 Stanley Clements Mutual Broadcasting System in cooperation with Family Theater Incorporated presents for the love of Angel starring Stanley Clements and Jack Bailey. Brief portions are transcribed. Jack Haley is your host. This is Jack Haley, neighbors. Did you ever happen to be jingling some coins in your hand and get to examining the dimes and quarters and pennies? You see on every coin these words, in God we trust. Of course it's something that everybody knows about, but it makes me realize that every time we exchange a coin we're offering a silent act of faith in God. It makes me realize that in all our coinage there's inscribed the same conviction that we in Hollywood want to express through Family Theater. It's a conviction so many of us share, an understanding that the simple direct appeal of prayer to God can bring hope and happiness and God's wonderful help to us and to our families. And we need trust in God and have faith in one another if we ought to have a peaceful world, a prosperous nation and happy homes. You know a world of happy homes would go a long way to a peaceful world and here's a thought for a happy home. Pray together as a family. Yes, pray together tonight after your evening meal and every night because family prayer will keep your family together and happy. And you'll find this true for every country and home. A family that prays together stays together. Jack Haley returns after our Family Theater story for the love of angels starring Stanley Clements and Jack Bailey. But Ginger, you don't want to feel like that? I'll feel like I please. What kind of man are you anyway? Now look, just because I won't eat steak. Do you realize what I had to pay for that filet mignon? Do you realize I got off work early just to cook for it? Do you realize what I did? I can't help it, baby. I can't eat it. Well, why not? What's wrong with steak? It's cow. Sure it's cow. What'd you think it was, mink? Well, I can't eat it and that's all there is to it. Now leave me alone. What do you please? Oh, no. I never told anybody why I don't eat steak and I never thought I'd have to. I wouldn't have told Ginger except, well, she's kind of special. I got plans kicking around in my head to make this a permanent arrangement, you know what I mean? Besides, I never was able to listen to a gal cry. It gets me every time. Now look, honey, it ain't that I don't like steak. I'm crazy about it. Then why won't you eat it? Because I, well, it's a kind of a thing a guy don't want to yucked about, see? And if you ever crack wise to any of my friends, any of those hip-charges- Chargie, what are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about the war. Now you wouldn't think a hunk of beef could have anything to do with the war, would you? But in my mind, the three of them will always be tied up in the same package. The war and Hank and Angel. Yes, sir, we'll just screwy things to a guy. It got me tangled up with his rural joe by the name of Hank Adams. Now, ain't that a moniker for you? And so helped me, he looked at two. A Hollywood version of Abe Lincoln with a musket if I ever saw one. Tall, lanky, a regular beanpole, and brother, that cornball talk of his. But I don't get to know this, Hank, until the morning of the African landing. We're already in the landing bodge. See, I look around me. Some of the guys I think are really tough are chewing their nails right down at the elbow. The only guy in the my bodge that don't look tilted is this cow jockey, Hank Adams. So I give him the nudge. Hi, pal. Well, howdy, how are you? My name's Gordon, Georgie Gordon. Well, my name's Hank Adams. Howdy. Likewise. Well, what do you know? So that's Africa out there, huh? Yeah, well, I reckon it is. Where'd you come from, Hank? Iowa. Iowa? No kidding, you mean there is such a place? I always thought it was just something that slipped in the back of the geography book. Hey, there's two million folks, besides me, come from out there, and a lot of them are fighting this war same as you are. Now, wait a minute. I didn't mean nothing against it. I was just making with a gag. See, I... Yeah, you're from New York, huh? Yeah, how'd you guess? You ever been there? No. Never was out of Iowa till I got into your army. Yeah, I know it. Sure broadens that guy. Say, are you scared? Yeah, I guess I am. Ain't you? Oh, me? Georgie Gordon? He's scared of a fight just because they call it a war. Me afraid? Well, ain't you? Yep, I guess so. I guess so. What are you thinking about, Hank? You'd just laugh at me if I told you. No, no, I wouldn't laugh. Maybe you're thinking about some cute little gal, huh? Gal? No. I'm thinking of a cow. A what? A cow. Man, I was thinking about my home, about my farm. Oh, what's so funny about that? I've been thinking about it, too. You have? Yeah, a nifty one-room job just off-Broadway, right in our heart of things. Just a small farm of God, but it's big enough for us, I guess. Only three of us in the family, and we couldn't handle no more land if we had it, I guess. Land, Deadlow Island, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Now, there's a lovely hunk of ground. See, when you're born with a plow on your hand like I was, it's all you want. Oh, I want a lot of things. Right now, I wish I could see a sight in little chemical blonde. Hey, I wish you could see my span of mules. You won't find prettier mules in the whole Blaine County. And oysters. The best oysters in a well are at Marcos. Well, we ain't got no oysters tonight. But we sure got some mighty fine trout. You like trout? Trout? Oh, I'm crazy about it. Say, you know, Hank, isn't it surprising how much two guys can have in common? Yes, it sure is. It seems a long ways out there, the old way out to Iowa. Deadlow, New York. You know, I guess the thing I miss most, though, is Angel. Angel? Oh, your guile. No. Angel's my prize-winning heifer. Huh? She's a cow, Georgie. A real champion, too, boy. You know, she took the Blue Ribbon at the county fair. A cow? Well, I'll be a... All right, you guys, this is it. Hit the main. We spilled out of those boats like dimes out of a jackpot. We charged up that beach rare and ago, all set in the Nazi fighter dock continent. All geared up, you understand? But here's the kicker. There was nobody there to fight. No Nazis. Just a bunch of jabbering Arabs. Hey, I'm not going to America. You give cigarette. What are these guys catching on fast? Quit crawling all over me, will ya? Wait a minute, Georgie. Wait a minute. I don't smoke, but let them have some, huh? That's a friendly thing to do, I think. All right. Hey, old man. And you, hey, let go of me. All right, all right. Take the cigarettes. Take the whole pack. Leave me alone, will ya? Who let bound and scraping just for a cigarette? Now, Georgie, that I don't think is it. It's because they like us, you know. I believe they're kind of glad to see us out here. Yeah, I guess we were glad to see them, too. It was like going to the dentist and finding he had taken the day off. And that day we found out the real meaning of infantry. A full pack in the African sun, brother, is no setup. We marched and we marched. I was dead on my feet by the time Chower's called. The sun was just about ready to give up for the day. And so was I when we stopped. What do you think of Africa now, Hank? I guess it's all right. You like anything, don't you? Well, most anything. Well, I can tell you this much. Africa don't look as good to me now as it did this morning. And it didn't look good then. Now what's happened? What's going on? Ah, look at them there, Georgie. There must be a hundred of them. What are they doing? And who's that Ali Baba in a towel there screaming as... I don't know, I reckon he's a priest up there or something. And then those guys on their hands and knees in the street. Hey, quiet, quiet. What's going on? What's cooking with these guys? Shut up, I think they're praying. Praying? Well, if that ain't a fine development for a war, a revival meeting yet. Give me a match. I ain't got any. It sounds pretty doing it. Why? Just some words from that prayer there that kind of keeps running through my head. A-la-hoo, Akbar. Hey, you know, I kind of like the feel of them words. Sounds like pig latiname. Well, at least you could do us carry matches. What's that a-la-la, what's it mean? Ah, that's a funny thing, you know what, Georgie? Here we are, half ways around the world and Arab way up there in that tower. Kind of makes me feel like I was back home in my church. Oh, there I go, talking about that farm again. No, no, go ahead, kid. Talk. Go ahead if it makes you feel good. Well, Sunday's back home, you know. I used to get my kid brother Jimmy up extra early to help water the stock. Now, you see, that way I had a lot of time to work on Angel. Oh, boy, I'd wash her up real good like and brush her tail and trim her hoofs up a little bit. I'd work on her till she's shown up. She was the prettiest heifer anywhere. Yeah, and I always felt better, you know. Going to church, I mean. I always felt better. It makes a man think, don't it? Well, I don't know. I never went to church much. Well, I used to when I was a kid. But what made you call out Angel? Well, I didn't. Not the first, anyways. She was born, she was scrawny and skinny. I called her Angles. But that 4-H club we got back to her home made a mistake on a registration slip to give me back and it'd come out Angel. I never bothered much about changing it. You know something, Georgie? She just naturally grew into that name. Oh, I think I've known guys that were dame-wacky and horse-wacky and even jive-wacky. But you're the first guy I ever ran into that was cow-wacky. And he was, too. Even when the novelty of being in Africa wore off, he kept talking about her. All he did in those days was march and camp and camp and march. But one day the buzz got around that we were trying to catch up to a Nazi character called the Fox. And the next day, a squadron of Nazi planes came tearing at us like from nowhere. We scattered, took the cover. Our anti-aircraft got into action. Another barrage came. This time the screaming Mimis from the Nazis were holding down our second objective. An oasis. An oasis? A couple of scrawny-looking palms and a water hole. Yeah, that's what all his shooting was about. And after I got used to the idea that these maneuvers were for keeps, I looked around to see how Hank was doing. I couldn't see him. I thought maybe he'd been hidden, then I heard him yell. The guys around him, they picked it up. They took to those crazy words like a dame takes the mink. And Hank, the crazy fool, shot him at the top of his lungs, running and shooting like a Comanche Indian. I crawled behind the dunes to where he was. Hey, pal, what are you trying to do? Win the war all by yourself? Well, who's worried about you? I just want to be sure we both break in our shoes before the war's over. My shoes is broken in. They feel fine on me. So all right, then, I'm worried about my shoes. The Nazis kept pouring it into us. I didn't even try to keep up with farmer boy Hank. I was pretty busy on my own. Well, we took that water hole and after all that sun and dust, it sure looked beautiful. I was out on my feet. It fell swell just to lay on that ground and do nothing. But as far as it'd go, I felt great. I felt at least six foot five. Now, when they talked about experienced troops and the dispatchers, they were talking about me, about Georgie Gordon, foot soldier, a guy with a gun. Hey, hey, what's use of quiet about there, Georgie? Well, I was just wondering, what is aloha akbara? Aloha akbara. What does that mean? Oh, you want to match, Georgie? I got me a whole bunch of them. Pretty awful out there, wasn't it? Yeah, sure was. Now, I wonder how she made out. Huh? What are you talking about? Angel. Angel? Georgie, you know who Angel is. I told you, she's my prize heifer. Today is state fair day way back home, man. Today? Yeah. Oh, Hank, you'll kill me. Did I say something funny? Oh, through the war, Hank was like that. He was a kind of safety valve, you might say. And every time I got too tied up about something and when I thought we weren't going to make it like at Anzio, it stopped talking about that cow of his and pretty soon I'd be laughing and remembering what I wanted to go back to and it wasn't so bad. But one thing I couldn't laugh off, it stuck with me and it heckled me. I had to find out. There was only one guy in the outfit that might know and I hated to go to him. Always I figured the GIs that hung around after the chaplain were a bunch of wet noses scared of their own shadows. I didn't want to be classed with him. But I went to him, just the same. Chaplain, can I see you? Sure, come on in. Take the load off your feet. I just got a box from home. You want some candy? Oh, sure, sure, thanks. That mud, some mess. You think we'll ever get clean again? Well, I don't know, sir. I'm getting used to myself this way. You've never stopped in before, Gordon. I'm glad you decided to come tonight. It's a gloomy night. Want to play cards? That's only partly sucky. No, thanks, sir. Something's been on my mind a long time. Do you remember right after we landed in Africa how the guy started yelling that crazy battle cry? Why? Are you the fellow who started it? No, no, my buddy did he. Well, it was okay, wasn't it? In the heat of emotion, Gordon, men have said many things. In battle there seems to be just a thin thread holding men together. Yet it's a tough thread, strong. We call it morale. Anything that can keep a bunch of men together, fighting for each other and for something, can't be bad. Yeah, I guess so. But what does Alawar Akbar mean? What does that mean? Well, literally translated, it means God is great. Oh, no wonder it packs such a wallop. Yeah. And everybody takes that wallop for granted. That's pretty much the general trouble in the world today. Well, I used to go to church when I was a kid, but when I grew up I got so busy trying to make a buck for my family and... That's right, Gordon. That's right. God is great. But we just never get around to letting him know about it. But you see, Chaplain, I... Some more candy, Gordon? No, no, thanks. Well, I never forgot the Chaplain and I never forgot Alawar Akbar. It was good luck, especially to hanker me. We went through Sicily, Italy and France without a scratch. But you can't win every time, I guess, and it was just before V.E. Day. I busted our bowler when I saw Hank. Well, I picked him up and I brought him back to the lines. Some brass had made a big fuss about giving me a medal, but Hank's my buddy. See, you just naturally pick up your buddy. No need for Congress to get an uproar about it. And believe me, those next few days without Hank, I found out Chaplain was right. War is strictly from hunger. And even after V.E., I still felt sunk because I was going to have to go home on rotation without knowing how it made out. I drove my CO crazy, trying to get some dope about Hank, but I didn't get anywhere. He was loaded with problems without bothering with mine. That's why I went to the Chaplain. And in a couple of days, he sent for me. Here you are, Gordon. Here's your pass. You can find your buddy Adams in a field hospital in Brussels. Don't miss your sailing date. It's been set back a week. Well, how'd you do it? How'd you find out? How'd you wangle a pass? My boss has all kinds of influence. Your boss? Oh, Eisenhower? No, Gordon. I'm talking about my special boss. The big boss. The big... Oh, you mean, well... Well, tell him thanks for me, will you? He's easy to talk to. Why don't you tell him yourself? Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. I'll do that. Hank! What, you all sent an highway? How are you? George, I'm... I'm right glad to see you. Well, same here. You look all right. That block and tackle you're wearing is mighty becoming a you, Corporal Adams. Hey, uh, why the salad puss? It ain't nothing. Come on, come on, Spellhead. Don't worry. Oh, you got nothing to worry about, pal. The doc told me when they chip off all that plaster why you conger out of this joint. Oh, I don't mind being here in a hospital. I wouldn't mind anything if I could just get back home airing time to help Angel. She's good on her own. She's got enough blue ribbons now to braid a tail. That ain't that, Georgie. And what the devil is it? She's, she's cavin. She's cavin. What's that? Sure, you know what I mean. She's... she's gonna have a baby. A what? It's not like she was some ordinary heifer, either, Georgie. Well, now I've heard every... See, it's her first one. Yeah. And she's apt to have some kind of trouble or something. My mom's there and the kid brother, he ain't got a... I've been laying here in this bed feeling sunk down, wondering what to do and all that stuff. And then you come along. I should've known you'd come. I should've known if it all turned out, I knew it was gonna happen. Wait a minute, kid. What have you got in that hay-seed head of yours? You go. Yeah. You can get there in time, Georgie. Are you nuts? George, please, let's go on my arm. If you think I'm gonna... Please, Georgie. No, Hank, now quit hangin' on me, will ya? I'm sorry. I'd like to do it for you, kid, but I've got things to do. Yeah, that's right. Uh, Red Hat. Georgie, you're the only person in the whole world that I'd trust my angel with. Now, quit lookin' at me with those big, dumb calf eyes, will ya? Calf eyes? Yeah, yeah, Jake. If you go through life trustin' anybody and everybody, you're gonna end up in a fine mess goin' around thinkin' everybody's so darn noble. Just because a guy's civil, you think you can ask him? Georgie, up until now, I thought we was good friends. Well, sure, sure, we're good friends, but get one thing through your hat head, Hank Boy. That cow of yours ain't the only thing in the world. And me, I got better things to do than pace a stable floor. You mean, uh, you ain't gonna go? Not even for me? That's what I mean, Buster. You hit the nail right on the head. Georgie Gordon, you oughta been ashamed of yourself. Turnin' that poor kid down after all you and him went through together. You think I was a hill, huh? I think you are worse than that. The least you could've done was go out there and see that everything was all right. Yeah, you think so. Well, you know, Ginger, it's a funny thing because that's just exactly what I did do. You did? Oh, Georgie, you mean you were? Imagine Georgie Gordon, midwife. And another thing, that highway ain't such a corny place after all. What happened with Angel? Oh, she took it fine. Her calf was born real early in the morning, about 4 a.m. Sure is a cute little guy. You should've seen him. Brown and white spots and strong, stood right up. They named him, uh, after me, Georgie. I just happen to have a picture of him in my wallet. Here, see? Oh, gee, you need cute. Yeah, and Hank writes me he's a pretty big steer now. Steer? Oh, my gosh, the stage, Vernon. Vernon, hey, wait a minute. Let me help you. Oh, let it burn. I changed my plans. Georgie, honey, how would you like to take me out to dinner? Well, sure, baby, sure. Where would you like to go? Where? Why, to Clancy's Fish and Chowder House. Where else? Here again, as your host, Jack Haley. You have just heard Family Theatre, which is presented every week as a tribute to family life in the hope that in your home there'll be faith and understanding. Yes, and forgiveness. In the hope that all the members of your family will be close together in affection and love. Pray for one another and with one another. Pray together as a family, because a family that prays together stays together. Our grateful thanks to Jack Haley, Stanley Clements, and Jack Bailey for their appearances, and to John and Gwen Bagney for writing our play. Original music was scored and conducted by Max Tehr. This production of Family Theatre, incorporated, was directed by David Jackson. Three portions were transcribed. The supporting cast included Herb Butterfield, June Foray, Lou Krugman, and Larry Dodkin. Next week, our Family Theatre star will be Peggy Cummins in The Fourth Strike. Your host will be John Lund. This series of the Family Theatre broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this kind of program and by the mutual broadcasting system which has responded to this need. Be with us next week at the same time when Peggy Cummins and John Lund will star on Family Theatre. Your announcer, Merrill Ross. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.