The Cavalcade of America. Starring Thomas Mitchell in Direction Home on The Cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company. Maker of better things for better living through chemistry. But first, here is Gaines Whitman. Before we begin our play, here is news about DuPont ZeeLand durable repellent finish. Is your raincoat a washout? It is if it's lost its water repellency at the cleaners, leaving you damp and uncomfortable during stormy weather. The next time you buy rainwear or snow clothes, be sure to look for the tag that says, Fabric treated with DuPont ZeeLand durable repellent finish. Unlike ordinary water repellents, ZeeLand withstands many washings or cleanings. It's an example of what we mean when we say DuPont, better things for better living through chemistry. The DuPont Company presents Direction Home, starring Thomas Mitchell as Jerry Sweeney on The Cavalcade of America. Radar. The magic eye that saw ships, planes, and submarines long before the human eye could detect their presence was a wartime weapon of both defense and offense. Tonight's story tells of one instance in which radar saved rather than aided in destroying. It begins in December of 1941 in the Brooklyn flat of Jerry Sweeney. The end of what, Dad? The end of sitting back and saying let them fight it out in Europe. I'm telling you, Eve, darlin', that as sure as I'm a foot high and as sure as my name is Jerry Sweeney, we're gonna be wrangling to this wall. Oh, now, Dad, don't get so worked up. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, as sure as I'm a foot high and as sure as my name is Jerry Sweeney, we're gonna be wrangling to this wall. Oh, now, Dad, don't get so excited at what you read in the paper. Oh, don't get so excited, she says. No, I'll sit back and smoke my pipe and remember there's a couple of thousand miles of ocean between us and Europe. Well, you just mark your father's words. Those couple of thousand miles will shrink until they ain't no bigger than the East River. Oh, darlin', you're so serious these days. Look in the headlines and you can see that these times are no laughing matter. All right, all right, all right. I suppose that boyfriend of yours is coming by again this afternoon. Yes, Everett should be here any minute. Yeah, the great Mr. Matthews. Still secret and important, no doubt. Dad, for heaven's sake, every time Everett comes over, you start an argument. There's no argument, sweetheart. To have an argument, there must be two sides to the question. That boyfriend of yours hasn't got a leg to stand on. Oh, Eve, darlin', look at the boys already in uniform, all fine lads. And this Everett of yours still sits around twiddlin' his thumbs. Sit down, sit down. I want to talk to you. All right. What is it, darlin'? Well, I don't know how to say it. Uh-oh, uh-oh. Yeah, I think I know what's coming. I've been dreadin' this moment and I'm afraid my answer is no. Dad, please. Now look, sweetheart, there's no one in the world wants to see you happy more than your old father. You're singing in your laughin'ous music to me ears. You know that, don't you? Well, that's why I want you to like Everett. Mind you, Eve, I'm not sayin' I dislike the man. It's just that I... Well, I don't want a daughter of mine marryin' a man that keeps so mum about himself and what he's doin' for a livin'. Especially to the girl he's hopin' to marry. But it's the times, Dad. He's doing secret work. How long do you think I could have kept a secret from your mother? First or so, she'd have brain-meat. Oh, Everett's work is confidential, very important. He's doing work for the government. And why doesn't he wear a uniform? Does he tell you anything about it? You don't even know where he works. Now do you? Answer me now. You don't know, do you? No. But I have faith in Everett. I love him. And... Well, Dad, if you value my happiness like you say you do, then you just can't say no. Well, no. No, I can't very well. Now can I? Oh, now that's Everett. Please be nice to him. Promise me. Well, you just go let him in and I'll be listening to the radio if I can get the blame thing to work. All right, all right. Coming. Morning, dear. Oh, flowers. Thank you, darling. And a can of tobacco for your father. Huh? Have you softened him up, darling? Well, I tried to a few minutes ago. He's in the living room trying to get the radio to work. Mm-hmm. Shall I beard the lion in his den? Yeah. Now's as good a time as any. Well, wish me luck, darling. And you'd better leave the front door open just in case. Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Sweeney. Oh, it's you. It is well. Well, I'm standing there like a knox. Come over by the radio and sit down. Uh, thank you. You're supposed to know something about these confounding contrivances, aren't you? Yes, sir. That's my business. Then why won't this thing play? Well, let me have a look. It never works when I want it to. Well, I'll see what I can do. We might try plugging it in. Well, I'll be... Oh, well. Well, plug it in. Plug it in. Now let me hear what you came in to ask me. Oh, you mean... Yeah, well, uh, Mr. Sweeney, I, uh... Oh, come on, now, lad. We've had our differences. But Eve's heart and happiness are more to me than just an old man's fancies and whims. Well, uh, I guess you know that I love Eve. Well, who could help but love a girl like Eve? Yeah. Well, I, uh... Uh, well, the radio's coming up. The radio's coming on? Japanese planes have attacked our great naval base at Pearl Harbor. What's that? Apparently came from carriers that sneaked up during the night. Did you hear that? Yeah. There has been undisclosed damage to certain ships of the fleet. Hickam Field, the Army air base, was also attacked. Many planes destroyed on the ground. What's that, Dad? For further news, stay tuned to your NBC station. The Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor. Well... I guess the old man wasn't so long after all, huh? I told you so. I'd seen it coming. We should have done something about it. We did, Mr. Sweeney. We did everything in our power to get ready for it. Everything? All that spit and nonsense. The water's been leaking through the hole in the dam for a long time. Now it's finally torn it down. That means we're at war. What'll you do, Everett? Do? Well, I hadn't thought about it. Why hadn't you thought about it? It's about time you did. Well, it all depends on... On what? On how you feel. Please, Dad, don't. Not now. All right, but it seems to me that now's the time to be making up our minds. Not saying it all depends. I never told you this before, but the work I've been doing is for the war we knew was coming. It's important. Secret work. Scientific. Scientific, my foot. War's a fort with guns and blood, heart, head and fists. Not with test tubes and gadgets and drinkers in a laboratory, a glass office. This is a scientific war, Mr. Sweeney. It'll be one in the scientific laboratory. Go on with you. That's not for me. I'm going out and getting it. Dad, what are you going to do? Do? For 30 odd years I was at sea in the last war and after. For those years I learned the sea in ships. And we've been eating ships in this war too and men who know them. That's what I'll do. And I'll not sit in a glass office and prattle about science. Look, Mr. Sweeney, I'm not... You have your views, Mr. Matthew, and I have mine. They don't jive, that's all. Dad, you're being silly. I am? And with God's help I'll keep being silly. I'm going out and do what every able-bodied, red-blooded American should be doing. I'm joining up. Well, darling, where's your father? Oh, he's dashing madly around town trying to enlist. Of course no one will have him. Well, 58th of the low. Um, Everett. Yes, sir. Everett, why won't you tell me what kind of work you do? I'd like to. You believe me, but I just can't. Well, if you'd only tell me what you're doing, just a little clue, anything to make dad understand. Look, I told you before, I do highly important work. It's strictly secret. All I can say is it has to do with electronics. But what is that exactly? I can't tell you, Eve. Even if I could, you wouldn't understand. It's very technical. Something that may shorten the war by months, maybe years. Oh, here comes dad. I think you'd better go. Oh, no. He's not going to scare me out today. No trouble, no argument. Ahoy, in there! Ahoy, yourself. You're sounding salty. Well, I'm feeling right salty this evening. Dad! How'd you like to get up? Dad, they accepted you. I thought the Navy turned you down. Good evening, Mrs. Swaney. Sure, the Navy did turn me down. But it's able seamen are needing to sail the ships of the Merchant Marine. Merchant Marine? That's me, the Merchant Marine. Blow the man down, boys. Be careful, darling. You're no longer a young man. A man is no older than he feels with his heart. So long as there's fight left in him, a man is young. How old are you, Mr. Matthews? Old enough, Mr. Swaney. Good. Then be kind enough to remove yourself while a fighting man bids good-bye to his loving daughter. Very well, sir. I'll wait in the other room, Eve. All right. Dad, you're not leaving right away. That I am, Eve, darling. It's men they're needing these days to man the ships that carry the supplies. But why do you have to go? Now that you're aged, it's... Somebody's got to fight the war. We can't all be timid little men with big brains hiding in glass offices. Dad, I worry about you every minute you're gone. Yeah? I'm not thinking of you, Eve. When do you sail? That I can't tell you. Even if I knew, I wouldn't be a liberty to say. I've got to be on board this very night. Oh, dear. Oh, now, now. Brace up, girl. Mother never let me see tears. She may have cried after I left, but never when I was leaving. I don't mean to cry. I know. I know. Now, put it, girl. With the luck of the Irish, I'll be back. Don't forget, us Sweeney's have a family leprechaun that looks out for us and speeds us safely back to port. Oh, come on now. Smile. And that. Come on. You've got to help me pack my sea bag. And now, girl. And don't forget, be praying for me. But be saving your tears for those that need them. Eve, darling. Oh, why'd your dad have to go? Isn't there something I can do? Something you can do? You should ask me that. Yes, I know. Eve, dear, believe me, it'd be easier for me to be in uniform, but it just isn't in the cards. They won't let me. Well, they're going to let me. What do you mean? Just as soon as the enlistment's open, I'm joining the way. Eve, I know just how you feel, and I'm not going to try to change your mind. But there's one thing I'd like to ask. When you enlist, try to get in radar. Then maybe you'll understand how important it is and why I'm sticking to the job in the laboratory until it's finished. Come along, Benny. Aye. After a year at sea dodging subs from Liverpool to Mermance, a racket of brooklyn and sweet music of a year. Yeah, right you are. I know. There we are. Come on, Benny. I'll show you the coziest flat in brooklyn. Are you sure your daughter won't object to you dragging an old shipmate home with you? No. I can always find a snug harbor to see him in his rest. Uh-uh. Uh-oh, look, sweetie. Coming down the stairs. It's one of them lady sailors with stripes. Well, I'll be. Dad! Dad, you're home. Oh, Eve, darling. Oh, darling. Oh, Eve, my baby, my dear sweet darling girl. Let me freeze my eyes on you. Glory be, child. What's the meaning of this get-up? I'm in the waves, Dad. And an officer she is. An officer? An infant. Well, blow me down. Thirty odd years I sailed and came out a chief bosun and my step-up daughter's an officer. Now! Now you see what the Navy's coming to? I don't think I've met your friend, Dad. Oh, this is Benny Jarvis. My daughter, Eve. Is this where I'm supposed to salute? Well, if it is, this is where I shall go. Oh, no, Benny. We'll just shake hands. Women, officer! Ha! Too much for me. I'm going to the seamen's rest. Oh, come back, Benny. Go on, you stubborn old bum. Show your manners. Have no mind, darling. Even in that uniform, you look good to your old father. Oh, darling. You look so tired. And why not? Seven voyages and each one worse than the last. But we're getting the supplies through. You should be here at home. With the war going on? Look, girl, I'm only 59. No wage for a man to sit with his nose in a paper well with a war going on. Has it been awful, darling? It's been hell, darling. Plain hell. Wolf packs of subs and devils from the sky. But I'm here in one piece. Home in me old flat, thank the Lord. Oh, uh, just a minute, Dad. You may not like this, but, uh, Everett's here. What? That white-feathered friend of yours? I thought you put the run on him. Well, I did, Father, but I was wrong. Well, if he's here, I'm not going in. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. I'll go back to... Oh, no, you don't. You're going to stay right here until you hear whatever it has to say for himself. You are listening to Thomas Mitchell as Jerry Sweeney in Direction Home on the cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our second act begins, we begin to see the world of science and the world of science and the world of science and the world of science and the world of science. As our second act begins, Jerry Sweeney of the United States Merchant Marine has come home from a year at sea. His daughter Eve, now an ensign in the waves, is about to tell her father something that may not make his leave so pleasant. Everett, look who's here. Well, Dad Sweeney, of all people, welcome home. Don't be calling me Dad. I'm no father to the likes of you. Oh, well, I'm sorry, Mr. Sweeney. Everett is with the Navy, too, Father. And why are you in the uniform? Well, you see, he... Eve's trying to tell you that I'm a civilian employee of the Navy. Civilian employee? Who ever heard of such a thing? Either you're in the Navy or not. Now, which is it? Well, officially I'm not. You see, I'm... Don't tell me anything. I'll go while my sea bag is still packed. That won't be necessary, sir. I'm due back at the laboratories. Oh, still a glass office chair warmer, eh? Mr. Sweeney, the job I'm doing is an important one for the Navy. If you won't listen to a reasonable explanation, then there's no use in my wasting time and breath. I'll see you at the shop. However, don't be upset. How can I help it with such a stubborn old bird breath? Mr. Sweeney, I'll see you after the war. Well, he's getting some spunk about him. He'll be one to fight if he keeps that up. Dad, don't you realize that whatever it's doing is important? So important that no one will realize it until after the war? Look, Eve, I've seen fine young lads choping on oil and burning, soaked in blood and drowning with the agony of salt water in their lungs. While the man you're defending sits in his glass office. He even has the gall to sit idle while the woman he intends to marry is in uniform. Now, Dad, please, please calm yourself. The very sight of that chair warmer... Oh, well, I had to think my daughter would stand for the likes of him. Where are those old pipes of mine? Right there in the drawer. Fine, how do you do when a man comes home to... Hey. What's this? Oh, well, Father, I wanted to tell you... Well, now, now, ain't this fine and dandy. A wedding certificate and married to that white-feathered bird. But, Father, I love him. Say no more. I've had enough. Dad, come back here. Do you hear me? Come back here. You couldn't get me to spend one minute in this flat. I'm going back to the Trinidad and wait till she sails. Hello, darling. How's Ensign Sweeney today? Ensign Matthews is doing fine. Any word from your dad? No, not a word since he sailed last week. He's aboard the Trinidad. That's about all I know. I got the new radar scope installed on the test plane. Ready for the tryout. It'll be a good day for it in the fall. Yeah. Eyes are blind-flying. I wish Dad could see this and know what you're doing. Well, he will someday. Oh, Matthews. Yeah. How close to ready is that plane installation of the new radar scope? Ready any time, Commander. I'm going to have to use it right now. They have a radio dispatch that a Liberty ship took a torpedo in the stern just off the coast. There have been casualties, including the medical corpsman. We have to fly a surgeon out. What's the bearing? We have only an approximate fix and can't improve it. She's laying out there in the fog, maintaining radio silence to keep that sub from finishing her. One of the crews badly hit. We have to bring him back to the base hospital for x-rays before they can operate. So it's a matter of life and death. The radar scope's all ready. Finding that ship in the fog will be like hunting the proverbial needle in the haystack. Ah, we can do it. The installation's in and ready. We're waiting for the test flight anyway. Now you get to do it for keeps. You sure it'll work? I'll let it better, or Seaman Sweeney's a dead duck. Seaman Sweeney? What's the name of that ship? The Liberty Ship Trinidad. Oh, it's dead. Everett. Seaman Sweeney is Ensign Matthew's father, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. Commander, I know it's against the book, but is there any way that it could possibly go along? You see, Father and I... I don't see how. Commander, we need Ensign Matthews. She's an experienced radar technician. Well, Lieutenant Peters, the pilot, is a pretty good Joe. If Ensign Matthews should happen to be aboard when you take off... Thank you, Commander. Come on, Eve. We'll check the radar while they're warming up the plane. Just fly by Ensign and Lieutenant to the area from where the Trinidad was last reported. Okay. Hey, who's the whale? Radar technician. There's another reason for her being here. It's a good one, Lieutenant. Okay. Hey, this fog blanket is a good 4,000 feet thick. Think that radar gadget will work? I know it will. I can see how radar can pick up a thousand planes in the air, especially if you know where they're coming from. But how do you expect to pick up one little ship on all this ocean? Well, the principle's the same. For instance? Well, look. This generator keeps on sending out electronic waves. They bounce back from the ocean or anything on the ocean, and we can read the outline on the scope here. Huh. Through all this fog? Yeah, through the fog. That's a good trick if you can do it. We can do it. Well, we're over the area the last radio report came from. Are you sure that scope is right? I know it is. Nothing's showing up. I don't see how you're going to pick up anything as small as a Liberty ship in that thing. Look. Watch the scope. Huh? Yeah. There is something. On the first quadrant. All right. Where do we get another sweep on the indicator? There. There it is again. It's got to be the ship. Lieutenant, circle over to the northeast. Right. Still there? There's nothing else showing up on the scope. Hey, look. Be sure you're right. I can't see a thing in this fog. Okay. Start down. Yeah. And keep circling the way you are. Talk about blind flying. But you're not blind, man. You've got eyes. Eyes you've never had before. Keep going down. We're below 2,000 feet now. Good. There's nothing else around but the Trinidad. I hope it's the Trinidad. 1,000 feet. All right. Take it down to 500 feet. Sweep the section again. Still on the scope. That fog is down to the water, Matthews. Now what? Keep dropping. When you're 50 feet above the water, when you're sort of down. Brother, if you can find a Liberty ship on this ocean with that gadget, I'll set this baby down any time you give the word. Hang on. We're heading in. 100 feet. 50 feet. All right. Set her down. You came through just in time, Doctor. We were not ready to give up hope. That new radar scope brought us through, Captain. Our corpsmen have the situation under control. Dr. Hendricks. Yes, Ensign? What about my father, Doctor? I want the truth. Well, he's not a youngster, you know. But that stout Irish heart is keeping him alive. If we can fly him back to the base hospital for X-rays, we should be able to operate and save him. Lieutenant, can you fly this patient ashore? Well, the radar got us here. It ought to be able to get us back. Eve. Eve, my darling. Where am I? You're aboard a Navy plane, Dad. We're flying you back to the base hospital. You're going to be all right, darling. Oh, the luck of the Swindies with the Leprechaun and the Leprechaun. Oh, no, it wasn't the Leprechaun. It was our man in the glass office. Our man in the glass office? What do you mean? Our man. It was Everett in the radar scope. Oh. Radar brought us out to your ship. Now radar's taking us home. Uh-huh. And I suppose this plane has nothing to do with it. Of course, darling. But in this fog, the pilot could see nothing, and the plane could go nowhere without radar. Oh. That's what Everett's been waiting for. Oh, I see. Well, I'm glad you're here, Dad. Oh. That's what Everett's been working on these past three years. I see. Oh, I've been a stubborn old fool, Eve. When I see the lead, I'll tell him. Tell him now, darling. He's right beside you. Huh? He's what? Oh. Oh, so it's you, is it? Uh-huh. What are you doing on this Navy plane, huh? I work for the Navy. Remember? Of course you do, son. And it's well aware of it I am. Finally. Well, it takes a good man to down the bitter pill and own up to a mistake. I was wrong, and love was right as it always is. Now let me sleep. When I'm rested, son, I'll land in near so you can tell me all about your radar. Radar. The leprechaun that showed us the direction home. Our star, Thomas Mitchell, will return to our cavalcade microphone in a moment. Now here is Gain Whitman. Like the little girl who had never seen a cow and thought that milk came from milk bottles, most of us, when we think of meat, think of a butcher's counter. But our national meat supply includes 250 million pounds of wild game every year. Some farmers in the New England states, for instance, shoot a deer and hang it up to freeze as a regular thing every winter. Part of the family supply. Denison, rabbit, pheasant, wild duck. How'd you like some roast wild duck? Listen to this recipe. Clean, wipe, and dry the duck. Sprinkle generously with flour, salt, and pepper. Place a whole peeled onion inside each duck and place them in self-basting roaster. Batten with toothpicks two or three strips of bacon across each bird. If desired, ducks may be stuffed with wild rice dressing, made by boiling wild rice and seasoning with salt, pepper, and chopped onions. Or use other favorite dressing. Cover bottom of roaster with water. Cover tightly and roast in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one and one half to two hours, depending on the number and size of duck. Remove cover of roaster for last 15 or 20 minutes before taking from oven to allow skin to brown. Serve with orange sauce if desired. Let's see what orange sauce is. Here it is. Butter, flour, brown stock, salt, cayenne pepper, orange juice, and grated orange rind, two tablespoons of sherry or port. Melt butter and add flour and seasonings, stirring until well browned. Slowly add stock. We'd better stop. It's hard to, though. So here's baked pheasant, mixed game pie, fried rabbit and hot pepper, royal venison, steaks and chops, caribou collups, roast bear, mulligan. I'm reading from How to Dress, Ship, and Cook Wild Game, a 48-page book prepared by the Remington Arms Company, an associate of the DuPont Company. There are wild birds in our skies and wild game in our forests, thanks to the fact that America has learned the wisdom of conservation. Practical programs of restoration are so widely carried out and so constantly improved that a plentiful supply of game seems assured. A copy of the interesting little Remington book, How to Dress, Ship, and Cook Wild Game, may be had by writing to the DuPont Company. Just enclose a dime and send your name and address to Radio Section, DuPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware. Good night and good hunting. And now, here is Thomas Mitchell. You know, in the cavalcade of America, some of the brightest stories are the true ones, stories of men whose lives have given some special benefit to their country and their contemporaries. Next week, the cavalcade will be telling one of the most rollicking of those stories, of a gay and gallant man who earned his living by writing for the newspapers, but whose lasting work was in writing poetry that all of us have loved. The man is Eugene Field, and Henry Fonda will be on hand as your star in the delightful, provocative radio play. I had a preview of the script, so I've made my plans to be listening. I hope you will be, too, for you won't want to miss Henry Fonda as Eugene Field in Big Boy Blue on the DuPont cavalcade of America. Terrible as the war was, we have almost as terrible a scourge still to contend with. The scourge is TB, tuberculosis, which during the war and still today is killing Americans at the rate of one every nine minutes. You can help the fight against TB by buying more Christmas seals this year than ever before. In tonight's DuPont cavalcade, Thomas Mitchell appeared through the courtesy of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and can currently be seen in the motion picture production Captain Eddie. Mary Jane Croft played the part of Eve, and Howard Duff was Everett. The music was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. A cavalcade play was written by Russell Hughes and Bernard Fines. The technical information about the use of radar in tonight's story was furnished by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This is Tom Collins inviting you to listen next week to Henry Fonda in Big Boy Blue on the cavalcade of America, brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
