 The Cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents Frederick March in the Adventures of Mark Twain. One of DuPont's better things is self-cleaning house paint. When you have your house painted this spring, ask your painter to use DuPont house paint. It keeps white houses white because it's self-cleaning. DuPont house paint is so formulated that a very fine white powder forms on the surface as time goes by. Under normal conditions of exposure, except perhaps in very dirty industrial communities, heavy rains wash this powder away and take the dust and dirt with them, leaving the surface clean and white again. Your DuPont paint dealer will be glad to tell you more about self-cleaning house paint made by DuPont. And now for our play. America has long been known as a nation of laughers and laughter makers. And among the laughter makers, the greatest was the man who wrote under the name of Mark Twain. And now more than ever we reread Mark Twain and once again find comfort in his laughter. Tonight the Cavalcade of America brings you a radio play based on highlights of a notable motion picture. A new kind of humorous epic which opens this week in many cities throughout the country. Warner Brothers inspiring production, The Adventures of Mark Twain starring Frederick March. DuPont by special arrangement with the Warner Brothers studios presents Frederick March as the great American humorist in The Adventures of Mark Twain on the Cavalcade of America. I didn't know that I should have been embarrassed. I've learned since to my sorrow that man is the only animal that blushes or needs to. Well, I was born under the comet, Halley's Comet, which visits this globe only once in every 75 years. That year it came on my birthday, November 30th, 1835. A birthday of a yowling little critter tagged with the name of Samuel Langhorn Clemens. I was brought up in the village of Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River. I think the village contained a hundred people and my arrival increased the population by one percent. That's more than some of the best people in history have done for a town. Life unfolded gently there in Hannibal, and the Mississippi was more important than the Seven Seas. Oh, how I loved that river. Sometimes I guess I loved it too much. And fear in my mother's wrath, I would slip home at night, shinny up the porch roof to my room, open the window, creep in to bed with my clothes still wet. Sam, Sam, is that you? You needn't play possum, Sam. I heard you come in. Oh, Ma, I was just playing down on the river with Huck and Tom. You know perfectly well I ought to tan you, Sam Clemens. Do you realize that for four long hours I haven't known whether you were alive or drowned? Oh, Ma, I never really drowned. Only because you were born to hang, like all that river riff-raff, people without homes, crowzing around in that Mississippi mud. Oh, nothing ever happens around this old town except down at the river. Sam, I want to see you make a fine cultured man like your father was. Won't you try just once more to stay in the print shop and learn the trade? For me, Sam. Won't you, son? Well, try, Ma. I'll try. For three years I tried my best to be a printer. Mine was on the river. And then one night I wrote a letter to my mother. It was a hard letter for a 16-year-old boy to write. So I'm leaving, Ma. It ain't because I don't love you, but I've simply got to try the river. Because I know now I'll never be happy in my life if I don't. You're faithful and obedient, son. Sam. Mistress for a young lad to master. What lawful horridor the steamer, Paul Jones, made a mighty good teacher for a Tyrol Riverman. Where in jumpin' Jerusalem are you takin' a now? I'm tryin' to hold her steady, sir. Hold a h- That means shallow water. Don't crowd that slick place below that bluff. There ain't six feet on that reef. Look sharp, I tell ya. What nation are you tryin' to do? Climb that shore? Get out of this pilot house. Get off this boat. Go on, dive over the side before you sink every last one of us. No. If I j-husser but come back here, take this wheel. I said I'd learn you the river, and when I say I'll learn a man the river, I'll learn him if it kills him. While there's one call, you'll never forget as long as you live. Mark Twain, safe water. The welcomest call in all the world for a riverman. It makes me learn me the river, like he said he would. And there came a time when written in gold letters over my stateroom door were the words of Queen Addixie, Samuel L. Clemens, chief pilot. I was boss of a gaudy world, then. The young blade smartly uniformed, riding the peak of a riverman's life. But one day I saw a picture of a girl, young girl, golden-haired and fair, smiling as if she knew a secret. The picture belonged to her brother. Oh, Mr. Clemens, I've come to say goodbye and to thank you again. Goodbye. Yes, this is where I get off. You remember me, don't you? I'm Charles Langford. Of course, of course. You're the passenger who's... Who's what? You recovered from the pickpocket on the boat. Oh, yes. And then that little picture, that your sister, I believe. Funny thing about that picture, Mr. Clemens, it's gone again. What? You mean somebody stole it again? Well, now, what do you know about that? And they say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. Well, I want to thank you for this trip, Mr. Clemens. They say you're the best pilot on the river. I must say, I never had such an exciting time of my life. Well, I'm glad you liked it, Langdon. Because that's the last run I'm going to make. Oh, you're joking, Mr. Clemens. If I ever saw a man who's fitted for his job, it's you. I'll head west first. They're building up a whole new country out there. Man can get rich out there. You see that picture of your sister, Langdon? My sister? What's my sister got to do with it? She's a girl I'm going to marry. And I'll need money for it. No west, a great golden west. And I struck Peter. I struck it above ground, though, on a table with a pencil instead of a shovel in my hand. It was a piece I wrote one day. A little story about a frog called the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Since I was ashamed to sign my own name, I wrote under it in big black letters by Mark Twain. Well, sir, for some peculiar reason, that little piece just swept the country. And the next thing I knew, I was in a place called Cooper Union, New York City. Signed, sealed, and shackled to deliver a lecture. Somehow all those fine city folk took a shine to me After it was over, they crowded up on the stage. Oh, Mr. Twain, you were most amusing. Thank you, thank you. Excuse me, excuse me. Langdon, Charles Langdon. I knew you the minute you walked on the stage, Sam. Oh, Livy, I'd like to present Mr. Clemens or Mr. Twain. This is my sister. I knew you the minute I saw you, too. You knew me? We hope you're going to make an appearance in Elmira, Sam. Thank you. That's mighty kind. See you soon, won't you, Mr. Twain? You bet I will, Miss Langdon. We'll have to run now to make our train. Run? Well, come on then, come on, let's run! It's a house guest with the Langdons in Elmira for a while. I guess this was a kind of surprise to Miss Livy's family. But, uh, I guess so they wouldn't be too surprised about the length of time I stayed. I pretended to have sprained my ankle. But even a sprained ankle will heal One warm summer's day found me hobbling through the woods with Livy and my crutch. Listen, Sam, that's thunder. It's going to rain. Yeah, that's trouble with you, Eastern folks, Livy. Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Oh, here it comes. We'll be stoked before we can make the summer house. Oh, nonsense. We can run, can't we? Come on, come on. Well, it's safe now. How, how wet are you, huh? What? Do I look as funny as all that? You crutch, Sam. Oh, yeah, I guess I dropped it. I knew you were fooling all the time. And you didn't care? No, I didn't care. But your, your father would. Maybe he would. I'm not sure that matters to me anymore. Livy, you know what I see when you smile at me like that? Somebody I've known a long time. Somebody who's been close to me for years. And now that I, that I've found you, well, I, I reckon I can give you back something that doesn't rightfully belong to me. Well, that's my picture, Sam. Where did you get it? I stole it from your brother when I was a pilot of the Queen of Dixie. I don't suppose anybody ever held on anything harder, Livy. Then you came east, Sam, to look for me. Silly of me, wasn't it? I could never support you. Your father has made me see that now. Haven't you forgotten somebody, Sam? Forgotten somebody? Yes. A writer named Mark Twain. Oh, him. I don't reckon he's worth much, Livy. You're wrong, Sam. Dead wrong. I believe in you. I believe you're going to write wonderful books. I believe that from the first moment I met you. You see, I love you, Sam. Livy and I were married. I, I gathered from her father. He had a pretty low opinion of me as a writer. Emerson, Longfellow, Widdier, Holmes. That was his idea of the literary great. I was just a western fellow who scribbled comic bits for the catch-penny newspaper. But since Livy's happiness meant everything to him, he consented to our marriage. Our firstborn died when he was one year old. I felt then that I could never write again. I had dreamed of taking his hand and wading with him in the Mississippi mud. And of listening with him for the steamboat whistles. Far off down the bend. He'd never see the river now. No, Mark. Our little boy will never see the river now. But you must save the memories you loved. Save them for whole generations of boys like him. Save the memories you loved. You're the only one who can do it, Mark. Because you're the only man alive who still is that little barefoot boy waiting in the Mississippi mud, playing on a raft, watching the steamboats. The way you've told me so many, many times. It's hard to remember now. You've got to remember, Mark. You've got to. Only I could. If only I could put him in a book. A book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You are listening to Frederick March as Mark Twain and The Adventures of Mark Twain on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by Dupont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. One of the Dupont better things is Zeeland, durable, repellent finish. Zeeland treated fabrics, shed water, and resists stains. And most important, the Zeeland protection doesn't come out in washing or cleaning. Our Cavalcade play tonight is The Adventures of Mark Twain. As a youth, Mark Twain with a Mississippi in his blood became a riverboat pilot until he met and married Libby Langdon. As our play continues, Mark Twain played by Frederick March has just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and is showing the manuscript to Libby. Oh, Mark, it's beautiful. So human, so real. You think anybody will ever read it? Read it. The whole world will read it. Oh, sure. With thousands years from now, they'll still be reading it. You know what you've done. You've captured youth. You've given eternal youth to every living soul that can read. Libby, if you like it, that's all I care about. Youth. That's what you are. I'll never think of you as anything else. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer made me famous. The first thing you know, I was invited to speak at Whittier's birthday, along with Emerson, Longfellow and Holmes. I planned a surprise for these literary greats. It's all of a western surprise. But the next day, the newspaper said I had disgraced the banquet with my jests. That night, I made a decision. For Libby's sake, I would get the Mississippi out of my blood. If it was the last thing I did, I'd get it out. Then I'd be a real writer. But first, I needed money, lots of money. I set up a publishing house. I invested in a type-setting machine. I plunged into one financial adventure after another. Money, money, more money. Then, at last, there was no more. Mark Twain was bankrupt. But not in friends, on all. He was still sound and solvent in the friendship of his manager, James Pond. Mark, you owe your creditors a quarter of a million dollars. I did the best I could, but the least they would accept is 50 cents on the dollar. I won't do it. I'm sorry, Mark. I'm afraid you'll have to agree. It's not good enough. You don't understand, Mark. I argued with them for hours. Pond, you go back and tell them Mark Twain is going to pay his debts exactly 100 cents on the dollar. I'm going on a lecture tour, Pond, and you're going to arrange it for me. First, clear across the United States to San Francisco, then across the Pacific to Honolulu, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, then South Africa, London... Why, it's out of the question from this standpoint of sheer physical endurance. Why, it would kill 10 men and youngsters at that. Well, you know of an easy way to make a quarter of a million dollars? Look, Pond, the common flea has been in all those places. Would you have me beaten out by a common flea? Mark, this is going to make you the most famous man in the world and me the richest. Can't we make you the most famous and me the richest? Sometimes it seemed I couldn't cook up one more funny story through all those faces that stared up at me from the lecture halls of the world. But one day, Pond said to me, Mark, what would be the best news I could give you? Oh, that after Paris I could join Livy in Italy next week. Well, that's exactly what you can do. I've cancelled your engagement in Amsterdam. You mean I don't have to be comical in Dutch? Two more lectures and you'll have paid off every cent you owe. No, paid off every cent. Well, Pond, I guess it's all right to tell you now, but always from the very first moment I have held the unwavering belief that it could never be done. Livy was dying when I reached her at Florence. I didn't know that before. She didn't want to worry me. She held a letter in her hand, smiled like a little girl who knows a secret. Mark, what will it take to make you understand that you were the greatest writer of your time? Maybe the greatest writer America ever had. That's something I've known a long time, Mark, all our life together. Livy, you make me feel I could count on one vote, even if I ran on the Republican ticket. You struggled so hard to get away from the wonderful thing you were, to change your name, to be something else, to get the Mississippi out of your blood. But, darling, the Mississippi wrote your name in the everlasting stars. This letter is from Oxford, Mark. They sent for you. They want to give you the same honorary degree that they gave to Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning. There isn't any higher honor or glory in the world. The name of Mark Twain is now among the immortals. Do you really believe that, Livy? With all my heart, darling. This letter, Mark Twain wrote into this world on the tale of Halle's Comet. A guest said, Oh, Comet didn't know what it was letting the world in for when it brought him here. Well, one of these days, that Comet's going to come again. And I reckon Mark Twain will still be laughing when it swings low and takes him back. But you know, there's one thing that science can't explain. It's why that Comet wants to come back after taking a good look at us. Ladies and gentlemen, before our star, Frederick March returns to the microphone with a personal message. Here is George Albee, who will tell you about a new kind of soap you will have in your home after the war. Did you ever try to take a bath in the ocean, not just go into swimming, but really go into the water with a cake of soap and try to work up a lather? If you have, you know it's no fun. In the first place, the soap just doesn't lather. In the second place, it leaves a sticky residue that makes you feel as if you've been bathing in molasses. As a result of wartime research, the DuPont Company has now developed a new soap ingredient that makes soap lather in seawater. That isn't all it does. We just mentioned salt water because it's used for bathing and laundering by troops aboard transports and on the islands and atolls of the South Sea where fresh water is hard to get. Actually, soap made with the new DuPont compound removes dirt and oil in just about any kind of water. Salt, brackish, fresh, hard or soft, hot or cold. It lathers so well under any of these conditions it can even be used for shaving. The reason ordinary soap doesn't work well in hard water or seawater is that the chemical salts in the water combine to form a scummy precipitate that doesn't dissolve. The new DuPont ingredient keeps this sticky material from forming. It takes over the burden of the cleaning job. All of which means that after the war you're going to be able to buy soaps that will do things soap never did before. Manufacturers will be able to offer you soaps that won't leave streaks on glassware and dishes that will largely do away with rings around the bathtub that will take on a wide range of jobs all the way from washing your automobile to washing your dog with new efficiency. Here's a development of wartime research researched by DuPont chemists together with the armed forces and others that will make a direct contribution to your own comfort after the war. This new soap ingredient is one of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. Now here is Frederick March, star of tonight's Cavalcade. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. When I undertook the film role of Mark Twain I felt a very natural trepidation in portraying a man of Twain stature. Doing the part I became very conscious of the persistent truth of Twain's famous remark the report of my death has been greatly exaggerated. Mark Twain today is still alive more so than ever perhaps. If I have been able to renew your remembering of the man then in a small measure I have fulfilled my own death to Mark Twain. Next Monday night Cavalcade welcomes back an old friend and a great actress who has given us many memorable portrayals on the stage, screen and radio. Miss Helen Hayes. Miss Hayes will be starred in the dramatic human story of an army nurse autobiography of an angel. Tonight's Cavalcade play was adapted by Paul Peters. Frederick March appeared in the role of Mark Twain by special arrangement with Warner Brothers, producers of the adventures of Mark Twain which will be released in a series of special engagements beginning with the Hollywood Theater in New York City this week. The DuPont Cavalcade Orchestra this evening was under the direction of Donald Bowries. This is Roland Winters sending best wishes from Cavalcade sponsor the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Now for your further listening pleasure may we suggest that you stay tuned to NBC for the Firestone program the Bell Telephone Hour and Information Please which are to follow immediately over most of these stations. The Cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont came to you from New York. The National Broadcasting Company.