 Remember, a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. The makers of Hallmark greeting cards bring your Teresa Wright in Sanford Saliers, Marmy, the mother of little women, on the Hallmark Playhouse. Week Hallmark will bring you Hollywood's greatest stars in outstanding stories chosen by one of the world's best-known authors. The distinguished novelist, Mr. James Hilton. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is James Hilton. Tonight on our Hallmark Playhouse, we give you, and appropriately, the story of the mother of an American writer, the famous author of Little Women, Louisa Mae Alcott. She was born in 1832 and lived for just over half a century, and her home life with her parents had brought her into contact with Emerson and other great names of literature. Her mother, Marmy, is the subject of a book by Sanford Saliers, and it is her story that we tell tonight, a mother's story that has much warmth and charm. To play such a part, we are fortunate indeed to have an actress whose own charm has won her wide fame and popularity, Teresa Wright. And now, a word about Hallmark cards from Frank Goss before we begin the first act of Marmy, the mother of little women. There are Hallmark cards for every memorable occasion to help you say just what you want to say, just the way you want to say it. For birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and special days like Mother's Day, which is just around the corner. Yes, for every occasion that calls for remembrance, for a friendly greeting, a word of cheer, or to express your warmest love, there is a Hallmark card. And that identifying Hallmark on the back, well, that says you cared enough to send the very best. Now, Hallmark Playhouse presenting Teresa Wright as Marmy, the mother of little women. Call my mother Marmy. Her hair was white as snow on her 77th birthday, and when Father and I came into her bedroom with our arms full of flowers and packages, I saw her lean back against the pillows and close her eyes against a sudden rush of tears. Happy birthday, dear. Happy birthday, Marmy. Well, well, this is a surprise. I'd forgotten it was my birthday. My father always said that only the young should have birthdays. He was a very wise man. I've told you, haven't I, about the time he said it? You never told me. How did he happen to say it? Well, it was his birthday. And as I remember, he came down early to breakfast, and he was waiting at the table when I came down. Now, Abba, you're late to breakfast again, he said. I can just hear him saying it. Now, Abba, you're late to breakfast again. I'm sorry, Papa. I took a moment longer to wrap this. Happy birthday. Abba, don't you know that only the young should have birthdays? We're having a family dinner tonight. All the aunts and cousins. Oh, is George coming? Yes, George is coming. Oh, have you and George had a quarrel? No, no, George and I never quarrel. Father, would you be terribly disappointed if... if I didn't marry George? Well, my dear, if you aren't in love with George, then it wouldn't be fair to you or to George to marry him. Then I won't. Well, I feel much better now that that settled. Uh, Abba, there's something that I must tell you. Abba, I, um... would you be terribly disappointed if... if I did marry again? Father, what did you say? Well, I've been calling lately on Reverend Carey's widow. We're both lonely and... Well, it depends on you, children. If you would be unhappy about it. Of course we won't, Father. If you're happy, then we'll be happy. Do you know, at this exact moment, you sound like my mother? Do you know, Father, that this exact moment, I feel like your mother? After Father's marriage, I went to visit my brother Sam and his wife Sarah in Brooklyn, Connecticut. I was troubled and unhappy because my life lacked purpose. And I didn't know how to give it purpose. And then one day there was a knock at the door and Sarah opened it. And I heard her say, Well, here's our house guest. Come in, Bronson. Yes, that's what she said. Well, here's our house guest. Come in, Bronson. Abba, my dear, I have the honor to present Mr. Bronson Alcott. How swiftly the world changes. I have the honor to present Mr. Bronson Alcott. And the lights go up and the music starts. And all you've dreamed of finding crystallizes in one face and one voice. How sweet the remembered words. How sweet the remembered moments. It's a lovely dance, isn't it, Mr. Alcott? It's warm. Well, shall we go out in the garden? Yes, yes, let's go out in the garden. It's a beautiful night, isn't it? Yes, beautiful. You're very quiet. Yes, I know. Sometimes I find it very difficult to talk to you, Miss May. Why, Mr. Alcott? You speak so fluently and so well on every subject. I don't know. Something happens to my tongue when I'm around you. I keep tripping over it. I feel like a schoolboy. Do you, Mr. Alcott? And yet it seems to me that you and I have so much in common. So much to talk about. Now, Miss May, you come from a background of position and security. My background is almost complete poverty. I educated myself. Oh, I think it's wonderful that a man can educate himself. I hope now to devote my life to teaching. There won't be much money in it. Money doesn't count. It's what a man is that counts. Yes. Well, but you've lived a sheltered life. I've been a peddler. I've worked in a clock factory. Oh, it's exciting. Do you know, Mr. Alcott, I've never known anyone quite like you in my whole life. You come from one world, I come from another. If that's true, then perhaps the two worlds have come together. For I see only one world here about us. Miss May, I think we should get back to the dance. Mr. Alcott. Yes, Miss May. I wanted to tell you I'm returning to Boston tomorrow. Oh. Well, I hope you have a most pleasant journey, Miss May. Thank you, Mr. Alcott. Yes, perhaps we should go in. It's turned quite chilly out here, hasn't it? Miss May. Yes, Mr. Alcott. I must tell you, it's been a rare pleasure meeting you. Mr. Alcott. I'm planning to open a school in your city in a month or two. Perhaps you will permit me to call? Mr. Alcott, I shall be more than happy to receive you. Do sit down. You'll wear a hole in the carpet. Mrs. May, speak to your stepdaughter. Maybe you can do something with her. I understand how she feels. It's a miserable nuisance being a woman. That's what it is. What's a woman to do if she's in love with a man who won't ask her to marry him? Aberdeer. She must wait until he does. It isn't fair the way things go in this world. Why should it have to be the men to do the asking and the women the waiting? Did you wait for father to ask you? Yes, I did, dear. You didn't help him along a little, just a little push of some sort? No, you have to be patient. But I've been patient and months and months and months have gone by. Bronson Alcott will never ask me to marry him of his own free will. Then you don't want him. But I do want him. I'm sure I don't know why. He has no money, no prospects, and as far as I can see... He will have. Someday he's going to be one of the greatest educators in the world. And even if he isn't, I want to be beside him. I want to work with him, help him, rear his children. Why must it be Alcott? There are a hundred promising young men in Boston that you could choose from. But none like him. None like him. Then patience, Aberdeer. Patience. Oh, patience! It's nine o'clock in this may. I must say good night. I have some classroom papers I must correct before I retire. How is the school coming, Mr. Alcott? Very well, Miss May. Miss May, before I leave, I have a letter here. It is from my cousin William, and I would like you to read it and then give it to your father. A letter from... I don't think I understand. It is a letter of recommendation. Recommendation? Regarding my character. William is getting rather well-known, and I thought perhaps someone should vouch for my character. We have never thought that you had anything but a splendid character, Mr. Alcott. Everyone must have references. I keep a daily journal of my thoughts, Miss May, and I wanted to leave it with you. I would not presume to say that you would be interested in its contents, but I would be very grateful if you read it, if you would glance through it. Good evening, Miss May. Good evening, Mr. Alcott. Oh, don't get up. I'll let myself out. How strange. Well, shall I start at the end or at the beginning? I think at the end. Let me see what he has written here. What shall I say to her? How can I tell her? Shall I say, my dearest, I have long considered myself a poor man, but at long last I have come to realize what Cicero meant when he wrote, he who loves a friend is too rich to know what poverty and misery are. I have no right to ask her to share this life of mine, for I am a dreamer, as well as a teacher, and little of worldly goods will ever be mine. And yet I must ask her, because it is impossible to deny love, expression, and dreams a chance of coming true. If there's ever to be happiness for me, it can only be with her. Oh, Bronson, he does love me. Happiness you wrote, and that's the way it's been for me, too. The moment I looked into your eyes, I found my home, and I knew it once was I'd been waiting for. My dearest, my dear. You'd better go inside to kiss that young man. It's all right, Father. We're going to be married. If it's all right with you, sir. All right with me. My dear Mr. Alcott, after this exhibition in the streets of Boston, I shall insist on your marriage. The sooner, the better. Come back and sit down and talk to me, Mr. Alcott. After all, we have a great deal to talk over. Yes, a great deal. Tonight is the beginning of the world, Mr. Alcott. The beginning of our world. Just a moment, we'll return to the second act of Marmee, the mother of little women, starring Teresa Wright. Remember, when you were little, how mother smiled, how many crumbs on the carpet or fingerprints on the wall. Remember how she'd tuck you in at night and listen to your dreams and always understand just everything? That's mother. And her day, mother's day, you'll want to remember with words that express your devotion and your gratitude for those precious memories of her constant love. You'll find a hallmark card that would help express your deepest thoughts, your warmest love, whatever you have in your heart. A hallmark card with words that are meaningful, memorable, just right. A hallmark card you choose may be rich with red roses, bright with brilliant carnations, or delicately a bloom with shy violence. Yet whatever you choose, mother will cherish it, for you will find a hallmark card that says what you want to say, the way you want to say it. There are also cards to mother and father so dad won't feel left out. Cards for grandmother, mother to be, and also for the mother of a good friend. In fact, cards for every mother on Mother's Day. As you know, Mother's Day is this coming Sunday, tomorrow at the friendly store where you find hallmark cards and find just the right remembrance for those you can't forget. And be sure to look for hallmark. You know it has special significance. It says you cared enough to send the very best. And now, before we return to the second act of our play, I would like to tell you about a special broadcast. On June 1st, for the first time on the air, the dynamic story of Kansas City will be broadcast on hallmark playhouse direct from Kansas City, one full hour of exciting drama, and our stars will be Robert Young and Jane Wyman. And now here is the second act of Marmee, the mother of little women, starting Teresa Wright. She shared even an hour with my mother was to have added an hour's richness to a lifetime. Yes, her hair was white as snow on her 77th birthday, but her eyes were young and glowing. And when she smiled, she was a girl again. Yes, sweet of the remembered words and sweet the memories. We were married on a Sunday afternoon in Maine, King's Chapel. And then with my husband's hand in mind and all the shining future waiting across the horizon, I saw life's purpose and life's mean, and I found it good. At first, Bronson kept on teaching, but his methods were too much in advance of his time. And finally, we gave it up all together and went to live in the country at Concord. We were very poor and worldly goods, but we had each other. And as the years passed, we had our four daughters, our four little women, Anna, Louisa, Beth and Mae. Louisa, I can see you now sitting before the fire late at night. I have an idea for a story, Mommy, you used to say. I can hear you now. I have an idea for a story, Mommy. Louisa, I thought you were in bed and asleep hours ago. I thought I'd write a story about the time you had us give our dinner to that poor family up the street. No matter how little we have, we must always share, Louisa. Mommy, when is Father coming home? As soon as his lecture tour is over. Then Father said we'd be much better off and have more money if Father stayed home and took care of us. Louisa, your Father is a great man. You can't measure greatness by how much money a man makes or what kind of a house he lives in. You measure a man's greatness by how much he's willing to give up for the things he believes in. Your Father has thoughts inside him that the world should hear. Would you want him to stay at home and make money and leave those things unsaid? No, Mommy. There are things I want to say too. I know that, Louisa. You want to write, and I want you to write. I always intended to write myself, but somehow there's never been time. Someday I'll do it for you. Yes, Louisa. Someday you'll do it for me. Jesus, age creeps up on us in the night. We wake one morning and there are the gray hairs mixed among the dark. There are the lines wrinkling the smooth skin. Yes, time cheats us. Youth fled from Bronson and me one evening while we slept. I realized that long before he did. But at last one day he saw two. I had taken in some neighbor children that were ill of scarlet fever. And when I came downstairs with their supper trays, Bronson was sitting in the living room staring into the fire. I'm old, Abba. I'm old and disappointed in so much. I failed in all I hoped to accomplish. Bronson, no man could accomplish in a lifetime all that you hoped to accomplish. The ideals you've dreamed of will be accomplished in time because of sparks you kindled. You may not live to see the educational system you hoped for established. You may not live to see slavery abolished. But those things will happen. And the words you spoke will have helped them happen. Abba, how long is it since you've had a new dress? A new dress? My gracious, I don't know. When I married you, you were young and lovely. You had no care in the world. Oh, Abba, Abba, what I've done to you. Done to me. Why, Bronson, you've given me so much. Don't you know that? You've given me a lifetime of the greatest happiness that could come to a woman. You've given me love and devotion and faith. You've made me feel necessary, needed. You've given me a purpose, a reason for living. You've given me the home that every woman seeks. The home that can only be found in the love of the man she loves. And the children she's brought into the world. Oh, Abba. Yes, what is it, Louisa? Mommy, you'd better come right away. It's Beth. She's ill. I think it's the fever. Beth, I'm my child. I'm my child. To find of the deepest, richest kind. To hold your child against your heart. To watch her grow. To guide her first faltering steps. To hear her cry in the night and stop crying when you take her in your arms. It is fulfillment to answer questions. To teach, to plan, to guide, to love. To lose a child is death. Death that must be hidden behind unshed tears. Lest your grief add to the burden of already overflowing hearts. Beth, my child, my child. And I'm glad I were. Death never seemed terrible to me. And now it seems even beautiful. I see no dread of fear in it. I'm glad to know Beth is safe from pain. In some world where she must be happy. Louise, thank you for those words. I don't know where you learned your wisdom, but I thank God for it. You don't know where I learned it. Why, Mommy, I learned it from you. I learned it from you. Bronson, what's happened? You are looking at the new superintendent of the Concord Public Schools. Bronson, oh, my dear, my dear. I'm speechless, completely speechless. Oh, Bronson, Mommy, I just met Anna and she's done something terrible. She's gone and told a man she'd marry him. You've got to speak to her right away. I know, Louise. I've been meaning to tell you about that. Louise, your father's just been appointed superintendent of schools. Isn't that exciting? Oh, Father, that's wonderful. I always knew you'd show them all someday. Thank you, Louise. Where did you say Anna was? I want to tell her about it in May too. Anna's down by the gate. I'll be right back. Mommy, are you going to let Anna get married? Of course. She's in love. Why shouldn't she get married? I don't want her to get married and go away. I don't want things to change. Oh, Louise, you're my child. You can't keep life from going on. Things change in spite of us. Louisa, what about that book the publisher asked you to write? Oh, I don't know. They want a book for girls. I'm not very interested in writing anything like that. I don't know what to write about. Why don't you write about your sisters and you, about your childhood, the things that we all did together, the things that made us laugh and the ones that made us cry? If you don't want to write it for the publisher, Louisa, write it for me. Let me have it at my fingertips, always, the story of my little women. All right, Marmy. I'll try. Some plays. It seems as though it were only yesterday you were starting on the book, Louisa. And yet it was years and years ago. And now most of the world has read the story. Marmy, Anna and all your grandchildren are waiting to come up and wish you a happy birthday. Well, tell them to come up. Tell them to come up. No, I'll go down. Bronson, if you'll just help me out of bed. Oh, Marmy, do you think you should? Of course I should. Do you think I'm going to have my grandchildren thinking I'm an old woman? I'll take a switch to any one of them that they'll suggest you're an old woman. Here, my arm, Mrs. Alcott. Thank you, Mr. Alcott. Bronson, remember the night we bought back to the house, arm in arm. That night was the beginning of our world. I do indeed. I had no idea at all how wonderful that world could be. I thank God for it all. For you, Bronson, and for Anna and Louisa and me in bed. For my little women. How happy, how proud, how grateful I am to God to have been your wife and their mother. As Abraham Lincoln, who with his understanding heart and masterful words expressed this memorable sentiment, all that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. I'm sure Mr. Lincoln's words expressed what all of us feel but far too seldom get around to expressing. Sunday is Mother's Day. Whether mother is near or far away, you'll want a special Mother's Day greeting to help you say the things that are in your heart. And you'll find there is a hallmark card to help you say just what you want to say, just the way you want to say it. Your tribute said that perfect hallmark way, with words so personal, so truly yours, will warm her heart this special day and many days to come. And that famous hallmark on the back also says what you want to say. It says you cared enough to send the very best. Here again is James Hilton. Thank you, Theresa Wright, for your understanding portrayal of Marmee. Our warmest congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Hilton, for inviting me here tonight to appear in such a wonderful story. Well, we could think of no better time to present this warm story of a splendid person and devoted mother than on our Mother's Day broadcast. It was a very thoughtful selection and exactly what we've all come to expect at the playhouse and of hallmark cards too. I mean the understanding and meaning of their words and the fact that there always seems to be a hallmark card that's just right for every occasion. Like Mother's Day, for instance. Well, that's very nice of you to say, Theresa. Tell us, Mr. Hilton, what is your selection for next week? Next week, our play will be the Wayfarers. This is the story of how a father tackled the problems of his children and in doing so, solved his own. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Our star will be Mr. Lloyd Nolan. Our hallmark playhouse is every Thursday. Our director-producer is Bill Gay. Our music was composed and conducted by Lynn Murray and our script tonight was adapted by Jean Holloway. Until next Thursday then, this is James Hilton saying, good night. Hallmark cards that are sold only in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember hallmark cards when you carry enough to send the very best. Theresa Wright can currently be seen co-starring with Lou Ayres in The Capture and RKO Release. This is Frank Goss saying good night to you all until next week at this same time when James Hilton returns to present Dan Wickendon's The Wayfarers starring Lloyd Nolan. And the week following, Bobby Driscoll and Emil Schurmacher's Knee Plants. And be sure to listen in on June 1 when Hallmark Playhouse presents the dynamic story of Kansas City broadcast directly from Kansas City. A full hour of thrilling drama starring Robert Young and Jane Wyman on the Hallmark Playhouse. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.