The Cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents double plays starring Brian Donlevy and featuring Kent Smith. Music Tonight with Brian Donlevy as our star, Cavalcade brings you a story of high daring and courage in the best tradition of the Navy. But more, it is a warm human tale of two brothers in love with the same girl. It is entitled Double Play and was adapted by Isabel Layton from the Saturday Evening Post story of the same name by Jacqueline Marmor. Brian Donlevy is starred as Steve Yancey and Kent Smith is featured as his younger brother Harry on The Cavalcade of America. Music An operating room in a naval hospital. How is he? His pulse is strong. He's coming out of the ether. Let me know when he comes around. No, no. It's all right, Sandra. It's all right, darling. It's Harry. My little brother Harry. Oh, Harry. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Harry. No, Harry, don't. Harry, no. That boy's got something on his mind. He should think he would have, what he's been through. No, it's not shell shock, that's what you mean. Who's Harry? His brother. The one who got the Navy Cross the same time he did. Haven't you heard about it? I heard something about it. Sandra, darling, come back. Please come back, Sandra. I love you. Sandra, I love you. I love you more than Lauren. Harry. Harry. Sure, kid. Okay, sure. See what I mean? I see he's got a girl named Sandra and a brother named Harry. That's what you mean? I'm going to hunch there's a little more to it than that. Like what? I don't know. But I think as soon as he's well, I'd better have a little talk with that boy. Lieutenant Yancey. Hi, Doc. How are you feeling this morning? Oh, pretty good. I guess you'll be leaving us pretty soon, huh? Yeah. Yeah, I guess I will. You know, Steve, you've got a terrific constitution. I got a terrific doctor, too. Did it ever occur to you, Steve, that a man needs more than just doctors and a strong back to pull out a thing like you've been through? I don't get you, Doc. Steve, your wounds are coming along fine now. Your body's giving you a lot of help. But I need help from something else. From the place where you do your thinking, feeling. I still don't get it. Look, Steve, a man's heart is none of my business as pulse registers normal, but your heart... What is it, Audley? Telegram for Lieutenant Yancey, sir. Oh, thank you. I guess I'd better be shoving off now. No, no, now wait a minute, Doc. I want to find out what you're driving at. It's hard, but read your telegram first. Oh, yeah. News band? Oh, no. No, swell. Swell at best. They're coming to the hospital. They're going to take me home. Who? My brother Harry and Sandra. Together? Why not? I guess they'll be getting married one of these days. You didn't make this Sandra sound very much like a sister-in-law when you're coming out of that ether. Well, maybe I didn't. Say, did I talk about her? You sure did. You talked about Harry, too. Oh, wow. Now, look, Steve, slap me right back in my own reservation if you want to, but I don't get it, boy. A guy who took half a destroyer to Hell and back, handing his girl over to another man, not making a move to hang on to her. He's my brother. Well, aren't you in love with him? Oh, forget it. Like I've forgotten it. Now, look, Steve, I've... Well, don't talk about it if you don't want to, but it might help, you know. I never have talked about it to anybody. You want to tell me? Oh, well, there's not so much to tell. I suppose you think I'm a little nuts. No. Well, anybody would, I guess, unless they knew how it was. You know, it's been that way ever since we were kids. Harry wanting things and me seeing that he got them. Don't get me wrong, that's the way I wanted it, too. Harry never knew that it made any difference to me. He doesn't now. You see, Harry's a swell guy, and he's my brother. It started... started when we were little kids. I'll never forget the first time, the first time that I realized how it was going to be. I was about six and Harry was four. We had a pet toad, or Harry had, and one day it got lost. Oh, the fuss he made. I tried to talk him out of it, but it was no use. I can hear him yelling now, Wanty, wanty, wanty. Persistent, wasn't it? He certainly was. Well, I finally found it for him. You know, teamwork. Well, we grew up together, grade school, high school, at Annapolis. Both of us were on the baseball team. It was the same way there. Yeah, we hung up quite a record for double plays, mean Harry, and a guy on second named Jones. Hey, Steve, Wanty. Coming at ya, Jonesy. Gotcha. You're out. You're out, Harry. Yancy to Jones to Yancy. And if Harry got the credit he deserved it. He was a swell ball player and a swell guy. Well, that tells me part of your story. What about Sandra? Well, I met Sandra in Honolulu in the summer of 1941. Harry and I were both stationed there then. It was at a dance on one of those perfect nights that only Honolulu knows. I was dancing with Sandra, wishing that this one night would last forever. Oh, Steve, don't let them stop playing. They're playing for us. It's funny how the floor thins out the minute they play a waltz. That's because there's only one of you to waltz with. Why, Steve, Yancy, do you know that's the first pretty speech you've ever made to me? Maybe it's the first time I've ever had you to myself long enough to make one. Whose fault is that? Oh, gosh, Sandra, you certainly can dance. But it's funny, you know, I almost wish you couldn't. Oh, for heaven's sake, why? Well, then I wouldn't have to glare at all comers to keep them from cutting in. You? You couldn't look fierce if you tried. I've practically worn out my eyebrows staring them down. Oh, they still look pretty good to me. A little bushy, maybe, but cute. Sandy, you have the meanest habit of saying those things where I can't do anything about it. Out here on the dance floor, what's going to fellow do? Steve, at least somebody is going to cut in on us. Dance me the other way as fast as you can. Oh, boy, will I? Hurry, Steve, he's gaining. Uh-oh. What's the matter? Gee, Sandra, I just can't do it. Oh. Very well. No, no, listen, he's my brother. Well, what of it? Well, look, Sandy, if he wants to cut in... Do you always give up to him like that? No, but... Hey, Stevie, wanty. Who wouldn't? Sandy, this is my brother Harry, Sandra Alderly. Hello. Hello. Well, now you'll see what dancing can really be like, Sandra. Well, I'll be seeing you later. Well, that's how Sandra and Harry met. We'd all been making Christmas plans there in Honolulu, but, of course, you know what happened before that Christmas, Doc. Harry and I were assigned to different theaters of action, and he was shipped out first. I went down to the dock to see him off. It was the first time we'd ever been separated, and neither of us felt very good about it. Well, time to shuffle off, Steve. Yeah. Uh, you got all your gear, kid? Yep. I guess this is the work, Steve. Uh, yeah. Well, we'll be seeing each other out there sometime. Sure, sure. Well, so long, Stevie. So long, kid. Harry. Yeah? Uh, keep your nose clean. Yeah. Take care of yourself. Sure, kid. Sure. The funny thing is, Doc, we did meet, too, but it wasn't for quite a while. Mm-hmm. Next thing I heard of Harry, he was a sub-commander, and me... I was walking the bridge of a destroyer, the Joshua Fram. Well, it was one night out in the Pacific off the island of... Well, never mind where, but it was a perfect, quiet, starlit night, kind of like that other night in Honolulu. Then we got orders, a code message from our base of operations. Destroyer Joshua Fram. Destroyer Joshua Fram, contact submarine X-4. Your area, she is badly damaged. Your orders, escort her back to repair base, location 540. Acknowledge Joshua Fram. That is all. Ahoy, X-4! Ahoy, Joshua Fram! Skipper wants to come aboard and chart a course. Here I come aboard! Right this way, sir. Thank you. Skipper's below. You go below, sir. Oh, sure. Looks like the Japs kind of opened up your seams a little. Yes, sir. Here's the skipper, sir. Oh, yeah. By the way, I'm sorry I forgot to ask your name, sir. Oh, Yancey, Lieutenant Yancey. Yes. What, sir? Steve! Harry! How did you get? Well, I'll be a son of a gun. Oh, gee. It's good to see you, Steve. Yeah, it's been a long time, Harry. Yeah. Well, we'd better get down to business, I guess. Harry, how bad is your damage? Well, it could be worse, but not much. Well, we ought to scram away from here while it's still dark. There's an enemy cruiser to the north, King Gooseclad. Yeah, don't I know it? Nearly caught us, dropped everything she had on us. Pressure hulls damaged, plates sprung, and both cans empty. Well, I had to surface cruise in the diesel, Steve. I can't go down. You go after it, Steve. We can't. Oh. My orders are to get you home. Well, it's a good thing, probably. You couldn't attack a cruiser with that tub you're in. But she is all alone, Harry. They've left her all alone. We can finish her off before she makes contact with her escort. Don't be heroic, Steve. She's not attacked. That suicide, she's throwing eight-inch breaks. Wait a minute. I wasn't thinking about the fram. I was thinking of you. Can you dive? No, my battery's gone. I can submerge, but I can't cruise submerged. The sub can't just lie on the water, Steve, wiggling his tail. There's an attack approach to make, and I can. But I could make it for you, Harry. You? Sure. You're nuts, Steve. She'd blad you the kingdom come. But look, that chap doesn't know that you're here. You can't attack her surfaced, and you can't maneuver submerged. But if you dive, Harry, and get out of sight, maybe I could tease her out here for you. Uh-huh, the old double play, huh? Yancey to Jonesy Yancey. Sure, that's the idea. And what do you get out of it? Me? Oh. I get an assist, you remember? Yeah. Steve, I don't know why it took something like this to make me see it. But you've been sticking your neck out all your life for me and getting assists. But not this time, Steve. Don't talk like a kid, Harry. There's a war on. I don't care what there is. I'm not going to send my brother out to get... Now, look, pipe down. It's a job, that's all. If you don't do it on your own, I'll contact the base and get orders to make you do it. Now, come on, shove off. Steve. Carry on, shove off. Okay. Now, Johnny, you got any juice left in the cans? Can you take it down at all? Where does she stand? She'll take in half the Pacific at periscope depth. 30 feet, I'd hate to think. Now, wait a second. Well, hurry it up. How about this? I could hook both battery banks to one motor, Skipper. What'll that give us? Well, might get you two knots at periscope depth, maybe three. But at best we'd have to stay pretty much right where we are if we submerge. How long can we stay down, Johnny? Well, we've got to save enough juice to be able to surface again or we're down for good. We can only last 40 minutes. And I mean 40, Skipper. That'll do it. It'll have to. Not 45 or even 43. 40. Not a second longer. Okay. We can do it, Steve. Good. Now, Harry, give me 15 minutes before you submerge. Time enough to let that Jap sight me and start chasing, Steve. Take care of yourself. Hey, take care of yourself yourself. Rig for diving. Rig for diving. Aye, aye, sir. Good luck, Steve. Okay. Now, look, maintain your present position as near as you can after you submerge. That Jap cruiser, Steve. Want teeth. You are listening to Brian Dunleavy on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont. Presenting Double Play, a radio adaptation of the Saturday Evening Post story of the same name by Jacqueline Marmer. Our heroes are Harry and Steve Yancey, commanding respectively a submarine and a destroyer. Brian Dunleavy plays Steve, and Kent Smith plays Harry. As our play continues, Steve Yancey is telling of that night when, from the bridge of his destroyer, he set out to lure a Jap cruiser into the range of his brother's damaged submarine for the kill. So, you see, Doc, it wasn't that I didn't know what we were in for. A destroyer just doesn't stand a chance against a heavy cruiser, but, well, you don't have time to think about those things when you're busy. And I told Harry we'd locate the Jap in 15 minutes, so there wasn't much time for anything. How does it look for us, sir? It's not only us, mister. It's the men in that sub, too, with Wee Muffet there going. Shall I try to chart the Jap's position, sir? There isn't time. We'll have to find him again by guesswork. You think we can do it, sir? We've got to do it. Enemy cruiser in sight, sir. 3-4-0. Range 1-4-500. Speed 2-1. Here we go. Think they've spotted us, sir? If we can see them, they can certainly see us. Oh, look. You see the flashes? They're firing. Right. Full right rudder. All engines ahead, half speed. Half speed? They'll be on us in no time if we're only at half speed. Sure. We want them to think we're a cripple. A sitting duck, so they'll follow us. We're hit, Vaps, sir. They got the range quick, didn't they? Rudder to midships. All engines full ahead. All guns at local control. Fire at will. I think they've got us on the run. And they're not kidding. We are. We're hit again, sir. Yeah. How much time we got left? 20 minutes. Can't take much more of this, sir. Yeah, only we've got to take it until we get that chap in front of those torpedo tubes. I found out later what was going on in Harry's sub...water. Pouring in through her plates and losing buoyancy by the minute. But everybody at battle stations and Harry at the periscope... trying to see what was happening to us and all the time a man calling the minutes like a football game only. For those guys in that sub, it wasn't any game. 18 and a half, Skipper. 18 and a half. 18 minutes. 18 minutes. That all the time we got left? Yes, sir. Can't you at least make it an even 20? No, sir. I need that time. How are the plates? She'll hold. We surfers within a range of the Jap guns. We're just an oil slick in the ocean. The Fram will be blown to kingdom come. Skipper, take a look. Gun flashes. You're right. How far off do you make it? 3000 yards. Somebody got hit. The Fram? Steve. He's sure catching it. The old double play. Come on, Steve. Come on, baby. Come on. Enemy closing, sir. Range 9, 100. Speed 2, 3. All right, Rudder. Full speed, all engines. They got us offensive. Where? What's the damage? Half the turret battery knocked out. Two forward bulkheads are filling fast. Shield, float. How much time we got? About 12 minutes, sir. That's enough. Check up on things below, will you? Yes, sir. I'll check up on things below, will you? Yes, sir. Check up on things below, will you? Yes, sir. Okay, Harry. Here it comes, kid. You're gonna get him, Harry. Come on. Unless he gets us first. Ten minutes. Ten minutes. That's all we need, I think. We've got to surface when the time's up, Skipper. I know, I know. In that searchlight. It's the Frams. Lighting up the target for us. Making a target of himself. Well, that's deep for you. That's gone now. The Japs shot it out. Another light. It's the Japs this time. Turned her searchlight on the Frams. She's so sure of the kill, she's laying herself wide open. What a target. Nice going, Steve. Only nine minutes, sir. All forward tubes ready for firing. Give them 26 knots. Right, sir. I want those fish running hot and crude. They can't miss. Four degrees left, Rudder. All the juice you can spare, Johnny. Right, sir. Stand by. Full dive on the bow fin. Fire one. One fired, sir. Fire two. Two fired, sir. Fire three. Three fired, sir. Fire four. Four fired, sir. Taking no chances now, Johnny. Full left, Rudder. Six minutes to go, sir. Stand by the surface. Take her up, Johnny. Enemies still closing, sir. Range 8-5-0. Speed 2-6. A lot of good the range does when all our gun batteries are knocked out. That's the gun, sir. Engine room, I think. If we can only hold out another few minutes. That chap should be in the sub-sites by now. Yeah. Wonder what he's waiting for. Come on, Harry. Give them to him. Lieutenant. Lieutenant Yancey. Are you all right, sir? All right. Knock me down. Sure, I'm all right. Help me up with it. You're hit, sir. Let me get you below. I said help me up. Harry's got to land them in a minute, and I want to see... Look. The chap. They've hit him. They got him again. In the magazine. Look, sir. She's exploding. She's blowing herself to pieces. One assist, one foot out. Not again, Harry. Well, you know the rest, Doc. The chap went down, and we both got back to base somehow. And you patched me up. Somehow, here I am. Shooting my mouth off and telling you a lot of stuff. I've got no business doing it. Well, I don't know, Steve. I think maybe there was a lesson in that story. Yeah. Come in. Hello, Sandra. Harry. Hiya, mister. I understand you're well enough now so that I can talk to you now. Well, if the Doc here says so, I... Go right ahead. And don't think I haven't got plenty to say to you, Steve Yancy. To me? Yes, you. In the first place, you might at least have let me make up my own mind. I was going out with you, not your brother, Harry. I'd gone to that dance with you. Give it to him, Sandy. But, guys, Sandy. Harry's the one everybody always goes for, and I thought... I don't care what you thought, Steve Yancy. I won't have any man treat me like that. As if I were a... I didn't think that I'd have a chance after you met Harry, but... Oh, Sandra, don't you believe a word of it? I warned you he was like that, didn't I? Ever since we were kids and we lost our pet toad. Your pet toad? And I balled about it so Steve went and brought it back to me. He was always bringing me stuff. Baseball bats, marbles. Once he even brought me... Well, Steve and Yancy, I'll have you understand that I'm not a pet toad. Or a baseball bat or marbles. And I won't have you handing me over just because your brother says, won't he? Oh, I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't mean to upset your patient. Upset? Hey, this is the best day I've had since they carried me in here. Well, you mustn't be too hard on him, Miss Alderly, about that Wante business. That's really what sank that Jap Cruiser, didn't you know that? Well, you've heard, Doctor. Sure, it's the famous Wante double play. Yancy to Yancy to Jones. I remember it very well. Well, I'm afraid you got it wrong, Doctor. It was always Yancy to Jones to Yancy. This time it was definitely Yancy to Yancy to Jones. Jones? Well, what did Jones have to do with it? Who in the world is Jones? A fellow by the name of Davy Jones, Sandra. It seems he had a locker. If Harry and the Doc will step out, I'll explain that to you, Sandra. And now before Brian Donne-Lovey, our star of tonight's program, returns to the microphone, here is Gain Whitman with a message from DuPont. One department of the DuPont company is called the Ammonia Department. Today it manufactures many things besides ammonia, but the product for which it was named still ranks high among the DuPont better things and high among the products of chemistry serving in the war. Commercial ammonia is many times stronger, of course, than the household ammonia on your kitchen shelf. Anhydrous ammonia, a gas liquefied under pressure, might be called 100% ammonia. Aqua ammonia, a water solution, is made by dissolving anhydrous ammonia in distilled water. Ammonia serves many wartime functions of great value to the nation, for which it would be difficult to find a substitute. Thousands of tons are used in the manufacture of nitric acid, one of the most important of all industrial acids, doubly important in wartime because it is used in the production of explosives. All military explosives depend somewhere in their manufacture upon ammonia. Also, thousands of tons of ammonia go into fertilizers for the farmer. It is ammonia again that neutralizes the acids in petroleum. In the oil refining industry, the use of ammonia eliminates much of the loss of equipment due to corrosion, equipment that would be require large expenditures of time, labor, and critical materials to replace. And many aircraft and tank engine parts owe their long life to nitriding, the process whereby steel is given a surface as hard as glass by heating it under carefully controlled conditions in an atmosphere of ammonia. Cracked ammonia, too, is worth mention. Cracked ammonia is ammonia heated in the presence of materials known as catalysts until it breaks down or cracks into nitrogen and hydrogen. It aids in providing the 10,000-degree flame of atomic welding, a flame so fierce that it can melt a single spot on a sheet of metal before the rest of the sheet has a chance to get warm. Cracked ammonia is also used in industry as a kind of chemical blanket. The annealing of steel, for instance, when done in air, reduces a metal covered with unwanted scale. Carried on in an atmosphere of cracked ammonia, no scale forms and the metal remains bright. In much the same way, the fragile elements of the vacuum tubes used in your radio or any radio set used by the armed forces are frequently annealed in a protective atmosphere of cracked ammonia out of contact with the air. Last but not least, throughout the country today there are millions of tons of food, quick frozen and kept under refrigeration, and vast amounts of ice being manufactured by means of ammonia, one of the many DuPont better things for a better living through chemistry. And here is the star of tonight's cavalcade, Brian Dunleavy. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sure I speak for my colleague, Kent Smith, and the cavalcade players when I say that I am very grateful for the privilege of paying this tribute to the United States Navy. It is also my privilege to bring to you an important message from your government. If you are single and expect to receive more than $2,700 this year, or if you are married and expect to get more than $3,500, then you must file an estimate of this income and make an income tax payment before September 15th. This is not a new tax. It's just an arrangement to keep you paid up on your income under the new pay-as-you-go plan to help us pay for victory now and to forestall depression when the war is won. Let's all get ours in before September 15th. Music Next week, cavalcade presents the popular motion picture star Pat O'Brien in Iron Camels, a story of the heroic work American railroad men did in the North Africa campaign by keeping troops and ammunition trains rolling in the midst of enemy fire. Music DuPont invites you to be with us next Monday at the same time when Pat O'Brien is starred as Lieutenant Colonel Steve Carey of the Army Transport Corps in Iron Camels, an action-packed drama of the Battle of Tunisia on the cavalcade of America. Tonight's musical score was composed and conducted by Robert Ambruster. Brian Donlevy appeared through the courtesy of Metro Golden Mare, where he is currently starring in the Technicolor production, America. This is James Bannon sending best wishes from cavalcade sponsor, the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Music The cavalcade of America came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Music
