I'm starring Geraldine Fitzgerald in My Freshman Husband on the cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. But first here is Ted Pearson with some timely information. From now on you'll be spending more time out of doors on the beaches, the tennis courts, or sunbathing in your backyard. In many cases your hair will suffer from overdoses of sun and water. Well, as an aid to more manageable hair, hair that will glisten with that cared-for look, select a comb made by DuPont. More completely desirable, DuPont plastic combs offer unusual sturdiness combined with crystal carnival colors that lend a cheerful note to any pocket, purse, or dressing table. These smartly styled plastic combs, suitable for every personal and family purpose, are worthy additions to the DuPont Company's Better Things for Better Living through chemistry. The DuPont Company presents My Freshman Husband, starring Geraldine Fitzgerald as Jane Spencer and featuring Richard Widmark as Russ on the cavalcade of America. It is early September in a small American city. Russ Spencer, recently discharged from the army, is enjoying the novel experience of helping his pretty young wife give their son his morning bath. No, no Ricky, you must not put the soap in your mouth. No good. Hey, does he put everything in his mouth? Oh no, just soap, sand, buttons, paper, and comb. Holy Mack, maybe he's not getting enough to eat. Oh now Russ, does he look it? No sir, just look at that dildo on him. Feel the muscles in those arms. Why someday he's gonna be stroked on a Yale crew, aren't you fella? Honestly, if I can get him through his cheating stage, I don't care if he goes to college or not. Well I do. He's not gonna be an ignoramus like his old man. Mr. Spencer, you're speaking of the old man I love. Hand me the towel down. Well honey, if we're talking about the same guy, it looks as if you'll never get any father than Sloan's Emporium. Imagine a girl with your background, your education, married to what chump like me. Oh Russ, the Emporium was just your jumping off place. You're not going back there, I'm not going to let you. Oh but honey. Russ, before we were married, remember those things you used to say about studying journalism and getting a job in a newspaper? Hype dreams, Janey. How in heck can I study journalism? By going to college. College? You could start in two weeks with a summer call. Oh my gosh, Janey, if you're thinking about that GI Bill of Rights. It's a wonderful plan. Russ, the government pays your tuition and gives you money for living expenses. Yeah but honey, it'd mean living on an allotment again and only seventy-five dollars for the three of us. Oh darling, I've learned to stretch a shoestring so far you think it is made of rubber. Yeah but the baby. The college campus is a wonderful place to bring up a baby. You're probably going to be a quiz kid. Oh now honey, let's be sensible. I can't start going to college at my age. You realize how old I am? I'm twenty-five. And I'm an old hag of twenty-one. Oh darling, you're no older than lots of the other GIs at Buckley University. Buckley, huh? Yeah. I know you've always had a warm feeling for Buckley and they're accepting GI students now. Darling, the ten thirty-one train gets you there at noon and you can go and see the dean or the president or whoever it is. Why don't you go right now dear? Here's your hat, you can just make it. No, no, no, no, no, wait a minute Janie, what about you and Ricky? We need a place to live. Darling, for a chance like that I'd be willing to set up house in a chemistry lab and cook our meals on Bunsen burners. Where is it? I want to see it right away. Janie, I'm warning you, you'll be disappointed. Is this our door? Yeah. Oh Russ, it's darling. Come the way you described it, I thought you'd be living in a converted broom closet. So it's a converted attic. With a private stove, look, two burners. Oh and that wonderful big window. Russ, come and look, you can see the campus from here. Where? Mmm, just smell those lilacs. I'm going to ask Mrs. Simmons if I can use a corner of the backyard for a vegetable garden. On seventy-five dollars a month it's smart to grow your own food. Yeah, I suppose. Oh, say honey, about that allotment. The fellows here tell me that sometimes it takes four months before that first check comes through. Well, we've got a little money saved up. But tell me about you Russ. What's that? A closet? What course are you taking? I wonder if there are any hangers around. What do your teachers like? What would you like for supper? Yes. Yes what? Yes, I think you're wonderful and I'm glad you're the mother of my child. And I love you something awful. Oh darling, if you knew how much I love you. How about frankfurters and sauerkraut? Funny you say the most romantic things. Music Gosh honey, isn't it too much trouble to walk me to class every morning? No. Here let me push the curtain. It's the one way I can get to the market before everything's sold and Ricky gets too daring. Hey, hey, he's putting something in his mouth. He's supposed to die, a piece of toast. What's your first class today? Trigonometry, worst luck to this building. Why in heck does anyone who wants to be a journalist have to study trigonometry? Well, maybe someday an editor will send you to interview Dr. Einstein. Oh sure. Well, I suppose the subject could be very interesting if it weren't for that professor, Dr. Baird. Hi, it's Bethel. Oh, hello there. Hey, how'd you make out in that trigonometry quiz yesterday? I'd rather not think about it. Oh, I thought it was a pipe. I finished it in ten minutes. Hey, come on Jack, it's late. I'll be right with you. Well, I'll see you in class Bethel. Okay, Sonny. Sonny? What? You sound as if you were his grandfather. Well honey, I feel like it. I didn't know freshmen came that young. They're all like that, just kids and smart. It's just that they're used to studying in classrooms. They've been doing it right along without a break. Don't worry darling, once you get the hang of it you'll catch up with them and pass them. Good morning, Spencer. Oh, good morning Dr. Lewis. Well, is this your family? Yes, sir. Dr. Lewis, my wife Jane, my son Ricky. How do you do? I'm very glad to know you. I want to tell you how much charm you add to our austere campus. Why, thank you. Yes, these past weeks with all the young wives and babies around, Buckley University has lost that, well that ivory tower look. You young people remind old fossils like me that education is a preparation for life, not an end in itself. Well, we think it's wonderful to be here. I don't know what makes you think you're an old fossil. Thank you, my dear. Well, I must be getting along to my class. Good morning. Good morning, Dr. Lewis. Good morning. He's the sweetest he can be. Yeah, he's a swell guy. He's my English literature professor. Now, if I had somebody like him for trigonometry instead of Dr. Baird. Hey, what's wrong with this Dr. Baird? Oh, he's such an open... Uh-oh, here he comes. Good morning, Dr. Baird. Morning. Did you get the quiz paper I left on your desk? It might have been better for you if I hadn't. Russ, I think I see what you mean. I'm going to return your quiz papers of yesterday. A large percentage of them revealed an appalling inability to absorb even the most rudimentary elements of trigonometry. I should like to state at this time, for the special benefit of the veterans in the class, that I make no allowance for old age, or for the family problems which undoubtedly befit you, I have always maintained high and rigorous standards. You will either measure up to them, or fall by the wayside. Hey, Spencer. He talks like he might have been a second lieutenant. Yeah, who never left his desk. Yeah, the old guy. Gentlemen, if I may have your attention, you will recall that the first question on the quiz read as follows. From the top of a radio station, sixty feet high, the angles of elevation and depression of the top and bottom of an aerial tower are twenty-four degrees, ten minutes and thirty-eight degrees, forty minutes respectively. How high is the tower? The correct answer was very easily arrived at. All the necessary information was given. I know, sir, it wasn't. Oh. Very well, ex corporal Shea. What vital fact was missing? The name of the radio station. Ex corporal Shea, unless you wish to be excused from this class permanently, you will apply what little concentration is at your command of the study of trigonometry and spare us any further samples of your rapier-like wit. Ah... You see a school of green thread anywhere? Uh-uh. Hey, where'd you get the sewing machine? Borrowed it from Mrs. Simmons. Oh, what're you making? Rumpus for Ricky, out of one of your old shirts. Resourceful little female, aren't you? Darling, a really resourceful female will be making a shirt for you to wear. Oh, it'll be a great shirt. You can have it. Oh, I'll have it. Oh, I'll have it. It'll be a great shirt. I'll have it. a resourceful thing that we're making a shirt for you out of Ricky's old romper all know hey that reminds me honey did we get any mail today if you mean did our first allotment check come yet the answer is no well how are we doing in the cash on hand department I'm afraid that department has been discontinued I wonder what happened to that fool of green card Janie would you mind if I got a job for Saturday night would you mind if I got a job Sunday morning what are you talking about right if you can get excuse to Sunday morning chaplain stay home with Ricky I can get two dollars for singing in the choir what and I can get six dollars playing the piano with the band over at the Buckley in a dollar the week isn't much darling but I'll keep Ricky and milk or vice versa but G. Janie there go the weekend hey I think he's got something in his mouth again oh for goodness sake here if you open your mouth what have you got in there get it out come on let mommy have a dinner. Well I couldn't find my fool of green thread. What's the idiom for to mean. Buadilla. How do you say to make you fall. The server that's right. What's the idiom for you better watch this this ever again I still got egg on it. Oh oh OK they drove me on the next page. The French midterm is going to cover everything up. I've got a job for the afternoon don't you remember I'm fixing sandwiches at the Dean's tea well who's going to stay with Ricky you are me don't have classes on Wednesday afternoon what honey I'm taking my psychology midterm it was from the regular time did not tell you no yeah oh right what do we do that Dean's tea job paid at least two dollars and practically nothing left in the kitty and no sign of that Donald yeah I know hey yeah maybe we could be Ricky with Mrs Simmons no no she went downtown oh fine oh that certainly leaves us in a mess wait a minute what I've got an idea what is it you just put Ricky in the baby buggy and leave him outside your psych building what all you have to do is get a seat near the window and cast a glance at him once in a while boy it's a fine way to take an exam worrying about your baby out there'll be nothing to worry about you'd be perfectly fine and get it airing at the same time you'll see it'll work out beautifully. You have a sandwich Dean Parker thank you my dear are you the wife of one of our new students yes and the mother of a future one well that's very nice tell me are you comfortably settled can we have you long in any way well yes you can be in talk I've been thinking about it all afternoon if the universe could set up some sort of an oven nursery where we could well it sounds as if we're having a thundershower just listen to come down but but about the next few days I can't stay home with the baby and so we oh oh my goodness it's raining why yes my baby my poor baby here take the sandwich tray certainly but I have to take me to college in a term and I can't explain but miss I may be met him what seems to be the trouble being pocket well as far as I can make out Dr Lewis young woman's baby is taking a midterm examination in psychology have a sandwich. You have only ten more minutes gentlemen to finish the exam. Define a condition reflex and illustrate by describing a simple experiment. That's all in del. Excuse me if I interrupting your class Dr Murdoch why Dr. Bear I found this child sitting outside the building at the mercy of the elements I concluded he must belong to one of the absent minded student. Oh is this your child Spencer? The child seems to think so. Here I'll help take him back there. Thanks a lot for bringing him in. In another few moments he would have been thoroughly drenched. Some men are unfit to be fathers as they are to be students. You are listening to my freshman husband starring Geraldine Fitzgerald as Jane Spencer and featuring Richard Whitmark as Russ on the cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company maker of better things for better living through chemistry. As our second act opens Russ a GI freshman is home angrily describing the embarrassing events which forced him to finish the exam while balancing a gurgling baby on his lap. Can you imagine that so and so talking to me that way? What I can't imagine is he's been decent enough to bring Ricky inside in the first place. Anyway you should have seen me trying to finish my test with Ricky chewing at the exam paper. Well you know he almost swallowed eight answers before I caught him. Oh darling you ought to write an article about the joys of being a freshman and a father at the same time. Boy I certainly have plenty of material. Why don't you Russ? What? You know like those funny letters you used to write me about army life. Yeah yeah maybe I will next week when I have a little time. Oh no darling do it right now next week the wife writer may be in Hawke's. Oh darling it's a swell article. You really like it? I think it's wonderful. Why don't you send it back home to the Millport Herald? Oh no Jane you didn't good enough to get into print. Well why not let them decide? Anyway the best writers collect their ejections early. Ah that's true. Well all right I'll send it. What have I got to lose? Only a three cents stamp. Who's got three cents? Who do you suppose that is? I'll bet that's Mrs. Simmons again about the rent. Maybe if we keep quiet she'll think we're not home. She's slipping something under the door. It's probably the bill. If we ignore it you think it'll go away. Wait a minute. Janey! What is it? It's from Washington. What? Oh Russ it isn't the check. Yes it is. Oh let me see it. Let me look at it. Here. Hold it. Oh darling it's beautiful. You have to pay to the order of Russell Spencer seventy five dollars and no cents. It's sheer policy that's what it is. Now if we don't buy clothes don't go to the movies don't get sick. No we won't. Russ you ought to stop worrying about those things. That's my department. From now on you're going to concentrate on your studies and nothing but. Reflexes are the basis of most animal movements. Involuntary reflexes take place without our being conscious of them. No not now Ricky. Daddy's studying. Jane! Voluntary reflexes are those we can control at will. For heaven's sake Ricky go away. Jane! Jane! Jane! Measures presented to Congress for enactment are known as bills. When they are signed to committees they are numbered and thereafter referred to as a crying out loud. Janey what's all that racket? I'll close the window Don. Some of the boys are on their way to the basketball game. Oh is the basketball game on tonight? The integral part of a logarithm is called the characteristic. The decimal part is called the mantissa. If the number whose logarithm is to be found is less than one the characteristic is negative. The mantissa however is positive. The mantissa however is positive. Well so am I. Positive that trigonometry is way over my head. Look Janey from where I sit now I can't possibly get a passing mark in trig and the finals are only two weeks away. Darling I'm sunk. The Mathematics Excuse me but are you Ted Corey the senior who wants someone to type a hundred page thesis on higher mathematics? Yeah that's right. The student employment office gave me your name. I'll type it for you. Oh that's fine but I'm warning you it's going to be a headache full of mathematical symbols and they have to be copied exactly. Oh I'll be very careful. Okay what's the usual charge? I don't know I'll give you a few dollars but instead of paying me would you mind coaching my husband in trigonometry? No not now I've got everything honey pencils eraser protractor. Here drink this orange juice. Oh no honey I'm just... You can't take a three hour exam on an empty stomach. I'm putting a bar of chocolate in your pocket. Now remember darling keep calm. There's nothing for you to be nervous about. Ted Corey told me last night that he never saw anyone learn so much in two weeks. Well I hope I don't forget it in one hour. Goodbye Cheney. Good luck darling we'll be rooting for you every... What's the matter with Ricky? He's got something in his throat. Ricky Ricky figure it out darling. Oh Russ what do we do? Oh gee her. Oh she's turning blue. He's choking to death. Russ there's still time please go. There's nothing to be done here at the hospital. How can I concentrate on taking a test when Ricky might... He's going to be alright. The doctor said something's lodged in his windpipe and they're operating now to get it out. Now please get over to that trig final. You're sure everything will be alright? Positive. Good luck darling. Thanks honey. Ricky and I will be rooting for you. Jane. Jane are you home? Jane. But Ricky how did they tell you? They didn't have to operate after all they got it out with a magnet or something. Oh gosh what a relief. Well what was it? The thingy swan? Well believe it or not your discharge button. Oh my gosh. Russ how was the exam? Jane it's no use. I tried but all I could think of was Ricky. I only finished half the questions. I don't belong in college Jane. I ought to be working and providing for you and Ricky. Giving you the kind of home and things you need. But Russ. It's no use Jane. Just no use. Alright darling. Russ would you mind staying here with Ricky? Where are you going? I'll be back in a little while. I need some things at the drug store for Ricky. And I was sure Dr. Baird that once you knew why it happened you'd agree to give Russ another examination. My dear Mrs. Spencer what happens to your husband outside this classroom is not my concern. But Russ didn't finish the exam. That means you'll fail the course and be dropped from the university. Perhaps it's just as well. There are some people who don't belong in college. I guess there are. Including teachers. I beg your pardon. Dr. Baird. Veterans like my husband deserve all the help and encouragement we can give them. Things are tough enough for them here as it is. But the regular students so much younger they feel stupid and old and out of place. And it isn't their fault. My husband and all the others gave three and four years of their lives. And we owe them a fair chance to make up what they missed. Heaven knows they've earned it. Just as they've earned the right to be treated with decent respect instead of... instead of cold and deliberate hostility. Now see here young woman... I can't understand what makes you so cruel to people. Every student in Buckley thinks of you as a... as a heartless monster without a drop of human kindness. And yet I can't quite believe that. I can't believe it of a man who leaves his class to bring a baby in out of the rain. Infants are helpless beings dependent upon us for everything. Well right now Russ is helpless and dependent on you. In a much more important sense. All I'm asking is that you give Russ another examination. A different one? A harder one if you think that's fair. But I suppose it's just our bad luck that you're the only professor on the campus who... knowing the circumstances would still refuse. Good afternoon Dr. Bale. Mrs. Spencer. Yes? Tell your husband to be here at three o'clock sharp this afternoon. But if his paper doesn't merit a passing grade he won't get it. Please let him pass. Please let him pass. Please let him pass. Please let him pass. Jania, pass! I passed! I made it! I'm good for another term! Oh darling! I told you you're a genius. No sir, you're the genius in this family. Boy I wish I knew what I'm so happy about. When I think of you living like this for another two years, hand to mouth... Oh don't be silly, silly. I love every minute of it. What's that letter you're waving around your hand? Oh this year, forgot. Let me see it. Mrs. Simmons handed it to me on my way in. Russ? Hmm? It's from the Millport Herald. Yeah? Dear Mrs. Spencer, we apologize for delay in acknowledging receipt of your article, Baby Goes to College. We found it most amusing and interesting. They did? And we incurred a check for fifteen dollars. What? Would you be willing to write two articles a month in the same vein at the same rate? Does it really say that? Oh Russ, I'm so proud of you. Oh boy, thirty bucks extra a month. You're a rich and famous writer already. Look, we'll use that money to buy you a new dress. We'll get you a beautiful new... Hey, what's that fifteen dollar check they mentioned? Haven't you got it? No. Oh my goodness. Russ, quick, Ricky's joining us. Oh my god. Hey, stop it. Let go, open your mouth. Ricky! Geraldine Fitzgerald will return to our cavalcade microphone in a moment. Now here is Ted Pearson. Detroit, the dynamic center of the automobile industry, has just brought to a dramatic close a golden jubilee, celebrating fifty years of motor cars. We're looking at the new cars side by side with the automobiles of half a century ago. It's easy to see what tremendous progress has been made and understand why American cars are the best in the world. Manufacturers do everything they can to make them the safest cars in the world. And other industries work to increase motoring safety. Other industries like the chemical industry, the DuPont Company for instance, has contributed to the development of improved rayon cords and rubber chemicals for tires, case hardening compounds for gears, reflectors of lucite acrylic resin for highway safety at night, and strong flexible plastic interlayer for laminated safety glass. And still, there were a hundred thousand more deaths from accidents between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day than there were in the war. And a great many of them were motoring accidents. Accidents are on the increase, and there are several reasons why. One-fourth of all the cars on the road today are eleven years old or more. Some of them have been repaired with makeshift parts. Tires are recapped. Cubes have been patched and patched again. There are drivers on the road who haven't driven much for several years. They've lost their alertness because they're out of practice. They don't think or act as quickly in an emergency as they ought to. And there are a lot of new drivers on the road who got their licenses during the war. This is the first time they've really grappled with traffic. And finally, every community has a few just plain reckless drivers, smart alecks who can't be trusted behind a wheel. They think it's smart to drive when they've been drinking. They get a thrill out of speed, straddling the center line, passing on hills. They kill themselves and they kill others. The President of the United States, the National Safety Council, the automobile clubs tell us injuries and deaths will go on mounting unless we take stern measures to get them under control. You may be the next traffic victim, you or someone dear to you. So it's up to you to do your part to end traffic accidents. Check your brakes. Check your windshield wiper. Check your headlights. And check yourself. And follow the advice of the American Automobile Association. Take it easy. This message is broadcast as a public service by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. And now our star, Geraldine Fitzgerald, who is currently being starred in a Paramount production, OSS. Thank you. I've been reading a script about a young man called Mordecai Manuel Noah. His story is just as intriguing as his name, and Cavalcade is going to do it next Monday night. I'd like to recommend it to you. It's an exciting play called Algerian Adventure about Noah's exploits as American consul on the Barbary coast in 1812. I understand George Murphy is going to star as Noah. And from my reading of the script, I know George will find himself in a lot of exciting situations. I think next week's Cavalcade definitely will be something to hear. Thank you, Geraldine, and thanks for being with us tonight. Thank you. Good night. The music for tonight's DuPont Cavalcade was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Borey. Our Cavalcade play was written by Priscilla Kent. Richard Whitmark played the part of Russ Spencer. Others in the cast included Alan Hewitt, Ed Jerome, Cameron Predom, Lois Volkman, Jack Grimes, Jack Manning, and Maurice Franklin. This is Dwight Wiest inviting you to listen next week to Algerian Adventure, starring George Murphy on the Cavalcade of America, brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
