 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is James Hilton. Tonight on our Hallmark Playhouse, we tell in dramatic form a story written by Octavus Roy Cohen called The Final Tribute. It's about doctors, and like many such stories, it gets pretty close to the mainsprings of human experience, which I suppose is the reason why stories about doctors are often so moving and popular. The final tribute indeed offers us in its way a sort of comment on life. For both the doctors in it were good, but they were good in different ways, and how often this kind of difference places us in life. Anyhow, for our start tonight, we have one of the finest and most beloved actors of the screen in the theatre, Edmund Gwynne. And now a word about Hallmark cards from Frank Goss before we begin the first act of The Final Tribute. Hallmark cards have a magic carpet quality about them. They take you visiting however great the distance to help celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, or just any day when you're thinking of someone. There is a quality about Hallmark cards that whispers good taste, and you'll send them with pride for that identifying Hallmark on the back adds meaning. It says you cared enough to send the very best. And now Hallmark Playhouse presenting Octavus Roy Cohen's The Final Tribute starring Edmund Gwynne. This is a letter I should never write and can never mail, and writing it at all is only a piece of sentiment on the part of an old man. And yet some things have happened in the past few days that have brought you very close. Some of the things happened to you and to me in what seems now to be another lifetime. Some of them should have happened. A few hours ago Cynthia came into the room. The clock was striking and I was sitting here alone pondering the problems one ponders during the watches of night. Uncle Joe, do you realize what time it is? Cynthia spoke of the time and then she came over and sat for my desk and the past came in with her. I found myself thinking your mother might have spoken to me in just that manner. She might have come in too in a in a blue wrapper and in a voice that comforted and pushed the shadows back pointed the way to rest and dreams. And something inside me wept as I looked Cynthia wept because I was old and the moments that slipped away were past redeeming. She was puzzled that she looked at me and I realized I still hadn't spoken. Uncle Joe. I pulled myself back to reality and unanswered her. I said I'm sorry Cynthia I'm afraid I was just sitting here gathering dust. Is something wrong? A great many things are wrong. Some of them are many years beyond changing. Some may not be but it's the ones that may not be that I've been thinking about tonight. What's wrong between you and Donald? Uncle Joe I've told you nothing is wrong between Donald and me. Nothing is right. There's nothing there at all. No I find that very hard to believe. I've seen you together. I've seen the way he looks at you and yes I've seen the way you looked at him when you forgot to be on guard. I haven't the slightest personal interest in the world in Dr. Donald Kent. Cynthia I'm going to tell you a story. I think now I should have told it to you a long time ago but time for a doctor it's difficult sometimes to uncover old scars to let wounds gape open. Perhaps especially for a doctor who knows so well the depth of the wounds. What are you trying to tell me Uncle Joe? Your mother. I've never talked to you about your mother. Uncle Joe you don't have to tell me. Yes yes I do have to tell you I I always knew that someday I would. Cynthia let me let me think how to begin. How can I make it? Oh I sat there searching for the word sea of life and breath to a memory. Thought of you and I thought of youth delight dreams I thought of you and I thought of laughter and I thought of tears and of music rising to a great crescendo and then I looked at Cynthia and I saw your face looking back at me the way you had looked the first time I met you I closed my eyes I could hear your voice and and I was able to tell her the first word you ever spoke to me. You know my father's told me so much about you Joe I feel as though I know you already. I'm glad we've met at last. You smiled up at me and your words kept pounding inside me at last at last at last and the moment cast a spell upon me and my heart had found its own and to remember those days is to remember excitement and life going by at a dizzying pace. Oh Joe surely you can walk faster than that. Remember those days as to remember sleigh bells and a shenom exhilarating wind pulling our faces as we rode through Central Park and right next to me into enchantment. Oh Joe isn't it exciting. Dreams of through all one youth and finally enters. So long for you to ask me darling of course I'll marry you of course I'll marry you. Suddenly reality under voice of your father. I'm talking to the board about you and I've arranged for you to be appointed to the staff of this hospital. Yes somebody well I tried to tell your father that while I appreciated his offer I'd studied medicine because my own father stinted and gone without saved the money to send me to New York to study. I tried to tell him that the dream of my father's life was to have me return to Watertown and help him with his practice there and I I'm afraid I wasn't able to explain it very well in the name of heaven boy think intelligently not emotionally you can't bury yourself and and in some hick town you come home with me and talk this over with her and so I went to your house that splendid park heaven you mentioned to talk to you about a cottage in Watertown. Joe this is where you belong now not Watertown you can grow here you can help medicine grow this is one of the greatest hospitals in the world I asked you point blank whether you would or would not go to Watertown with me Joe I think it'd be wrong to let you turn your back on an opportunity like this I think it'd be wrong to go with you Joe where you go Joe wait don't go like that I love you don't you believe it Joe I was young I was in love and in the brief moment that I had turned from you while glimpse the future unseen only darkness without you I told you I'd go to Watertown and talk to my father I'd try to make him understand I caught the train that same night I was less than 24 hours too late your father's dead Joey your father's dead the services were simple I sat in the church listening it's the quiet words of the minister whose life my father had once saved I sat looking at the faces of the people he once served now quiet and sad as they bet him farewell and after the services I saw their faces and they turned towards me I'm glad to see you here Joey your father said you'd be back to take over for him I walked home through the silent streets to a silent house he had stood between death and them as long as they had known him who would stand between them now oh I walked the floor the little night back and forth back and forth love or duty someone else could do it but he had asked me he hadn't realized how much he was asking or perhaps he had love or duty New York or Watertown morning came to Watertown I sat down spent and wary from the night of indecision and wrote to New York I told you that I loved you and would always love you I sealed the envelope there was a knock at the door and I'm sorry to bother you at this hour dark and at a time like this but our little granddaughter has a stomach ache we don't know if it's anything serious but we'll come at once God bless you that's what your father always said it was nothing serious just too many green apples the Carter children never have been able to eat green apples and on the way home from the house mail I mailed a letter to you and then I walked back to my father's house and I hung out my single Joseph H. Walton Watertown turned to the second act of the final tribute starring Edmund Gwynne the importance of words is a subject I've often talked to you about and the other night while I was reading one of the essays of Joseph Addison I found a statement by that great English scholar which I'd like to quote to you a statement as true today as it was in the 18th century when Addison said words when well chosen have so great a force no one appreciates the power of well chosen words more than the makers of hallmark cards that's why the words in a hallmark card accurately reflect your own feeling whatever the occasion heartfelt congratulations warm birthday or anniversary wishes or just a thoughtful hello to distant friends there's a hallmark card that says just what you want to say the way you want to say it and what is true of the right words in the hallmark card is equally true of everything else about it it's artful design quality materials superb craftsmanship in fact when you ask any group of friends what name they think of in greeting cards when they want to send the very best they quickly answer hallmark cards yes you choose hallmark cards with the pleasant knowledge that they are correct their social preference has become a tradition through the years that's why it's so easy to remember it would be difficult to forget to look for the hallmark on the back it says you cared enough to send the very best now back to James Hilton in the second act of the final tribute starring Edmond Gwen sat in the small office his father had used before him writing a letter to a girl he had once loved and writing in a mood of tender reminiscence this letter is only a piece of sentiment on the part of an old man but you seem so close tonight while I was telling Cynthia your story I told her that about a year after I came back to Watertown I read of your marriage in a New York paper and and then I knew there was no longer anything to dream or hope for but there was work for me to do yes yes I spent the years bringing other people's children into the world and then bandaging their knees removing splinters taking out tonsils and every one of them was mine from the moment I slapped their first cry out to them I told Cynthia all these things and then I told her at the motor trip you had taken with your husband and of the accident he was killed instantly and they called me over to the hospital at the county seat to perform an emergency operation on you oh I knew there wasn't much hope but I did what I could and then I sat by your bedside until dawn came and and you regained consciousness Joe what are you doing here you put in an accident we take turns doing emergency night calls here at the county hospital this was my night Joe you have all people oh Joe I'm sorry so sorry for such a lot of things if only I'd gone to you Joe where's my baby she won't have anyone now my father's gone and now Joe if anything happens would you take her raise her here where you were raised teachers with all its fundamental things your father taught you and when she finds love tell her it only comes once and Cynthia became the child of my heart she brought warmth into my house she brought life and most of all she she brought happiness I'd look over each young man that came to town and think is this the one but he never quite was and then Dr. Donald can enhance him young fellow who was right up to the minute on all the new things in medicine he didn't take him long to build up a practice he'd drop in now and then and asked to ask to ask Cynthia to go out but she resented Donald and went to no pains to hide it uncle Joe has some calls to make and I'm going with him I understand you've been turning down night calls Dr. Kent yes I have don't believe in babying patients of course it was a genuine emergency that's that's one thing but 99% of the 3 a.m. calls aren't emergencies at all and I'm not going to make myself a slave of my patience look here son you're building up quite a practice already and you've got a fairly heavy operative schedule and you need your sleep at night so why don't you let me handle night calls for you uncle Joe no I couldn't do that sir after all you're the senior doctor I ought to be taking work off your shoulders not you off mine I kind of felt you take it that way but don't you see I practice medicine differently I've been doing night calls for years I'd really like to do it I'd really like to do it son as patients started calling me up at night he was right most of the calls they weren't emergency calls really but I felt better for having gone I never didn't think it was enough just to cure people's ailments no you had to keep their minds at ease and their hearts at rest too since they had it in their mind that Donald wasn't a good doctor but we learned differently this spring yes there was an accident 15 youngsters injured in the school bus collision just down the block Donald was right there where he was needed that night he turned his house into a hospital all right wheel this boy into the bedroom will you it's gonna be all right anesthesia Dr. Walton when you get the next boy ready I've got to work as fast as possible yeah I just want to say that I've never seen any man do a job like this in my life before there's at least eight kids that are going to live thanks to your work tonight I'm proud to know you son really proud commerce decided to present him with a silver cup for being the year's outstanding citizen Cynthia was very silent as we wrote downtown to attend the ceremony and I was troubled I wanted to help Donald and Cynthia find one another understand one another but I didn't know how no no I watched Donald as the mayor presented him with a cup and for one fleeting moment I wish that I had been able to serve my town as he had and earn a moment like this he looked at the cup in silence for a long time before he spoke yes first of all I want to thank you for this tribute but I also want to tell you that I've I've come to realize that I've had the wrong attitude in a lot of ways about my work a patient needs more than just a physical patching up he needs a personal reassurance as well I've come to realize that from watching another doctor that doctor has gone out night after night summer and winter year in year out to give you a feeling of safety and security whenever you needed it from here I've learned the true meaning of medical practice and so I ask your permission to give this cup to a man who has devoted his entire life to you I wish to present it to dr. Joseph H. Walton with the humble wish that someday I may be half the doctor he is what I could do about Donald and Cynthia and then the clock struck three and she came in the room and I started to tell her the story just as I written it down and when I had finished she was very quiet seems like such a waste doesn't it you and my mother or if she'd only come to you if you'd only gone to her and made her come back with you she asked me to tell you that love only came once and a hold on to it those were almost her last words in there my child don't tell me he asked you to marry him and that you turned him down I didn't have any respect for him until he he said what he said tonight tonight when he made that speech I I sort of changed now who on earth is that it's past five in the morning doesn't anyone ever go to bed in this house I saw your lights from the street and on what are you doing up at this hour I was having a case oh something serious no Betsy Carter had another stomach ache green apples I bet you anything in the world did you know that none of the castles have ever been able to eat green apples done you went on a night case I'm going on a lot of night cases from now on well I think it's just about my bedtime oh no uncle Joe wait a moment done a few weeks ago you asked me to marry you do you remember yes I remember very well well then if you still mean it I'd be very happy to marry you Cynthia well now I really am going to bed Don thank you again for putting it a word something of this old doctor had felt in his heart about his patience but never knew how to say thank you for last night not for the silver cup alone although I'm most grateful for it but thank you for giving me peace and the knowledge that at last I'd chosen correctly that this was where I belong after Don left I came down to write this letter to you and a letter I can never mail a piece of sentiment that can only be filed away with the other memories of a love goodbye and yet it warms the heart and helps the pain of those memories to know that your daughter my Cynthia will find and keep the happiness that we found well then we'll return in a moment I'd like to again remind you that even though it may seem a long way off October and November will quickly disappear and Christmas will be here before we know it remember last year you resolved that next year you'd get your cards early well next year is here and right now is the time to make out your list and start thinking of your Christmas cards if you're really going to get them early sending Christmas cards will mean so much more to you if you have time to choose them with care and thoughtfulness and hallmark cards will help you to be most thoughtful because you'll find there is always a hallmark card to say just what you want to say the way you want to say it I know you'll find pleasure in choosing hallmark Christmas cards because they are so extraordinarily beautiful the kind your friends will single out to show to others display proudly during the holidays and treasure long afterwards like other distinguished products that have one social preference hallmark cards can be obtained only at fine stores and you have that comfortable knowledge they are correct you have added pleasure to and sending hallmark cards because that hallmark on the back is so instantly recognized like the sterling on silver it carries its own high tradition it says you cared enough to send the very best here again is james hilton edmund grand now a deep thanks for your performance we've been honored to have you star in the hallmark playhouse on a number of occasions and it's always a pleasure we look forward to always a pleasure to be here mr hilton and when i'm not here i always try to listen well good i i hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoy having you on the show oh thank you but the way knowing that cancer city is the home of hallmark cards i was most interested in reading the article on cancer city and the current issue of look magazine yes indeed it's a fine article you know we dramatize the cancer city story last season direct from cancer city itself we found it a great place yes oh and uh and talking of look magazine did you catch the cbs ad about our hallmark playhouse in the same issue sure i did and tell me now what have you chosen for next week mr hilton next week we're dramatizing a novel by jessie lynch williams entitled not wanted this is a charming story about a boy and his father and the problems they had to face in separation and for our star we will have invited that delightful young actor dean stockwell our hallmark playhouses every thursday our director producer is bill gay our music is composed and conducted by lin marie and our script tonight was adapted by dean holloway until next thursday then this is james hilton saying good night for hallmark cards that are so lonely in stores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service remember hallmark cards when you carry it out to send them very best edmund wendt can currently be seen co-starring in the 20th century fox production mr 818 this is frank goss saying good night to you all until next week at the same time when james hilton returns to present dean stockwell in jessie lynch williams novel titled not wanted and the week following washi denerving the legend of sleepy hollow starring lionel barry more on the hallmark playhouse this is k mbc canza city missouri