The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Tonight's star, Ray Milan. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade is called Sir Galahad in Manhattan and stars Ray Milan as a pioneer surgeon of the 19th century, Dr. J. Marion Sims. Sometime after I came up north from Alabama, people took to calling me Sir Galahad in Manhattan. Ridiculous. Sir Galahad in the legend was a knight who rescued ladies in distress single-handed, whereas I had plenty of help. I didn't expect it, but somehow just when I needed it most, it was always there. Let me tell you about it. There I was in 1853, a doctor in a complete stranger New York with no patients. Oh wait, I mustn't forget little Tilly, the maid in Mrs. Seymour's boarding house where we lived. Dr. Sims, I shouldn't be laying here like this. Me with four rooms to clean before luncheon. Must I stay in bed all day? My dear girl, you're going to be in bed at least two weeks, perhaps three or four. You don't seem to realize, but you've got to have an operation. Oh no, but I can't. No, no, no, don't be afraid. I'll give you something they've discovered that makes you fall sound asleep. You won't feel anything. Oh, it is not that I'm afraid, but I lose my place here with Mrs. Seymour and I have two babies and my husband here don't earn enough to take care of. I wish you'd seen a doctor before you got so weak and run down. And how is someone like me to pay a doctor? Couldn't you try the city dispensary? I did, but they told me I have to wait a year so crowded they are. What am I going to do, Dr. Seymour? Well, you're going to stop worrying, Tilly. I am. You know, I've been in New York almost a year and you're my very first patient. That makes us partners in a way. Me? Partners with you? Oh, you poor, poor man. Poor man. She was right. It wasn't that I minded so much being poor, but to be ignored. Why back home in Alabama, everybody knew me from my work with women's diseases, my surgery. But here in New York, there was only one who knew and, well, that leads me to the person who helped me most of all. She who was first and all in my life, my wife, Teresa. Don't you want to walk over toward the river tonight, darling? It might be a bit cooler. Teresa, let's go back home. To Montgomery? Why, Marion? Well, I can't stand this, sitting around idle day after day while other doctors use my techniques and not one even bothers to consult me except Tilly Ohulun. Oh, Marion, honey, you mustn't be so bitter. How would you feel? Listen. Listen to that boat out there in the harbor. Tilly came over on one of those and there must be thousands like her here in New York. Too poor to get proper care when their babies come. Oh, I know it. Teresa, you're lucky. You've always had your health. But think of all the women who are barren when they need not be. Others, too many others who die of childbed fever. And who cares for their agony after the midwives gone home? They try to drag themselves to their work like Tilly did, ill and afraid, not knowing what's wrong. And here I stand, unable to help them. You could if there were only a hospital of some kind just for women, like your clinic back home. Yes. Yes, like my clinic back home. Only a real hospital where any woman could come to be helped. Rich, poor, or in between. Why couldn't I start such a hospital here? Well, it's a wonderful idea, but where would the money come from? Here we are with about 75 cents between us. But don't you see? Now I can go to the most influential doctors in New York and tell them truthfully I'm one of them. Teresa, let's try. Somehow that hospital's got to be. And then I went to see the third person who was to help me in my fight for a woman's hospital. Although neither he nor I realized it at the time. His name was Dr. Stevens, and he was president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Simms, I'm really sorry. I've been thinking over your idea, and I should like to feel that it's practical, but I'm afraid I can't. But why not? Surely you know how urgent the need is. There are others that are even more urgent. But what could be, what could they possibly be, Dr. Stevens? When you consider that the strength and health of all future generations depends on the health of our women today. I agree, sir. But since you came to me the other day, I've discussed the matter with some of my colleagues. The consensus is that women's diseases can be treated quite adequately in the usual way. I see. Malpractice, slovenly midwives, women left to die or live out their lives in agony because of ignorance. That's your usual way. And if you approve of it, you're betraying your oath every time you take a breath. Dr. Simms, do you realize what you're saying? Yes. I'm sorry, Dr. Stevens, but I intend to persist in this. An entire new field of medicine lies before us to be explored. And if you won't help me, I'll go from office to office till some other doctor in this city listens to me. And there must be someone with eyes to see and a heart to feel. Someone somewhere. Dr. Blackwell, I've been trying to talk with our colleagues about a woman's hospital for nearly eight months. I came to you because you're the first who's been able to see beyond his nose. Her nose. And naturally, you being our first and only woman doctor, you understand women's problems. Now the first thing we must do... You've knocked so fast, Dr. Simms. You haven't let me explain. What's the matter? I honestly don't see how I can do anything for you now. I do your cause more harm than good. But why? You're a physician, aren't you? The gentlemen of the medical profession apparently don't think so. I'm a laughing stock, Dr. Simms. If Elizabeth Blackwell espoused any cause right now, it would be automatically doomed. Oh, I can't believe that, Dr. Blackwell. Talk to a few people about me. You'll find out. Dr. Simms, believe me. You'd do better without me now. Later, after you're established and my name can't harm you, please call on me. Well, madam, it's a pity. Because truthfully, you were my last hope. If you can't help me, then there may never be a woman's hospital. May I do your room now, doctor? Oh, yes, Tilly, come in. How are you feeling these days? Oh, Dr. Simms, this is a different person I am now. I don't know how I can thank you. It's all right, Tilly, you don't have to. Remember, we're partners. But if I could pay you only a little at a time. You want to pay me on a wage of nine dollars a month? Oh, but Mrs. Seymour's promised to pay me two dollars more now. My, isn't that generous of Mrs. Seymour? No, Tilly, you save your two dollars or spend it on your children. Perhaps someday you'll find a way to help me. Oh, Marion, excuse me, dear, but there's someone here to see you, Mr. Henry Stewart. Oh, a patient? No. Oh. I'm sure he's not ill, but he does seem, well, perhaps it's because he's a journalist, but he seems in a very great hurry. Stewart, a journalist, what does he want with me? I don't know, Marion. It's all so strange. He just walked right into the parlor and said he'd come to take care of founding the woman's hospital for you. You are listening to the DuPont Cavalcade of America, starring Ray Milan as Dr. Marion Sims and featuring Helen Clare as Teresa, sponsored by the DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. The DuPont Cavalcade continues, starring Ray Milan as Dr. Marion Sims. I spent nearly a year trying to convince the doctors of New York that America badly needed a hospital for women. Now in the spring of 1854, when I had almost run out of hope and most certainly out of money, I had a caller, a gentleman of the press named Henry L. Stewart, the fourth person to help me in the building of my dream. Now, Dr. Sims, you don't know me, but believe me, I've heard a great deal about you. Now let me say I think your idea is great. Great. Mr. Stewart, may I ask how you heard about my idea? Certainly, from an old neighbor of yours in Montgomery who's been visiting here in New York, Mr. Beatty. Oh, oh, I did tell him about it, but I never dreamed that you... Beatty says you were famous down south. Famous. Well, I was known, but principally for my work in surgery and diagnosis of women's diseases. But here in New York, Mr. Stewart, I might as well be a tyro, trying out my methods and my first patient, the way I'm treated. Yes, that just carries out the old theory of mine. Profit in the wrong country or whatever the saying is. Well, now suppose we get down to business. I can get your hospital started for you. All it takes is a little pressure in the right places, if you know what I mean. But Mr. Stewart, I don't understand. I mean, how... Oh, it's simple. Now, you could go in the rounds calling on our leading citizens and doctors one at a time. That's the old fashioned method. Have to appeal to them in a body. Modern methods, spread it all over the papers. Wouldn't that be unethical? Oh, don't you worry. Not one word of space will we buy. We'll see the editors themselves persuade them to run an article in their papers describing the purpose of the forthcoming meeting in vivid terms. Vivid terms. The meeting. What meeting? The mass meeting, torchlights, everything. Stuyvesant Hall, for instance. Tell them all about it. Get them all enthusiastic. We'll have some big civic leaders there too, to lend their names and weigh their pocket books, as it were. Mr. Stewart, I'm sorry, but I think you've gotten a bit beyond me. Now, can't we start at the beginning? What possible interest can you have in this idea? Me? Well, I'll tell you, doctor. I'm a man who likes to promote lost causes. Oh. Yes, just name me a lost cause. I haven't worked my head off on it. You'll find me plugging at it first thing tomorrow morning. Of course, Teresa was eager to know all about this strange man, and later on, while we were having tea and he was talking of his plans, I could see her worrying quietly. And what did we do with such a man as this? I knew that after he had gone, she would say to me... Marion, I can't help being upset. About Mr. Stewart? There's something unsettling about him. You mean he's too good to be true? What he's promising is. Oh, Marion, you don't suppose he's one of those terrible people who sells bricks of gold to country folks? Now wait a minute. I mean, there are idealists in this world. But it's the idealists like you yourself who have a hard time being heard. And his methods... I know, I know. I'm afraid to. And yet I have a feeling he will help us, that this is our chance. We're gamblers now in spite of ourselves, and Henry Stewart, whether we like it or not, is calling the numbers. Let's see now. We've been to 12 editors. Just three more to go, doctor. You don't mind climbing a few more stairs, I'm sure. Mr. Stewart, I'm not a well man, and I really don't know why you have me along for these conferences. I'm too out of breath to say anything, and couldn't you do just as well without me? My dear Sims, why, you're by truck card. I'm playing you off. Oh. You don't understand that, do you? I'll explain. The editors we've been seeing today never heard of you until I told them they were the only ones who hadn't. I'm going to see to it that you're not just playing Dr. Sims. You're the celebrated Dr. Sims. Why by the time I finish celebrating you, those colleagues of yours won't dare stay away from that meeting. Look Henry, there must be hundreds of people here coming out in a rain like this. Just think of it. Didn't I tell you? Every doctor in New York, plenty of others too. Horace Greeley, Peter Cooper. Really? Now you're not going to be nervous. No, I don't think so, Henry. Go on now. It's time for you to get up there and speak. But Henry, I just want to tell you, I apologize for ever doubting you. I didn't dream it would be like this. I'm overwhelmed. Nonsense, man. I believed in this all along, didn't you know? Now get up there and make the rest of them believe it. All right. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, and I am delighted to notice that there are ladies here tonight. I want to tell you exactly why we are so desperately in need of a hospital devoted to the ills of womankind. In all the Western Hemisphere, there is no such hospital. Women, if they're fortunate, bear their children with a certain amount of travail and live to bear more. But if they're not fortunate, they suffer from our ignorance of how to help them. As I spoke that day, I forgot to be afraid. I forgot that the wave after wave of faces before me were the faces of distinguished men who up until this moment had ignored me. I remembered only the dream of all that seemed impossible. And I told them in the only way I knew how, why that dream must become real. And as I talked, my eyes were fixed on the face of Dr. Stevens. Dr. Stevens will help me in his way by churning me into a fury of stubbornness and determination to see this thing through. And then all at once, my speech was finished and I sat down. Wonderful, absolutely magnificent. Couldn't have sat better myself. But what happens now? Stand up, Henry. Start a discussion. Something, please. Why can't they present it? Why doesn't somebody say something? Dr. Sins. Yes, sir. My name is Dr. Griskin. I believe I'm fairly well known for my interest in public health. And I see no reason why we can't get this hospital idea into working order in a very short time. What do you say, gentlemen? I object, sir. What? Those who oppose the plan have had no opportunity to be heard. Well, there'll be plenty of time for discussion, Dr. Buck. But I submit that any general practitioner among us here tonight is capable of treating his women patients. And that all of this is an extravagant waste of our valuable time. Well, I... You are wasting your time here, doctor, I wonder why you attended in the first place. Because... Dr. Griskin. Yes, Dr. Stevens. May I come up here on the platform? Why, certainly, sir. Thank you. I must say to you all that no matter how we believe personally, the ideal of bettering humanity cannot be ignored. Dr. Marion Sims once accused me of forgetting my oath. And after listening to him tonight, I accused myself. Ladies and gentlemen, we should be proud to have such a man among us. He gives us no choice. We must stand behind Dr. Sims and the new women's hospital. Do you agree? Very good. Very good. Then let us proceed to organize it. Oh, Mr. Stewart, do come in. You're just in time to have tea with us. Oh, no, no, thank you, no, Mrs. Sims. Then perhaps my husband can get you something else. No, no, I don't need stimulants somehow. Well, well, my dear friends, you've done it. The world is yours. I've done it, though. No, Henry, you've done it. Well, let's say it was a pleasant collaboration, huh? You now have a board of directors comprising the leading men of the city. Yes, Henry, it's wonderful. But no one has said anything about funds. Who is going to raise the money for the hospital? Why, well, you are, of course. I? Well, you're the lion of the hour, man. Every home on Washington Square and Bleecker Street will open its doors to you. Do you really think it'll be that easy? I know it'll be. See Mrs. Doremus first, Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus, remarkable woman, has nine children, manages to do more philanthropic works than anybody I know. And I know a great many people. Mrs. Doremus, make a note of that, will you, Theresa? Yes, dear. I'll call on her tomorrow. Uh, doctor, do you know something? I'm going to miss these visits, miss them dreadfully. What do you mean? You're going away, Mr. Stewart? Yeah, not sure yet. Think so, though. Uh, just heard of a most interesting project this morning. Some, somebody's talking about stretching a cable across the Atlantic Ocean. It can't be done, of course, but you know how I am. But Henry, what am I going to do without you? Well, you don't need me now. You're launched, like a ship. And you'll have your lovely wife here and Mrs. Doremus, the members of the medical board. You don't need me anymore. Well, best of luck to you both. I'll drop in and visit your hospital one of these days. Uh, Henry, don't forget Mrs. Doremus. Dr. Sims, what a pleasure to meet you. I've heard all about you from Elizabeth Blackwell and Henry Stewart, of course. Oh, I'd like you to meet my friend, Dr. Gordon Buck. Oh, I recall Dr. Buck was not my most ardent supporter at the recent public meeting. No, Dr. Sims. I've come here to dissuade Mrs. Doremus from taking any part in your plan. You've already wasted your colleague's valuable time. Is it a waste of time to save a woman's life, Dr. Buck? That point is not under discussion here, sir. Then what is? Well, a second... Gentlemen, gentlemen. I'm sorry, Mrs. Doremus. I can see it's hopeless trying to change Dr. Buck's mind. I can only say to him that the majority of his colleagues now disagree with him. But I do appeal to you as a woman to consider the terrible need for a woman's hospital. Precisely these emotional grounds I object to. You've got the whole city weeping crocodile tears of a poor hapless womankind. What did they do before you came along, doctor? Just what did they do now, doctor? Too many of them died. Too many of them wished they were dead. Mrs. Doremus, forgive me. I came as a petitioner to your door and I didn't intend to turn your lovely parlor into a battleground. Perhaps I'd better leave. But, Dr. Simms, have you noticed the new house at number 83 Madison Avenue? 83, yes. That's right near my home. I know. I passed by with my husband yesterday and we stopped in to look it over. You know, it occurred to me that if things were properly arranged, it might hold at least 40 beds. Mrs. Doremus. What do you mean to say? Hush, hush, both of you. Do you think 40 beds too few, Dr. Simms? Yes. That could be a fine start, toward 400 beds, Mrs. Doremus. Good. My husband's promised to put up security for its lease. Oh, Dr. Simms, you can now go ahead with your hospital. Well, that was it. Mrs. Doremus was the fifth person to help me and the woman's hospital was opened at last. And as I began my story with my housemaid, Tilly, so I'll bring it to a close with her. Only now, as I fondly hoped, Tilly has become my nurse. One day I was making the rounds of the new hospital. Dr. Simms. There now, Mrs. Lysinski, you're going to feel a lot better in a few days. I want you to rest as much as you can and don't try to get out of bed. I won't. Is there anything you need that your husband hasn't brought over to the hospital? No. May I have my wife bring some books or something? You're so kind. I don't feel much like reading. I know. Well, I'll be seeing you in the morning and remember... Dr. Simms! Dr. Simms! Yes, Tilly? I wanted you to see how I look in my new uniform. Please. A nurse in our hospital always speaks in quiet tones and walks softly. It's very important. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. But you do look trim in your uniform. Did you sew it yourself? Oh, that I did, Dr. Simms. Oh, you're going to be a fine nurse, I know, Tilly. See that Mrs. Lysinski here's comfortable and has her dressings changed twice a day, all right? Oh, yes, Dr. Simms. Good. I'm your old friend. You're my partner. I'm depending on you. Well, I'll be in again soon, Mrs. Lysinski. Thank you, doctor. Ah, a knight in shining armor. That's what he is. A regular Sir Galahad. Galahad? I don't understand. Who is Sir Galahad? A wonderful man who went around rescuing ladies in distress. I read about him in a book once. And I was very sick, like you. And he saved my life. It was nonsense, of course. I heard what they were calling me, and I knew I was no Sir Galahad. He rescued people single-handed. Maybe that's the difference between his age and our own. I had helped. I had helped him. Dr. J. Marion Simms. Surgeon, medical inventor, pioneer in the science of gynecology and cancer research, physician to queens and parlor maids. The Women's Hospital in New York City, which he founded and which this year proudly observes as its 95th anniversary, was the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. And as Dr. Simms found out, he didn't have to do it alone. Even today, more than ever before, Americans are helping great causes like his. New York City's United Hospital Fund Drive and many others throughout the land exemplify the spirit of helpfulness that is America. Our thanks to Ray Milan and the Cavalcade players for tonight's story, Sir Galahad and Manhattan. Ray Milan appeared through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures and may soon be seen co-starring with Hedy Lamarr in Copper Canyon, opening on Broadway tomorrow. On tonight's Cavalcade, the part of Theresa Simms was played by Helen Clare. The script was written by Virginia Redcliffe and was based on the biography Woman Surgeon by Seal Harris, published by Macmillan. Music was composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Borey. The program was directed by John Zoller. This is Cy Harris speaking. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation, as the Declaration of Independence states, was founded on faith in God. Freedom to worship is one of our national heritages. During this coming season, when spiritual values take on a special significance, let us remember that our religious institutions are strongholds of the American freeway of life. Many thanks.
