 Family Theatre presents Robert Alda and Adolf Manjou. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theatre presents Testimonial starring Adolf Manjou and Robert Alda. 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 to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama Testimonial starring Robert Alda as McMurtry and Adolf Manjou as Marion. Can you hear that sound? I've been told it from far off on stage. It sounds like the pounding of a surf. Or like a wind in a pine forest. One thing is certain. It's the most gratifying sound a performer can hear. It means that weeks of hard work, weeks of planning and worry have been worthwhile. The voice of an audience saying, I approve. Your show was good. Thank you. It was even more than that one night not long ago for a man named Joseph Marion. For him, it marked the climax of a very special play. His most important presentation in a long career of important presentations. The story began when a famous actress, Joan Rinald, stopped by to see me at the news. She had a play she wanted to do, had a cast lined up. She even had a theatre, but there was one thing she needed. A director. A particular director, Mac. But, Joan, why come to me? A drama critic. Shouldn't you be talking to an agent? Well, the man I want hasn't got one anymore. And you know everything that's going on in this town. I thought you might be able to tell me where I can find him. Well, whom did you have in mind? I want Joseph Marion. Did you say Joseph Marion? No one else. Well, he's done some fine things in his time, and there's no one I'd rather see get a break. But he hasn't directed in a long time in his last three plays. We're pretty bad, I know. He's pretty well written off as a has-been. I don't think there's a producer who'd touch him. Mine will, Mac. Look, Joan, a lot of pretty good directors are at liberty right now. Younger men with something on the ball. Why not talk with a few of them? I'd like to keep my reasons to myself, at least for the time being. Then at the right time, I'll tell you all about it. All right? All right, but I hope you know what you're doing. I do, Mac, and my backers are with me. Can you tell me where he lives? No, but I can take you where he works. But, Joan, don't hope for too much. Joseph Marion was working as a dishwasher in one of the little second-class restaurants on 76th Street. I telephoned to let him know we were coming to see him, and then Joan and I drove over. I nearly didn't recognize him. He'd aged so much. And waiting there in a corner booth in a wrinkled old blue suit and two days' growth of beard, he really looked like a defeated man. He was glad to have our company, but he didn't seem to want to discuss Joan's offer. Are you representing a revitalized federal theater project, or is this a personal charity, young lady? It's not a charity, Mr. Marion. We've never worked together, have we? My father worked for you as a stagehand. His name? Albert Rinalt. Albert Rinalt? Well, I'm afraid I don't remember him. You remembered him when he needed remembering. That was enough. Well, let's not talk shop anyway when there are so many pleasant-to-things to talk about. How's the newspaper business doing, Mac? Joe, the lady is offering you a job, an opportunity to work again. He'll are out anyway. I wish you'd at least read it. It's a very good play. It's based on every man. Based on every man? Well, it belongs to a great era of the theater, to half a hundred great eras, but not to mine. It's just as well that I'm out of it. Weeks of work, flares of temperament and for what? A thing so fugitive it's gone in an hour. The applause of the crowd. And when you work for it for weeks and play the games, you have to play and hope and pray and then have that applause withheld. Well, when I think about that, I'm glad I'm out of the business. Mr. Marion... I've quit. I'm not a director anymore. I'm an eight-day clock on the seventh day. Come on, Joe, let's go. Not yet, Mac. Say you'll read it, Mr. Marion. That's all I ask. There's no point in it. Don't you know what happened to my last three plays? Aspect Burtry here. He'll tell you. He's a reviewer. Sorry, Joe. It's my game. Oh, I have nothing against you for telling the truth. In your game, mine and a hundred others, three strikes are out. Young lady, thank you for trying, but it's no good. I've tried it, but when producers find out that I have anything to do with the production, they back out as if I were jinxed. An angel to put up the money for a play I'd direct would have to come straight out of heaven. You'd simply never get one. We already have backers, Mr. Marion. That's right, Joe. They even have a theater. You have backers? Do they know that you want me to direct? They asked me to get you. Young lady, look at me and say that again. The producers of the show, the ones who are paying for the show, asked me to get Joseph Marion to direct. They asked you to get me? By name. They're not even considering anyone else. Mac Murtry, she's... She's giving it to you straight, Joe. Look, suppose I leave this copy of the script. See if you like it. Who's producing your play, Mr. Arnold? I'm not at liberty to say just yet. Suppose I call you tomorrow about the script. All right? Yes, that will be fine. And, Mr. Arnold? Yes? Thank you. This moved pretty fast after that. Ten o'clock next morning, Joan called me at the paper. She wanted me to pick up Joe Marion at an address up in the 90s and bring him to the theater. He looked a lot different. He'd shaved. His suit was pressed. He didn't say much on the way down. Just kept nervously thumbing through the script. When we were a couple of blocks from the theater... I've never been so afraid of anything in my life, Mac. Isn't it a good play? One of the best I've read. A great potential. And the cast, all tops. I've worked with most of them some time or another. Well, and I can't see what you've got to be afraid of, Joe. Myself, Mac. Well, this is the place. What's the matter, Joe? Don't you think you can do it? Oh, I can do it all right. But how will the performers take it? Look at the cast and look at me. How am I going to be the driving perfectionist I'll have to be? Most of these people are excellent. But this is a difficult play they're doing. The backers ask for me, Mac, and believe me, I'm grateful. But how can I give them their money's worth if the cast thinks of me as a has-been? An ex-dishwasher, rather than as a director. You see what I mean? How is the cast going to feel about having Joseph Marion direct? Well, Joe, let's go in and find out. After all, you've got no place to go, but up. Well, I was wondering how long you two was going to stay in the car. Oh, Art Denny. Yeah, McMurtry and old friend of mine, Arthur Denny of Denny and Brace. Well, how do you do? Thoughtful, Mr. McMurtry, little before your time. Pleased to meet you. Well, Mr. Marion, you're looking fine. You always were a great storyteller. It's the truth. You haven't aged a day. Denny was one of the top comics of his time. Ah, never even came close to it. But I might have if my legs hadn't given out. Been looking to see you for a long time, Mr. Marion. When the wife heard you was coming back, she made me promise to bring you over. She hasn't forgotten what you did for us. Not by a lung shot. Oh, nonsense. How is the good lady? Just tip top. Here, I'll open the door for you. Still my job. I'm doorkeeper here, Mr. McMurtry. Still in show business. Thanks, Art. We're pulling for you, Mr. Marion. Nice meeting you, Mr. McMurtry. The meeting with Denny was repeated on the stage when Joan reintroduced the players to Joseph Marion. All of them were all friends. All were glad he was back. Each of them had worked with Joan the distant past before they'd acquired their reputations as top performers with top salaries. There was Phyllis Henderson, pleasantly plump and still on the uphill of middle age. Perhaps better described... As delightful as a full-blown rose. What an abcasting choice as the personification of good womanhood. You've come a long way, Phil. Since you pulled me out of the chorus and made me read lines. You were much too skinny to be a dancer. You were in fact much too skinny to fire. I thought you might fall away to nothing before getting to the street. Well, I'm certainly not having that trouble now. No, Phil. There was Adam Jensen, a handsome fellow who looked the same age for 25 years. His ticket to fame was the facility of being able to fill a theater with an empathy of impending doom. But strangely enough, offstage, he seemed like a pretty nice guy. No, I don't think I've missed a month's work until the year 1935. Few other actors can make that statement. You see, I told you you'd be successful if you give up the idea of romantic leads. Well, who's giving it up? I won't be happy till some stock company invites me to do John Love's Marry. Well, don't hold your breath, Adam. There was Raymond Danner who'd gotten his dot with Marion right after the Second War. Jeanine Moore who'd made her mark in his heritage of home. There were set designers, electricians, wardrobe people, a production manager. In fact, all of the talents and skills necessary to the finished product were represented. That is all except the producers. I'd rather hope that I'd get a chance to meet my benefactors today, but still they choose not to appear. And since Mr. Arnold still refuses to enlighten me, we'll just have to get along without meeting them for the time being. We have a good script, and I've never had such a good cast together at one time. So, there is no reason I should not be able to repay my benefactors for their vote of confidence in me by giving them the finest production possible. But then, that should be in keeping with your custom, too. Sure. Thank you, and I'll see you all tomorrow morning at 9.30 for the first reading. I thought I was supposed to be the heavy. All right, all right. First day will make it 10.30. And now I'd like to see the set designer. My work at the news kept me from getting over to the theatre for a week or so, and when I did get there, it was pretty late in the evening. That is, it was late in the evening in my town, but in most American cities, it was the middle of the night. Denny let me in the stage door, and I took a seat halfway back in the darkened auditorium. There wasn't much of a resemblance between the Joseph, Mary, and Joan, and I had talked to in the restaurant kitchen, and the man I saw directing that night. Sitting down becomes a production. It would also become a distraction. You are shocked when you realize who he is, but still you sit slowly, gracefully, keeping your eyes on Jensen. Now let's try it again. From my entrance? That's right. We're all trying very hard, but do you think we might continue this tomorrow morning? Yes, I think we will definitely continue this tomorrow morning. I'm sorry we have to work so hard over such long hours, but I feel in fairness to the backers of this play we should also continue this tonight. But it's one o'clock in the morning. The lines don't sound like English anymore. Then don't say the lines. Use the author's words, but use them as thoughts, and then perhaps we'll have it right. Then we can call it a day. Otherwise we'll have to keep working. If it takes that long, yes. We'll keep working till actions on stage seem natural to the characters, and the lines are given with all the meaning written to them. Without energy enough, the lines will be vapid, empty implications that stand like columns in the desert, broken, disconnected things, supporting nothing, and the action. The sets are not familiar. After all, we can't have you dodging around like puppets an opening night with an audience looking overhead for strings. Now, since we're all tired and I have run out of insinuations, shall we continue? Oh, uh, first, uh, are we still friends? Well, since there aren't enough of us to make up a lynch mob, what do you want us puppets to do? All right, from my interest again, John. That's right, Jensen from stage left to Phyllis from the right, and Mr. Renaut discovered on stage curtain. What a strange effect seeing all of those very talented performers playing to a very critical one-man audience. But I think I began to understand what Joe had meant by audience approval flowing up over the footlights like a wall of warmth. But this time, the flow was in the opposite direction, and it seemed made up of talent and energy, all aimed at the critical one-man audience standing at the foot of the stage. After one false start, they went through the scene well enough to make me forget it was just part of a play. Got one clap of applause from Joseph Marion, and the rehearsal was over. I headed for backstage. Driving it pretty hard? He certainly is, Mac. But I think it's going to be worth it. Maybe, but sometimes I think we've created a monster. We, Adam? Oh, an editorial we, you might say, Mac. Well, too much more of this, and I'm going to wind up feeling as old as I am, and that will never do. No, no, no, wait, wait, I'll go with you. Good night. Can I drop you someplace, Joan? I have my car, thanks. Good night. Say, what are you supposed as holding up Marion? He's still inside, isn't he? Well, he must be. We've been standing right here. He'd have to go by. Well, maybe we better have a look, huh? He was sitting in the first row of seats in the darkened auditorium, frowning at the uncovered bulb of the nightlamp on stage. Joan and I sat down next to him. Joe, don't you think you ought to call it a day? I've got to make it better, Mac. Better? No, no, no, I'm not thinking about the acting, Joan. You people are doing beautifully. No, it is something for me to do. There are great moments in this play, and I might not be staging as well as I could. It's a strong moral play, this one, that pulls no punches, uses no subterfuge. A straight-line plot with no counterblock to speak of. The story of a human being, misspending life of temptations, warnings of death, fear and hope. It's strong, but am I getting the most out of it? Am I pulling any punches or setting them up wrong? You know, Mac, I still haven't met the producers. Well, ever hear the one about the gift horse, Joe? Yes, but this play has to be better than good. And for that, well, I have a few ideas, but I'd like to talk them over with someone first. Well, didn't they send you a production manager? Yes, but... And he told you to handle things your own way. These things cost money, and I owe them too much already. If I could just talk to them and see what they think. Joe, I've got a hunch you're not going to meet your backers till this thing is ready. This one you're going to have to do strictly on your own. As the opening date of the show grew closer, activity around the theater increased. Joe experimented with makeup. Some of the sets were altered for greater mobility. The cast was fitted for wardrobe and publicity began its final big push. The story had a lot of human interest, and that aura of mystery concerning the producers made it good copy. On opening night, the box office was sold out three months in advance. And at curtain time, there wasn't even a square foot of standing room anywhere in the house except where I was, backstage. There might have been a minor error somewhere in the performance, but if there was, no one seemed to notice. The audience was quiet. No one coughed. No programs were rattled. The only sounds in the house came from the stage. Then the curtain fell and there was perhaps one more second of silence before the wave broke. The actors made them many curtain calls and then a curious thing happened. Someone far back in the audience called for the director. And then quite a few others picked it up. Come on, Joe. It's your turn. Me? No, no, things like this don't happen. The author, yes, but not... The author's been dead for centuries and they know it. Come on, they want you. No, look at me. Give them what they want, Joe. What did I say? Come on, Joe, come on. Adam Jensen and John took him to the middle of the stage and left him. For a second he just stood there trying to see past the glare of the footlights while the audience waited. Thank you for liking our play. Actually, very little of the credit should go to me. It really belongs to the splendid cast, the many fine technicians and the ones I owe so much, the producers. I still haven't met them. If they care to show themselves, now I'd like to thank them and join you in giving them the applause they deserve. Joseph Marion was the only one applauding, but the stage behind them was filling up. The cast of the play, the electricians, the stagehands, the doorman Denny, all of them took a spot on the stage. And then the house lights came on and by twos and threes and then by dozens the entire audience stood up. An audience composed of export villains, musicians, actors, dancers, technicians, in fact probably about everyone Joseph Marion had ever given a leg up in all his years in the business. He turned and looked at his cast and then at the audience of familiar faces. He said, thank you twice. The first he directed to his backers, the assembled cast and audience and the second he directed toward the ceiling of the theater. I thank you with all my heart. Thank you very much. The show ran for a little less than two years and shortly before it closed Joe complained of feeling tired. Sat down on the first row to rest for a minute he closed his eyes and died. Some said it was a great shame but, well, I don't know he quit when he was winning. Then again he hit the top with that particular production and for him there was just no place to go but up. This is Robert Alder again thanking you on behalf of Family Theater and the cast. And on behalf of Joe Marion so wonderfully portrayed by Adolf Manchur. I'm glad Joe made it. It was a message of hope. Of course, that's Family Theater's motive. Hope and prayer. Family prayer, Bob, especially. Family Theater feels that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the links of this nation are its families. I see what you mean. A message of hope alone, that sounds pretty vague. But I meant hope in and prayer to an audience to whom no man or woman ever becomes a husband. A great producer. In fact, the great creator who takes a warm, personal loving interest in every one of us. Now if we could only make ourselves realize that... We can, Bob, if we'll take time to talk to him. That's all prayer is talking to him. You said family prayer. Surely. Talk to him as a family. Adolf, what if he were suddenly elected head of every family in America by the members of each family? Why, there'd be a revolution. The right kind of revolution. Well, that's the whole idea. Family theater's very revolutionary purpose is to tell us all week after week till it's drummed into our consciousness and we thoroughly realize that the family that prays together stays together. And a world at prayer is a world at peace. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood, family theater has brought you testimonial starring Adolf Maju and Robert Alder. Others in our cast were Gene Bates, Myra Marsh, Joe Granby and Joe Forte. The script was written by Robert H. O'Sullivan with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed and transcribed for family theater by Lou X. Lansworth. 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 and officially 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 home and inviting you to be with us next week when family theater will present Just Like a Lady starring Kathleen Crowley. Art Linkletter will be your host. Join us, won't you? Family theater is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.