 presents Jeff Chandler and George Murphy. From Hollywood the Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theatre presents Clean and Crisp and Even starring Jeff Chandler. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we're doing peace for ourselves, peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theatre encourages you to pray, pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama Clean and Crisp and Even starring Jeff Chandler as narrator. In a way you could call this the story of an invasion, but it wouldn't be the kind of invasion you're used to hearing about. There are no political issues involved, there are no soldiers in the literal sense, no bombs, no guns, no shell holes, and no blood. The story begins in the atmosphere. In compliance with the law still unknown to us, detached molecules of hydrogen and oxygen floating in the air rush together and polymerize in geometric crystals. Crystals of almost unbelievable beauty, of infinite variety and with a frightening potential. The icy particles begin to fall singly at first, then as they bump in the warmer lower air they stick together forming flakes and the quiet white invasion of the earth begins in earnest. Pa, it's snowing again. Pa, hey Pa. I'm in here Gus, breaking out a little hay for the horses. It's snowing again. How many inches you think we'll get this time? I can't tell, not more than a couple most likely. Getting tired of it? Oh no I, I like it. Well if you want to go to town and stay with your aunt and uncle for the rest of the season. No no, I'm, I'm doing fine. I'd just soon stay here with you. Good. Gets a little lonely out here with only the horses to talk to. You know, maybe you ought to get married again Pa. I don't think mom would mind you. No I, I don't think she would Gus. But women as good as your mother was are few and far between. It's not likely I'd meet one out here. I guess not. Well I think everything's all squared away. Let's go up to the house to see about the thawing out. Good idea. Hey that snow is really coming down isn't it? Think we might get snowed in Pa? Well I wouldn't worry about it Gus. Let's go up to the house and listen to the forecaster on the radio. Just in case, okay? The forecaster's for more snow and continued cold. And the forecaster read special announcements for those planning journeys through the mountains. He said all passes were still open to traffic but some only to cars equipped with chains. He predicted fair to good skiing conditions for the weekend and listed several toes which skiers could expect to be operating. The snow continued through that day and night. In the dawn of the second day there was no line between earth and sky. Only a white blend where the properties of atmosphere were becoming the properties of earth. It fell in the quiet places of the mountains before the caves of hibernating animals. It piled itself on fir trees and forced the limbs to bend low under its weight. It mixed itself with wind and drifted over fields filling in the earth faults and giving weird new shapes to the obstacles it met. Changing boulders into giant pillows and young trees into Liliputian tents. It blanketed the mountains and the farmlands on the slopes. And in the city, homeowners got up an hour early to shovel and sand their sidewalks. The Department of Public Works hired an extra 1500 men to help with snow removal. In the early morning traffic moved with extra caution through the grey-white streets. I still don't see what's so important about it. I might expect a remark like that from your father. They're only people, mother. They'd understand. Perhaps they would, but I'm certainly not going to find out. Lucille an invitation from the Harrison's can be very important socially. All right. But getting up at the crack of dawn to drive a hundred miles through the mountains in a snowstorm. Don't you think it looks like we're trying too hard? Turn left here. We'll go out Washington Boulevard. Well, what was that for? Oh, I don't know. The good old days, I suppose. Good old days. You and Dad and Howard and I all together. We didn't have much, but we had fun. Well, the trouble with you, Lucille, you remember what you want to remember. The good old days. There were no good old days. If you knew the worry and hardship your mother went through. Just to give her children the necessities of life. You wouldn't long for your good old days. Do you have the heater on, dear? Full blast. What's the matter? There's something on the road. I think it's a snow plow. Well, can't you get around it? What do you think it would be wise? Suppose we got bogged down or something. Well, I told Mr. Harrison we'd be there by noon. If we travel at this speed, we'll probably get there by noon tomorrow. Now, after all, this is a very powerful car, Lucille. This shouldn't be any risk. All right, mother. Remember, it was your idea. Gus. Gus, boy, wake up. Come on, wake up, son. What's the matter? Come on, you better get up. Anything wrong? Well, there's another foot of snow on the ground and I don't like the looks of things. Come on, son, get up. Yeah, sure. Here are your pants. Thanks. There go your boots. Did you listen to the forecast? Radio's dead, Gus. You must have forgotten to turn it off after your program last night. Dead? Oh, gee, I'm sorry, Pop. It's all right. It's one of the things you put up with when you have a battery set. There's no harm done. I think we'll head for town just the same. Come on, get a move on. I'll fix you something to eat. The road sure did fill up fast. Yeah, some deep drifts. I hate to try this without chains. You want me to scrape the windshield again? Gus, what does that look like up ahead? Yeah, there's a car stall right in the middle of the road. Yeah, windshield wipers are still going. That means the motor's running. I don't see anyone behind the wheel. Somebody's in trouble, Gus. Let's take a look. Collie, gee, where is it? It's deep. Yeah, can you make it all right? Sure. They must have been there for quite a while. The car's almost drifted over. Come on, move some of that snow, Gus. Yeah. There, there, how's that? That's fine. If I can only find this door handle, I got it. Now, lend a hand. We'll force it open. Collie, a couple of women. Yeah. Are they frozen, Pop? No, the heat is still running. Probably poisoned by exhaust gases. Gee, they look bad. Awful bad. Yeah, but they're still alive. Gus, start making me a pass to the truck. They got to get these people back to the ranch house right away. Pop, the girl's awake again. Is she? I think she's feeling all right. That's fine. Let's go take a look. I told her what happened. I mean, about us finding her and bringing her here. Hello there. How do you feel? A little seasick. Is that possible? Well, if that's how you feel, I guess it's possible. How long have I been asleep? About 10 hours. 10 hours? You woke up once. I did. You introduced yourself, said how sorry you were to be so much trouble, asked about your mother. Then we gave you a pill and you went back to sleep. How is she? Is she all right? Hit her a little harder than it hit you, but she ought to be all right by morning. Did I really wake up and introduce myself? Mm-hmm. As Lucille Marie Ives. I don't remember that at all. Isn't that funny? Did you introduce yourself? Sure we did. My name is James Hale. This is my son Richard. Gus, for short. Well, I've probably said all this before, but I'm pleased to meet you. And I'm really very grateful to you gentlemen for saving my life. It's a pleasure. Any time at all. You better try to get a little more sleep. One thing before you go, is it still snowing outside? It's still coming down. Cats and dogs. It rains cats and dogs. Shouldn't it snow something else? Huh? Marshmallows and mashed potatoes maybe. Yeah, could be. Let us know if you need anything. Thanks again. Good night. Good night. Marshmallows and mashed potatoes. Crazy. You know Gus, I think she's gonna be all right. Hmm? Oh sure, she'll be as good as ever in a few. Hey, wait a minute. What do you mean, Pop? Mm-hmm. She looks okay now. That's what I mean, Gus. That's what I mean. The lonely place in the mountains between two steel and concrete towers, a power cable sagged under the weight of the snow and ice collecting on its surface. Each minute, the sag increased till an instant just before the dawn when the cable parted. Lights dimmed in the city and then came bright again as local generators took over the load formerly handled by a hydroelectric plant in Nevada. Only a few people noticed the power fluctuation. The load dispatcher in the local power company made a note of it and called his maintenance department. Some diners in an all night restaurant frowned at the lights for a moment between bites. And in a radio station, the announcer on duty was conscious of the dimming of the lights and noticed that his newsroom teletype designed for constant power in exact amounts had arbitrarily typed an M when it should have spaced. It had put the letter between icing and conditions in his weather forecast. He retyped the whole report. He wanted to give it a little more drama anyway. The weather was scheduled to be his lead story in the five o'clock news. It was still snowing when the dawn came the third day. Still a quiet white invasion by an almost infinite number of ice crystals gathering into uncountable billions of flakes. On a mountain road, only the slender wand of an automobile radio antenna rose above the snow to mark the place where a car had stalled only the day before. How about a little more coffee all the way around, guys? Sure thing. No more for me, thanks. Then there isn't any way I can get in touch with the Harrison's, Mr. Hale. I'm afraid not, Mrs. Ives. No telephone in this day and age? It's sort of a concession to my clients, Mrs. Ives. Businessmen come up here to hunt and fish. They want to get completely out of touch with the world. Well, if we could only let the Harrison's know where we are, they could send a car or something. We're all snowbound, Mrs. Ives. Well, if we're snowbound, I suppose we'll just have to endure it. Well, frankly, I don't mind the weather at all. We're probably in better company here than we would be at the Harrison's anyway. I'm sure the Harrison's would be complimented, dear. If you'll excuse us, Gus, let's go spread a little hay for the horses. Right. I'll get my parka. May I come with you? Yes, if you'd like, there won't be much to see. It doesn't matter. I'd like to have a word with you first, Lucille. I'll be along in a minute, Jim. Ready, Pop? Okay. Now, my dear. Mother, that man saved our lives yesterday. I haven't forgotten. And I'll show my gratitude in a way he can understand with a nice check when we get away from this place. A check? I can see the handwriting on the wall. I was merely putting him in his place. Mother. Oh, I've noticed how you've been making sheep's eyes at him. Sheep's eyes? Oh, no. Wait, just a minute. Can't you see, dear, what I did was for your own good. Well, please stop doing things for my own good. I'm not a child anymore. I'm a grown woman, 27 years old. Must you raise your voice? It's time we had this out, Mother. We are different people, you and I. We have different ideas about things. I want to be married well, but not the way you mean. Well, this is the first I've ever heard that you had anything against money. I have nothing against money. I like it. But I think you should handle it. It shouldn't handle you. Lucille! There's one thing I want you to understand, Mother. If I were in love with James Hale, I wouldn't care if his family were established or if he were bankrupt. And it would be for me to decide, not for you or anyone else, for me to decide. Gus, I loaded some cordwood on the back porch. How about hauling some of it in by the fireplace, huh? Sure, Pop. How's Mrs. Ives making up? It's hard to say. She got a book out of the library and she's been on the same page for about an hour. Maybe she's got something to think about. Where's Lucille? She's up in the attic. The attic? Yeah, she asked if we had one. I showed her the way. Okay. I think I'll see how she's doing. I'll get that wood in right away, Pop. There's no hurry, Gus. Hello. Hi. You'll catch cold standing in front of that open window. You know, this is kind of exciting. Have you ever been snowbound before? Yes. Yes, a couple of times, but never in such good company. Thank you, Jim. You know, I really like to apologize. You know, there's a funny little verse I've been thinking of for the past couple of days. I don't know who wrote it and under these circumstances, I suppose it seems kind of silly. How does it go? Each snowflake, as it leaves the sky, turns and turns and says goodbye. It's true, it must be a pretty noisy sky this evening, huh? I was thinking about something like that myself. A verse about snow, I mean. It's from a Christmas song. Oh, it's not really a Christmas song at all, but people sing it around Christmas. Good King Wensloss looked down on the feast of Stephen and the snow lay all around clean and crisp and even. Clean and crisp and even. Well, let's hope it doesn't get any more even. I can't find any of the fences around here now. I'd like a few of the things to stick up out of the snow for a while, like this house for instance. Jim, may I ask you a question? Sure. Where's Mrs. Hale? Margaret? She died when Gus was born. Oh, I'm sorry. You know, I haven't been in this attic for years. There are a couple of things up here that your mother ought to see. Might take them down and dust them off tomorrow. How do you like this? The painting? Yeah, hold it up to the light. Oh, what a handsome face. Who is he? I believe he was a great great uncle or something like that. This man had quite a place in history. Yeah, I think your mother might be interested. 79 people on 16 transcontinental flights saw the sunset over the central mountain states that evening. The effect was inspiring. It turned the top of the cloud layer from the pink of circus cotton candy to an almost vibrant crimson, spreading an aura of unreality from one horizon to the other. The pilot of one flight was transfixed by the site. Then coming to where the start, he flicked a switch and listened to the intermittent tone of the radio range station on his headphones. It was in synchrony with a flashing red light on his instrument panel. His plane was in its quadrant of the beam. It was on course. He went back to watching the sun, setting a cloud filled horizon on fire and wondered about the storm pictures he'd seen in the New York papers. How anything so beautiful from above could be causing so much damage to the earth below. At 9.15 that night, the Department of Public Works gave up. It was decided that snow removal would continue on arterial traffic ways only. A nearby army post offered the city fathers the use of four helicopters with pilots for emergency service. And the Air Force reported it had been instructed to begin hay-dropping operations to outlying ranchers as soon as the weather cleared. Radio stations broadcast frequent announcements concerning the conservative use of food, fuel and telephone service and gave broadcast time to the mayor. He said there'd been very few deaths directly attributable to the storm thus far. To keep it that way, he urged the citizens to share their staple foods with less fortunate neighbors to keep hope and to pray for an early end to the storm. He said he had talked to the weather bureau and the outlook was good. It was still snowing on the morning of the fourth day. But if we could only find out what's going on in the outside world. I'm sorry, Mrs. Ives. Well, nothing can be done about it. So why worry? That's about it. Well, a few ladies will excuse me. I have a few chores to do. Well, Jim, if you have plenty of sugar, I was thinking it might be fun to have a party. A taffy pull or make some fudge a little later, huh? I think that's a good idea. Barrel be enough? Oh, half a barrel would do it. Good. There's more coffee on the stove. Oh, thank you for showing me your painting, Mr. Hale. You're welcome, Mrs. Ives. Oh, you saw the picture? I did. It's on the wall over the mantle now. What do you think? What am I supposed to think? Oh, I thought you were interested in established families. Well, didn't you ask Jim about the picture? I did. It seems the man in the painting was a great uncle of his, spent the best part of his manhood working for an organization that was tottering on the edge of bankruptcy and that he was finally hanged as a spy. Apparently he wasn't even a good spy. Didn't he tell you, Mother? The bankrupt organization was the Continental Army. The man in the picture is Nathan Hale. I just keep stirring like this. Come on, get a little more back into it, Gus. You leave Maloney's doing just fine. All right. Smells pretty good. How do you know when it's ready to pour? You don't know how to tell when Fudge is done. Jim, you raised this boy all wrong. I see, Gus. Hope it isn't turning to sugar. Come to think of it, how do you tell when it's ready to pour? I believe you drop a bit of it in cold water. That's right, and if it forms a ball, it's done. Well, try it. You want to get some butter and grease the pans, Gus? It's still in the storeroom, isn't it? It was the last time I saw it. What's that sound? It's business. Come on, everybody out. I've still got the shakes. So have I, Gus. Oh, beautiful home. It's only a house. What we lost, we can build again. Only three rooms gone anyway. It's a lucky thing. No one was caught under that. Very lucky indeed. Yeah, well, come on. We better get back inside. We can't afford a case of pneumonia. Well, are you sure it's safe? I mean, if some of the rooms cave in... It was the weight of the snow that did it, Mrs. Ives. We only lost the newer parts of the house. We lost them because there wasn't enough slope to the roof. The collected snow just got too heavy. It's the slope that makes the snow slide off. At storerooms, somewhere under this mess, we better dig that out first. Look, isn't that the apple barrel? Oh, it looks pretty badly smashed. Yeah, and look at the apples. Well, we'll write them off as a loss. We should have enough tin goods to last out, though. Well, Gus, we better get inside and dress for the job. Jim, let me help you. Well, it's gonna be pretty heavy work. I think you'd better... I'd like to have a share in it. Please, Jim, I want to help you. Please. All right, Lucy, you can help. Gus? Yes. Get Lucy and your old Parker. She's gonna be working with us. Swell, come on, Lucy. I'll show you how to get into it. You two coming? We're on the way. Come on, let's get another cold, Mrs. Ives. Just a minute, Mr. Hale. I'd like a word with you. Of course. Mr. Hale, different people sometimes give different values to the same things. Well, I've had a lot of time to think things over these past few days, and it occurred to me that I've been giving some false values to things and to people. My daughter gave me quite a lecture the other day. Mr. Hale, I'm trying to apologize for my rudeness. I guess I'm not doing a very good job. There's no need to apologize, Mrs. Ives. Oh, thanks. And about those those apples, Mr. Hale, I learned a few lessons during the depression about storing things against harder times. If you'd like, I think I could preserve them for you. You know, you're quite a woman, Mrs. Ives. And as my daughter pointed out, you're quite a man, Mr. Hale. At a few seconds after 4 18 on the fourth day, the last snowflake came to rest on a dwarf pine some 15 yards below Timberline. And just of another line, the one that marks the separation of earth and sky, the clouds thinned apart to reveal a patch of blue and admit the warming rays of the late afternoon sun. The storm was over. A few minutes after that, the pilot of an Air Force plane engaged in a a drop operations read a message in the snow. He dipped the wing at his C 47 to acknowledge having seen it and then relate its contents to civilian authorities. The message written in pine boughs on a field of snow read, Ives and Hale's All OK. Emergency operations continued in the city. The police and fire departments were still making their supply runs between food market warehouses and snowlocked hotels and boarding houses. The snow plows and bulldozers, the earth movers, road scrapers, trucks and men of the public works department stayed on the job of snow removal and army helicopters on ambulance runs continued to log hours. But it was different now. The invasion was over. It was a matter of cleaning up, not catching up. And the workers and the snowbound could take time to pause and watch the sunset and think about tomorrow. And now here is your host George Murphy. One of our great presidents once said the real reason for universal unrest is not to be found so much in politics and economics as in the sources of the spiritual life of our times. The sum of the whole matter is this, he said. Our civilization cannot survive unless it be redeemed spiritually. The primary hope that we can become less materialistic and more spiritual as men and as nations lies in our turning more to God, all of us. And the first step, it seems to me, is for us to decide that each of our families will henceforth institute the practice of daily family prayer. The family, you know, is the fundamental unit in the world society. And each of its members can be better, can be closer together and can have more faith in the future if all of us together daily call on God to aid the nation and aid the world. We need understanding these days, especially between individuals, within families, between groups and classes, and most of all between nations. One of the great commandments is, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. To aid us in this endeavor, we should, as families, call on God together. We should do that daily so that we will be constantly reminded of our obligations. Remember, a world at prayer is a world at peace. More things are brought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood, Family Theater has brought you clean and crisp and even, starring Jeff Chandler. George Murphy was your host. Others in our cast were Gene Bates, Herb Ellis, Myra Marsh, and Michael Chapin. The script was written by Robert Hugh O'Sullivan and was directed and transcribed for Family Theater by John T. Kelly, with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program. By the Mutual Network, which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen, and radio, who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony Lafranco expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your homes, and inviting you to be with us next week when Family Theater will present Skin Deep, starring Marshall Thompson. Will Rogers Jr. will be your host. Join us, won't you? We invite you to listen next week at the same time for the next in the series of Family Theater. And now, may we suggest you stay tuned for the newspaper of the year with John Holbrook, which follows immediately over most of these stations. This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System.