Starring Tyrone Power, the cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont presents the Sidney Howard dramatic masterpiece, Yellow Jack. Today is Army Day, more significant than ever this year when the gallant saga of the American fighting man is being written every hour from Bataan in Australia, from Pearl Harbor in Salon. So it is especially fitting for us to recall on this day that the heroism of our time is the legacy of yesterday as well as the guarantee of tomorrow. It is a proud company, the company of America's fighting sons, and there are none with more right to march in it than the soldiers stationed in Cuba in 1900 who offered their lives not in war but in peace. Our play tonight is about the Army heroes who defeated a mortal but mysterious enemy, freed the western world of the plague of Yellow Jack, and made possible our inter-ocean lifeline, the Panama Canal. Tonight, with Tyrone Power as Major Walter Reed of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, the cavalcade of America does homage to the heroic Army men of 42 years ago, spiritual forefathers of the heroes of today. The war was over, and the Columbia barracks at Camido near Havana, Cuba, shimmered in the blue perfect heat of a broiling tropical sun. It was the summer of 1900, but still the soldiers of the U.S. Army stayed on at their posts. There was little for them to do except think of home and sing and talk of home. It's clearly sure the wrong place to spend the summer. Eh, war is over, what have they sent us home? Drill and tote stretchers, swab out the ambulance, swab out everything. I don't like this smell of carballing all the time waiting for our turn to go out, feet first. Where's D.L.A. Jack such afflictions or questions of fate? Who's this to be philosophers? Were fates concerned? Which the Irish are, so long as their fate remains agreeable. I want to be home, raising a family, living a normal life. These docs think we enlisted and came down here so they can cut us up and squint at our insights? Now, now, be thinking of Major Reed and these men of science. How they expose themselves to the perils of this, worrying after the unknown truth like a bevy of bulldogs. I say it's a- Watch it. It's Major Reed. Heard you. Tenth chum. All right, men, at ease. What's your name? Glennon. Warranty, sir. Private, transportation unit. And you? Bush, Levi Fies, sir. Private, quarter best of the department. O'Hara, John J., sir. Acting Sergeant in charge of the operating room, sir. You I know, Mr. Brickerhoff. Yes, sir. Mr. O'Hara, you'll do well to be less eloquent about doctors. You'll all do well to talk less about this epidemic. Epidemics are best not talked about. There's retreat. You'd better be off. Yes, sir. Dr. Reed, will you come into the laboratory, please? Dr. Callahan, yes, come back. Carol. Carol. Marine, what's news from the camp at Pinar? No doubt about your diagnosis, Chief. Vomitious malaria in my eye. It's Yellowjack going great guns, too, dropping like five. Is that all you have to tell us? Do you expect anything? After two months of this and how many autopsies? And a record for thoroughness at any rate. I can't stand much more of this. I look out there to see and watch our transports steaming home and I don't think what they may be carrying. And now we've taken Cuba on, taken it on with this awful thing smoldering in it, waiting its chance to jump over home to us, to Philadelphia and New Orleans and to know that we've had it under our microscopes a thousand times and never seen it. General Woods lost a third of his staff in the past month. He knows it was Yellowjack, not Roughriders that licked the Spaniards here, and it'll lick us if we don't lick it first. And our commission, you, AgriMonte, and you, Carolyn, Lazier and I, we were sent down here to stop this horror, to isolate a microbe and find a cure. And we failed. Failed completely. It isn't easy to admit that. We've tried every angle, Chief. Give it up. It's no use. I'm calling the commission tonight to disband it. It won't be a long session, and then we'll go home. Well, the most we could do would be to keep on working. We have at least discredited everyone else. You know, I ran into one puzzler out there at Pina. Oh, I've heard enough puzzlers I can't solve. Here's a funny one. In the case of a soldier, 6 July 12th, died on the 18th. But he hadn't been near the disease for over a month before he was took sick. What was that? They had him locked up in the guard house. There, he lay in that guard house for three days after, with eight other prisoners. And they didn't catch it. Not even the one who slept in his blankets after he died. How about contaminated food or water? The whole outfit ate and drank the same. A man may have been extra susceptible, maybe. If we could explain why we don't catch it, what did you say? Nothing. I'll see you tonight. Go clean up. At 8.30, gentlemen. All right. Good night. Oh, what was it that crawled or jumped or flew through that guard house window? It bit that one prisoner and went back where it came from. What was it? What was it? Well, Major Reed, you really have reached the end of your tether. My advice to you and the members of your commission is call it a day. Go home. My friend Major Gorgas can assure you, you are leaving this epidemic in worthy hands. The Marine Hospital Corps, with which I have the honor to be connected... Excuse me, Colonel Torey. I called the commission to disband it tonight. Three hours ago, I was certain we should disband. Even now, I hesitate to suggest that we go on. The only course which remains open to us leads us so far afield, seems so beset with danger that I stand appalled before it. Don't be mysterious. What is the course? To set our microscopes aside and concentrate on new methods of investigation. How? By turning our minds to how yellow fever spreads, AgriMonte, from man to man and village to village and even across the sea. How about that Gorgas? I should like to know something about that. I've come to suspect a middleman here, an infection carrier, in all likelihood an insect, probably a mosquito. Did you say mosquito, Reed? Oh, you can't be serious, Reed. These fads are the curse of modern medicine. Is medical science going insect mad? Where have you been, Torey? You never hear of Smith's Texas fever tick? How about Bruce and the African tits he fly? And malaria's just been nailed to a mosquito. Oh, God bless you, Reed. Mosquitoes are meat and drink to me. Enough of theories. We must draw the line against this somewhere. Major Gorgas, I should like to hear what you have to say. Well, why the mosquito, Reed? Why not the flea, the louse, or the homely bedbug? Because Yellow Jack's not confined to the louse and bedbug belt. The cleanest parts of town may be the deadliest. And it's at its worst in summer, the mosquito season. Reed, let me speak. Speak on, Lazier. We're not going home. We're not going to quit because we haven't got the guts to exceed instructions. Read right about this and I'll go it alone if I have to. Only I won't have to. There's a crazy old troglodyte here in this town, an old Scotsman with spectacles and sight whiskers. Thinly his name is. Thinly? What are you talking about? You don't propose going to him? He's been working in this angle for years. He's got his particular guilty mosquito all picked out. He's a crank. No more a harmless crank. He may be, Colonel. He may be completely mad. If he is, though, he has a brave kind of madness. The jumping forward kind that's always too risky for the completely sane. You have your convictions. I have only my curiosity. What do you others think? Carol. This isn't my line, but go ahead. Well, I can think of nothing better to suggest. Thinly's got to be tried. There's no doubt of it. There is a very grave doubt, Doctor. The scheme isn't possible. Why not? Aren't you forgetting that yellow fever is unlike other diseases? You don't give it to guinea pigs or monkeys or mice. You can't give it to any animal except man. I've forgotten that. Well, think it of now. How can you test Dr. Thinly's mosquitoes by any conceivable experiment? By experimenting on men. What? Not to read. You don't propose to use human guinea pigs. Do you realize this is human vivisection? Well, you are there. All right, all right. If we fail a few harmless mosquito bites, if we succeed, we shall have risked a few dozen lives to save countless thousands. No, no. You've got to be stopped. You're not independent of Washington, American public opinion, the press, and the pulpit. You know how they stand on animal vivisection. If you're ready, Major Gorgas, I'll bid these gentlemen good evening. Good evening, Colonel. Good evening. Good night, Gorgas. Good evening, Gorgas. Good night. Well, Lassie, Carol, Agri Monty. Well, if you'd only told us, Reed, we could have backed you up. You know what Colonel Torrey can do to you, Chief. Yes, there's no doubt of what Colonel Torrey can do. I see no reason, though, why he or anyone should know what we're up to from now on. Oh. But, Doctor, would it be possible to experiment on men in secret? It's got to be. You're right, Reed. Men, no. Men. That's got to be true. I'm afraid so. I'm afraid so. Men. Major Reed, I have the honor to present my colleague, Dr. Finlay, for these many years, a distinguished leader of our profession here in Havana. How do you do, Doctor? How do you do? Dr. Finlay, this is Dr. Lassie and Dr. Carol. Hi, Dr. Finlay. How are you, sir? How are you, sir? We shall sit here in the patio, if you don't mind, gentlemen. My office is dark. I see your face is more clearly here in the sun. Dr. Finlay, shall we omit the preliminaries? I suspect you can guess what our errand is. My fellow scientists do not come often here, Major. We come to join you, Doctor, in the war you have waged many years alone. Anything we can do, we'll do, if you will help us. We need your knowledge. We want what you have learned about your mosquito. The eggs we'll do. For 19 years, science has laughed at me, Major, at the cracked old Finlay and his mosquitoes, and nowhere more cruel than through American Army doctors. Now you come running to me to save your faces. You'll be surprised if I have no impulse to share my secret. We shall be deeply disappointed, Dr. Finlay. And we shall hope to persuade you. We're likely to prove your case for you, Doctor. Prove my case? You mean you doubt my discovery? I doubt everything, till I'm sure. I have cherished my great discovery for 19 years. Do you expect me to give it up to you to make use of it and get glory from it? Glory is not the idea, Doc. I'm no stranger to waiting, Dr. Finlay. All my life long, my prayer has been that I might in some way alleviate human suffering. I think this may be my chance as well as yours. The proof you demand lies beyond any man's power. We don't feel that. You cannot test my mosquito without risking life. There's an army of occupation outside this town with nothing to do but... Well, let the soldiers wait, Lazier. They'll keep. They'll be there any time we need them. We'll start this off with ourselves. You, gentlemen? Yes, but only three. Hagromontes had yellow fever. Yes. You after me, Carol. You have five kids. I've only one. We'll hold you in reserve, Rene. Why didn't we think of this before? But the risk, gentlemen, you must put this mad idea out of your minds. And you said we would need to be ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Hagromonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Hagromonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I'd rather have some more than swim in the river. Outside, that's... Delirious. Fever. Be ruthless, Finlay. Save your You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I'd rather have some water and swim in the river. Delirious? Fever. Irritable, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, daughter. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. All right. Yes, Doc. Back employer. You'll never find him. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I want some water. I swear to God. Outside, I swear to God. Delirious? Thiever. Irritable, Finley. Let him have your mosquito eggs, doctor. I think you had better let him have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. She is. Very incredible, Dr. Gov, a help of this game. Very. All right, Dr. Gov, I will be very grateful if you don't mind. Good. Think it over again, please. I'll test and demonstrate. A. of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Delirious? Fever. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Outside, I see. Delirious? Fever. He is ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Outside, I see. Delirious? Fever. He is ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Outside, I see. Delirious? Fever. He is ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Outside, I see. Delirious? Fever. He is ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly. You are listening to Tyrone Power in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, sponsored by DuPont, maker of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry. As our play continues, Dr. Aggramonte and a nurse are entering a ward where the men most gravely ill of Yellow Jack are confined. How many more mosquitoes to infect this time, Dr. Aggramonte? I have three here. I would like them to bite me. I know. Sickest men we have. Yes. Over here, please. Yes. I have some water in the river. Outside, I see. Delirious? Fever. He is ruthless, Finlay. Let him have your mosquito eggs, Doctor. I think you had better let them have the eggs. Very well. When I give them into your hands, I give you 19 years of my life. I do it gladly.
