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 so...
The story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
Metro-Coldwyn-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. But first, your announcer.
Now the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Dr. Kildare, I've called you up to my office on an extremely important and confidential matter. It's about Dr. Gillespie and his office.
Oh, what about them, Dr. Krew?
Dr. Kildare, in Blair General we have one of the finest, most modern, best equipped and beautiful hospitals in America.
And? There is only one blight on the structural beauty of this building, Dr. Gillespie's office.
It resembles the back room of a taxidermy shop. Why, the furniture was antique in President Lincoln's day.
But a man of his position, to sit in an office as old-fashioned and cluttered up with every conceivable memento and souvenir as his is...
Well, I just won't tolerate it or humor him anymore.
Well, Dr. Krew, I think if you try to move one stick of furniture in that office, you're going to run into a stone wall.
Well, that roll-top desk is as much a part of Dr. Gillespie as his stethoscope.
Dr. Kildare, would a man continue to use an 1880-style stethoscope or a 1900-style operating table just for sentimental reasons? He would not.
Now, here, here. Take a look at these drawings. Dr. Leonard Gillespie's new office.
Dr. Krew, are you serious?
Serious? Of course I'm serious. They were drawn by Derek Ollingham, the finest modern architect of our day.
As you know, he designed my country home in Connecticut. And if I must say so, it's the showplace of Conway.
Well, I'm afraid Conway, Connecticut and Dr. Gillespie are impressed by different things.
Well, it's not just a matter of design, Doctor, but his present office is actually unsanitary.
That's true.
Yes. Dr. Gillespie is getting along in years. A new, more convenient office will actually make work easier for him.
Yes, I suppose it would. But why did you call me here, Dr. Krew, to break the news to him?
Well, no, no. The workmen were supposed to come in next weekend, but Ollingham called Dr. Narrago and said that he was bringing them in at three o'clock today.
And you want me to get Dr. Gillespie out of his office?
Oh, he has to get out and stay out until next Monday, Dr. Kildare.
All right, Dr. Krew, I'll do it. But it's going to take some thinking.
Oh, I have everything planned.
Ah?
Yes. Here are the keys to my Connecticut place. Take Leonard up there for the weekend.
I've already arranged for staff doctors to take care of things while you're gone.
Wait a minute. It's two-thirty now. You say the workmen are coming at three?
That's right. And so you'll have to move fast. Do anything.
Anything you can think of. But get him out of that office and out of the hospital until Monday morning.
Parker, get somebody to run over to Dr. Gillespie's room, throw some of his things in the suitcase, and enough for a weekend to bring them back here right away.
Well, what in the world are you doing?
I'll explain some other time, Parker. This is an emergency.
Oh, yes, Doctor, right away.
Good afternoon, Dr. G.
Oh, good afternoon, Jimmy. Isn't this a wonderful day?
Oh, it's too wonderful to stay indoors.
Oh, I don't know. I haven't enjoyed my work in months as much as I have today. Something you wanted?
Well, I sort of felt like taking a few days off and thought you might join me.
Well, Jimmy, it's nice of you to think of me, but I'll save my days off for some other time.
You could go fishing, you know. Lie around reading detective stories, listening to the radio. I've already arranged it with Dr. Carew. He'll put replacements on for us.
Well, now I can see you've gone to considerable trouble to get away.
And Dr. Carew also let us take his Connecticut home for the weekend.
Oh, really now?
Yes.
Oh, here, that's quite a fancy place. I suppose it's done in Carew's usual bad taste.
Well, there's one way to find out. We could look at it.
Oh, I don't think it'd interest me that much. And stop looking at your watch. You'll wear a hole right through the crystal.
It's two-fifty.
What are you catching, a rocket ship?
No, we're going to drive. You ready?
No, no, wait a minute. I didn't even say I was going.
Come on, I've had some of your things packed.
Now, Jimmy, let go of my arm. I'm not leaving here for any vacation. I don't need one.
Here, Dr. Gillespie's things all packed. Now, would you mind telling me what these are?
No, thanks, Parker. Very much. Just keep the door open because we're on our way.
On our way where? Stop pulling me.
On way Connecticut. Here we come.
How do you feel now, Dr. Gillespie?
Relaxed and very happy.
Good, good.
You know, Jimmy, I have to agree. Maybe it was a good idea that we did get out of the office for a few days.
That's what I was trying to tell you.
You know, while you were driving, I was just thinking about things.
About what in particular?
About my office mostly. I guess one of the reasons I don't like to leave Blair General, even for a day, is that office.
You mean you like it the way it is?
Oh, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Every piece of furniture, every book, every little memento in that office means something to me.
I'd probably kill anybody who tried to change as much as a chair in that office.
Look out, Jimmy! You almost ran off the road.
I'm sorry.
God, why don't you pull over there and I'll be driving. You know, you look a little ill.
Here we are. Carouse, Connecticut Palace.
Look at the size of that place.
Wait till we put on some light and get a better look. Come on.
The closer I get to this house, the less I like it. No warmth.
You'll like it when we get settled down inside and fire in the fireplace, a couple of hot drinks.
This place is so modern. Instead of a fireplace, it's probably got an atomic pile.
The light's here somewhere.
Ah, there. Isn't this house beautiful inside?
Yeah, beautiful.
It looks like Buck Rogers' bathroom. All chrome and those chairs there made out of burlap and wire.
It's just a matter of getting used to it.
Everything in the world is going to look like this in time, you know. It's inevitable.
Well, there is one place that'll hold out. My office. Maybe it'll be known as the last of the comfortable room.
Dr. Crew, this is Dr. Kildare. I'm calling from your library in Connecticut.
I want to thank you, Dr. Kildare. You got Leonard out of the hospital just in time.
Well, Dr. Gillespie's a little suspicious. I hope I won't lose his friendship over this.
Oh, don't worry about that. When he sees his beautiful new office next Monday, he'll be as happy as a kid with a new toy.
Oh, you don't have to whisper that, actually.
Ah?
I don't think so. He hates your house here.
Ah?
That's what he said. He hates modern architecture of any kind. And furthermore, he said if anyone ever changed his office, he'd kill him.
Really? Did he say that?
Yes. I think he means it.
Oh, well, I'm the head of this hospital, and I'm the one to say what the offices are to look like. You just have to accept things the way I do them.
And one more thing. He hates your house here so much that he wants to come back to town tomorrow morning.
Oh, what happens? You can't let him. Why, he'd be right in the middle of the work.
Well, he said he'd walk back if necessary.
But, Kildare, you've gotten him that far away, and it's up to you to keep him there until Monday morning.
But, Doctor, I don't care what you do or how you do it, but keep him there.
Well, Dr. Gillespie, did you enjoy your weekend?
Oh, I did, I did. Wonderful, Jimmy. Wonderful.
Those trouts were out of this world.
Oh, they were indeed.
But I don't imagine you had a very good time.
Well...
Oh, your car breaking down, losing your billfold and identification, and choking on a fish bone.
Why, of all the things that happened to you, was there unbelievable?
Well, to tell the truth, there are. But I managed to survive.
Well, Dr. Gillespie, here's your office. I think I'll run along to mine and...
No, no, no. Step in for a minute. Come on. We'll see what's on the calendar this Monday morning.
Oh, good morning, Dr. Gillespie. Welcome back. And Dr. Kildare.
Good morning, Parker. Parker, is that a new desk you have?
It is. It is brand spanking new.
What's that?
It's called a supersonic intercommunication relay system and amplifier.
A supersonic? Looks like a ray gun. Just a minute.
Dr. Gillespie, I want you to know I have nothing to do with this whatsoever.
My office? What have they done to my office?
I'll see you later, Parker.
Dr. Kildare, don't you sneak out of here now.
Where's my furniture gone? Where's everything that was mine? For this can't be my office.
Well, I'm afraid it is, Dr. Gillespie.
Well, Dr. Kildare. So that's what it was all about.
I'm sorry, Dr. Gillespie. I had no idea.
Don't apologize for your scheming. It worked all right, didn't it?
You got me out of my office long enough for someone to rip it apart and replace it with something that looks like the inside of a spaceship.
Just that Dr. Carew wanted to modernize the hospital.
Do you realize that in all this world, the only thing I had that was mine was that office?
It's where I entered as a young man and grew old. Every inch of wood meant something to me.
Dr. Gillespie, I think once you use it a while, you'll find it five times as light and convenient as your old office.
Oh, I will, huh?
Yes, I think so.
Well, let me tell you something. You can pass along to your co-conspirator, Carew.
I won't set foot in that chamber of horrors if I live to be a thousand years old.
We return to the story of Dr. Kildare in just a moment.
Now we continue with the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Carew.
Now we continue with the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Dr. Gillespie, we want you to just please try out your new office. Won't you do that much?
Yes, Slenderman. You can do that much.
Yes, I can do that much.
Splendid.
But I won't.
We thought you would appreciate a new office that would make your work easier and more pleasant.
Yes, we thought you'd appreciate it.
You keep out of this, Carew. Jimmy, I never thought the day would come when you'd turn up.
That's ridiculous. I haven't turned on you, Dr. Gillespie.
You shanghaied me away to that surrealist heaven up in Connecticut while this nincompoop here committed architectural mayhem on my office.
Nincompoop? Now you've been getting...
Oh, wait a minute, Dr. Carew, wait a minute. Dr. Gillespie, do you mean to say you're just going to sit here behind this card table in the laboratory and call it an office?
I am not.
Then you will practice from your new office?
I will not. I wouldn't be caught treating a torn cuticle in that shellac stable of electronic nonsense.
But you're so progressive in everything else. I don't understand you, Dr. Gillespie.
It's fairly simple to understand. I've had several offers, and good ones, to attend research laboratories in an advisory capacity.
And I'm thinking seriously of accepting one. Does that make sense to you?
Is he... is he really going to leave Blair, Dr. Kildare?
He certainly talked that way this morning, Barger.
Oh, but Dr. Kildare, what would I do without that man?
What would any of us do?
Oh, I don't blame you or Dr. Carew. You were just trying to help him. And that's the thanks you get.
Now, now, now, Parker, in spite of the way Dr. Gillespie's been acting, the situation isn't completely hopeless.
Oh, it isn't?
No. I think that secretly Dr. Gillespie's tickled to death with the new phones, the intercom, and automatic filing systems.
I think he even likes the leather chair and the carpeting.
There was something about that old roll-top desk that we just can't replace.
Yes, I guess he did have a feeling for it.
You know, Parker, if we were to replace that desk without him knowing it,
then somehow getting back into the office we wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore.
Excuse me, Parker. Hello?
Dr. Kildare, this is Dr. Carew.
Oh, did you locate it?
I've been on the phone all afternoon, but I have found it.
Good.
No, bad. The moving people disposed of the desk at the second-hand auctioneers.
I've been to be sold.
Where? Who? What auctioneer?
A man by the name of Beasley, 52nd Street.
Beasley? I'll go right over.
Spend any amount of money you have to, Dr. Kildare, but get that desk back or we're going to lose, Dr. Lespie.
And now we come to another item which should prove an invaluable asset in anybody's home.
Move it out, boys.
This fine, genuine Grand Rapids tomb-style roll-top desk was formerly the prized possession of a famous doctor of our city.
That's it, Parker. That's Dr. Lespie's desk.
Now, don't you let them sell it to anybody else, Dr. Kildare. Please.
All right. All right. Who's going to start the bidding?
Do I hear...
I'll buy that desk, Mr. Auctioneer.
Oh, the man in the gray coat. All right, buddy, let me hear your bid.
$50.
Hey, buddy, you just bought yourself a desk.
Everything's ready, Dr. Kildare. The moving men have put the desks in the office just the way it was before.
It's almost three o'clock. He should be coming along any minute.
Oh, the elevator just stopped. That must be him.
Come on. We can slip inside the lab.
Leave the door open a crack.
Here he comes. I hope he likes me.
Me too. He's going into the office now.
Watch this. He'll be so happy.
He's inside now. Can't miss it. Put it right there where it used to be.
Yeah. He'll probably want to be alone with it.
He used to be looking through it. Wonder what for.
Talker. Talker!
If you're through hiding in that laboratory with Dr. Kildare, come out here.
Uh-oh. Something's wrong.
Yes, Dr. Gillespie?
I suppose you and Dr. Kildare brought this old piece of junk back here.
What? Why, we thought you wanted it, Dr. Gillespie,
but we thought it'd make you change your mind about leaving.
Well, you thought wrong. It hasn't changed my mind one bit.
I thought surely that this desk was the answer to all our problems.
Well, apparently it isn't.
Hmm. Look at this.
What?
This is strange, Dr. Crew. Look at this drawer.
It isn't as deep as the others.
Why, it has a false bottom.
Why, so it has. Can you take out that false bottom, Dr. Kildare?
Yes. Hand me that letter opener, please.
Sure. Here.
There we are.
Perfume.
Yes, but the drawer's empty.
There must have been something in there that Dr. Gillespie valued very highly.
So that's it.
It wasn't the desk he was so interested in as what must have been in this door.
Uh-oh.
Come in.
Dr. Kildare?
I'm Dr. Kildare.
Your nurse said I'd find you down here.
Remember me? The auction house. The name is Beasley.
Oh, yes. Mr. Beasley, this is Dr. Crew.
How do you do?
Hi. Doc, I come down to bring you these. Here.
Package of letters?
Yeah.
I thought you might be able to get them back to the guy they belong to.
What?
That's all, Doc. See you around.
Oh, what do you know about that?
Let me see those.
Why, they're letters from Marley Bird to Dr. Gillespie.
This one's dated July 15th, 1913.
Dear Leonard, last night when you took me home from the nurse's dance,
I could hardly say goodbye at the...
I can't read them, Dr. Kildare.
Neither could I, Dr. Crew.
What do you say we get them in the hands of the only person who has a right to read them?
Of course, of course.
From the way Dr. Gillespie's acted so far, that's not going to be a very simple thing to do.
He has every right to be sensitive.
I think I have an idea that might work.
Why, these are letters I wrote to Leonard when I was in nurse's school, and he was just an intern.
Yes, he saved them all these years, Molly.
Imagine that old goat.
Molly, Dr. Crew and I have done something very wrong.
In moving Dr. Gillespie's desk out of his office, we nearly lost these letters.
It'd serve him right if he lost them.
He might try to blackmail me some day.
And he hasn't been angry at us for trying to decorate his office, even for getting rid of the desk.
But he's been very upset about losing these letters.
I never thought he'd keep anything like this.
And he still thinks they're lost.
I can understand why he complained about everything but the letters,
and I can understand why he wants them back.
He was really pretty touchy about everything?
He threatened to leave Blair.
Oh, you don't say.
Now, Molly, I can't put them back, nor can Dr. Crew.
But if you were to take them to him, I'm sure things could be worked out.
Why, I wrote those to him over 40 years ago.
I'd feel funny taking them down to him now.
I just couldn't do it, Dr. Gildare.
Well, then let me ask you this question.
Did Dr. Gillespie ever write any letters to you?
Letters to me?
Why, of course he did.
You should see what he wrote me the night after he took me to the intern, Sir Cotillion,
just before he graduated.
I've got the letter right here.
Molly, do you mean you've kept his letters all these years?
Well, I... you see, I...
Well, Molly?
Oh, give them to me, Dr. Gildare.
I'll deliver them right now.
How's it going, Dr. Gildare?
You know as much about it as I do.
Molly Byrd's been in there with him for a half an hour.
Well, I can't stand the suspense any longer.
I'm just going to have to wait and see what happens.
I, for one, am not going to wait.
This new intercommunication system works both ways, you know.
Miss Parker, you wouldn't dare listen in on Dr. Gillespie.
Wouldn't I?
Uh-huh, Molly.
We did have quite a time, didn't we?
Leonard, I always thought you had the curliest hair of any student in medical college.
Will you let me closer, Miss Parker?
Oh, Pursy.
I was so mad when I thought they'd lost those letters for me and nearly quit this place.
Leonard, you didn't!
I did, Molly. That's a fact.
Well, you have them back, Leonard.
And don't ever let them out of your sight again.
Oh, no, sir. Never.
Molly, I think we should celebrate.
Celebrate what, Leonard?
Well, I have a brand new office.
I push a button here and my reports are all filled out automatically.
I push the button here and a stand-by physician will take over my duties while I'm out.
Let's have some dinner, huh?
Leonard, I loved you!
Well, I guess we've heard enough, haven't we, Dr. Kildare?
I think we've heard just about all we need to hear.
Parker?
Yes, doctor?
Would you please tell Diana Werner I won't be able to meet her for dinner?
Oh?
No, I'm the stand-by physician and I have a feeling I'll be working.
Oh, yes, doctor.
Very good. Very good.
Well, wait a minute. And second thought, Parker, don't tell Diana anything.
I think I'll write her a letter.
In just a moment, we will return to the story of Dr. Kildare.
And now, once again, the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayers as Dr. Kildare and Lionel
Moore as Dr. Gillespie.
Good morning, Parker. Dr. G, how are you this morning?
He's awful. I just want you to know, Dr. Kildare, that he's been on the phone all morning
bragging to his cronies about the new office he had the hospital build in, imagine.
Parker, get out of here before I push one of these buttons on my desk and you go up in a puff of smoke.
All right, all right, I'm leaving, I'm leaving, I'm leaving.
Well, Dr. G, having fun here in the new office?
Do you mean I want to tell you that after giving it a fair trial, I really like it?
I thought you would once you got used to it.
There's one thing I like most about it.
What's that?
Well, it seems that in wiring all these electrical devices, they cross some wires or something.
Really? What happens?
Well, when I push this button, the green one, the window shades are supposed to go up, but they don't.
Now look what does go up when I push it.
Ah!
See what I mean?
You have just heard the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
This program was written by E. Jack Newman and John Michael Hayes and directed by Joe Bigelow.
Original music was composed and conducted by Walter Schuman.
Virginia Gregg was heard as Nurse Parker and Ted Osborne as Dr. Carew.
Others in the cast included Betty Blythe and Tony Barrett.
Dick Joy speaking.
Music
Music