Your Coca-Cola Bottler presents Claudia, based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken. Brought to you transcribed Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. Relax and while you're listening, refresh yourself. Have a Coke. And now, Claudia. La la la, la la la. Who is it? It is I, your stage door Johnny. Johnny who? Johnny on the spot. Oh, that Johnny. Come on in. Hey, aren't you out of your makeup yet? Mmm, Crackly, I'm just about to oop my face up with cold cream. That sounds attractive. Then in a few deft strokes, I shall be returned to my simple unglamorous self. Woe is me, woe is me. Or should I keep on my makeup and go forth in the world with my glamorous face on? I'll take the face under the glamorous face, thank you. You mean you love Cinderella after all? I've gotten accustomed to Cinderella. I'll take off your makeup. You know, I almost hate to. Look at those beautiful long eyelashes. This rose bud of a mouth. Ah, yes, the theater is indeed magic. Eight o'clock I am transformed into a beautiful princess. And at midnight, back into your pumpkin. Must you call me names? Was it a good house tonight? Filled to the last roll. Hard to play, good? Went pretty well. Another couple of months and you'll give quite a decent performance. Another couple of days and I won't have to give a performance at all. Well, how are you going to face coming back to our normal world of the dull, relentless routine of everyday living? I will face it with a smile on my face, smiling through tears without a backward glance. Oh, David, it has been wonderful, but I've missed you so. Well, dear, I am. Have you liked your freedom? I've thriven under it. Notice the wrinkles have gone away from my eyes. Those are smiling wrinkles. I like them. Now, stop talking. Take off that makeup. What'll you give me if I do? You'll see. Is there anybody out front we knew tonight? I didn't see a soul. You've run out of admirers, my love. Oh, isn't it sad? Oh, how fickle is the world. How fickle indeed. Take off that makeup. I'm taking it off. Don't nag me. It's a free country. Who is it? Jared Tucker here. Oh, just a second, Mr. Tucker. You didn't tell me he was here. I didn't know he was here. He must have come out of the woodwork. Is that a nice thing to say about my most handsome, my most devoted admirer? After you, of course. You could do worse than Jared Tucker. Shut up. Hand me my dress. Why don't you get yourself a handmaid? My next engagement. Mr. Tucker, come in. I, uh, just come to pay my respects. I had no idea you were in the theatre tonight. Yeah, I was. I was sitting in the second row in the balcony. Heard every word you said, too. Good. Well, if you didn't, it'd be just too bad. We'd known you were coming, Mr. Tucker. You and David could have come together. I'd travel alone, on the inspiration of the moment. Mrs. Naughton gave a right good performance. Coming from you, Mr. Tucker, I believe it. Yep. You looked as if you knew what you was doing. Your words come fast and neat. Yeah, sure do think them up fast. She should know them by now. She's been saying them over and over for days. You got to really say them same things every night? Exactly the same thing. Isn't it silly? Must be a mighty bore. Too bad you can't sort of make them up as you go along. Well, don't think I don't worry that she will. Of course, you professional actors ain't no better than amateurs, except you get paid for what you do. And some are greatly overpaid. You're talking about Victorian manners. Yeah, seems like an awful easy way to make a living. Coming up here every night, repeating the same old words, same old words. Half the time you're even sitting down on the stage. It's a mighty easy way to make a living. Oh, that's what I used to think, too. Maybe I should have taken another fork in the road when I was a lad. Maybe I should have hold the easy road and chose the theater for myself. Well, that reading you gave us the other day of the Ancient Mariner, I would say that you would have had a big success. John Barrymore would have had to fight for his loans. Ain't got such a bad profile either now, have I? I'd say it was just as fine as John Barrymore. He's been dead for years, too. Yeah, if I was an actor, I might even be a millionaire. Such is life. Come in. Ah, you're still here. We're closing up the theater. Mr. Varney, I'd like you to meet a neighbor of ours, Mr. Jared Tucker. Pleased to meet you, son. My pleasure. Mr. Varney's the director of this theater. He staged this play tonight. He did, eh? You're a pretty young rooster to be directing. Oh, I've been crowing many years already. You did a pretty good job, too. Of course, I don't hold completely with the way you had things turn out. For my money, I'd like to see Mrs. Naughton here win the man. Even though he wasn't much of a man, wasn't much of an actor either. Yes, I agree with you on that, Mr. Tucker. I fiddle around him myself. Maybe I ain't as spry as I used to be five years ago, but theatrical talent never leaves you till you turn to dust. Mr. Varney, Mr. Tucker is a very talented actor. Why, the other day he gave us a reading of the rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was really stupendous, wasn't it, David? It was indeed stupendous. You ought to hear me. When I get into there, a boy stood on the burning deck. Someday I'll come over and recite a bit for you. Oh, listen, do it now, Mr. Tucker. He's really good, Mr. Varney. Of course, I don't like the parts of old men. Well, no, of course not. Mrs. Naughton here, she looks like quite something else on stage. No reason why I can't, neither. No reason at all. Really, Mr. Varney, you should hear Mr. Tucker recite. Well, I could give you a smidge of now, I could. Now? Why not? No time like the present. Well, the present is getting late. Oh, listen, the theatre's almost...the theatre's empty. Well, I'm ready, I'm ready now. Well, listen, we'll hear you now, Mr. Tucker. I will show you to the stage centre. Now, now, that's darn nice of you, boy. Come on along, Mr. and Mrs. Naughton. No reason why you shouldn't eat, drop. I ain't shy at all. Well, I just hope Varney doesn't make too much fun over him. David, you don't think he will, do you? I mean, he realises this isn't serious. I don't know how much of a sense of humour Varney has. Just hope he doesn't make Tucker feel like a fool. Varney's a pretty tough character, you know. My gosh, I hadn't thought... David, maybe we should find a way to stop this. Now, you stand right there, Mr. Tucker, right square in the spotlight. Right here. All right, come on, Claudia and David, we'll sit down in the middle of the orchestra. Are you sure it isn't too late, Mr. Varney? It is pretty late, you know. Why, Claudia, weren't you the one who said it's never too late to discover a brilliant new actor? Now, come on, sit down right here. We have the whole theatre to ourselves. Hey, look, Varney, this man takes himself pretty seriously. I wouldn't want him to be offended or anything. Oh, relax, I've seen a lot of these old codges in my day and no vaudeville skitter's ever as funny. Oh, David, what have I done? Say, now that I'm up here, what do I say? Say anything you like. Well, kind of forgetting the boy stood on the burning deck. The Norton's here already heard the ancient mariner. Oh, we don't mind hearing it again. No, I never repeat myself when I can start afresh. Well, don't you remember something from school? That was only about 80 years ago. Let me see, third grade, fourth grade. Well, an old song or something would do fine. Hold on, I'm recollecting. When I recollect, I can go pretty far back. Sure is dark here, all dark except for that one light. Can't see nothing but with my mind's eye. But it can see pretty far, pretty far back. Seems that every now and then, and of course the human events, it becomes necessary for people to declare their independence and their freedom. And to this end, they said, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And to this end, they fought a bloody war. It wasn't the first, it wasn't the last, because they always seemed to need a heap of reminding. So less than 100 years later, another American, this time a tall, six-foot-far hungry-looking man, gathered some forgetting folks around him and read them a lesson. Remember it word for word, because it ain't something anybody ought to forget. Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation. So conceived and so dedicated can long endure. Little note, you'll long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Then less than 100 years later, the world started forgetting again. Seems as if we ain't got much of a memory for the important things in life. It took another war and another man to make us remember that what we live for is peace, and what we pray for is freedom. Freedom of speech everywhere in the world, God everywhere in the world, freedom from want everywhere in the world, and greatest of all, freedom from fear anywhere in the world. Now, that ain't something to worry about tomorrow, that's to worry about tonight. If I kind of sound as if I've been preaching, it's only that standing here in this dark theater I couldn't see so well, except into my own heart. Well, my heart's like every other American's, and that's my recitation. Yes, I ain't so much of an actor after all, cause what I give you is just a piece of old Jared Tucker. You know, Mr. King, I just very nearly made a fool of myself. Why? What happened? Well, I was sitting back there in the theater looking at that little old man Tucker, standing in the spotlight on the stage. I was all set to have a big laugh. I wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying, and all of a sudden it hit me. It was pretty impressive, wasn't it? The stage of my theater hasn't been put to such good use in a long time. I only wish we had not been an audience of three in a dark theater, but an audience of millions. Yes, some of the best performances are played to the smallest audiences. For instance, tomorrow David and Mrs. Brown give a four-star performance to an audience of one. Claudia the audience? And the cause of the performance, little Bobby Norton. I hope that Claudia doesn't forget that she has a matinee tomorrow. She won't forget. Tomorrow's the day for a lot of pretending by all of it. It seems particularly hard to get things done during lazy Indian summer days, but I'm going to suggest an idea that's good any time of the year. It's this. Follow the example of your men folks in offices and factories. Pause during work hours for ice-cold Coca-Cola. You'll enjoy the delicious refreshment. You'll relax and you'll get back to work refreshed. Every day Monday through Friday, Claudia comes to you transcribed with the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. So listen again tomorrow at the same time. And now this is Joe King saying, And remember, whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment, think of Coca-Cola. For Coca-Cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes. And ice-cold Coca-Cola is everywhere. The part of Jared Tucker was played by Cameron Andrews. And this broadcast of Claudia was supervised and directed by William Brown Maloney. And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.