The story of Dr. Kildare.
Whatsoever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick.
Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be held as sacred trust.
I will exercise my art solely for the cure of...
The story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought you those famous motion pictures.
Now this exciting, heartwarming series is heard on radio.
In just a moment, the story of Dr. Kildare.
Now the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Blair General Hospital, one of the great citadels of American medicine.
A clump of grey-white buildings planted deep in the heart of New York, the nerve center of medical progress where great minds and skilled hands wage man's everlasting battle against death and disease.
Blair General Hospital, where life begins, where life ends, where life goes on.
I know you dislike sentimentalism, Dr. Killespie, but the best I'd hoped for was a chance to work with you on these Betadron treatments, and when instead you put me in full charge of the project...
Ah, now, Kildare, don't start gushing around like an old maid of the fraternity there. Forget it.
Well, anyway, thanks.
We're living in a high-speed age, Jimmy, and it affects medicine along with everything else.
You younger men are the ones who'll have to keep up with it.
It was only a few years ago that the sulfur drugs came along, then penicillin and the other antibiotics, and later the radioactive compounds, and now the Betadron.
Well, every one of those has meant another big step forward in medicine and a lot of new problems and new techniques to be learned.
Most of the formulas and calculations Miller has used in designing this machine come from a branch of mathematics I've never even heard of.
Well, the further science advances, the more specialized it becomes and the more interdependent.
All you can do is take a fellow scientist's results on faith. Assume he's right, and then go ahead.
I'm willing to do that in this case.
Bart Miller is one of the best mathematicians and physicists in the country, so my main concern now is the fact we can treat cancers lying close to the brain, those we couldn't touch before with surgery, x-rays, or anything else.
As you know, that's as important as...
Pardon me, Dr. Kildare, but the specimen lab called. They've isolated the six guinea pigs. You ought to have them ready for you.
Oh, go ahead, Parker. Will you have them sent down to the new lab in the basement? I'll be there later.
All right, Dr. Kildare.
I've scheduled the first test run with the machine for three o'clock this afternoon.
Uh-huh. What about the first human test?
Oh, that won't be a test, Dr. Gillespie. It'll be a treatment.
And the patient is Janet Dane. Maybe you remember her.
Oh, yeah, yeah. She's a young artist who was in here for a diagnosis about a month ago.
She had a throat cancer, eye up on the left side, well advanced and not treatable.
Until now. She's coming in for consultation in an hour. I just talked with her on the phone.
You know, I'm worried about her mental condition now. She's got to want to get well.
But apparently she doesn't even care.
When we told her she had cancer, she seemed to lose all her belief in me and everything.
Well, that's one problem you younger doctors still have to deal with, Jimmy.
The problem of the human mind and heart and soul.
There's no machine for that one. You'll have to solve that all.
Then, as I understand it, Dr. Kildare, I'll be fastened in some sort of chair in a small room down in the basement...
while this atom smasher shoots a narrow beam of high-frequency radiation through my throat.
Yes, that's essentially correct, Miss Dane. Each treatment lasts about three minutes...
and it'll take several of them before we know the results.
You'll be able to hear the Betatron running, of course, but you'll have no other sensation and no pain.
Nevertheless, I take it there is some danger involved?
Not as far as we know. You'll be the first patient to be treated here at Blair, of course, but...
similar machines have been used successfully in other places.
Well, then why all these precautions you told me about?
Three-foot concrete walls on the room I'll be in and with lead shields around it...
and you and the other operators looking in at me through portholes.
Well, there's quite a lot of difference between the careful controlling and focusing of that beam...
where you want it to go and just turning the radiation loose and permitting indiscriminate exposure to it.
But with proper handling of the machine, there's nothing to be frightened about.
Oh, don't misunderstand me, Dr. Kildare. There's no question of being frightened.
I'm not being frightened of anything.
I know. I almost wish you were a little frightened. I mean, I wish you cared enough to be.
Care? About what, my life? Why should I? When you told me a month ago I was going to lose it.
No, not quite that. I said that without treatment you had around six months to live.
But we're ready now to start treatment.
But there's nothing really certain about this million-dollar gadget, is there? It's still only a chance.
A very good chance, though. It's true, there are types of cancer that don't respond particularly to Betatron radiation...
but I'm confident yours will.
Would you still be as confident if you were in my place, Dr. Kildare?
I know how it would sound if I said your life is more important to me than mine, so we'll let that go.
But all our lives depend on chance. I could be killed by an automobile tomorrow and you might live to be 90.
Of course there's some chance involved in this treatment, but all the odds are with us.
You've got to believe and have faith.
In what? I had faith in myself until... until this came along. So what can you put faith in?
Well, if nothing else, why not me?
I mean, in whatever knowledge and ability I have as a doctor and the confidence I feel about the treatment.
Suppose the treatment doesn't work?
It will.
You're so... you're so sincere and convincing.
A person could believe in you easily. Could want to believe in you.
Then give it a try, will you?
You... you won't let me down, Dr. Kildare?
No, Miss Dane. I won't let you down.
Why, it's as plain as the nose on your face. That girl's fallen in love with you. There's no doubt about it.
That's ridiculous. You're always jumping to conclusions on insufficient evidence.
I know the symptoms, Jimmy. And under the circumstances, it was inevitable.
Every woman falls in love with her doctor at least once. It's a psychological fact.
Well, not Janet Dane. She isn't the type.
Well, maybe she's not your type, but every woman is a type.
Well, I hope you're wrong. I've been through that particular patient problem before.
Oh, in fact, I know you're wrong.
Okay, Kildare. I'm ready to go ahead on the tests whenever you are.
All right, Bart, let's get started.
Weyman, you can bring that first cage over now.
Got you, boys. One live guinea pig coming up.
Cute little gopher, ain't he, Doc?
Bart, is it safe to go inside now?
Yes, everything's cut off. Go ahead.
Come on, Joe.
Oh, jeepers. This room gives me the whim-wim.
Where is it?
Not in the near but that one chair.
It looks like an execution chamber.
It's intended to be just the opposite.
Now, take that guinea pig out of the cage, Joe.
I've got to strap him in place here on the head of the chair.
Okay, boss.
Here you are.
Thanks.
Say, he acts kind of dopey.
He's a little bit of a wimp.
So he'll stay quiet during the test.
Oh, this ain't going to hurt that little fella, is it, son?
No, he won't even know anything's going on.
There we are.
Come on, Joe, let's get out of here.
It's okay by me.
That thing there looks like a machine gun pointing through the wall.
It's even got ring sights on it.
When you fire a 30 million volt shot, it's a good thing.
It's a good idea to know where you're aiming.
All clear, Bart. It's yours from here on.
Okay. Roll them over, Jim.
Right.
Dr. Gillespie, you can use this porthole here if you like.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
I don't see nothing happening yet, boss.
Speed steady at 21,000, Bart.
All right. Cut in the primaries.
Secondary plates are holding on 27.53, Bart.
Good. Are the grids open?
Yeah. 31, round the clock.
Well, gentlemen, this is it. Test number one.
On zero, Jim.
Right.
Ready.
Now.
I don't see nothing happening in the dark.
No, and you won't see anything, Joe. The beam is invisible.
Oh, that little gopher inside there sure don't seem to mind it none.
He doesn't even feel it.
Well, two minutes, 43 seconds more to go.
You've seen the whole procedure now, Miss Dane.
That guinea pig in there is the eighth one we've tested this week.
Three minute exposures each time and not one has shown any ill effects.
Well, this one certainly seems to feel all right.
I guess the guinea pig can go.
Well, I'm not sure.
I don't know.
I guess if a guinea pig can go through with it, I can too.
When do we start?
Well, the first treatment is scheduled for nine o'clock tomorrow morning.
I see.
You've decided to take my advice.
Yes.
Whatever faith I have, it's all in you now.
I guess I ought to put you on the spot.
I suppose it does in a way, but thanks for doing it.
Oh, Kildare.
Oh, so you're still down here.
Am I too late for the run?
Yes, we just finished, Dr. Glassby.
Everything worked perfectly.
Bart's there in the control room now making a final check over.
Wrong, Kildare.
I've just completed it.
All okay.
Oh, good.
I'll come in at 7.30 in the morning, have it warmed up, ready to roll anytime from 8.30
on.
Then it'll work out nicely.
We're scheduled for nine.
Well, how do you feel, Miss Dane?
Better than I have any time for the past month, Dr. Glassby.
Thanks for my position.
Who's a pretty wonderful guy, in case you didn't know it.
Yeah, fits in with a little theory of mine, unsycho.
Now, let's not go into that, Dr. Moody.
Keep us docked.
They've been trying to call you up at the lab.
You know what's happened?
No, what is it, John?
Them two guinea pigs you tested down here, Monday, are both dead.
Dead?
They just now found them killed over in their cages, cold in the March Herring.
Yeah, it looks as though you'd better do some more testing before you start your treatments,
you mean.
It couldn't have been caused by the machine.
Their blood counts, cell structure, vasocardiac reflexes, everything showed no damage after
the tests.
Now, they've died from something else.
It's pure coincidence, bound to be.
Well, they certainly didn't get anything from Big Betsy here but a shot of straight high
freak radiation.
I'll swear to that.
Nothing else showed up on the test blocks or the recorders.
Well, nevertheless, we better not take any chances with Miss Dane until we're sure what
happened.
No, I'm not afraid.
Whatever Dr. Kildare says, it's all right with me.
I can be confident in him.
Even under the circumstances?
Of course.
It's a little matter of things.
All right, Miss Dane, we'll go ahead with the first treatment as originally scheduled.
Now, we continue with the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel
Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Well, there's no use carrying the topsy any farther, Dr. Gillespie.
Same condition in the lungs, congested and inflamed.
This animal died from the same cause as the other one.
Certainly, from pneumonia.
I told you that three hours ago, Jimmy, without any autopsy.
I know, but we still had to make sure.
What time is it?
Oh, after midnight.
Well, I guess I better clean up this mess and get some sleep.
You're still going ahead with that treatment in the morning?
Yes.
We don't know what caused the pneumonia, Jimmy.
But I do know that it wasn't the Betatron.
Coincidence there.
Yes.
Those two guinea pigs were left overnight in that basement lab.
It's damp down there.
They may come from a susceptible strain.
They were new specimens, delivered only the day before.
They may even have been infected when they came to the hospital.
There is possibility, yeah, whether there's nothing sure about any one of them.
No, but as far as I'm concerned, these things are sure.
One, when Bartmiller says the machine is functioning perfectly, I'm sure that it is.
Two, I'm sure there's no medical theory to account for high-frequency radiation causing pneumonia,
without at least some evidence of cell damage or blood deterioration
or some of the other signs we've looked for tonight.
Three, I'm sure that without treatment, Janet Dane will be dead in less than six months.
Well, Jimmy, it's your decision, and it's a hard one anyway you look at it.
The girl has a lot of confidence in you.
I know.
That's the one thing she's clinging to now.
Plus, of course, the fact that she's in love with you.
No, you're wrong about that.
Really? Maybe, maybe.
Anyway, what are you going to do?
Cancel the treatment or go ahead?
Janet's had her confidence, was only as strong as mine.
All the knowledge and skill I have tells me there's no reason for delaying that treatment.
I know I'm right and I'm going ahead with it.
The schedule is still nine o'clock in the morning.
Dr. Gillespie, we're ready to roll any time Kildare gets here with the patient.
Good. He's due any minute now.
Jim and I have gone over Big Betsy with a fine-tooth comb.
Everything works perfectly.
I'd stake my life on it.
Well, in a way, we are staking our lives.
I'm sure we'll be able to get a good deal of money.
Well, in a way, we are staking a life on it.
Dr. Gillespie, when I think what that poor child has to go through,
I just get so nervous I could scream.
Oh, fine, Parker.
That's all we need to build up Miss Dane's courage.
A screaming nurse waiting to greet her.
Well, after what I heard you and Dr. Kildare saying last night,
I certainly can be very calm about this.
By the charm that you're eavesdropping.
I was not.
I only happened overhearing.
Oh, sure you did, Snoopy.
I know just how she feels, Doc.
I mean, sir, it ain't like there was a guinea pig in there.
This time it's going to be a real live thing.
Wayman, you're an ambulance driver and you've got no business down here.
Get out!
Yeah, yeah, but what if she maybe passes out, maybe,
and we've got to haul her off on a stretcher or something?
Oh, Confiner, this isn't an execution.
It's an attempt to save a human life.
So stop acting like members of a death watch.
Dr. Killespie, here she is.
Well, Dr. Kildare, I seem to have quite a welcoming committee.
Morning, everyone.
Morning.
Well, how do you feel, Miss Dane?
Oh, fine, Dr. Killespie.
Can't someone at least smile?
This isn't an execution, you know.
Yes.
How about it, Bart, already in your department?
Sure, anytime.
Roll them over, Jim.
Right.
I guess there's no point in delaying things, Miss Dane.
Shall we go on inside?
Yes.
Let's get it over with.
Well, we who are about to die salute you.
About to live, Miss Dane.
Dr. Killespie, if I didn't believe that too, I wouldn't be joking about it.
All right, Dr. Kildare, let's go.
This room was made less scary than it...
anything was in here and I was outside.
Well, you'll be outside again in a little over three minutes.
Now, climb into that chair and we'll get you settled.
Like so?
That's right.
Just lean back against the headrest.
All right.
What your arms like.
There.
Now, all you have to do is sit here for three minutes.
Don't move, don't turn your head.
Now, this microphone, it's for the microphone.
Now, this microphone here will pick up your heartbeat...
while this tube on your arm registers blood pressure.
I'll be following them on recording dials outside the window there.
And if you get nervous or want the thing stopped for any reason...
just press this button under your hand and we'll shut off the whole work.
You got it?
Yes.
I won't press the button, though.
Oh, good girl.
You've got a lot of courage, Miss Dane.
Believe me, Doctor, it's going to be all right.
I know it is.
I wonder if you know what I mean when I tell you I love you.
I love you.
Well, I guess it's...
You don't know.
But you will when I'm well again.
Miss Dane, you're a very beautiful woman, but...
Thank you, Doctor.
I, um...
I suppose we may as well get started, don't you think?
All right.
I'll be at the window.
I'm not worried, Doctor Kildare.
All right, Bart, it's up to you.
Okay.
Cut in the primaries, Jim.
All steady on those grids.
All right.
Kildare, will you do the siding?
All right, Bart.
That poor child.
Parker, shut up.
It's dead on, Bart.
Go ahead whenever you're ready.
Secondaries at 28.25, Bart.
Grids are in.
Here goes.
All right, Jim, cut her loose.
Good luck, honey.
Jeepers, she's sitting in,
taking it without batting an eyebrow.
She's so brave.
I just can't get over it.
She seems nervous, Jimmie.
Starting to wet her lips and nothing wrong is there?
Heart beat is steady, blood pressure normal.
No, everything's all right, Dr. Gillespie.
30 seconds.
Look, Dr. Gillespie, she must be all right.
She's smiling.
Parker, that's the smile of a woman in love.
Why, I didn't know that.
With whom?
With Kildare.
Well...
Now it's the smile of a woman who's convinced she's going to live.
A woman who's just got to live.
All right, Wayman, let's get the door open and bring her out.
Okay, boys.
Well, she came through it okay, Dr. Gillespie.
I hope so, Jimmie.
The guinea pig didn't die until the second day.
No, I'm not worried about that.
All I'm hoping is that these treatments work.
Of course, we realize some cancers aren't susceptible to this,
but we won't know for three weeks or more.
Well, as far as I could see, everything worked like a charm, Kildare.
When do you plan to give her the second treatment?
Oh, day after tomorrow, if she's feeling all right.
And, oh, nice work, boy.
Thanks.
Well, Dr. Gillespie, was I not a good patient?
How do you feel?
Fine. A little shaky is all.
Miss Parker is going to take you up to your room now.
You can have breakfast whenever you want it.
I'll see you a little later.
Oh, and Miss Dane, you were a perfect patient.
Well, you know why, Dr. Kildare?
That's right, Bart.
Treatment number four is scheduled for 10.30 in the morning.
Right. Bye.
It's not that I mind the treatments, Dr. Kildare,
but when are we going to know?
Still too soon to be able to tell, Miss Dane.
You've just got to be patient, that's all.
I don't know, Jimmy.
She's had 10 treatments now,
and neither the X-rays nor the measurements
show any change in the size of that cancer.
I just don't know.
That's right.
Treatment number 14, nine tomorrow morning.
All right, Mr. Miller, good-bye.
X-rays again at two this afternoon.
Why, Dr. Kildare? Nothing's going to happen.
It's been over two months, and you told me three weeks.
Yes, I know, Miss Dane.
Well, all we can do is to keep trying.
I... I'm sorry.
All right, I'll be there at two.
Good morning, Miss Dane.
Oh, Dr. Kildare.
I know that... you've got my X-rays.
That's right.
Dr. Gillespie and I just finished reading them.
What did... I mean, did they...
Skipping the technical details,
the cancer is no longer malignant.
It's starting to atrophy, decrease size.
That's also borne out by the measurements we made yesterday.
Then you mean...
I mean it should be completely absorbed within two months.
Miss Dane, you're cured.
Oh...
Oh, Dr. Kildare, I love you.
Well, I... I'm sure you think you do.
Oh, I don't think I do. I know it.
Well, let me put it this way.
It's... it's a psychological fact
that women very often imagine themselves
in love with their doctors.
Of course, it's only temporary, but...
Oh, silly. I'm not that sort of giddy female.
When I came to you, I was lost. I was scared.
I knew I was going to die, and I didn't even care.
But you made me care.
You gave me hope and courage and faith that I loved you for it.
No, I put my life in your hands,
and now you've given it back to me.
That's why I say I love you.
I'll never forget you.
Jimmy, thank you for my life.
Thank me? Why?
You know, I've always believed that life is the most precious stuff on this earth.
That's why I'm a doctor, Janet.
So if you did put your life in my hands,
and if I did save it,
then I'm humbly grateful for the chance.
In just a moment, we will return to the story of Dr. Kildare.
And now, once again, the story of Dr. Kildare,
starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Dr. Gillespie, you remember Janet Dane?
Dane? Janet Dane?
She was in here some months ago.
You know, the first patient we treated after the Betadron was installed.
Oh, sure, of course I remember her.
What ever happened to her?
Oh, she got cured and went away,
and I was so deeply stifling her mad infatuation for me.
What?
Don't you remember, you had quite a theory at the time,
that Miss Dane was desperately in love with me.
Ah, confident she was in love with you.
Probably still is.
Jimmy, it's a psychological fact that...
I know that every woman falls in love with her doctor at least once in her life.
That's a pretty ridiculous theory, Dr. Gillespie.
Well, now you don't know for sure just because the girl kept her feelings hidden.
Oh, I know now all right.
She called me up this afternoon.
Well, now.
She wanted to tell me she was married last week.
Hmm.
Well, I guess I'd better get back to work.
So long.
Oh, Parker, how would you like to do me a favor?
Why, of course, Dr. Kildare.
Well, Gillespie's in there tearing a pet theory to pieces with his teeth.
What?
And let him stew for about ten minutes,
and then go in and tell him that the man Janet Dane married works over at the medical center.
He's a research doctor.
You have just heard the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
This program was written by Les Crutchfield and directed by William P. Russo.
Original music was composed and conducted by Walter Schuman.
Dick Joy speaking.