 by transcription Ladies and gentlemen the railroad hour Comes the star-studded show train Tonight the Association of American Railroads presents the famous musical hit madam sherry starring Gordon McRae and his guest star Marion Bell Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff and the music is prepared and conducted by Carmen dragon Yes tonight another great musical success is brought to you by the American Railroads the same railroads that bring you most of the food You eat the clothes you wear the fuel you burn and all the other things you use in your daily life And now here is our star Ladies and gentlemen our guest this evening is Marion Bell the charming primadonna who scored such a success on Broadway a few seasons ago in Brigadoon tonight Marion appears as the little convent girl Yvonne in our production of the famous musical hit madam sherry Mr. Sherry and with your permission, I'd like to tell you how there came to be a madam sherry a Few years ago. I ran a dancing school in New York on the whole life was very enjoyable I had a fairly comfortable living allowance from my uncle theophilus and I ran the dancing school to augment that allowance My pupils were charming. I can see them now The morning extra Excellent excellent Properly mr. Sherry splendid splendid, but watch your arms Remember young ladies young gentlemen every movement must be graceful every gesture of melody Those were charming my allowance was ample and life was most pleasant There was only one catch to the whole thing my uncle theophilus He had been sending me my weekly allowance under the illusion that it was being spent in a very different manner Then the way it was actually being spent. I thought he'd never find out But one day while I was conducting a class my housekeeper Catherine brought me a letter from Something wrong mr. Sherry you look very eerie. Well, I don't feel very good Does the letter contain bad news? It certainly does my uncle theophilus and his niece Yvonne are coming for a visit They're arriving today Well, I'm not you see When I was young theophilus He's an uncle of mine with eight million or nine When I was a piano I should play But the coin and I'll be back president come Catherine. Yes, mr. Sherry Catherine you can see the mess I'm in my uncle thinks this is a music conservatory that I'm a talented pianist and That I'm married and settled down if he finds out. I'm not any of these things. I'm certain to lose my allowance my dancing school and Maybe even lose my life. Oh, I I hope he wouldn't go to any such lengths as that How long will he be here? I don't know. He doesn't say well Couldn't you just pretend that you had a conservatory and that you had a wife Catherine I think you have the germ of a great idea After much persuasion Catherine agreed to assume the role of madam Sherry while my uncle was here My uncle and his niece Yvonne arrived just as I finished telling my pupils. There will be no more dancing lessons for a few days Well Edward I must say this is quite a nice-looking conservatory isn't it Yvonne? Oh, it certainly is uncle theophilus I'm glad to see you so both happily married and settled all young people should be married and settled It's the ideal arrangement between the sexes. Yes. Yes, uncle theophilus And now if your good wife will be so kind as to show me to my room I'd like to rest before dinner. Of course if you'll come this way You know, I've been looking forward to meeting you for such a long time Catherine. Do you mind if I call you Catherine Catherine? Well, why not? That's my name Shall I show you to your room Yvonne? I'd like to sit here for a moment if I may This is also exciting to me. You see, I just got out of school. Yes I imagine New York does look exciting to a schoolgirl. Especially the one like me I'm just a little convent girl with wide and wandering eye A little bird that's left its nest and learning how to fly Yes, I've been told that there are things in cities large and small. Yvonne's visit I thought Second day I found it rather entertaining to show someone about the city who had never seen it before By the third day I found that I had never seen New York myself until I saw it with her That night I took Yvonne and Uncle Theophilus on a round of the clubs and when we arrived home Uncle stamped off to bed and Yvonne stood in the drawing room talking to me for a moment Look at the lights of New York down there. It looks like a fairy tale city, doesn't it? Yes Do you look like a princess out of a fairy tale? Oh, I feel like one Princess in search of Prince Charming Edward. Are you really happily married? Hmm. Oh, I don't know. I suppose so. I never thought much about it. You never thought about it. Why? I just wondered I Used to keep a picture of you on my dresser at school. I got it from uncle When the girls asked me how it was I'd say well, that's my cousin Edward by marriage When I grow up I'm going to marry him, but then you got married before I grew up If If I weren't married, yes Edward if you weren't married I think we'd better say good night, but I'm not sleepy. Well, then Shall we dance? Wonderful, uh, I'll turn on the phonograph You like to dance Yvonne I love it dancing can mean so much And you're a wonderful dancer too, Edward. Well, you dance as well as mr. Dimble What earth is mr. Dimble? He's our dancing instructor at school. Oh, I see Edward yes darling As long as this is only a make-believe night anyhow Do you suppose it'd be all right if if we pretended for a moment that dreams did come true And and that I did grow up and marry you Could we pretend long enough for you to kiss me good night? I think perhaps that might be arranged If any one thing is symbolic of our post-war life in america it is building building of every kind From the farm to the largest city we have seen a tremendous program of construction Entire residential developments complete with stores schools churches and streets have sprung up Individual homes have filled up those empty spots on streets in every community But when you read of the billions of dollars being spent for construction Think for a moment of the millions of tons of materials of all kinds going into those factories office buildings stores municipal improvements and most important into homes New homes for instance begin in many parts of the country Lumber cement bricks steel plumbing fixtures paint glass Hundreds of other things must be processed assembled and moved Only because there are railroads capable of moving dependably and in mass quantities everything needed Where and when it is needed has it been possible to meet the demands of america's builders For only the railroads can perform transportation service on such a scale as this And in these times of higher prices It is also important to know that the railroads perform this service at lower average charges And those of any other form of transportation offering service all over the country Yes, construction of all kinds is another example of the important stake we all have in the railroads A stake shared by the farmer manufacturer retailer consumer or everyone in the country In one way or another the railroads serve all of us And the more this service is used the more efficient and economical will it become the more we will all benefit That's another reason why it's good business to do business With the railroad now here is the second act of madame sherry starring gordon macray and his guest star marion bell Uncle theopolis and divan made me quite a lengthy visit And as the days passed i found myself thinking more and more of divan She was different from any girl i had ever known her eyes her hair and her smile Especially her smile Some like a girl who is clever Who plays the piano and sings Some like a girl who is ever well dressed with her jewels and ring like a graceful and slender Think a queen is alone worth a while But the girl i did my best to appear devoted husband to madame sherry But gradually the game began to be too much for me It was also becoming too much for madame sherry and too much for evan Each time uncle forced me to kiss captain divan seemed to get terribly upset And the night before my uncle and divan were supposed to leave Yvonne and madame sherry got into a rather intimate conversation You're a very fortunate woman madame sherry. Why do you say that? How proud you must be to be his wife. Do you mean mr. sherry's wife? Oh naturally Well, you're in love with him I'll never see him again after tomorrow. He'll never know tell him you're in love with him Ma'am aren't you in love with him in love with him, of course not Why did you agree to be his wife the pay was good? I don't think I understand my dear child. I'm not his wife You're not his wife. No, he asked me to pretend to be his wife so that his uncle wouldn't stop his allowance You're not his wife. I should say not. I'm his housekeeper And I have a very fine husband of my own and I had a hard time getting him to agree to this. Let me tell you Thanks for telling me this or you changed the whole world for me Now i'm going to find mr. sherry and tell him that i've told you And from then on it's up to you He isn't married He isn't married And I've been so jealous Every time Finish uncle's the orphanage. What are you thinking about you are happily married man I'm not a happily married man. Then you An unhappily married man He's not married at all not married You mean that woman who lives here who who calls herself madame sherry is not is not that's exactly what we mean He just took the job for money uncle theophilus. Oh, she did Now now wait a minute uncle. I'll try to explain you see I I was Well, it's rather difficult to explain. I can see why it might be. Oh, no, it isn't uncle theophilus Edward wasn't married, but you see He should have you said he should have a wife. So he pretended that he had one, but he really didn't Oh, I see in order to cheat me out of my money. That's right. No That's wrong in order to Well, I couldn't keep the dancing school running without any money It takes time to get enough pupils and I dancing school. I thought this was a music conservatory Well, it's a musical conservatory of the dance. That's right Anyhow when you wrote you were coming Edward had to have a wife So he asked his housekeeper if she would be madame sherry and name only for the time that you were here And she did and that's the whole story. Oh, there isn't any madame sherry at all. No But I hope there's going to be After all uncle it's a situation very easily remedied something tells me I let you leave that school entirely too soon Could you be happy if I'm living with a very poor man? I could be happy with you anywhere. All right. All right. I give up if you two are determined to get married I see no reason why I should play the heavy and have everyone hate me. I'll continue both your allowances Uncle theophilus, you're an angel. You're wonderful And I'll never be able to thank you enough for coming on this visit And for bringing with you the future madame sherry To the other members of our cast to isabel jewel who played castman and to ted ars born who played uncle theophilus madame sherry with book and lyrics by auto harbach and music by carl hoshner was dramatized for radio by gene halloway The railroad hour is brought to you each week at this time by the american railroads And no matter what your job no matter where you live in one way or another these railroads play an important part in your daily life Take your home for instance Maybe miles away from a railroad track But just the same in getting that home built you used a lot of railroad service To bring together dependably and at low cost the things it takes to build equip and furnish a home Yes for all of us the railroads are mighty close to home And that's another reason why it's good business to do business with the railroads And now here again is lovely marion bell Apparently been trying for two seasons to get you out here for a guest appearance on the railroad hour And we finally made it. I know it gordon seems that every time he wanted me I was booked somewhere else So we waited till you were going to be starred right here in town and then nailed you down Say how rehearsals for the chocolate soldier coming along marion. Oh, just fine. I'm all excited about it It's such a beautiful production We're opening at the philharmonic next monday, you know Well, you can look for me right in the front row center Can I can you look for me back here on the railroad hour again that week after next gordon? I think so and we're going to look for the silver lining together in sally. Remember Say I wish you could listen to next week's show marion Nadine con is going to be our guest in the very famous old musical the prince of pilce Sound wonderful. I I wish I could hear it Night gordon. Good night marion and good luck in the chocolate soldier Well, it looks as though we're ready to pull out and so until next week. Goodbye Madam sherry was presented by special arrangement with tam's whipmark music library gordon macray is currently being seen starring in the warner brothers technicolor musical hit the daughter of rosy old grady Our choir is under the direction of norman lube off our music is prepared and conducted by carmen dragon In this week's issue of quick magazine There's an interesting feature story about the railroad hour and a full page picture of our singing star gordon macray This is marvin miller saying goodbye until next week for the american railroads and now keep tuned for your monday night of music on nbc The voice of firestone and elinor steiber on nbc The preceding was transcribed You're tuned for the stars on nbc