Colgate Toothpowder's Theater of Romance presents Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Yes, tonight and every Tuesday night, Colgate Toothpowder brings you the Theater of Romance.
Featuring each week your favorite stories and plays, especially adapted for radio.
And here is your host of the evening, Arnold Moss, to tell you about this evening's presentation,
Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Good evening, and welcome to Colgate Toothpowder's Theater of Romance.
James Hilton's tender and moving story of the old school teacher, whose life was enriched
by one great love, is known to all of you as Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
At this moment, Mr. Chips, 85 years weary, with 63 years of school mastering behind him,
is very ill.
His doctor and the headmaster of the school watch him anxiously.
Poor old chap.
He must have lived a lonely sort of life all by himself.
Not always by himself.
He married, you know.
Really?
I didn't know that.
No, I guess he didn't know.
Few people do know now, which I found it easier to talk about, which I could just speak up
and say, yes, I married, and it was heaven and paradise and Eden and Olympia.
I lived my lifetime in a year or two and died.
So long ago that none of you remember.
Let me tell you about my Catherine.
Her hair was like sunshine and her eyes were blue.
And her laughter reached out to me the day we met on top of a mountain, as close to God
as it was possible to climb.
And she was merry and I was very cross.
Now see here, young woman, I don't know what you're laughing at.
I climbed all the way up here because I thought you were in difficulty.
Well, it was very gallant of you, and please don't take me unappreciative.
Why did you look so outraged?
It's funny.
Well, why on earth were you waving your arms about, sir, if nothing was wrong with you?
I was waving at a friend of mine just below you.
Oh, oh dear, I'm afraid I shall have to sit down for a moment.
What's wrong?
Nothing very serious.
I twisted my ankle on that last incline.
Let me see it.
Oh, it's very swollen.
Here, I'll tear off a piece of my petticoat and we'll soak your ankle.
My dear young lady, I'm certainly not going to have you tearing up your undergarment for
me.
It's quite unnecessary and most embarrassing.
Oh, poor.
Are you going to shut your eyes?
I am not.
Well, just as you like.
Oh.
I thought you'd close them when it came right down to it.
You can open now.
The operation's over.
Now I'll just get this wet.
Take your shoe and start it off.
Well, there doesn't seem to be anything else to do.
Now then, we'll just wrap this around your ankle and let it soak for a while.
Be as gentle as I can.
There.
Did that hurt?
Hmm?
I said, did that hurt?
Well, I guess it didn't or you'd have had something to say about it.
What's your name?
Chipping.
Oh.
Well, mine's Katherine, Mr. Chipping, but my friends call me Kathy.
What do your friends call you?
Chipping.
What would you expect them to call me?
Oh, something a little less formal than Chipping and a little more friendly.
And what might such a name be?
Well, that name might be Chips, Mr. Chips.
Now there's a jaunty name with dash to it and a sense of humour.
I rather like it.
I'm glad.
I hope you'll use it often.
I hope I'll use it often.
Oh, look, the sun's going down.
We'll have to start back.
I'm afraid you'll have to try and put your shoe and sock on.
Oh, very well.
Do you mind?
Not at all.
I'll gladly turn my back.
Thank you.
It's been a beautiful day and it's going to be a beautiful night.
There's a full moon now, you know.
Or do you?
Certainly I know.
It's too bad about your ankle.
We might have gone for a walk in the moonlight.
I've never walked in the moonlight with a young lady in my life.
How old are you, Mr. Chips?
Forty-eight.
Well, I'd be ashamed to admit it.
Here, take my hands.
I'll help you up.
All right.
There we are.
Now, lean on me and we'll start back.
I'm afraid this is going to be rather painful for you.
Thank you.
You know something, young lady?
I'm beginning to like you very much.
Do you know something, Mr. Chips?
I'm beginning to like you very much, too.
Hello, Mr. Chips.
I brought you some cake.
How's the ankle tonight?
Better, but I still can't walk on the blasted thing.
Hang it all.
Such strong language from you.
What would you expect?
Look at all that moonlight going to waste.
What's that piece you're playing, Kathy?
It's a love song.
It's been one of my favorites for a long time.
When I was a little girl and dreaming about a prince who would come riding on a white
horse, there was always someone playing that song somewhere in the background.
And did the prince ever come?
Yes, he did.
Oh, I see.
But he didn't come on a white horse.
There wasn't any music, except in my heart.
He came limping up a mountain and walked straight into my dreams and said his name was Chippy.
Kathy.
Oh, Kathy, my dear.
I don't quite know what to say.
What do you want to say?
What I want to say seems altogether too prosaic and old fashioned.
It's just...
Katherine, my dear, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?
Oh, darling, I've been so frightened.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Of course, I've been too impulsive.
That's why you've been frightened.
Oh, my darling, I've been frightened to death.
You wouldn't ask me.
Mr. Chips, look.
There's the first star.
Let's wish on it.
Oh.
What did you wish?
That we'd always be as happy as we are at this moment.
What did you wish?
That you'd never leave me.
She stood beside me in her mother's wedding dress, wearing a veil that five Irish grandmothers
had worn before her, and then those words that I was to be proud about forever.
I, Katherine, take thee, Robert, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day
forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer.
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And now, the second act of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Old Mr. Chips lies quietly on his bed under the anxious eyes of his doctor, and his mind
and his heart have raced back almost half a century to the days of his great love.
Oh, Mr. Chips, isn't it a lovely party?
I'm going to love it here at Brookfield.
Good evening, Chipping.
I'd like the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Chipping.
Oh, good evening, sir.
This is Mr. Weatherby, dear, the headmaster of Brookfield.
How do you do, Mr. Weatherby?
Mrs. Chipping, welcome to Brookfield.
We're happy to have you with us, and very glad indeed to see you both so happy.
Thank you, Mr. Weatherby.
How long have you known my husband?
Oh, roughly 20 years or so, I'd say.
Aren't you lucky?
You know, every once in a while, I think, even if God is very good and gives us 70 years,
that won't be nearly enough.
When I've known him 70 years, you'll have known him 90.
Think of it.
Oh, and you'll be saying, just think, today, Weatherby's known you 90 years, my dear.
He was a fine old chap, wasn't he?
This all verges a little on the depressing.
I shall be 118 years old myself.
And very handsome for your age, too.
Well, there's the music again.
Will you do me the honour of this dance, Mrs. Chipping?
With pleasure, Mr. Weatherby.
Oh, my darling, how beautiful you were.
How beautiful.
The days that followed were my golden days, for they began with your smile and ended with
your kiss.
Too short.
Too short, those days, and fleeting.
I see you walking beside me through the grey historic halls of Brookfield.
I see you sitting before your dressing table, brushing your hair and eyeing me gravely in
the mirror.
Chips, dear, don't be hard on the boys.
After all, they didn't do anything so serious.
Someday you'll be head of the school yourself, you know, and you must be very understanding.
I?
Head of the school?
Yes.
Won't it be wonderful?
How much you knew of boys, Kathy.
You who had no son but dreamed of one constantly, and one day cradled that dream in your arms.
Chips, darling, I've something to tell you.
We're going to have a baby.
Isn't that wonderful?
Oh, my darling, isn't that wonderful?
Kathy, it's so wonderful, it's unbelievable.
How do you feel?
Are you all right, darling?
Here, sit down, let me get you a pillow.
Silly, that won't be necessary for a long time yet.
Oh, Mr. Chips, if you knew how I've prayed for this.
You know, coming home from the doctor, I kept wanting to run up to people that I'd never
seen before and say, I'm going to have a baby.
I'm going to have a baby.
Oh, Mr. Chips, he'll have your hair and your eyes and your laugh and fat rosy cheeks.
He'll be the most beautiful baby there ever was.
And he'll be very bright too, won't he?
Oh, yes, the brightest boy in the school.
Yes, and he'll make the team and we'll go and sit in the stands and wave flags and cheer
him home for the school.
And he'll marry the prettiest girl in England and then he'll have a son and we'll be grandparents.
Oh, Chips, was there ever anything in the world so wonderful as having a baby?
No, my dear, not one, not one.
Mr. Chips, I love you very much.
Kathy, I...
Kathy, my dear, I...
I know, my dear, I know.
It seemed that we had everything in the world, you and I.
I was full of plans.
At first you shared them with me and then gradually you seemed to draw away from them.
You smiled and said the right things, but your eyes didn't believe them.
And my heart grew cold with the fear that prowled restlessly inside me and would not
be stilled.
And then one day...
Mr. Chipping, you're wanted right away at home.
I'll take your mathematics class for you.
Hurry, man, hurry.
I...
I don't understand, Doctor.
I don't understand.
Mr. Chipping, try to listen, please.
We've done everything we can.
Do you mean she's going to...
Oh, no.
No, you can't mean that.
She's my whole world.
She's my whole life.
If I lose her, I want to die.
Take hold of yourself, man.
Remember that life and death must come to everyone.
What good are words to me?
There must be something that you can do, Doctor.
There must be something.
I wish there were.
Her child was born dead.
She should not have tried to have this baby.
I warned her.
She wanted a son so much.
Oh, Doctor, what'll I do?
What can I do?
You can come in with me now and sit with her until the end.
And try not to let her see what you're feeling.
She has only a short time.
Try not to make her unhappy.
I'll try.
Come in, then.
Kathy?
My darling?
Hello, Mr. Chips.
You look tired.
Sit down here by the bed where I can smooth your hair.
It's standing all un-end.
Did you have a hard day?
Yes, I...
Yes, it was a bit difficult.
I told them not to call you until the last moment.
I didn't want you worrying when there was nothing you could do.
I'm very tired, Mr. Chips.
I know, darling.
You must rest.
No, I don't want to rest.
I've plenty of time for resting.
You see, I know no one is needed to tell me.
I've seen it in their eyes and in yours.
Kathy...
I'm glad I know.
Because otherwise it might not occur to me to say thank you.
Thank you for so many lovely things, Mr. Chips.
I'm...
I'm sorry about your son.
You wanted a son.
I want you all, and only you all.
Kathy, what will I do with my life without you?
Be grateful for what we've had, Mr. Chips.
Don't spoil that by weeping for the things we cannot have.
You must live a good life and a full one.
You must be headmaster.
And a splendid one you'll be, too.
But don't be too hard on the boys.
They're such little fellows, after all.
I love you.
I've never loved anyone else.
And I never shall.
I know.
And you've made me so very happy.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Oh, Kathy.
Kathy.
Kathy, don't leave me.
Oh, Kathy, don't leave me.
Don't leave me, Kathy.
I walked out into the sunlight.
Day is shocked into complete numbness.
People passed me on the street and spoke, and it seemed horrible that the day could go
on and people could go on as though she was still part of the world.
Young Faulkner came up to me on the street.
Please, sir, may I have the afternoon off?
My people are coming up.
Huh?
What's that?
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Can I have Miss Chapel, too, sir?
Yes, yes.
And may I go to the station to meet them?
I nodded and stumbled on.
I took my fourth form, as usual, setting them to learning drama by heart, and I sat there
staring at them, wanting to shout, she's dead.
What do I care for verbs and adjectives when she's dead?
Finally the class was over, and as they filed out, someone stopped by the desk.
Please, sir, there are a lot of letters for you.
I looked down, and so there were.
I tore them open one by one, but each one contained only a blank sheet of paper.
And then I realized it was April 1st, and this was a piece of April foolery.
And I began to laugh at the top of my lungs.
I stood there laughing until I was completely worn out.
I fell asleep with my arms on my desk, and the pain dimmed and flickered and went out,
and there was nothing but silence and darkness.
But several years after she'd left me, someone spoke her name, a boy who came back for a
visit.
How is Mrs. Chipping, sir?
I remember her very well.
She had me in for tea one day.
Is that so?
You do remember her?
You don't forget people like her.
No, no, I suppose not.
There's no one here now who ever knew her.
Her boys come and go, and even masters don't stay forever.
She died, you know, less than a year after you left in 98.
I'm sorry to hear that, sir.
She was a wonderful woman.
She gave me one of the best afternoons I can remember.
I wish it were then and not now.
I'm off to France tomorrow.
Oh, well, Godspeed.
God bring you safely home.
Month later I heard that he'd been killed at Passchendaele, and there was no one who
remembered.
But I remembered.
Through the years that kept step with me, I remembered.
When I became headmaster, she was there beside me.
When there was a boy to be reprimanded, I saw her face looking back at me from a mirror
pleading for him.
And when I saw young people hand in hand with a light on their faces, I saw her smiling
at me, and my heart grew warm for an instant.
I loved her very much.
Poor old chap.
Must have lived a lonely sort of life all by himself.
Not always by himself.
He married, you know.
Really?
I didn't know that.
When she died, it must have been, oh, quite thirty years ago.
More, possibly.
Pity he never had any children.
What's that?
Did I hear one of you saying it was a pity I never had any children?
But I have, you know.
I have.
Hundreds of them.
Thousands of them.
And all boys.
Close your eyes, Chips.
Try to rest.
What's that?
Close your eyes, Chips.
Try to rest.
Kathy.
What are you doing here?
You're tired.
I've come to sit beside you.
Good night, Chips.
Good night and goodbye, Mr. Chips.
What was that, Kathy?
What was that he was saying?
He was saying, goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Oh, he was, eh?
But you won't say it, will you?
You won't say it.
No, Mr. Chips.
I won't say it ever again.
I won't say it.
The curtain has gone down on goodbye, Mr. Chips.
And in just a moment, Arnold Moss will tell you about next week's play.
But first, I'd like to ask you if you're the type of person that can face the world with
a smile.
Well, maybe you are.
But don't leave that to chance.
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Now, that's not just my say-so.
Scientific tests have definitely proved that Colgate Tooth Powder stops oral unpleasing
breath, stops it instantly in seven cases out of ten.
So don't take a chance with romance.
Simply brush your teeth night and morning and before every date with Colgate Tooth Powder
for a breath that's sweet and a smile that dazzles.
That's it, Colgate Tooth Powder.
And now, Arnold Moss.
Our play next week is a comedy of all comedies, My Man Godfrey by Eric Hatch, the rib-tickling
story of a beautiful, if slightly wacky, society girl who discovered that sometimes a forgotten
man is the kind that's hardest to forget.
Until next Tuesday then when Colgate Tooth Powder presents My Man Godfrey on the Colgate
Theater of Romance, this is your host, Arnold Moss, saying good night and wishing you love,
happiness and romance.
In tonight's play, Cathy was played by Gertrude Warner and the lovable Mr. Chips was played
by Carl Swenson.
The radio adaptation was written by Gene Holloway, the music conducted by Ben Ludlow,
and the production was directed by Mark Slob.
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