 Ladies and gentlemen, the railroad hour. Here comes our star-studded show train. The Association of American Railroads presents the romantic success Music in the Air, starring Gordon MacRae and his charming guest Mimi Benzel. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and the music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. Yes, tonight another memorable musical is brought to you by the American Railroads, the same railroads that bring you the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the fuel you burn, and the multitude of other things you use in your daily life. And now here is our star, Gordon MacRae. Thank you, Marlon Miller, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we have Music by Jerome Kern, a story by Oscar Hammerstein II and Mimi Benzel, looking as pretty as she sounds. Put them all together, it's Music in the Air. The sleepy little village of Aitendorf is deep in the Bavarian Alps, and that's where I teach school. That's my girlfriend, Siglinda. Oh, gosh, I'm in love with her, but I get embarrassed whenever she talks to me. Hello, Carl. How are you? Hello, Siglinda. Wait, you should have told me you were coming to see me. I'd have been home sooner. Well, I didn't exactly come to see you. Oh? I came to see your father. Well, if you'd rather see my father. Oh, no, Siglinda, you don't understand. I mean, oh, I always see the wrong thing when I'm close to you. Oh, Carl, don't be bashful. Tell me what you're trying to say. I hear music when I look at you. A beautiful theme of every dream I ever knew. Deep in my heart. Can't I let it go? It's sweet. I've finished the words, Dr. Lessing, so soon. That's wonderful. Carl, did you write words for one of father's songs? Well, I hope what I've written is worthy of the greatest composer in Aitendorf. Oh, Carl, I am the greatest composer in Aitendorf because I am the only composer in Aitendorf. Let me hear your lyric, Carl. I'll be out in the kitchen. No, Siglinda, stay. I want you to hear this, too, because not even though you don't know it, you helped me write the words. I've told every little star just how sweet I think you are. Why haven't the rules in a brook made my heart an open book? Why haven't I asked me if my love might as well if I don't beg it? They know it too. Did you and Carl sing it together? Please, Siglinda. My heart and all. Right to keep it to ourselves in our little valley. She's right, sir. You should have it published. Oh, I am no businessman. I'll tell you how. I'm going to Munich next week with The Walking Club. Dr. Lessing, if you come with us... I should walk to Munich 60 miles? You think I am a schoolboy? Well, we'll take our time a week or more. I have not been there for 20 years. My old school friend Ernst Marley is a music publisher in Munich. Well, then you must come and give him the song. Siglinda must come and sing it for you. Oh, may I, Father, please? Somehow I feel this is a wrong thing to do. It will bring sadness to us. How, Dr. Lessing? It can make you famous. Oh, and it'll be a wonderful holiday for all of us. The world can be a wonderful world when the thrill of adventure comes. If you don't like that kind of thing, stay home and take a look around. A day can be a wonderful day when you're out on the open road. There is no road too long to walk if you can sing to pass the time. There is no road too long to walk no mountain peak to hide to climb to climb the highest mountain to port the deepest river. It'll make you feel possessed of life. Come on and get the best of life. Come on, the best of life is further up. There's a hill beyond a hill, beyond a hill, beyond a hill. If your limbs are young and strong, follow along, follow along. There's a dream beyond a dream, beyond a dream, beyond a dream. If your heart is young and gay. There's a hill beyond a hill, beyond a hill, beyond a hill. If your limbs are young and strong, follow along, follow along. There's a dream beyond a dream, beyond a dream, beyond a dream. If your heart is young and gay. My goodness, what have they done to the city in the twenty years I've been away? Oh, everyone is in such a hurry and everybody looks so mad. That's the way it is with city life. There is the sign, Marla and company, music publishers. Well, shall we go in? I wonder if my old friend, Ence, will recognize me. It has been so long. May I help you? We would like to see Mr. Mailer, please. He is very busy. You will have to wait. And you can take your play and your music. Now, Frida, let's not have another scene. Who's making the scene? My goodness. I am leaving you, Mr. Marla. I am leaving your wretched little opera company. May I introduce myself? You walk out on me, Frida Hutsfeld and you'll never work in the theatre again. I have a dozen authors. Are you? Are you really Frida Hutsfeld? The great star? You see, Mr. Mailer, here is a young man who appreciates my talent. You look like Ence, Marla, but you should be older. You're thinking of my father. He's been dead ten years. Ence is dead. Oh, my old friend. Oh, don't be sad, Father. I'm sure young Mr. Mailer will listen to your composition. You see, I have written a song and my daughter has come along to sing it for you. Everyone in the world has written the song and expects me to publish it. I can't be bothered. You can't treat my father like that. He's a great composer. Well, you're a fiery one, aren't you, my dear? Bruno Marla. Come along. I'm going to listen to this little angel's second. That finishes it. I'm through. That's right. You're through. Oh, young man. Yes? How would you like to take me to dinner? Have dinner with the immortal Frida Hutsfeld? Oh, what a nice way of putting it. Young man, you should write. Well, I... I haven't done a few lyrics. Perhaps you'll write something for me. Come. We shall discuss it at dinner. Carl? Ah, the fickleness of women. Women? Oh, men are the fickle ones. About the song. Oh, yes, yes. I'll listen to it. And then, Dr. Lessing, perhaps you'll let me have dinner with your daughter. Are you having a good time, Carl? Oh, yes. I just can't believe that I'm really having dinner with a famous star. You're a refreshing, Carl, and I'm very fond of you. Are you, really? Do you know what's been happening to me, Frida, while we walked in the park? No. Tell me, Carl. I hear music, oh, and I look at you. A beautiful theme of every dream I ever knew. Down deep in my heart. Time, my sweet. Oh, it's been a glorious evening, Mr. Mahler. And I'm so proud that you're going to publish my father's song. How could I help it after the way you sang it? Siglinda, can I persuade you to take Frida Hetzfeld's place in my opera company? Oh? I'll make the theatergoers love you as much as I do. You think you could be happy working with me? Oh, yes, Mr. Mahler. Why, when we're together, I almost seem to hear music in the air. This is working out all wrong. I always thought that Carl and my Siglinda, that they should sing their songs to each other, not to strangers. Though we never should have come here, we should have stayed in the Aitendorf. Why can't I, if the song my heart would sing? Music in the air in just a moment. By its sound, you recognize the express freight, which gets the green board and thunders past before midnight. If you watch the long heavy clipper barreling into a blizzard with passengers seated in the lighted lounge or relaxing in the diner at a meal, you get the feeling of the power and strength and purpose of the nation. When you're digging in the garden and the breakman weighs from the upper bunk of the caboose of a ponderous freight, you realize the warmth and kindness of Americans. A cynical acquaintance of mine says, it doesn't matter which side of the railroad track you live on, it's the wrong side. But my friend knows nothing of the railroad as the good neighbor the way I do. Millions of Americans all over the country live beside the tracks. We're fond of every train and every trainman too. In an unhappy world, we feel a little happier by day and by night because we are next to the nicest neighbor on earth. Yes, as John Artunus points out in the February issue of the Reader's Digest, the nation's railroads always try to be good neighbors. That's a tradition of railroads and railroad men everywhere as they go about their essential job of providing America with dependable, efficient, economical and safe transportation service. Now here is act two of the Lawrence and Lee version of the current Hammerstein success Music in the Air starring Gordon Macrae as Carl Rader and Mimi Benzel as C. Glinda. Music It's strange how people who love each other or think they do can suddenly drift apart. Back home at Aitendorf, I had dreamed that someday C. Glinda would be mine. But in Munich, with the glamorous Frida Hotzbell in my arm, C. Glinda didn't seem nearly so important. And she was having the time of her life with that pompous impresario Bruno Mahler who had actually given her a starring part in his newest operetta. Quiet now! Quiet in the theater! Do I look all right, Mr. Mahler? Yes, C. Glinda, you look enchanting. Oh, I'm so frightened with all the lights and all the pieces. Do not be frightened. This is merely a dress rehearsal. Sing it sweetly, my dove, if I will be listening. Oh, thank you, Father. All right, music! A war! Didn't she sing that beautifully, Mr. Mahler? Yes, she sings magnificently. But I'm afraid she won't do. What do you mean, sir? It is not enough to be able to sing. A star in a musical comedy must know how to move, how to act, how to walk upon a stage as if she owned it. But C. Glinda has had no experience. She will learn. There isn't time enough. Oh, if I could only get Frida Hatzfeld. I thought you hated her. I would give my arm not to be depended upon her. But do you realize what makes her great? She's played in every little town in Europe. She's been hissed and booed off stages. She's starved between jobs. But finally, after years of work, she's become Frida Hatzfeld, the famous primadana. It was wrong of me to expect you to take her place, a girl who never saw a stage until a few weeks ago. I'm... I'm so ashamed. C. Glinda. C. Glinda, what's wrong? Carl, oh, you tell him, father. Schoolmaster, have you seen Frida Hatzfeld? Do you know where she is? Yes, at a hotel. She's packing her bag to go to Vienna. I only hope I'm in time to stop. I don't understand what's going on here. They don't want me to play the part. There, there, C. Glinda. They say I'm not good enough. Oh, C. Glinda, don't you understand? We don't belong here. We belong in our own little village in Nadendorf. Now that you're tired of your Frida Hatzfeld, I suppose you want to go home. Yes, C. Glinda. Oh, I don't know what to do. Father, I want to get away from here. But, C. Glinda, don't run away, please. We belong together. We're happy together. And life is a song. When we are together, we know where we belong. Together, like birds of a feather, together we thrive. Little caring weather, the rest of the world is alive. Happy together, and life is a song. I long loaned some road back to my little village. I thought how much I hated all great cities and all primadonnas of musical comedy because they had separated me from my C. Glinda. Back in Nadendorf, we were farther apart than ever. Until the day C. Glinda came running to a father with a big package wrapped in brown paper. Father, father, look what just came in the post. From uni. What do you suppose it is? Your song. All printed and published. And a letter from Mr. Mahler. We are sending this all over the world. We expect to sell thousands of copies. Oh, Father, congratulations. You must not only congratulate me, my dear, but about the man who wrote the words to the song. I don't want to talk to Carl. He doesn't care anything about me. Nonsense. The whole village is talking about how sad our schoolmaster is because you won't talk to him. He is so gloomy with his lessons. A whole generation is being depressed. Well, we can't let that happen. Of course not. Now, take this music and show it to your car. Sieglinde. Look, I have a present for you. I've told... Look, it says Music by Dr. Walter Lessing. Words by Carl Rader. It's your song, Carl. Oh, no, my darling. You were the inspiration, both for your father and for me. Sieglinde, the song is you. Lovely, sweet. Music is sweet. Back in just a moment. Meanwhile, I'd like to say thanks to our excellent supporting cast, her Butterfield, Betty Lugerson, Isabelle Joule, Carlton Young, and our entire company. Music in the air composed by Jerome Kern with book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II was dramatized for The Railroad Hour by Lawrence and Lee. The Railroad Hour is brought to you each week at the same time by the American Railroads. Before we conclude tonight's performance, we'd like to take a moment to salute the YMCA. And to remind you that this is National YMCA Week. Celebrated by more than 1,700 branches of the Y around the country. On the railroads, the railroad YMCA, well known as a home away from home for thousands of men, typifies the kind of physical, mental, and spiritual help that the YMCA so ably provides. So congratulations and best wishes to the Y and its workers and members everywhere. And now, folks, here again is the glamorous Mimi Benzel. Why, thank you, Gordon. Say, how did you like being a schoolmaster tonight? I think I'll take it up full time if you'll be in all my classes. Well, what's in the curriculum next week? Well, Mimi will be studying one of the real masters. The late, great, Sigmund Romburg and here's just a sample of the music. Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart. See, that sounds like February's going to be Maytime. Go to the head of the class, Mimi. And we'll have the Metropolitan's lovely Nadine Conner with us to travel musically through four score years of Manhattan adventures. Well, I'll be listening. Good night, Gordy. Good night, Mimi. As always, you were wonderful. All aboard. Well, dear friends, it looks as though we're ready to pull out. Until next Monday and Maytime, on behalf of the other members of the cast and of the American Railroads, this is your friend Gordon Macrae saying goodbye. Music in the Air was presented by Special Arrangement with Tams Whitmark Music Library. Gordon Macrae can be seen in Free Sailors and a Girl in Technicolor. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. This is Marvin Millard saying goodbye until next week for the American Railroads. Now, stay tuned for your Monday Night of Music on NBC. Tonight, the Voice of Firestone features Brian Sullivan on the NBC radio network.