it just sort of fits it, don't it? It sure does. Yes, sir, just sort of tailor made. Ha, I bet you a lot of apartment house owners would like to know about that name. It's a good clash, you know, like Ravenfield Corridor, Tawanda Terrace. Gee, I bet you they wouldn't have no trouble at all moving to a place called the Elysian Gardens. No, sir. I bet you they wouldn't have a single vacancy. Johnny, Johnny, ask him if we can go on in. Oh, yeah. Uh, mister, my wife would just ask me if it would be all right if we went in there and looked around a little. You see, she kind of takes the flowers. What is your name, please? Smith. J. Smith. This is my wife, Mary. J. Smith and wife, I guess they'd have us down under. I'll see if your names are in my book. What are we doing here? You see, we took the boy, uh, Tommy, his name is. Yeah, he's eight years old. Yeah, we took him on sort of an outing this morning. Do we think it was this morning? Sure, and something happened. Yes, some sort of accident. Yeah, that was it, an accident. Something, uh, something happened to the boat. Then you both died this afternoon. Died? Yes, my son. Dead. You mean Johnny and me? It is only the dead who passed this way, my dear. I'll go look in the book. Johnny. Johnny, is he right? Well, maybe something happened to us in the accident. It's all kind of like a dream, but maybe he's right. Oh, no. No, we can't be Johnny. We just can't be. Don't you see, if we're dead like he says, there's no one to take care of Tommy. He'll be all right, Mary. His grandma, she's crazy about him. She'll look after him. But it's me he wants. He's got to do his lessons, and he mustn't fight with the boy in the tailor's shop. Oh, gee, Mary, we're here, and I guess there ain't nothing we can do about it. But he's just a baby. We've just got to take what comes along like we always have. Johnny. We can get things fixed up when we go inside. Let's just wait here now. He gets back. You said the name was Jay Smith and the wife. Yeah. That's it, mister. I do not find such a name in my book. You don't? No. Well, it must. It is not here. I'm sorry. Oh. Well, it doesn't matter, I guess. Oh, but, Johnny... I'm sorry. Very sorry. I really am. Oh, well, that's all right. It's not your fault. There's no cause for you to feel bad about it. Well, couldn't there be some mistake, maybe? You know, there's so many Smiths. There was a couple right in our block. There is no mistake, Mary Smith. Are there no names down yet? Maybe if we used to wait around a little? No, John Smith. It would be useless to wait. You see, the names here recorded are of those who have done some great unselfish deed during their lifetime. Some noble act in which they forgot themselves and gave all they had. They. And they only may pass through these gates. Well, that's pretty fine. But we never done nothing like that, did we, Mary? No, we're just kind of ordinary. Well, what becomes of ordinary people like us? Isn't there some place that... Of course there is a place for you. Just be yodent here. You'll be very happy there. Because it has beauty too, but a different kind of beauty. As far as your eyes can see are golden streets. Oh, well, that's... that's pretty fine, isn't it? Sure. That'll be great, won't it, Mary? Yeah, just great, Johnny. I bet you never expected to see nothing like that, did you? No, no, I should say not. Golden streets. Perhaps I'm wrong, but you don't seem very happy about it. Oh, well, yeah, we're happy all right. At least I am. Mary's a little... a little disappointed, maybe. You see, she's always had streets. Nothing but streets with buildings all around. Well, you can see how it is, mister. When you've been walking on streets all your life, it's kind of hard to get all excited about more streets that I understand. And I'm sorry. But I can't alter the rules. Oh, I'm sure you can't. Gosh, we wouldn't ask you to do that, Gino. We wouldn't want you to get in any trouble over us. Oh, no, of course not. Every place has got to have rules to keep things running right. Sure. Even a place I worked at got out a little book of rules with the boss's picture in front. I worked for him going on 12 years and I never broke a rule. Oh, yeah, she did, Johnny. You broke a rule the time the baby came. Oh, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, you see, there was a rule that no employee was supposed to leave the building before 5.30 without getting permission from the head of the department. Yeah, well, they called me from the hospital about 5.20 and told me everything was all right and there was a boy and I was so excited. Yeah, he just got his hat and left without saying a word to Mr. Corkman. Mr. Corkman was his foreman. The big boss was nice about it, though. Oh, yes, he was, Johnny. Yes, sir. Mr. Corkman sent him up a full report and you know what he did? He sent downward that I was only to be docked half a day's pay for walking out that way 10 minutes ahead of time. Jesus, well, Guy, I wish you could meet him, Mr. Yes, yes. I'm looking forward to meeting your boss if he ever comes this way. I'll bet you he'll get in those lesion fields without no trouble at all. I'll bet you that'll reserve a whole page for his name and that book of yours. Yes, sir, he's a big shot. I guess you had kind of a quiet laugh all to yourself when you thought about two people like us trying to get into a grand place. It's sort of reserved. Reserve for big guys like him. No, I didn't laugh, Mrs. Smith. I guess we'd better be moving along and not take up no more your time. Gee, I guess I've been talking your arm off and keeping from doing something important. I was just about to leave when you came along. Oh, you're closing up for the day? There'll be no more wanderers on this road until tomorrow. I hope. Well, good night, my friend. Good night. Good night, mister. The place you seek is just beyond... Thanks, thank you. We'll rest awhile and then get started. Gee, it's quiet, isn't it, Johnny? So quiet it kind of hurt your ears. Well, I guess we'd better get along to the place he told us to go. Yeah, I guess we'd better. Only... Only what then? Well, I don't suppose we'll ever be back at this place again. No, I guess we won't, why? You think we could just look through the gate before we go? Not open it, you know. Just look through. It'd be something to remember, something to kind of think about. I kind of like those flowers we brought back to the apartment. Something that would kind of remind us that there are swell things, beautiful things, even if we can't ever have them. I know what you mean. No, I don't think anybody'd care. I couldn't do no harm just looking through the bars. I don't see how they'd have any rule against that. Sure, go ahead, look. Ain't you coming with me? Yeah, I'll come along if you want me to. It's so pretty, it sort of takes your breath away. Yeah, it's all right. It makes you feel that... Well, oh, come on, Johnny. Let's go on to where we belong. You don't want to look at it no more? No, I'm all through looking. Mary, don't do that. Oh, I'm all right. I'm all right to tell you. Please don't cry. Now, there ain't nothing that's worth your crying. Nothing anywhere. Johnny, honest, I ain't. Besides, if I was, it wouldn't mean anything. Don't I always cry when I'm happy? All women do that. Gee, a woman crying don't mean nothing. Nothing at all. I'm just kind of... tired, that's all. Tired. I'm tired too, awful tired. Tired of being just ordinary, common. Tired of being made to feel we don't amount to nothing. We're just washouts. Oh, Johnny, Johnny, you mustn't feel like that. Well, it's the truth, ain't it? No. Why go on kiddin' myself? All my life, I pretended I didn't care and I made up stories about how this one and that one thought I was the works, but they didn't. They didn't even know I was alive. Johnny, you mustn't say things like that. They ain't true. Sure, it's true. They didn't even know I was alive. And now they don't even know I'm dead. I'm still nobody. And you're a nobody too just because you married me. That ain't right. There ain't no reason for them to put you in my class just because you're my wife. Johnny. There ain't no sense in them making you cry. I tell you, it ain't right. But I'm not crying, Johnny, I told you. We didn't ask to come here, did we? He said we died this afternoon. Well, I thought when you died it would be different, but no, it's just like it's always been. But Johnny, don't you see, the man said this place was sort of special, but people that had done something swell, something big and unselfish. We never had a chance to do nothin' like that. No, I know we didn't, Johnny. Oh, but it doesn't matter. We don't have to go in there. We can be happy any place as long as we're together. Sure we can. But don't you remember how happy we were getting ready for the trip? Don't you remember how excited we were? Yeah, I remember. And yesterday morning Tommy was up before daylight. He was so afraid we missed the boat. Johnny, you know something. He's gonna look just like you when he grows up. I couldn't help noticing when he went down the steps. He's got the same way of walking and the same way of holding his head. You think so? And he talks just like you, too. He's got that same habit of kinda smiling all the time. Oh, but he's got your eyes. Hey, he sure was excited about going on the boat, wasn't he? Oh, he didn't talk about nothin' else for days. Remember how his eyes stuck out when I came home and told him how I'd got honorable mention in the Malimerick contest and they was givin' us the boat trip clear at the Boston? Do you think I could ever forget it? He showed your name in the magazine to all the kids in the neighborhood. Did he do that? Yeah. I guess if he saves it, he can prove to everybody that his old man wasn't a dumbbell, can't he? Well, I guess it ain't everybody that gets his name in a magazine that one that goes all over the country like that one. It was in great big type, too. J. Smith, honorable mention. That's nearly as good as being on one of them in Roll's Honor, ain't it? J. Smith, honorable mention. That'll be something for him to show people, all right. And I bet she'll tell him how brave you were when the boat went down, too. When the boat... She ain't that funny. I'd almost forgot all about that. It seemed so long ago. Well, it was just last night, don't you remember? We was all asleep in the cabin. Yeah, and the smoke woke me up. And you opened the door and there was fire everywhere. That's right. Somebody was yellin' that the boat was sinkin' in to get in the lifeboats. Yeah, but we couldn't find any. Everybody gone off and left us. I remember Tommy cryin', he was so scared. Then the fire came all around us, you couldn't breathe. We jumped. You had Tommy in your arms. In the water, it was terrible cold. Oh, like ice, it made your numb all over. We started to swim for the lights on the shore. Oh, there was a terrible long way off. Too far, I guess. I used to be a good swimmer, but I got kinda tired. You was holdin' us both up, Johnny and me. Oh, gee, I don't see how you ever got as far as that life procedure. I was glad to see that floatin' on the water. If it had only been a boat or something, we could have all held onto it till somebody came along and picked us up. But even I could see the one life-preserver couldn't hold all three of us up. They're only made for one. Gee, didn't we have a time gettin' Tommy into it and fixin' it so it wouldn't come off? He didn't want us to leave him, did he? No. No, but he promised he wouldn't cry when I asked him not to and told him we were both goin' for help and he kissed me goodbye, Johnny. He kissed me right here on the forehead because the life-preserver kept me from gettin' close to him. Gee, I didn't mind Diane, did you? No. I wasn't afraid because I knew he'd be all right. Sure, that's it. Nobody minds Diane. Not for somebody they love. Sure they don't. Besides, we aren't dead, Johnny, because Tommy's still livin' and he's us, you and me together. Sure, only he's better than us. We grew up to be as big as the love you and me have for each other because he was born from that love. We were just ordinary, but he'll be the kind that'll do some wonderful thing like that gate man said. Something you and me never had a chance to do. Something unselfish and fine. Why, maybe that's why you and me died so he can do that, Johnny. Sure, maybe we did. Oh, my children, come on to me. Listen, did you hear somebody speak, Johnny? No, no, I didn't hear anything. Those who dwell here with me have given much for your sake, but you have given more than any of these, or you have given all. Don't you hear it, Johnny? It's a voice I've heard somewhere before. Do you not know that I smile on the foolish things of the world that I might put shame with those that are wise? Do you not know that I choose the weak things of the world that I might put to shame the things that are strong? Yeah, yeah, I hear it, Mary. Only it isn't a voice, it's more like music. I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will break in pieces the doors of brass and cut in thunder the bars of iron. Johnny, Johnny, look! The gates stand and open. Right open, Johnny! I didn't touch it, honest I didn't. The gates never will be closed against such as you. Come on to me and I shall wipe away every tear from your eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain. Can you not hear me? Come. Johnny, the voice, it's speaking to us. It's asking us to come on, to come in the gate. But we don't belong there, that's not our place. Well, maybe not. Maybe we have never been anything. Maybe we have never done anything. But maybe somebody wants us just the same. Maybe, maybe they do, Johnny. Let's go in and see. This is Dana Andrews again. Let me give you, and I say thank you, Bing Crosby and Irene Dunn, for telling us the story of Jay Smith and wife. You know something? Everybody wants to be rich. I want to be rich, you want to be rich. But did you ever stop to think what makes you rich? A million bucks? There are lots of guys making 40 bucks a week with a swell wife and a couple of swell kids. Those guys wouldn't take a million bucks for even one kid. So who's rich? The guy with a million dollars, or the guy with 40 bucks, what you're driving at is this. You just can't put a price on what it means to have a family you love, and a family that loves you, the right kind of family. Maybe you're a little scared that your family won't grow up to be the right kind of family. But don't worry. You can get insurance against that, the best kind of insurance in the world. Prayer. Family prayer. The family that prays together stays together. The family that prays together is not the kind of family that gets into trouble. You'll receive. You know that too. So ask. Ask God to help you. He will. That you can be sure of. Before saying goodnight, I want to express our thanks to all of you who have helped make this program possible. Thanks also to Richard Sandball for directing our play tonight and to our producer, Bob Longenacker. Next week, the family theater will star Miss Margaret Sullivan in an original story by Walter Newman entitled I Give You a Maggie. This is Dana Andrews saying goodnight all. Next week and in the weeks that follow, you will hear more of your favorite stars such as Spencer Tracy, Orino Herra, Susan Peters, Rosalind Russell, Ruth Hussey, Charles Boyer, and Pat O'Brien in plays written especially for family theater by the nation's leading radio dramatists and directed by the most outstanding directors. This series of the family theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this kind of program by the mutual network which has responded to this need and by the actors and technicians in the motion picture and radio industries who have volunteered their services to fulfill it. This program is heard overseas through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.