 Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. From Hollywood, the makers of Hallmark greeting cards bring you an exciting dramatization of an unforgettable story on the Hallmark Playhouse. Tonight's story was chosen from the whole world of fiction by one of the world's most popular authors, whose knowledge of stories that will entertain you and stir your imagination is universally recognized. Hallmark is proud to present the distinguished novelist, Mr. James Hilton. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight on our Hallmark Playhouse, we have a story that has already proved popular as a novel and on the screen, Penny Sedonaid by Martha Chavins. It's the sensitive and moving story of a marriage, and it uses music to bring back the memory of past events in a way that will surely appeal to anyone who is old enough to have had any past events. For all these reasons, I think you'll find Penny Sedonaid this evening a really warm and genuine show. Those are words that are very close to my heart, Mr. Hilton. Warm and genuine. They not only fit our show tonight, but are as fine a description of Hallmark greeting cards as any I've ever heard. Warm and genuine is perhaps the outstanding characteristic of these fine greeting cards that are just the thing to send your friends on every occasion that calls for remembrance, because there is a Hallmark card that says just what you want to say, the way you want to say it. And those three important words on the back, a Hallmark card, well, they say you cared enough to send the very best. Now, Mr. Hilton, we're ready for our story. Martha Chavins starts her story like this. Quite alone on a corner of one of the less fashionable suburbs in Westchester County, New York, with a squat, ugly, two-storied brick building with a hanging sign over the front door, the Courier Press. It was a bleak winter afternoon. Standing beside one of the windows in the apartment upstairs, Julie Carey looked out at the storm with the last words that Roger Carey had said to her ringing through her head. I don't ever want to see that place again. I don't ever want to see you again. I don't want to see anything that reminds me of... I don't ever want to see you again. Julie turned away from the window, trying to shake the memory of his words from her. She moved over to the phonograph and picked up some records that were stacked beside it. She dusted the top one and put it on the machine, and she said to herself thoughtfully, Roger always called these records the records of a happy marriage. Ain't we got fun? That was a brand new song when I met Roger. Every evening, ain't we got fun? Not much money? Oh, but honey, ain't we got fun? I was playing that record the first time I ever saw Roger. I was selling records and sheet music in a department store in New York. And I looked up, and there he was, leaning on the counter, watching. Hello, gorgeous. What's new in Foxtrot? Well, how do you like this one? How do you like it? I think it's swell. Well, that's good enough for me. I'll take it. Charge it to Mr. Roger Carey, 350 West 57th Street, New York City. Charge it. It's only 35 cents. Oh, I never pay for editing until I have to. As well as my creditors, I'm a newspaper man. That's no excuse. Say, what do you do with your evenings, huh? Here's your package, sir. No, no, no, I said... I heard you. Now if you'll excuse me, sir, I'm afraid I'll have to wait on another customer. A fortune teller told me last night I was going to fall in love with a redhead. I don't believe in fortune tellers. Okay, but you must believe in love. No, really, this is not the time nor the place. Oh, you're so right. And I know just the time and the place. I'll be waiting outside the employee's entrance at six. It won't do you any good. Are you finding what you want, sir? Thank you. I've found exactly what I want. That was June the 6th, the beginning. We met that night, and every night while the week spilled into months. I remember that I was wearing a new hairdo that spring, and a new feeling that was like no other feeling I'd ever had before. I was riding a roller coaster from one moment to the next, and life was gay and exciting and wonderful. Life was radical. Hiya, baby. Oh, stand back. Let me get a load of that new dread. Like me? I'm crazy about you. Wait until I see you in Japan. You'll knock them right off their cherry blossoms. Japan? Me? Well, you don't think I'm going to let a dizzy little redhead like you run around loose for three years, do you? I seem to have missed the beginning of the picture. Well, the newspaper's sending me to Japan. I'm going to have a fly line and everything. Oh, this is a proposal, redhead, great A, blue ribbon, gilt edge. Well, what do you say? Oh, oh, Roger. You, you aren't going to say no. Are you kidding? Oh, nobody ever says no to you, Roger. Come here. Mrs. Roger Carey. Records of a happy marriage. Funny how much songs are part of your memory, and how easy it is to go back while you listen. I remember a small, dark chaplain, Roger and I whispering the old, honored words. I remember saying over and over to myself, till death do us part. And a few short days later, hearing Roger say, Julie, I don't know what to say to you. I thought when I told the office we'd gotten married Sunday, that, well, of course, they didn't say they didn't want you to go. It's just that they won't pay the fare, and I'm a little short at the moment. Oh, oh, I see. Well, I have $107 in the bank. Yes, well, that's just about $100 more than I have. Oh. Oh, baby, baby, don't look like that. I'll tell them to check the job. Oh, you can't do that. Oh, it's such a wonderful opportunity, and you're going to have a buy-line. Well, then I guess the only thing to do is I'll need to go over and save every set I can. And I'll save everything I can. I can go without lunches. Oh, sweetheart, nothing's going to stop us. It may be a bit rough right now, but the world's our oyster. And in a month or so, we're going to crack it and eat it on a half-shef. Till death do us part. I don't remember how many months it was before I saved enough money to follow Roger to Japan. All I remember is that between New York and Japan, there was San Francisco. And in San Francisco, I met Roger's brother, Dr. Philip Carey. I had three wonderful days there before my boat sailed. Philip was the exact opposite of Roger. Roger was impulsive. Leap first look afterwards. Philip was dependable, serious, thoughtful. I know we talked incessantly, but I can't remember what it was about. I only remember what we said the last evening when we hardly spoke at all. Do you like some more coffee, Julie? No, thank you. I'm sorry I don't. This is a lovely hotel. It was nice of you to bring me here to dinner. It's been a perfect evening, Philip. It has for me, too. I wish... I wish that you'd been the girl next door and have admit your long time ago. So do I. Well, I... I better be getting you back to your hotel. Don't you think you have to get up pretty early? Yes. Yes, I think I am a little tired. We met late, didn't we, Philip? Too late. Well, Roger always was the lucky one in his family. How do you like your first ride in a rickshaw? Well, it's funky, but fun. No, I can't wait for you to see the house. I'm in hock up to my ears, but I'll pay it off. Oh, did I tell you Applejack Jones was here? Applejack Jones? I told you about him. He's my best friend. Remember, he ran the line-up type machine down at the office? Oh, yes. Well, he bummed his way over on a freighter and got a job at the office. Oh, well, I'll be glad to see him. Yeah. You, uh... You haven't said anything about Philip. How'd you two hit it off? Oh, we... We hit it off all right. How much farther is the house? Not far now. No, baby. Baby, I can't believe you're really here. I wish I could have sent you the money to come. Well, I work nights and I manage that way. No, from now on, we're never going to be separated again. Never. Married people belong together. They do, if they're going to stay married. We're going to stay married, kid. With us, it's from now on and forever. As long as we both shall live. I had only been in Japan a few months when I found out about the baby. And then, for the first time in my life, I was deeply and completely satisfied and happy. Roger took me up in the mountains outside Tokyo. And there I planned and dreamed and waited. Roger would come up from Tokyo for long weekend. But suddenly, one heart-mid summer day, he arrived back unexpectedly. He came rushing up the path. Julie! Hey, Julie! Julie! Oh, Julie, we're rich. We're rich, baby. I just came into an inheritance. We got $6,000. Oh, darling, that's wonderful. Oh, sure. I quit my job the minute the letter came. Quit your job? Yeah. You know what we're doing? We're going on a trip around the world. Africa, Europe, New York. Oh, but Roger... I don't know if I should travel right now. With baby coming, we need every bit of money. Oh, Julie, don't be a wet blanket. Just think. You'll have a son that will have seen the world before he was born. Come on, baby. We're going to leave for Tokyo right away. We're sailing tomorrow. Is it hot in Tokyo? Hot. Oh, I'll say it's hot. The air is so thick it's like breathing syrup. It's what they call earthquake weather. Earthquake weather. Afterward, people used to say to me, you were in the great earthquake in Japan, weren't you? Tell us about it. But all I could remember was standing at the head of the stairs listening to the temple bell, and then feeling a tremor, and suddenly seeing the stairs shaking and disintegrating and feeling myself falling into a sharp, unbearable pain, and then... complete darkness. Later, I remember the pain returning and hearing Roger's voice and the voice of Applejack Jones way off in the distance. They told them about Miss Carriage. They're holding the statement all right, but how can we get it out of the boat without a stretcher? The fires are getting too close for company. I think I'd better carry it. Carry it. We can't risk that. It's our only chance. I remember that Applejack picked me up, and I remember flames spitting skyward and turning the night blood red, and then the dark coming down and closing round me black. The next thing I really knew I was in Phillips Hospital in San Francisco. Besides me, that no medicine or doctor could reach or heal. The bitter dark agonies of loss and eternal loneliness. Phillips. Hello, Julie. How do you feel? I feel all right. Roger's on the telephone with New York. There's a newspaper in Westchester he's trying to buy. Applejack is with him. It would be like Roger to buy a newspaper he's never even seen. Well, he wants to settle down. He wants to try to make up. Make up? Your doctor told you. Yes. Tell him. Roger thought maybe if he put his money into something like this paper that he could work on and build that you two might get a little money ahead and, uh, adopt a baby. Oh. Now don't, Julie. Don't let yourself go to pieces. Think of Roger. Think of Roger. If Roger hadn't insisted on dragging me down to Tokyo that day, none of this would have happened. Tell him I'm gonna leave Roger. He's a spoiled child. That's all he's ever been. That's all he ever will be. I'm sick of marriage. You know, I think people expect too much of marriage. They build up a wonderful fantasy of what they think marriage ought to be. Then when they're faced with reality they want to back up. We all have to face life the way it is, Julie, not the way we wish it could be. But Roger and I have no marriage. There's nothing to keep us together now. Yes, there is. There's a thing that brought you together in the beginning. You both had a terrible blow and it came to you together, not separately. You got to work it out together. Neither you nor Roger have given marriage a chance yet. Julie, until you do, you'll be very foolish to call it quits. All right, Doctor. No. Almost forgot Roger asked me to give you this. It's a record. It had to be you. He's waiting downstairs. Shall I send him up, Julie? Yes, Julie. Send him up. I'm still here. Yes, Julie. Thank you. The Hallmark Playhouse is presenting Penny Serenade, a story selected for you by James Hilton. There is probably no one in America today who has not benefited in some way from the genius of Thomas A. Edison. The motion pictures we see, the phonographs we listen to, even the light bulbs we use have come wholly or in part from America's greatest inventor. What was responsible for the genius that marked Edison as a man apart? What was the secret that inspired one man to achieve so much? Well, it was Edison who made the famous remark you've heard so often quoted. Genius, he said, is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Yes, to accomplish something truly outstanding in any line of endeavor requires unceasing effort as well as genuine talent. The folks who make Hallmark cards learned this long ago. That's why so much painstaking care goes into the expression of even the simplest sentiment on a Hallmark card. You see, they're not making just cards. They're creating Hallmark cards, greeting cards that carry warmth and friendliness and affection, cards that say just what you want to say, the way you want to say it. That's why Hallmark cards are America's favorite greeting cards and that's why those three identifying words on the back, a Hallmark card, tell your friends you cared enough to send the very best. Now, the distinguished novelist James Hilton continues with the charming love story by Martha Chevons, Penny Serenade. Julie and Roger and Applejack Jones moved to Westchester, rolled up their sleeves and began a long struggle. But those days were all long in the Parson House. They were only memories to Julie Carey as she sat playing old records, going back across the years as she listened. We waited three years before we went shopping for a baby. Even after three years, we weren't what you'd call really affluent, but the figures we were writing down in the book instead of red. I had written to an agency and sent them Roger's picture in Aslan to find us a three-year-old boy that looked like him. And finally, they wrote masses to come in for an interview. Oh, we've got to get out of here. We don't want to be late. Wait a minute. There's just thick of dust on that front fender. Oh, there couldn't be. You spent all morning waxing the car, Applejack. Well, everything's got to be just so people don't have a baby every day. Oh, I hope the agency likes us. Oh, suppose they turn us down. It's the best son parents they ever saw, won't we, Applejack? I'll say you will. Come on, Julie, let's get going before we talk ourselves out of it. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Carey, we have only one child for placement at the moment. A baby. And, as a matter of fact, another couple actually have the right to see her first. Her? A her baby? She's a most unusual baby. She's like no other child I've ever seen. And eventually, you know, she will be three. Would you like to see her? Julie? Of course we'd like to see her. And so I held her in my arms for the first time. And she fitted them perfectly. She was five weeks and two days old. And she was roger than mine from that moment as completely as though we had actually been her parents. We called the baby Trina. And we measured off her years by Christmases rather than birthdays. That was probably because it was on a Christmas Eve that we finally got the papers that said she was ours. Some of those years, the red figures mounted staggeringly in the account books. But Trina and Roger and I felt very wealthy. Trina would count the months and then the days from Christmas to Christmas. It's going to be a feast of Carol's Christmas program. I might be choose. You might be choose for what, honey? The first three grades are going to be angels losing a song. If I learn it, I might be choose. Oh, Roger. She can't carry a tune. Well, what's the song? Little town is baffling him. Oh, we have a record of that here. Here it is. All right, baby. You ready? Let's try it. Here we go. Roger couldn't carry a tune either. But Trina was the very first one in her class to be choose to sing with the angels. Looking back now, scenes as though the years flew by like angels taking flight from Christmas to Christmas. Trina's hair grew long enough to keep her. And I kept letting the hams down in her dresses. On her eighth Christmas, Philip's phone from San Francisco. I stood there listening to Trina talk to him. Hearing myself say, we met later. Too late. It's going to be the most wonderful program, Uncle Philip. You want to say it alone, Trina? No, I don't. So Roger. No point in running up a bill. It's coming in San Francisco. I wish you were here, too. Merry Christmas, Uncle Philip. I love you very much. It's our program. Goodbye. He said, give my love to your father and mother. Oh, come on, honey. Put your coat on. Time to start. Now I'll go out and wall up the car. Don't worry. I'll get you there if we have to fly. See how people ever got along without Christmas. I don't know how we ever got along without you. A year of child became a parallel and marched in a solemn procession down the aisle to the stage. One achieved it by a long apprenticeship, by patience and devotion. It was glory. Trina's ninth Christmas. What's the temperature now, Doctor? No change, 105. Well, don't just sit there. Do something. I'm praying, Mr. Carey, that's all I can do now. Mother. Yes, darling. Almost, baby. Yes, darling. Now you stop in the car here. Where are you going, Roger? I don't know. Oh, please, please don't do this. Oh, please come home, Roger. I don't ever want to see that place again. I don't ever want to see you again. I don't want to see anything that reminds me of... There's nothing to keep us together now. There isn't any more family. There isn't... There isn't any more Trina. And I never want to see you again. Roger, if I don't know what to say to you. Come in. Now, those records downstairs. Well, now, there's always some darn fool's song a person can't bear to hear. Yes, I know. I was just putting the records together. I thought Roger might like to have them. Life's a queer thing, isn't it, Julie? There's big things in it like... like love, but mostly it's full of little things. People worry along with the little things from one day to the next, and the first thing they know they're old, and I think they've lost their chance for the big thing, but they haven't. They've had the big things too, all along. I guess so. I just can't help thinking how much you two have gone through together, and how long it's been. I just wish I... I just wish I could help you. Well, I... I'd better get down in the fire of the furnace. All right, Applejack. You better call him Applejack. Julie, I'm a building woman. Roger! I just thought I'd stop by. Sit down and take off those shoes you went out without your rubbish again. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean any of those things. It was just that I was nearly crazy with grief. Train had never been a sicker day in her life. Julie, you know, the day before she got sick, she asked me for a quarter, and I... didn't give it to her. A couple of weeks ago, she wanted me to take it over movie. I told her I was too busy. Yes, I know. It's been the same with me. And she was trying on her careless costume. She wouldn't stand still, and I said... I said, I'm never going to try anything on you again. And I never did. Julie, Julie, darling, you know, for years, I thought you were in love with Philip. Oh, no, Roger. Oh, not in the way you mean. Philip was and is sort of a symbol to me. An ideal, a beautiful philosophy of life. Oh, but, Roger, your life itself. I know something. Philip knows that, too. When I think back over the things he said to me, it's easy to see he's always knowing it. Can you understand that, Roger? Oh, sure, sure, I can, kid. I've been doing a lot of thinking about us. We've been poor now, and then even hungry. And we've had three of us, and we've lost her. But all along, we've had each other. Oh, it's funny, isn't it? How many times you're falling in love during marriage. In so many different ways. Darling, darling. Oh, Roger, a letter came this morning from Miss Oliver. Miss Oliver? Well, I was going to tell her no, but maybe you should see it first. Here, here, you read it. All right. Although you haven't said anything about wanting to adopt another child, nevertheless, strictly off the record, there's a little boy three years old. And it's the oddest thing how he put exactly the description of a child Mrs. Kerry asked for originally. Of course, there's another couple that have the right to see him first. But if you let me know immediately. Hey, Julie, if the kid's just three now, we better hold the playpen and get the crib out of the attic, huh? Oh, Roger, Roger. No, wait a minute, darling. We haven't got time for that. We've got to get on the telephone. There's another couple. They might get there first. Oh, I'll look up the number. Yeah. Why do you do that? I want to put on this record. I brought it along for the collection. I got it this morning. Darling. Oh, darling. I don't want to walk without you, baby. Oh, Roger, you would take that one. That kind of song, kid, yours and mine. Did you find the number? Yeah, here it is. Ah, you call it while I get these records put away. We've got to take good care of these records. You know, Julie? They're records of a very happy marriage. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you liked Ms. Cheven's charming tale. Its fine adaptation for radio was the work of Gene Holloway. And I think you'll agree it was worthy of the excellent cast, which consisted of Frances Robinson and Gerald Moore, as Julie and Steve, with Frank Lovejoy, Margaret McDonald, Ed Begley, and adorable little Anne Whitfield. In a moment you will hear again from Mr. Hilton. Have you heard about the new Hallmark Doll collectors' album? Children are going to have more fun than ever collecting Hallmark Dolls now that there's a lovely new album to put them in. It gives you a new and inexpensive way to make some child very happy. And during this introductory period, the album is only 25 cents when you buy one or more of the Hallmark Dolls. You'd expect the album alone to be worth a dollar, but you can give your little boy or girl or some little friend the Hallmark Doll collectors' album with three beautiful Hallmark Dolls in it to start a collection for only one dollar. It's a wonderful and truly different gift that will make any child's heart leap with joy. Then later, you or friends and relatives can help complete the entire collection of 16 colorful Hallmark Dolls. The dolls are as easy to send as any Hallmark greeting card and cost only 25 cents each. And each new doll added to the collection will mean a new thrill for a child. So stop in tomorrow and see this new album at the store where you buy your Hallmark cards. Remember, the album with three Dolls in it to start the collection is only one dollar. Now once again, James Houghton. Next week, we take you back over a century ago to a classic written by one of the world's very greatest novelists. It's a story which deserves many complementary adjectives, but if I had to choose one only, I'd call it Elegant. It's Jane Austrin's Pride and Prejudice, and I hope you'll be listening. Until then, this is James Houghton saying, good night. The nice musical score was arranged and conducted by Lynn Murray. To be doubly sure of the finest quality, always look on the back of your cards for those three identifying words, a Hallmark card. Hallmark cards are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember Hallmark cards when you care enough to send the very best. Now this is Frank Goss saying, good night to you all until next Thursday at the same time when James Houghton returns with his story selection for the week. Jane Austrin's classic, Pride and Prejudice. The program came to you from the Hallmark Playhouse. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. This is KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri.