The Cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through
chemistry, presents Dick Powell with Onamansan in The Sailor Takes a Wife.
But first, Gain Whitman speaking for DuPont.
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And now, on Cavalcade Story, The Sailor Takes a Wife.
Tonight, the Cavalcade of America takes you to a fighting front that most Americans haven't
heard so much about.
Our story is the story of ships, of printers, ink, and ships, and the boy and the girl,
and just plain ordinary guys.
It's the story of a boy and a girl who find out something about war and about themselves.
And it's the story of the men who deliver the goods, the United States Merchant Marine.
For these are the men who haven't made so many headlines, but who by the end of our
first year of war had a greater percentage of casualties than any other branch of the
armed services.
And so DuPont is proud to tell a story of America's Merchant Marine, starring Dick Powell
as Barry Arthur, ordinary seaman, with Ona Munson as Cathy, star feature writer, in The
Sailor Takes a Wife by Alan Sloan on the Cavalcade of America.
The
city room of the newspaper, rattling, cracking busy place.
News, the pulse of a city, passing through the brains and fast typing fingers of competent
and unrattled people, coming out in marching words and headlines.
Big men, copy readers, photo-ogs and rewrites.
And a city editor taking the master pulse.
City desk.
Well, this is the city editor.
Okay, I'll turn you over to a rewrite man.
Hold on.
Hey, Buck, pick up this call on three, will you?
Okay, Barry, I got it.
Oh, Barry, are you pretty tied up?
Not for you, Cathy, why?
Well, what did you do with the snapshot of that corporal Saunders, the one we ran with
my story yesterday?
Oh, it's around here somewhere.
Oh, I promised his mother I'd return it, and they haven't got it back in engraving, so I
got one for you.
There, there.
Oh, my Barry, you might have had them clean it up a little.
She's lucky to get it back at all the way this paper's run.
Oh, by the way, that was a swell yarn on that soldier, sweetheart.
Nice, lots of feeling.
Lots more than I can say for you sometimes.
Now where did that come from?
And don't call me sweetheart.
Now here, look, let's get this straight out, honey.
Buck, watch the desk for a while, will you?
Okay, pal.
Let's go back into my office, Cathy.
I want to talk to you.
In your capacity as city editor, Mr. Arthur?
No, no, this is me talking, Cathy.
Me, Barry, the guy you, oh well, skip it for now.
Watch the door.
Now Cathy, honey, what's wrong with you?
Is it me, or what's bothering you?
If you're sick, I can get you a couple of days off.
I am sick, Barry, heart sick.
A tough little reporter like you?
And I'm sick of being a tough little reporter.
Oh, Barry, that's all you think of nowadays.
Reporters, bylines, headlines, deadlines.
Don't you know there are people in the world?
Well, Cathy, I know, honey, I've been awfully busy lately.
We both have.
Don't flatter yourself.
I'm not thinking about me.
I'm thinking about those kids.
What kids?
Those servicemen you've had me writing the feature stories about.
Those poor, plain, Main Street Johnnys that maybe won't come back.
I know, yes.
You've been doing a swell job, Cathy.
Sure, worming my way into some soldier's family, trying to get a picture out of them for the
paper.
Wang being the worry and heartbreak out of them.
Just so you can make a Roman holiday in headlines out of, oh, what those boys go through.
Now wait a minute.
Don't you think the public ought to hear about those things?
Don't kid me, Barry.
You're not thinking about that.
You are thinking about news, headlines, circulation.
Cathy, that's not fair and it's not true and you know it.
The newspaper man in wartime has a responsibility to let people know what those kids in the
service are doing.
To let people know the sacrifices and the hardships and the horrors they go through.
We're doing an important job, Cathy.
There's only one job in the world that's more important and that's the job those kids themselves
are doing.
All right, if it's so important, why aren't you doing it?
Oh, so that's it.
Well?
Why am I sitting around here protected by a deferment?
Where's my uniform?
Is that what you mean?
Oh, Barry, I didn't say that.
Well, it's what you mean, isn't it?
Isn't it?
For you, I've got to be a hero.
I've got to wrap myself in a flag and do something noble.
Oh, Barry, please.
It isn't that.
It's just that, oh, well, sometimes I wish you had a little more real.
Real feeling for what those boys go through instead of thinking of them as just good coffee.
And you think a fine way for me to get that feeling would be to go through a little myself.
Hmm.
OK.
OK.
Why don't you come right out and say it?
Barry, I don't want you to go rushing off to an induction center just to prove what a
big boy you are.
Induction center?
Me?
Hey, listen, center.
I'd take more than you're needing to get me to an induction center.
But you couldn't get me down there in a straight jacket.
All right, you men, keep in line.
This is an induction center, not a bargain sale.
Next.
Name?
Barry Arthur.
You got your card?
Right here, doctor.
Hmm.
You're the editor, huh?
I thought you fellas rated your ferments.
Well, we do.
Any physical disabilities?
Why, no.
None that I...
I know.
What's the matter with that leg?
Oh, that?
Oh, that's...
It's just a trick knee, football.
Let me see it.
Hmm.
That's a good, isn't it?
Well, I can get along in it, Doc.
I get along fine.
Can you?
Here.
Hmm.
Now, let's see you walk across the room.
Sure.
Well, I...
Oh.
Doc, what did you do to it?
I just put a little pressure on it.
Same thing you do to it about 15 times your first day at basic training.
I'm sorry, son.
You can't take me?
With that leg?
Not a chance.
Next.
Okay, you men who didn't make it over this way.
No, they shouldn't turn me away.
I got the right to join up.
Oh, come on, Pop.
You heard him.
You're too old.
Well, I wasn't too old to send my son to the Army to worry about him, was I?
Oh, no.
They should take me.
They should...
Now, skip it, Pop.
You tried, so call it quits.
Yeah, well, maybe I ought to give up hatin' too, huh?
What do you mean, hatin'?
Well, my boy's fightin'.
That's what I hate.
Maybe I ought to call that quits too, huh?
No, no, no, you shouldn't.
But where do you go from here, Pop?
Where do I go from here?
Back to the desk and sit the war out?
Sorry, brother, bad knee.
Go home and knit sweaters.
You're no good for the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Coast Guard.
Yeah, well, I still got my seaman's papers way back anyway.
So what?
Haven't you heard of the Civilian Navy?
What do you mean, the Civilian Navy?
Merchant Marine.
Well, what about it?
Who do they ever fight?
Listen, the first year of the war, the Merchant Marine had plenty of casualties.
Plenty.
Don't you ever read the papers?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But what about it?
Yeah, yeah.
Now that you've mentioned it, I think you've got something there, Pop.
Those guys really are heroes at that.
Well, I never heard any of them describe themselves that way, but...
But they might take in a man who's too old to carry a rifle, huh?
Could be.
And a young fellow with a bum knee?
Could be, son.
Could be.
And what are we waiting for?
Come on.
Hi, you buck.
How does it feel to be a city editor at last?
Oh, hello, Barry.
We were just wondering what you were going to do now that...
Yeah, now that I've been turned down.
You hurt, huh?
Yep.
Well, you can ask Kathy after I leave.
After you leave?
You'll hurt me.
Why, Barry, where's your straitjacket?
Oh, okay.
Go ahead.
Kidding.
Kathy?
Oh, Kathy, could we go someplace and talk?
Well, what's the matter with right here?
Oh, Kathy, I just wanted to tell you that...
How about you're being rejected?
We heard about it.
Oh, listen, Kathy, I've signed up with something just the same.
I did want you to know about it.
It took me for the merchant marine.
Oh, Barry, you didn't have to do that.
Well, I'm in it.
I'm in.
All right.
How do you want me to head the story?
The city editor joins up.
Isn't it wonderful?
Well, what did you want me to do?
I didn't want you to make a grandstand play to impress me or anybody else.
Well, I didn't do it for that.
It is because, well, I felt that...
Oh, I'm sorry, Barry.
Maybe it's partly my fault, too.
Maybe you will do some good somewhere on a ship or something.
Kathy, suppose I do some of this good you're talking about.
Will you...
Will I what?
Barry, when are you going to realize that I don't count in this?
That's what I keep trying to tell you.
A real person doesn't go to war just to be a hero for a girl.
A girl doesn't count.
You count to me, Kathy.
And I...
Well, I thought maybe I'd get to kiss you goodbye, but...
Please, Barry, don't.
Oh, all right, all right.
Let's drop the whole thing.
I'm taking off now.
Well, I wish you luck.
I want in two or three months, I'll be at sea.
A lot can happen out there.
It's a good place for a newspaper man.
I'll do all right.
I do wish you luck, Barry.
Oh, you poor, mixed-up guy.
Hoffman Island.
A two-by-four chunk of man-made land on the rim of New York Harbor,
with the Atlantic at its very doorstep.
Cleaning station.
The beginning of 13 grueling weeks that it takes to make a merchant seaman out of a boot black,
or a banker, or a city editor.
And remember this.
Every one of you is here by choice.
You didn't get picked for this service.
You volunteered.
Whatever you're in for, remember you asked for it.
Okay, section leaders, carry on.
Okay, form a squad and follow me.
What do you know about that, Pop?
You asked for it, you said.
Well, didn't we?
Sure.
But what?
Don't worry, we'll find out.
Drill and more drill.
Climbing ladders, climbing ropes, toughening up.
It's not easy on a man who's 50 years old.
It's not easy on a man who's always earned his living behind a desk, like a city editor.
There's no time to belly ache.
There's too much to learn.
Big things and little things.
Okay, you guys have had enough time now.
Hold up those sheep shank knots.
Here you are.
How's this, Boatman?
Yeah, let me see.
Hey, look, fella.
The loop wants to run over and through.
See?
Like this.
Mat tying, sail making, signal recognition, boat handling, engine take down, life drill,
and practice.
For a moment it may come to any merchant seaman.
But every merchant seaman dreads the most.
When you're on a tanker and she's hit, then all around the sea is covered with a flaming
flick of oil and gasoline.
At Hoffman Island, a squad of men are lined up at a diving board above a practice tank.
Okay, light her up.
Light up that oil flick.
Boy, look at her burn.
First man, jump.
Feet first, hands over your mouth.
Okay, Pop, here goes nothing.
Stay under and swim, swim.
He made it.
You're next, Pop.
Okay.
Keep those hands over your mouth.
Take a deep breath.
Stay under the burning oil and swim, Blast you, swim.
Stay under and swim.
Thirteen weeks of it.
Night and day on that little island.
And then I do solemnly swear that I will abide by the rules and regulations of the service
and obey the lawful orders of the persons in authority
pursuant thereto during my enrollment.
May I seek enrollment in the service in good faith?
Attention, attention.
Ordinary Seaman, the author.
Here.
Ordinary Seaman, J. Burroughs.
Coming up.
Report to shipping office.
Report to shipping office.
Rendezvous, somewhere in the Atlantic.
It's a long haul across the Atlantic in wartime.
A nameless ship out of a nameless port, beating down the coast, heading for your rendezvous,
waiting for your convoy.
Two days, four days, five days.
Where will we be picking up our convoy about daybreak?
How can you tell that, Mac?
Fingers is the name, sailor.
Call me Fingers.
Okay, Fingers, how can you tell?
Me?
Listen, pal, after you've been doing this as long as I have, you can smell it.
Everything that's going to happen, you can smell it.
Most of all, trouble.
I wish I had been doing this as long as you have.
Oh, so you like the racket, huh?
Yeah, sure.
How about you, Pop?
I like it fine.
I got a boy over there on that side somewhere.
Yeah?
You're kind of old, ain't you?
Yeah, just turned 21.
What's it to you?
How old am I?
You?
Oh, say about 40?
Maybe 38, 39.
Uh-uh.
28.
No.
No?
Yeah.
28, going on 100.
I look old, huh?
Well, I...
Listen, baby, listen.
You get yourself torpedoed three or four times,
raffed off ship after ship,
living your life out on these rush-fucking states.
Uh-oh.
Well, I'm off watch.
Now get me some jabber.
I'll be seeing you.
Finger's been sounding off again?
Yeah, kind of jumpy, isn't he?
Torpedo-tappy, four times.
The last time he lost the fingers in his left hand.
Oh.
Hints at the moniker.
Yeah, but he's got a right to be jumpy this trip.
How come?
You know where it carries, son?
Gas.
A million gallons of high-octane gas.
You are listening to Dick Powell as Barry Arthur,
ordinary seaman, and Ona Munson as Cathy
in The Sailor Takes a Wife
on the cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont,
maker of better things for better living through chemistry.
Our play is the story of the merchant marine and the men in it
who man the ships of America's lifeline to the battlefront.
As the play continues, we find that Barry Arthur,
a newspaper city editor who has joined the maritime service
to vindicate himself in the eyes of Cathy, his star reporter,
has completed his training, and he and his shipmate
have received their first sailing orders
and a aboard ship on their first cruise down for a convoy rendezvous
somewhere in the Atlantic.
It's a long haul in convoy across the Atlantic,
speed held down to the pace of the slowest freighter,
five days, ten days, fifteen days.
The lame, the halt, and the blind.
That's what they're giving us.
The lame, the halt, and the blind.
Ah, cut it out, fingers.
Yeah, well, you know as well as I do.
What good are guys like him and Pop going to be to us
if we get into a jam?
Quiet down.
Hey, what's going on?
Say, what is this?
Nothing.
What's the matter?
Is this a private argument, or can anybody get here?
There was no argument.
No?
Well, I'll tell them.
Look at him. Look at him.
The lame, the halt, and the bl...
Listen.
Listen to what?
Don't you hear it?
Don't you hear it, you dummies?
Don't you hear it?
I'm going below.
What was the matter with him?
Nothing.
Just scared, that's all.
Was he talking about us, me, and Barry?
I tell you, just torpedo taffy, that's all.
A lot of guys get like that when they're sailing through the same waters
where they were torpedoed a couple of times before.
Yeah, there's more to it than that.
It's right what Fingers says.
Anything that's going to happen, he can smell it.
Most of all, trouble.
Listen.
Now, it's a plane.
So that's what was the matter with Fingers.
Where is it?
There, see?
There it is.
Bloody high, but it's up there.
What's one little plane got to get so excited about?
Listen, son.
Have you ever seen a vulture hanging around up in the sky
waiting for sun and some animal to die?
Well...
Now, that's what that plane is.
He'll just watch us for days.
And when we get near enough to those Nazi air bases,
he tips them off.
That blowy.
Oh, a vulture.
Yeah.
Just waiting.
Just waiting.
What's it like up there?
Oh, about the same.
Here, give me some more Java.
Vulture's still hanging around?
Yeah.
Where's Fingers?
Well, I haven't seen him lately.
His watch isn't.
I'm not so sure he's going to be able to keep his watch.
What's the matter?
He sick?
Yeah, sick in the head.
Ever since that plane's been following us.
Well, you blaming him?
He's just been dumped once too often, that's all.
Fingers ought to take it a little bit easier.
Who's yapping about me?
Nobody said nothing against you, Fingers.
Relax.
Relax?
You think I'm nervous, huh?
You think maybe I'm scared, huh?
Yeah, you punks.
How about some coffee, Fingers?
You young punks.
You're getting all the bright skies like me you had to fight for.
Mama's boys.
Send them to school.
Make semen out of them in three months.
Slip them into monkey suits and ship them out.
Watch your trap, Fingers.
Mama's boys.
The new merchant marine.
Going to man the great American fleet of the future, huh?
What do you bilge rats know about the merchant service?
You wet behind the ears, you.
What do you know about what a guy has to take?
Did you ever have guys making cracks behind your back because you didn't wear no uniform?
Did the shore patrol about push you back on a ship after 40 days at sea when you were just dying to put your feet on dirt again?
Did you ever catch a tin fish off my man?
No, you didn't.
Don't carry on like that, Fingers.
Get away from me.
Why don't you let me?
Here, here.
Don't hurt him.
Come on.
I hate to do this.
Oh, you're fine.
Oh, I'm sorry, but somebody had to hit him.
You did the right thing.
That's that plane up there.
Follow us.
Just waiting and watching.
That's what was the matter with him.
Help me get him back in his bunk.
I'll take his watch.
Here.
Of course.
Come on.
Listen, the plane.
Yeah, sounds like he's coming down to have a good look.
Yeah.
I won't go long now.
Hi, Barry.
Where are you heading?
My trick of the wheel.
Going up to relieve Fingers.
How is he today?
Oh, he's been okay since that plane stopped tagging us.
Want to come up to the bridge with me for a minute?
Maybe a little...
Yeah, it might make him feel better if we both kind of...
Come on.
Hi, Fingers.
Huh?
Oh, hi, Barry.
Pop.
Fingers?
Hey, what's your course?
Zero four zero.
Zero four zero it is.
Okay, Fingers, I'll take over.
Say, Barry, about my blowing my top last night, I...
Oh, forget it.
No, I shouldn't have gone overboard.
I'm sorry.
You kids are swell.
Yeah, and Pop too.
Skip it, Fingers.
We've all been kind of jumpy.
Say, our pal up there seems to have left us.
Yeah, it's not so good.
Hey, maybe I spoke too soon.
That's not that same plane.
Hear the difference?
Look, I can see them.
Where?
Up there.
Fingers.
Oh, they're dive bombers.
Tell them to sound the alarm.
Right.
Look, Barry, two of them are dropping down on us.
Oh, we're going to get it all right.
All's the course.
Zero one zero.
Evasive action.
Aye, aye, sir.
Man your battle stations.
Man your battle stations.
Well, here we go again.
Yeah.
It's a funny thing, though.
It's not so bad once they really come at you.
It's the wait and it's murder.
Yeah.
Here comes the first one.
Hit the deck!
Finally.
Close, wasn't it?
It's just the rest of them.
Yeah, them hindies can spot a tank a hundred miles away.
Here comes another one of them.
Dump down, Fingers, down.
Come on, Pop.
No time to get to the boat.
Hey, wait, Fingers.
Fingers, Fingers.
Oh, there he is.
He's hurt.
Fingers, Fingers, you all right?
Oh, look.
Come on, Fingers.
Come on, we got to jump.
Give me a hand with him.
Leave me alone.
You stay here.
Don't be a chap.
You guys will never make it through that door.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
It's taking him.
Here we go.
Well, what do you know about, hey, Kathy.
What's up, Buck?
Anything hot?
Yeah, I got a little job for you.
Serviceman interview.
Oh, please, Buck.
not maybe you like this one you read the story just came over the ticket hmm
Mediterranean convoy the tanker went down in less than five minutes the lone
survivor reached port today and is recovering in the Navy Hospital making
headlines for the second time in his career as a merchant seaman the first
was when he joined the merchant marine four months ago the former city editor
Barry Arthur but is he sure he's all right we did he he's burned some but he's
all right but I want you to go down and get his story but no I couldn't not after
what's the matter you wanted a hero didn't you know not like not like this
listen Kathy you go down and get that story and that's an order
nurse not you know I'm who was it it's me Barry Kathy Kathy oh you're still
covering the hero beat Oh Barry please for a while we thought you were we heard
about the ship three weeks ago and we thought you were oh take it easy baby I'm
all right no kidding there now take it easy oh Barry I'm so ashamed of myself
I've been such a fool you know you haven't kept what I have you know what
buck said when we heard about the ship he said there goes a swell city editor
and suddenly I realized that I'd sent a great guy who was doing a swell job out
to look baby maybe we were both mixed up a little bit I you were awful right
about some things I did do it for a grandstand play I was showing off to you
but I won't do it again then you're not going back I am going back but for
another reason this time because there's fighting going on and there's all those
guys over there that need the stuff because it was a guy named pop who went
to sea because he had a kid in Italy and for a guy named fingers who went back
again and again even when he was half crazy from the strain and for a lot of
guys who would never make the headlines oh Barry so proud and Kathy when I get
back your first assignment will be to marry me
thank you on a Munson and Dick Powell to the men of the Merchant Marine who
carry the materials of war across the seven seas to our battlefronts
everywhere DuPont sends its good wishes and deep appreciation mr. Powell will
return in a few moments gain Whitman speaking for DuPont will tell you of two
chemical developments that have resulted in a new shortcut to air power even
metal airplanes have quite a few parts covered with fabric for instance the
control surfaces of nearly all planes including the great flying fortresses
the rudders ailerons and so on are fabric covered the fabric is treated with
a finish known to aircraft engineers as dope a liquid that draws it top and
smooth under the usual way of making these parts the fabric is laboriously
stretched over the framework by hand and coated and recoated with liquid dope at
least half a dozen times because of the nap on the fabric the first few coats of
liquid have to be put on with a brush that takes time still more time is lost
waiting for the dope to dry and not only time but space as well because the parts
have to stand somewhere while they're drying and wherever you put them they
take up room sanding the parts smooth between coats of dope demand still more
time but DuPont has now developed a pre-doped fabric a fabric to which the
first coat of dope is applied before it is sent to the aircraft plant using this
DuPont fabric time-consuming brush coats are done away with because DuPont
pre-doping flattens down the troublesome nap on the cloth and assures a smooth
surface later coats can be applied with a spray gun the final finish is much
smoother with less sanding at the very least a half hour is saved on every part
every rudder or whatever it may be and the saving in space is so important that
the process and materials engineer of one aircraft plant calls this new
pre-doped fabric a prime example of space saving on top of the saving in
time and space further streamlining of plane production is made possible by a
new high solvency lacquer also developed by DuPont after months of research this
new lacquer is now ready for the aircraft industry it will still further
reduce the number of operations required to paint airplane fabric with an
additional saving in time of 20 or 30 percent the two developments used
together the pre-doped fabric and the new lacquer means savings not only in
the manufacture of combat planes but also in the manufacture of training
planes and gliders many of which are entirely covered with fabric both
developments represent wartime achievements of peacetime DuPont better
things for better living through chemistry and here is Dick Powell star
of this evening's cavalcade
thank you ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the cast this month than myself we
hope you liked our play tonight me I learned something from it because I think
that Barry Arthur's early lack of realization about the vital and dangerous
job being done by the men of the merchant Marine is perhaps shared by
many of us and so miss Munson and I hope that through the parts we played for
you tonight we may have helped in some small way to do honor to those brave men
who have done so much and are doing so much for all of us
yeah
next week the DuPont cavalcade joins the nation in celebrating Abraham Lincoln's
birthday as we present Raymond Massey in a radio adaptation of EP Conkel famous
play prologue to glory the play reveals with wit and emotion the young Lincoln
as he started up the road to glory Lincoln is a very young man when he first
left his backwoods home and set up storekeeping in New Salem Illinois next
Monday's broadcast will mark the third year that Raymond Massey has starred in
his now famous role of Lincoln on the cavalcade of America cavalcade is pleased
to remind its audience that Dick Powell appeared tonight through the courtesy of
Paramount Pictures whose current release is the miracle of Morgan's Creek the
musical score this evening was composed by Robert Armbruster this is James Bannon
sending best wishes from cavalcade sponsor the DuPont company of Wilmington
Delaware who invite you to join cavalcade audience again next week when
Raymond Massey will be starred as Abraham Lincoln in a story filled with
rich humor and romance that is also a stirring portrait of Lincoln's early
years on the frontier of a new nation
this program came to you from Hollywood this is the national broadcasting
company