Family Theater: Recent Episodes
Vatican In Exile
Family Theater was a program created to promote family unity and each week saw a drama illustrating the importance of family life and prayer. The main reason for the success of this series was undoubtedly due to the numerous Hollywood stars that participated.
Cast: Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Shirley Temple Director: Fred MacKaye, Dave Young, Joseph Mansfield, Richard Sanville, Jaime del Valle, Mel Williamson, Robert O’Sullivan, John Kelley Producer: Father Patrick Peyton, Bob Longenecker Host: Father Patrick Peyton Writer: True Boardman , Father Patrick Peyton Announcer:Tony LaFrano
God in his providence obscures the gold beyond the veil of sorrow, and smiles at men in pity when they seek to penetrate the morrow. With faith that all is for the best let’s bear what burdens are presented, that we shall say, let come what may we die as we have lived, contented…
Avery Macklemore tells his story which is mighty strange. It's the story of the Big Calm when the winds stopped blowing but it actually started long ago when Miss Keating was a little girl. Mr Macklemore has known her for twelve years since he was at he boarding house and she would tell him the story of how the wind had plagued her all her life.
In this episode, Jack Benny who plays Malcolm. Malcolm is a "teapot" - or that's what he considers himself - very teapotic by nature - even looking a little like one! His wife, is a "coffee pot", a huge, ever simmering, never-empty coffee pot - complete with spout!
Mr. Harrison has loads of good ideas to advance the company he works for but his boss Mr. Tucker is determined to keep him down fearful that Harrison will get his job. Mr. Harrison has a wife and children and can't afford to lose his job so he just ponders on. Then when wealthy millionaire aunt Thelma arrives at the family home, an aunt that Harrison has never heard of, she, without his knowing, helps him make a man of himself by standing on his own two feet and taking a chance he thought he couldn't afford to make. Well who is this aunt Thelma and why has she really turned up at the Harrison family?
By the fall of 1777, the Continental Army seemed on the verge of collapse, and the cause of American independence all but lost. Congress had fled Philadelphia to escape the British, and the desertion of colonial troops mounted by the hour, with winter rapidly approaching. It's the morning of October 15th, and in his headquarters at White Marsh, General Washington is laying plans for the evacuation of his army to a place called Valley Forge...
In the year 300, the capital of the known world was Rome. Outwardly, it gave no sign of the decadence that would finally crumble its Empire. Rome boasted an invincible army, a tradition of law, and a flourishing culture, and the Emperor himself subsidized its theater. Right now, the entertainment for the Romans is the punishment of the citizens who have been found to be Christians...
I Give You Maggie is an original story by Walter Newman. The scene opens in New York City on an October afternoon in the living room of a penthouse overlooking Central Park a party is being held in honor of a young novelist Tom Padget. Mrs Padget and Daphne Lewis are leaving the crowded room. Daphne Lewis is the literary editor for the Times and thinks it will be a good idea to interview Maggie Padget, the woman behind the author...
In this fantasy, Jim and Marian Jordan (better known as Fibber McGee and Molly), play Wallace and Agnes, tourists in Egypt, who encounter an absent-minded genie who grants Wallace wishes in a rather odd way.
At a uranium boom camp in the mountains, the de facto community have decided to take the law into their own hands, and hang Mr Mayfield for robbery. When Judge Arthur arrives, the judge agrees that under his authority, Mr Mayfield should stand trial for grand theft...
Monica used to picture married life in a small town as little more than just a boring existence... Alright for most women really, but a way of life that would never be suitable to a person of such exquisite tastes. Monica had great delusions of what her life should be, and they were all given to her by the same person - her Aunt Virginia. Thankfully, wisdom helped her to change her mind.
Once On A Golden Afternoon was the original title Lewis Carroll gave to his famous story Alice in Wonderland. This is the story of the inspiration behind that wonderful piece of children's literature, which has stood the test of time and is still as enchanting to listen to today. Not only was the name of the story changed but Charles Lutwidge Dodgson chose the pen name Lewis Carroll from the Latin of his name.
The central incident in the story you are about to hear actually took place. The time and the location are authentic but this is not true of the people involved, every one of them is a fictional character.
The things that made it, that created the nightmare took shape slowly that morning at widely separated points. At 10:45 a jet interceptor carrying two people took off to make a routine check of its radar equipment. Thirty minutes earlier at forty-five miles to the south a plane left the Santa Monica airport. By 11:15 both planes each unaware of the other crashed midair and landed in a field near a school. This story tells the anguish of two parents whose young daughter goes to that school.
Jimmy is set on going to college to secure his future as a lawyer but his father, Mr Adam Donner, is insistent that his son go and work in the factory like him. His father thinks he is protecting him from the world but his mother thinks he is making a mistake. After Jim and his mother pray for guidance for Father he is visited by a mysterious messenger who opens his mind and shows him the probable outcomes of what decisions are made next in life. Father comes to realize that he has done a good job of raising his son and that his son's future must be his own decision.
It's Family Theater's tenth anniversary, and the first day of its eleventh year on the air. Loretta Young gives an inspiring speech about the United States and sings several patriotic songs about our strength of spirit as a country. Following is a wonderful drama about the Simmons family, and their pioneering search for, and building of a new home.
Merna Fagan and Gloria Duffy used to work in the library together. In the library, there is a public information service, and to answer the questions that people phone in, they employ quite a number of girls who look up the answer and give it to the people. Gloria never had to look them up, and Merna had Gloria!
Will Strickland is the editor of the Hillside Weekly Citizen who receives an interesting visitor from Burma. He is there concerning an incident which occurred during the Spring of 1944, when Will was a lieutenant serving in Burma, who made the sortie into Alunpaya with Sergeant Finley - along with Caruso, their mule.
On boarding a train, Mr George Cory is surprised to find that someone is sat in his allocated seat. Miss Anne MacDowell is the woman, and they quarrel a little when she refuses to move. This brings them to the attention of the conductor, who, instead of demanding one of them move, uses 'deductive reasoning' (something he learned in a Doyle club), to resolve their issue...
After a horrible accident, Al Dana's wife is called to the hospital. Fearing the worst, when she arrives the staff confirm that her husband is alive, but that he is in such a dazed condition that they believed he might have suffered a concussion, even a skull fracture, but after investigation it seems that's not the case. However, his condition isn't improving, and the hospital staff are concerned that he has withdrawn from reality, possibly from the realization that he may be the one responsible for the accident and subsequent fatalities...
n the September of 1949, Edgar McCready gave instructions on caring for his ranch in his absence, hopped into his jeep with a Geiger counter, and drove off in the direction of the hills, to look for uranium, in the hope of increasing an already considerable fortune. By September of 1956, Edgar had not returned, and there was only one conclusion. After being declared legally dead, the ranch and estate went to Mr Leslie Smythe, the new Baron of Bitter Wells, and the new heir to a village of around 6000 residents...
Humboldt has built the biggest aircraft that has ever been built. The Humboldt 7. Mike is one of the engineers working on the project, and he has been having recurring nightmares about it. In his dream, the plane isn't airworthy, but it's too late to stop it because all of its seats are full, and every time in his dream, the plane crashes and everyone dies. Except Mike who is the sole survivor.
This is the story of the motives of Christopher Columbus rather than of his discovery of America. On the morning of October twelfth 1492 the three ships of Columbus’ dropped anchor before an island resplendent with the brilliant green of mangrove trees. Then with the captains of the other two ships, a range and a scarlet mantle bearing the royal standard with a figure of Christ on the cross he tlanded on the shores of the new world, planted the cross and named the new island in honor of of the holy saviour, San Salvador.
So it was with the first voyage of Columbus. He made other voyages to and from the new world but his motives remained the same and the only profit he ever gained from the discovery of America were spiritual and the only things he kept in memory of his discovery were his chains and his title - Grand Admiral of the Ocean.
She did not know at first that she was being followed. It had snowed heavily that day, and the streets were deserted. After passing the end of the street, a truckload of soldiers turned the corner. This was Austria in 1944, and so instinctively she drew back into the shadows, even thought it was still an hour until curfew. There were always questions for anyone who was found out on the streets after dark. Continuing her journey, she suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps behind her...
Steven Maynard arrives at the police station to report himself for killing a man. He hit him with the car, and although he stopped for a moment, he made off without checking if the victim was injured - but he's certain that they were dead. The strange thing, is that there has been no body found...
An unmarried woman inherits a fortune from her deceased Uncle Jim. However, the will contains some strange provisions, calculated to get her married...
Gayler has been thrown over by her sweetheart Bob for a prettier girl called Sharron. Aunt Lucy recounts the time she received a similar letter. When Aunt Lucy was a little girl she had an accident that left her face deformed. She intended to have plastic surgery but it was not guaranteed to work and may cause permanent paralysis so she put it off. Then when she gets employment with a kind blind man named Ralph Carlton at his law firm she stops worrying about her appearance. This is a heartwarming story of kindness and beauty that comes from within a person.
Nobody ever thought it could happen. Nobody ever believed there would be war here, in America. We were all sympathetic to the wars in other countries, but we just thought "it can't happen here". But it did. It all began on Thanksgiving day, fifteen years ago. When most families were at home, and with war at the furthest part of their minds. Except Linda, who was 26,000 feet in the air, unknowing that she was much safer than the thousands of families on the ground...
Beverley Compton is the daughter of the Provo Marshall, Colonel Compton, and when she is pulled over for speeding by a young Corporal, she tries to use this status as a way to get out of the citation. What she doesn't realise is that the Corporal, Francis Green, is well aware of who she is, and she's not likely to get any leeway from him - especially now she tried to pull rank!
David Lee was a good friend with Mary but they were not girlfriend and boyfriend. However when David took her out it made Bud Landers mad as he and Mary were going together. Bud was not from a very caring family environment, which often led to prejudice against him, and when a florist shop was robbed Bud was accused and landed him self in jail. David, was determined to prove that Bud was innocent despite the fact that Bud wanted to punch him in the nose.
Tim Striker came from one of Boston’s wealthiest families but accepted everyone as an equal. While a senior at manning College Johnny was Tim’s roommate. That year a new girl came to manning named Janey Pearce and Johnny fell in love with her and wanted to invite her to the senior dance but Tim had already invited her. Love conquers and Johnny promises her the world with a fence round it. Janey and Johnny get married but times are hard and money is tight. Tim offers to lend $1000 to Janey but only if she realises that Johnny is a weakling and divorce him and marry him but Janey has always loved Johnny and their house with the fence around it is Janey’s world and all she has ever wanted.
It's late Autumn of 1950, and in a small mountain lodge in the backwoods of Canada's Quebec province, it's starting to snow. Chris Jordan and his new wife, Mary, are on their honeymoon. Mary's a little worried that they may be snowed in, but Chris is hoping that their honeymoon are going to be extended! Relaxing by the embers of the fire, they are suddenly interrupted by a trapper named Renee, who is delivering a telegram from the nearby village. It's not good news.
It's the tenth round of a boxing match between 'Wild Bill' Callan, and 'Dancing' Art Fuller. 'Wild Bill' was rated to win the fight by a knockout. At the beginning of the fight he appeared to be in top condition, during the weigh-ins that morning he was full of confidence, but something has definitely gone wrong, as from the beginning of the fight he has been on the defensive, rather than the aggressor...
'It's possible to do the right thing, with the best motives in the world, and still regret it.' Mrs Gregg had known Gerald Wright since he was born, sixteen years ago. He and her daughter, Nancy, grew up together but lately Nancy has been giving Gerald the cold shoulder. Later, Gerald telephones a bomb threat to his high school, and chaos ensues.
A story about the last battle of the war, fought by a Yankee soldier and a Confederate officer for three decades, who continue to hate each other long after the American civil war has ended - a hatred which finally leads to a challenge to a duel.
Alice is a young lady interested in a young man, but because of the way society is, she's unable to be bold and tell him how she feels. Frustrated that everything seems to be a man's world, and unhappy with her Mother for not understanding, she goes to see her wise, old grandmother - who has some ideas about how Alice can go about not sitting on her hands waiting for the man to be the aggressor...
After finding a kid asleep in the backseat of a car which didn't belong to him, the police bring him in to book him. The kid won't give his name or address, and in fact isn't being very co-operative, at times being outright rude. However, after a long talk with the Sergeant of the station, it transpires that the boy wishes to divorce his parents...
Tom has requested a transfer from his parish and the Bishop informs him that it has been approved and he is to become the Pastor of Creighton, a thriving parish with the generosity of its parishioners. Tom should be pleased but he is pensive to be leaving Hooker Town, a town he has come to know as his home. He did however request the transfer and explains to the Bishop that it was part of a bargain. Here is his story of the people he has come to know and love in Hooker Town.
Mary's father, Morton Jones, is acting as a subject in a controlled laboratory experiment for the betterment of mankind. He has ingested lysergic acid and right now is hallucinating...
When Maria Petlov was kidnapped and held by a foreign embassy, there were three men who took part in her rescue. Each had their own reasons, but her husband was the one who formulated and carried out the plan, to storm the embassy and take the ambassador and his family hostage...
In the early life of our nation, the years following the war of 1812 a movement began in America when a few intrepid men set out to really discover the prize that had been worth fighting for in two long and bloody wars. This is the story of a young man who was involved in that movement; a young man who made his mark in America because of a promise made to a friend and because he and God had different ideas about the manner of his keeping it...
Don Moffat is a good agent who helps Arlen when he was a humble comedy act earning tips for a living to be a successful television act earning three grand a week.
When the success goes to Arlen's head and everyone who got him there walks out on him because of his big shot attitude, instead of giving up on him Moffat cuts him back down to size before the fame destroys him.
May 1849 aboard the clipper ship Sally M bound out of New York for San Francisco via the Cape. A fine mist dampens the leathery faces of two men standing on the quarterdeck staring out across the choppy waters.
Captain Bolan and Mr. McDougal are discussing the use of the Sally M for the gold rushers. Mr. Spelvin is a passenger who has put up the money to charter the clipper and is planning to fiddle his fellow passengers out of their life savings.
An ancient philosophy taught that all life is a series of cycles. The philosophy was wrong - but many things in this life are in cycles - like human relations for instance. The children learn how to live and work, the adults do live and work, and the old people, well, there are some who only sit and remember, but there are others who complete the cycle... They try to help the children learn.
Carolyn's well loved (and very wealthy!) uncle, Jim Franklin, has passed away. As his only living relative, spinster Carolyn is set to inherit everything, but her clever uncle has inserted some codicils to the will, which means that she has to 'go fishing for a husband', starting with hosting a dinner party every other Saturday night, with at least five of the guests being eligible bachelors.
Francis R Burns - Frank to everyone who knows him - is at an office filling out yet another application form for a job - another form which wants to know his entire life story, with questions on it not even a best friend would think to ask. So he again goes through the motions, but his mind drifts back to when he was at college, when he was pitching a baseball game and was spotted by a scout...
The family were looking forward to their road trip - twelve hundred miles over a week! For Charlie, it meant a whole week without any work - seven whole days where nobody was to mention typewriters, plots, stories, scripts, nothing! The first stop was Bakersfield, where they were going to stop for breakfast, but the simple trip he envisaged begins to fall into chaos before they even reached Bakersfield...
Jim's day started at around 3am, with what he thought was a really bad tooth ache. He decided to take some aspirin and get some more sleep, because he had a big day coming up, and was due to meet with McGovern for a luncheon.
The Mutual Network in cooperation with Family Theater presents a special Holy Week program, a dramatic narration of The Passion and Death of Christ.
Catherine's parents have always liked Charlie since he and their daughter became childhood friends. However Catherine has had many suitors and received quite a few valentines cards, some quite romantic. Catherine is teased by her brother Lester about her date tonight with student lawyer Greg the Great as he calls him and asks her, what about Charlie? Catherine tells her mum that a girl likes to be treated with consideration and politeness, the things she doesn't get from Charlie. Charlie certainly isn't the sentimental type. A romantic card from Greg about an errant knight saving a fair damsel leads Catherine in to a romantic daydream about Greg and the ever practical Charlie. At the end of the day who is going to win the affections of Catherine.
The staff of a railroad train are put the test when their train is carrying a large sum of money.
James Gleason stars as Pop and Hugh O'Brien stars as Bob Plank.
J. Edgar Hoover is the host of this episode of Family Theater starring Ruth Hussey and Glenn Langham.
In Another Year is the story telling the history and trials and tribulations of the Gordon family from 1933 to 1948.
When you're a surgeon about to work on your worst enemy there are a lot of thoughts you can't afford to let yourself think. You've got to think of the man in there on that table as just another emergency...
It takes something like a flood to make a man realize that he can lose more important things than his house and transient possessions and car, that what's more important is the love a family has for each other.
In this sci-fi story Frank Lovejoy plays the role of David Burn a journalist for the Clarion newspaper when he receives a call from the eminent scientist Dr Whalen explaining his reasons that he believes the world is about to be invaded from outer space. However running the story made Dave a laughing stock after Dr Whalen was discredited. But discrediting Dr Whalen was all part of the plan to change things for the future.
When congressman Arthur Bliss was assigned to go on a trip to Poland to learn about collectivized farming he also agreed to try and find the missing son of Mrs Lubachof, who had gone missing over six years ago while making a routine flight. She believes her only son is still alive and being kept hostage as she received a letter from him two months after the plane went missing.
Wally is a famous actor in an industry that depends on publicity but who prefers to keep his past life to himself. For the past ten years he has been carrying the burden of a crime he may have committed that wasn't his fault. when the fan magazine keep hounding him for information about his time before he became an actor he confesses his crime to his director.
Captain Nelson has worked for the CIC for just over a year when he is interviewing a man named Jones. Captain Nelson thinks that Mr Jones is a little old for the corps but then discovers that "Jones" is already in the CIC and his real name is Eric Softly. He also learns that Eric Softly is about to go on assignment with him in East Berlin.
You can never know what goes on in a person's life until you take the time to know a person.
Host Bing Crosby finishes the show with this much of which, is pretty relevant today some sixty plus years hence: "Our nation is sadly in need of a rebirth to the simple life a return to the days when God was a part of each household and families arose each morning with a prayer on their lips. And they ended the day gathered together to place themselves in his care. If there's a hope for the future of America, if there's to be peace and happiness in our homes then we as a nation have got to return to God and to the practice of daily family prayer. Families that pray together, stay together."
Grandpa Joe and his little great grandson Joe Joe, spend the afternoon in the park where Grandpa plays cribbage with his friends. It seems he can’t win for losing; his two friends seem to always be lucky. On the way home they watch a dog outside a shop, which seems to have x-ray vision barking before a person would come out of the shop. They feed him a little meat and he follows them home. Mother agrees to let them keep him for one day to see how it works out and because of his amazing skill grandpa decides to call him X-ray. Grandpa decides to teach the dog a trick so that he can win over his friends in the park.
The central incident in the story you are about to hear actually took place. The time and the location are authentic but this is not true of the people involved, every one of them is a fictional character.
The things that made it, that created the nightmare took shape slowly that morning at widely separated points. At 10:45 a jet interceptor carrying two people took off to make a routine check of its radar equipment. Thirty minutes earlier at forty-five miles to the south a plane left the Santa Monica airport. By 11:15 both planes each unaware of the other crashed midair and landed in a field near a school. This story tells the anguish of two parents whose young daughter goes to that school.
The young man is a new soldier for the confederacy full of bravado and is afraid that the war will end before he even fires a shot. He is intent on going out and shooting himself a Yankee but when he does, he regrets it straight away afraid he has killed a man. He comes to realize that he is not a soldier after all but at the same time he has gone from being a child to being a man because in saving the mans life he was willing to do what he knew was right in spite of what it might cost.
"Little Red Riding Hood, the good wolf, and Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother all laughed and laughed, and then like the fine friends they were, sat down to enjoy the biscuits and apple jelly that Red Riding Hood had brought from home." That doesn't sound like the old fairy stories we're familiar with, does it? Well that's because Leo Randall has taken many of the old tales of horror and violence, and retold them. The problem is, although Mrs Oakmont loves them - his publisher, Wilbur Hafflinger, does not!
Five years ago in desperate need for money Clint Tag committed a crime and his friend sheriff Ellis Yeager had no choice but to arrest him. Now after serving his time in jail Clint is returning home to his wife but with revenge on his mind he intends to kill the sheriff.
Of course this is Family Theater so you can expect a humbling wholesome finale. My favorite kind!
It has been a life long dream of Joe Hunter's to live on a farm and as he is about to retire his wife Effie thinks that now is the time they should fulfill his dream and retire to a farm.
Their daughter is settled with two kids in Chicago and their son Peter has a job as a salesman and is married with a baby. But just as it seems their children are no longer dependent upon them Peter and his wife and child, needing help, come back to live with them.
Joe has never been able to refuse helping out his family even at the cost of his own dreams.
This is a story of one mans pride being put above his family then how friendship, trust, love, humility and prayer conquer all.
At war in Japan when news commentator Dan Coleman raises his head above the sandbags he encounters gunfire which renders him blind. The doctors don't know if they can save his vision and he has to learn to get along with only minimal use of his eyes.
Avery Macklemore tells his story which is mighty strange. It's the story of the Big Calm when the winds stopped blowing but it actually started long ago when Miss Keating was a little girl. Mr Macklemore has known her for twelve years since he was at he boarding house and she would tell him the story of how the wind had plagued her all her life.
Jim Mathews cannot forgive himself for his selfish pride and flees from his home and family though his wife had long forgiven him and always loved him....
Daniel Jenkins and his wife Mary were always arguing, each trying to be unselfish and so make the other look bad.
When their retired policeman father who lived with them decided he wanted to go back to work as a traffic policeman and move out of their home they were not happy, worried that the neighbors would think badly of them. Father decides he is going to take up the offer of the job anyway as he feels he still has a lot to give to the force and he hopes his son and daughter-in-law will get along better without him in their home.
When the jewelry shop where Daniel works is held up by an armed robber and his father is the policeman that attends, Daniel learns that his father is a better than average policeman and he finally takes some advice from his father.
In this comedy twelve year old Virginia Newman won't go to school except on her own terms. She turns up once every four weeks to take examinations and passes them all. She has gone through four truant officers already and Judith Butler is the latest. Miss Butler decides to go to Virginia's home where she lives with her widowed journalist father to find out why she wont come to school only to find Ginny Newman is running a successful business from home!
Daniel Osborne a journalist from the Daily News wants to interview Slim Weston who lost a leg in the war. Slim accuses the journalist of being guilty of the crime of wanting to tell about bravery and the actions of a soldier above the call of duty.
It makes Slim mad as when the papers do that they glamorize something that has about as much right to glamor as the bubonic plague. Slim gives Osborne a real picture of the battlefield complete with the smell of death a place like what it is, a place for dying. Slim tells the tale of how he enlisted for the Korean War as a seventeen year old simply trying to impress the girls.
Once enlisted the first lesson was how to stay alive.
Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence Italy while her parents like so many well to do English people at that time were touring Europe. This is her story narrated by Robert Ryan with Jane Wyatt playing the leading role of the famous nurse known affectionately as the lady with the lamp and whose drive and courage was a powerful force in building the great profession of nursing.
An armed robbery takes place at a small grocery store... as told from three points of view. A "Rashomon" type story, with a strange ending.
Joyce Kilmer was an American writer and poet, whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world, as well as his Roman Catholic religious faith. He was happily married to Aline Murray, also an accomplished poet and author, and this is their story.
When Henry asks his secretary, Mildred, to marry him, he's rather taken aback by her immediate refusal. In his mind, he's taken her on several dates, and at nearly forty years old himself, it is the natural course of their relationship to get married. Whereas for twenty-nine-year-old Mildred, she's been looking for romance, to feel wanted, loved, and be swept off her feet - something she's never had from stuffy Henry! With his ego bruised, can Mildred challenge him to 'up his game' across every aspect of his life?
Most executive producers speak only to other producers - but Harry Moyles had been a screenwriter himself years before, so recently employed Tom, was more flattered than surprised when his secretary requested a meeting with him. Harry wants Tom to work on some unfinished work created by a late writer called Phil Morrison. But Tom is a little suspicious of a strange coincidence surrounding Morrison's death, because one of the characters of an unfinished story that he and Harry Moyles had been working on, was a novelist who was burned to death when his car went over a cliff. Exactly the same way Morrison had met his own death...
Annie's uncle is about to leave on a dangerous assignment the following day, in a Greyhound bus they have shielded with lead to try and protect them from the radiation. Life changed quickly in the country after atomic war broke out, but Annie's never heard the story of what actually happened on that fateful day - until she manages to persuade her Uncle Will to tell her.
If you're fortunate enough to have a clear night, you'll see the stars. This time when you look out, try to look a little longer and think of them for what they really are. Then there's another kind of star - not the kind that you'd ever see from your front porch, or even with a telescope, because it gives no light. Our story is about such a star, and about four men and a woman who visited it, one hundred years in the future...
This is the story of Joe Stanley Page and his wife Betty who had been married four years and they wanted a child. On the 1st of June that summer there was excitement in the air when Betty felt that she was pregnant...
Grace is an average American mother who likes to think of herself as up-to-date. She has kept in touch with some of the latest styles when they could afford it, did a little reading once in a while and felt that the easiest thing in the world was to bring up their children on the simple principle that right is right and wrong is wrong. She never dreamed that a day was to come when she’d be put to a severe test...
A grape grower worries about his first harvest. Failure teaches him that there are more important harvests to be gathered and that prayer might help.
A poor juggler of old France gives the mother of Christ the only present he can. With John Charles Thomas baritone and celebrated story teller John Nesbit collaborating in words and music, they present a story which has become a traditional part of the Christmas season in America.
It started very slowly, very naturally, as you would expect when you're waiting after midnight for a son or daughter who is out too late. At first, they are just overdue. Then after an hour or so, when they really are late, you start making mental lectures to them, until the second hour, and then the third has passed. Then, all very slowly, very naturally, you discover you have stopped making mental lectures, because you aren't peeved or impatient any longer. You're just scared...
Carol has been badgering Phil to ask his boss, Mr Green, for a raise at work. However, Phil is less keen to rock the boat, since he knows that if Mr Green says no, he will have no choice but to quit, since how can he stay, if Mr Green doesn't feel he's worth as much as he thinks. It's not a huge raise - just $10 a week, but it will help to stop the engaged couple beginning married life in debt...
Since the day John Bender inherited five million dollars from an uncle who he had never even met, he's become convinced that he's been cursed. Since he received the money five days ago, he's wrecked his car, his late uncle's housekeeper is trying to get him committed to an asylum, he stepped in front of a motorcycle policeman and was run over, and this morning his house caught on fire. It's a remarkable series of coincidences!
Emily Turner is a perfect wife to her husband Harry and her house is always in a model state Emily takes so much pride in cooking and cleaning. When Margaret Brandon comes to work with Harry Turner Emily finally comes to realize that she has lost her perspective on life. She comes to understand that her chores are just a means to making her family comfortable and happy and not an end to themselves.
Frank Gibbons has been a cop for eight years, and Bill Tyler has been a cop for just over two months, and so when Frank accepts a bribe from a man who is speeding, rather than giving him a ticket, Bill is really torn about the morality of the situation...
Before going out to dinner, US newspaper man, Paul left word with the concierge that if Alfred Spencer called, he could be reached at the Parisian restaurant any time before 9:30pm, or back at his rooms any time after that. Eleven years had passed since the two had seen one another, and in his heart, Paul was hoping that Spencer wouldn't call at all. But Spencer wanted to sell Paul a painting, and it's a painting that Paul wanted very much...
Jerry Keith has gone and made it. He really does have it all - a nine-room ranch-style house up in the hills with a patio and a pool, a beautiful wife, Gloria, and security too - 39 half hour TV films in the can, plus a renewal option for many more. And in the past two quick years of success, Jerry has learned and put into practice the hardest lesson show business has to teach - the exact price of everything...
At the central high school, Mrs Wiley, with tears of anger welling in her eyes, stands outside the classroom the well-built boy of fifteen years old, Jack Terry, has just stormed from, holding his hand to his face. He runs along the corridor and down the stairs, heading to the glass-enclosed offices at the front of the school building, where he intends to put in a complaint about Mrs Wiley to the principal, for allegedly assaulting him...
Jim is the only man in his family, and feels like he's just surrounded by women all the time. All he wants to do is go fishing, and he even cancels the holiday his wife and two daughters have been looking forward to in Mexico. However, instead of the reaction he's expecting, they wish him a great time fishing, and are even waving and smiling when he leaves - so now he feels guilty.
Francis Thompson was a writer who fell upon hard times. Then through the kindness of a complete stranger, an outcast much like himself, the healing of Francis Thompson began. To him, this girl gave up the little she had; food, clothing and encouragement, but more than that, an ease from loneliness. To her, he gave things unknown in her life; tenderness and reverence and respect. Then at last, Francis Thompson began to write.
Uncle Harley has finally retired from the mail service, and is leaving to go fishing at Eagle Lake shortly. However, his good friend, George, has got him a deal he's not sure he can refuse. He wants Harley to invest $125 in some priceless oriental rugs, which George bought for $250 in an auction. He's going to spread word around that they're worth $500 each, and he's expecting the phone to start ringing off the hook from folks wanting to buy them. Harley's job is to answer those calls, and take the best offer...