Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The Makers of Campbell's Zoops presents the Campbell Playhouse, Orson Welles Productions.
00:29Good evening, this is Orson Welles.
00:41Tonight again our scene is America.
00:43America at the turn of the century, in the days that saw the rise, the rain, and the decline of the magnificent Ambersons.
00:50The book was a bestseller, but the magnificent Ambersons is something better than that, better than a bestseller that still sells.
00:58It lives on as the truest, cruelest picture of the growth of the Middle West, and the liveliest portrait left to us of the people who made it grow.
01:07It's better than a good book.
01:09It boosts Harkington's best.
01:12And we'll do our best try it on the radio tonight, and luckily we have with us a great American actor to help.
01:18An actor who in the living theater and in motion pictures has created a notable gallery of American portraits ranging from Ring Lardner's Elmer the Great to Sinclair Lewis's Dodgewood.
01:28A gallery which includes the simplest of American mortals and even two presidents, the legendary chief executive of Gabriel over the White House and Mr. Abraham Lincoln himself.
01:38You guessed his name.
01:40It's Walter Houston.
01:46But before Booth Harkington's magnificent Ambersons, here's Ernest Chappell with a message of interest from our sponsors.
01:52Thank you, Orson Welles.
01:54You know, if through some circumstance or other, people could have only one soup, and if the choice of that one soup were put to popular vote, the chances are most people would cast their ballots in favor of Campbell's tomato soup.
02:05You see, Campbell's tomato is the soup people buy and enjoy more than any other.
02:10Now, why is this so?
02:12Well, there are many reasons, of course, why people turn to Campbell's tomato soup time and time again, why it appeals alike to young and old, why people never seem to tire of it.
02:20But the main reason can be summed up in one word, flavor.
02:24Just about everybody has a keen liking for its rich tomato flavor.
02:28The tang and liveness of that flavor never fails to coax our appetite.
02:32We continue to enjoy it as we eat spoonful after spoonful, and we have a pleasant feeling of deep well-being as we finish the last full-flavored drop.
02:41Now, wouldn't bright, glowing, fragrant platefuls of this favorite soup add special enjoyment to your dinner tomorrow night?
02:47And don't you want to put on your grocery list tomorrow?
02:50Campbell's tomato soup.
02:52And now, the magnificent Amberson with Wally Houston and Orson Welles.
02:58Dear Miss Anderson, when I called upon you this afternoon to express my regret for last night's misfortune, I was informed by your butler that you did not desire to see me.
03:16You seem to care a great deal for both wives, Miss Anderson.
03:22If I promise never to break another one, may I not hope that you will relent on consent to receive in person the apology of your very conspicuous and devoted admirer, Eugene Morgan?
03:40To Miss Anderson, Amberson Mansion, Amberson Boulevard, Amberson Addiction.
03:49You heard that word, Amberson, a lot in those days, in that town.
03:55Everybody knew the Ambersons, and it was quite unnecessary for the young man to address his letter so carefully.
04:01The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873.
04:06Their splendor lasted throughout all the years that saw their Midland town spread and darken into a city.
04:12Around 1800, Major Amberson had bought 200 acres of land at the end of National Avenue.
04:17Through this track, he had built broad streets and cross streets, paved them with cedar blocks, and curved them with stone.
04:23He set up fountains here and there in a symmetrical interval, placed cast iron statues painted white.
04:28And all this art showed a profit from the start.
04:31The lots had sold well, and there was a rush to build in the new addition.
04:34Its main paraphernalia was called Amberson Boulevard, and here now stood the new Amberson Mansion, which was the pride of the town.
04:40Yes, sir, $60,000 for the woodwork alone.
04:43And hot and cold water upstairs and down.
04:45They got a ballroom there that takes up the whole third story.
04:48And a glass dome. Green glass it is.
04:50Way up in the air, and arches and turrets.
04:53And one of them new stone torches. They call it a portcouchette.
04:56Well, sir, I guess the President of the United States would be tickled to swap the White House for the new Amberson Mansion if the Major had given the chance.
05:01Yes, sir.
05:02By the almighty dollar, you'd bet your sweet life the Major wouldn't.
05:06Now of these Ambersons, at the time this story begins, there were three.
05:10The old Major and his two children, Fred and Isabel.
05:13Of Fred, it was generally understood that one day he would go into politics.
05:17Kind of a good thing to have an Amberson in Congress. Makes it pleasant when the family goes traveling.
05:21Meanwhile, he was to be seen every afternoon on National Avenue, perched high on the seat of the newest and fanciest rig in town,
05:27driving a pair of dashing bays with great gesturing and waving of his skin-tight lemon gloves.
05:33Of Isabel, it was known that she'd been to a young lady's school in the East and later to a finishing school in Paris.
05:39But now I'm back. Back for good this time, I guess.
05:42And it's nice to be home.
05:44Home being the Amberson Mansion on Amberson Boulevard, of which Isabel Amberson was now the hostess.
05:51Well, during those days, people had time for things.
05:54Time to gossip. Time for a lot of things.
05:57They even had time to dance square dances, quadrilles and lances, a raquette and shottishes and pokers and such whims as the Portland Fancy.
06:06All gone now. Gone like the all-day picnics in the woods and like that prettiest of all vanished customs, the serenade.
06:14Of a summer night, young men would bring an orchestra under a pretty ghost window,
06:17and flute, harp, fiddle, cello, cornet and bass violin would presently release their melodies to the dulcet stars.
06:23Indeed, it was at one of these serenades that an event occurred which would have a profound influence on the fate of the Ambersons.
06:30Eugene Morgan. It's too bad. Likeliest boy in town he was, and not really given to drink. Just celebrating.
06:36Stepped right through the bass violin, did. Made matchwood of it.
06:40Too bad it had to be right under Miss Isabel's window, and right at this time, too.
06:45When Eugene Morgan called the next day to apologize, Isabel refused to see him, and it was then that he wrote her that letter.
06:50And three weeks later, Major Amberson announced the marriage of his daughter to one of the town's leading young men of business,
06:57Wilbur Minifer. No breaker of bass viols or of harp. No serenade at all.
07:02Wilbur Minifer.
07:03Well, she'll be a good wife to Wilbur, and they'll have the worst spoiled lot of children this town will ever see.
07:09How on earth do you make that out?
07:11She couldn't love Wilbur, could she? Well, it'll all go to her children, and she'll ruin them.
07:16The prophetess proved to be mistaken in a single detail only.
07:19Wilbur and Isabel did not have children. They had only one child.
07:23At the age of nine, it pains me more than any man to admit,
07:28George Amberson Minifer, the Major's one grandchild, was a princely terror.
07:34With his long brown curls and a silk sash and lace collar in which his mother dressed him,
07:38he was dreaded not only in Amberson's addition, but in other quarters through which he galloped daily on his white pony.
07:44Oh, look at the girly curls! Say, Bub, where'd you steal your mother's old sash?
07:49Your sister stole it for me. She stole it off our clothesline and gave it to me.
07:53Ah, you go get your hair cut. I haven't got a sister.
07:56I know you haven't at home. I mean the one that's in jail.
07:59I dare you to get down off that pony.
08:01Sure, I'll get down off the pony. Whoa, boy.
08:04Well, I dare you to come inside that gate.
08:07I'm coming.
08:08Yeah? Well, I dare you halfway here. I dare you.
08:13Hey, boy!
08:15I don't know what's going on here. Let's stop this and get out of this yard, young man.
08:18I said...
08:19You stop that, you. Take your hands off me. I guess you don't know who I am.
08:23Yes, I do know. I know who you are. You're a disgrace to your mother.
08:26Your mother ought to be ashamed of herself to allow...
08:28Shut up about my mother.
08:29She ought to be ashamed. A woman that lets a bad boy like you...
08:32You pull down your vest, you old billy goat, you. Pull down your vest, sway all your chin, and go to...
08:41George.
08:42Yes, Mother?
08:43Is this letter from the Reverend Malick Smith the truth?
08:47He's an old liar.
08:48George, you mustn't say liar. He says you insulted and brutally assaulted his son. Is that true?
08:55Well, how old am I?
08:57You're twelve.
08:58And he says in that letter I'm older and stronger than his son. And he's thirteen.
09:02What about the other thing, Georgie? Did you tell the Reverend Smith to... to...
09:08Listen here, Mama. Grandpa wouldn't even wipe his shoe on that old storyteller, would he?
09:13George, you mustn't.
09:14I mean, none of the Ambersons wouldn't have anything to do with him, would they?
09:18He doesn't even know you, does he, Mama?
09:20George, that isn't what we're talking about.
09:22I bet... I bet if he wanted to see any of the Ambersons' family, he'd have to go around to the side door.
09:27No, dear. No.
09:28Yes, he would, Mama. So what does it matter if I did say something to him he didn't like?
09:32That kind of people, I don't see why you can't say anything you want to them.
09:36They're just riffraff. That's what they are, Mama. Just riffraff.
09:40And that's what they were to him. Riffraff.
09:43Everybody in town, except the Ambersons.
09:47His arrogance, I'm sorry to say, grew with the years.
09:51There were people, grown people, too, who said they did hope to see the day when that boy would get his comeuppance.
09:57That's the word they used. Comeuppance.
10:00But when George Amberson Minnifer came home from college for the holidays at Christmastide in his sophomore year,
10:05nothing about him encouraged any hope that he, George Amberson Minnifer, had received his comeuppance.
10:11Cards were out for a ball in his honor, and this pageant of the tenantry was held in the ballroom of the Amberson mansion the night after his arrival.
10:19George, white-gloved with a gardenia in his buttonhole, stood with his mother and his Uncle Fred in the big red and gold drawing room downstairs to receive the guests.
10:27He was doing his duty, greeting two pretty girls with whom he had grown up.
10:30How do you do? How do you do?
10:31Have you very well? Of course I do. Very well indeed.
10:35Mother. Yes, George?
10:37Mother, who's that queer-looking duck?
10:39Why, George, dear, whomever do you mean?
10:41Over there. He's coming towards us.
10:42Why?
10:43It's nobody we know, is it, Mother?
10:45George, he'll hear you.
10:47Hello, Eugene.
10:49Good evening, Isabella.
10:50How nice of you to come, Eugene.
10:52I'm only here for one thing. To have a dance with you.
10:56Why, of course.
10:58Eugene, this is my son. George, Mr. Eugene Morgan.
11:03Hello, George. How do you do?
11:05Well, if it wasn't so big, Isabella, I wouldn't know it had been so long.
11:09Yes, Eugene, it has been long.
11:11Well, how about that dance?
11:13Certainly, Eugene. A little later, I'd love it.
11:16A little later, then, Isabella. I'll come for you.
11:18Goodbye, George. Nice to meet you.
11:21I wondered what you'd be like.
11:23You're almost as good-looking as you ought to be with that mother of yours.
11:26And that's better than any boy ought to look.
11:29Goodbye, Isabella. I'll come back for that dance.
11:32Oh, you're still a pretty queer-looking duck.
11:34George.
11:35Yes, Mother.
11:36Oh, uh, George.
11:37Yes, Mother.
11:38George, this is Miss Lucy Morgan.
11:40Oh, how do you do? I remember you very well, indeed.
11:43But you don't, George.
11:45Miss Morgan's from out of town, and it's the first time you've ever seen her.
11:48Oh, I'm sorry. How do you do?
11:50You might take her up to the dancing, George.
11:52I think you've pretty well done your duty here.
11:54I'd be delighted. Delighted, ma'am.
11:58What did you say your name was?
11:59Morgan.
12:00That's a funny name.
12:01Everybody else's name always is.
12:03What's the rest of it?
12:04Lucy.
12:05Is Lucy a funny name, too?
12:07Oh, Lucy's very much all right.
12:09Thanks about letting my name be Lucy.
12:13As George conducted his partner to the ballroom,
12:16their progress was slow, and to George's mind it did not lack stateliness.
12:20How could it?
12:21Musicians hired especially for him were sitting in a grove of palms in the hall
12:25and now tenderly playing for his pleasures.
12:29Dozens and scores of flowers had been brought to life and tended to this hour
12:33that they might sweeten the air for him while they died.
12:37It is to be doubted if anybody ever felt more illustrious or more negligently grand
12:42than George Amberson Minnifer felt at this party.
12:48Mr. Minnifer?
12:49Yes?
12:50What are you studying at college?
12:51A lot of useless stuff.
12:53Well, then why don't you study some useful stuff?
12:55What do you mean, useful?
12:56Something you'd use later in your business or profession.
12:58I don't expect to go into any business or profession.
13:01Well, then what are you going to do?
13:02What do you want to be?
13:03A yachtsman.
13:09At that same moment, in a small room set apart for the smokers
13:11on the second floor of the Amberson Mansion,
13:13two old friends were engaged in conversation.
13:15One was the Honorable Fred Amberson.
13:18The other was the gentleman whom George Amberson Minnifer
13:21had classified some minutes earlier as a queer-looking duck.
13:24Dean Morgan, you haven't changed at all.
13:25What did you expect, Fred?
13:26Twenty years since you left.
13:28Makes some difference in faces, twenty years,
13:30but not in behavior, I guess.
13:32If you remember, Fred, my own behavior began to be different
13:35about that long ago.
13:37Quite suddenly.
13:38Yeah.
13:39Been stepping in any baseballs lately, Dean?
13:42Does Isabel know you're here?
13:44Yes, I just saw her.
13:45Where's Wilbur?
13:46I didn't see him.
13:47Isabel's husband never was one for parties, you know,
13:49and he hasn't been so well lately.
13:51He's probably gone home already.
13:54Dean, life's an odd thing if we look back, isn't it?
13:57Yes, it's probably going to be order still
13:59if we could look forward.
14:00Probably.
14:01However, I still dance like an Indian.
14:03Don't you?
14:04No, I leave that to my nephew George.
14:06He does the dancing for the family.
14:08Tell me, what do people in this town think
14:11about young George, generally?
14:14Well, a lot of people that are glad to express
14:18their opinions about him, quite strongly, too.
14:21Yes?
14:22What's the matter with him, Fred?
14:24Too much Amberson, I suppose, for one thing.
14:27And for another, Isabel just fell down
14:29and worshipped him from the day he was born.
14:31I don't see how she doesn't see the truth
14:33about that boy of hers.
14:35She thinks he's a little tin god on wheels.
14:37I tell you, Dean, she actually sits and worships him.
14:40You can hear it in her voice when she speaks to him.
14:43You can see it in her eyes when she looks at him.
14:46My heavens, I often wonder what does she see
14:48when she looks at him.
14:51She sees something that we don't see.
14:53What?
14:54An angel.
14:57Tell me, Dean, when you met George tonight,
15:00did you see an angel?
15:01No, no.
15:02All I saw was a remarkably good-looking fool boy
15:04with the pride of Satan and a set of nice,
15:06new drawing-room manners.
15:09No, Fred, mothers see the angel in us
15:12because the angel is there.
15:14Mothers are always right.
15:16Yes, I know what you mean, Dean.
15:18You mean that George's mother is always right.
15:21I'm afraid she's always been.
15:23She was wrong once, old fellow.
15:25At least, so it seemed to me.
15:27No.
15:29No, she...
15:32Oh, goodbye, Fred. I'm going to dance.
15:34With?
15:35Isabelle. Does that surprise you?
15:37Well, it startles me a little,
15:39your jumping up like that to go and dance with Isabelle.
15:43Twenty years seems to have passed, but have they?
15:46My heavens, old times starting all over again.
15:48Old times? Not a bit.
15:50There aren't any old times.
15:52When times are gone, they're not old, they're dead.
15:56There aren't any times like you find.
16:04How's that for a bit of freshness?
16:06What was?
16:07Oh, that queer-looking duck dancing with my mother.
16:09See, they're waving his hand at me like that.
16:11I don't know him from Adam.
16:12You don't need to.
16:13He wasn't waving his hand to you. He meant me.
16:15I'm going to dance with him pretty soon.
16:16Say, who is he?
16:18The queer-looking duck.
16:20Yeah.
16:21I suppose he's some old widower.
16:23Yes, he's a widower.
16:24I should have told you before.
16:26He's my father.
16:27Oh, if I'd known he was your father,
16:29I wouldn't have made fun of him.
16:30I'm sorry.
16:32You know, I don't mind your being such a lofty person at all.
16:36I think it's ever so interesting.
16:38But Papa's a great man.
16:39Is he?
16:40Well, I hope so. I'm sure.
16:43I'm just beginning to understand.
16:45Understand what?
16:46What it means to be a real Amberson in this town.
16:49Papa told me something about it before we came,
16:51but I see he didn't say half enough.
16:54Did your father say he knew the family before he left you?
16:57I don't think he meant to boast of it.
16:59He spoke of it quite calmly.
17:02If you'll excuse me, I really must be going now.
17:04Hey, wait a minute.
17:05Wait.
17:06What are you going to do after 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon?
17:08A whole lot of things.
17:09Every minute filled up.
17:10All right, the snow is fine for slaying.
17:11I'll come for you in the cutter 10 minutes after 2.
17:13I can't possibly go.
17:14If you don't, I'm going to sit in the cutter in front of your gate all afternoon.
17:16If you try to go out with anybody else, he's got to whip me before he gets you.
17:19If you think I'm not an earnest, you're at liberty to make quite a big experiment.
17:22I don't think I've often had so large a compliment as that.
17:25Especially on such short notice.
17:27And yet, I don't think I'll go with you.
17:30You'll be ready at 10 minutes after 2.
17:32No, I won't.
17:33Yes, you will.
17:36Yes, I will.
17:41Yes, I will.
17:59Isabel!
18:00Isabel!
18:01Wilbur!
18:02Oh, there she is.
18:03I'm coming.
18:04All ready for the great adventure.
18:05Where's Wilbur?
18:06Wilbur had a headache.
18:07Jeannie said he hoped you'd excuse him.
18:08I don't think automobiling is quite your husband's speed anyway, Isabel.
18:10Well, let's get started.
18:11You sure you're not scared?
18:12Of course not.
18:13You'll probably have to walk home with the exercise if you don't mind.
18:15Don't you believe him?
18:16Up you go, Isabel.
18:22I don't care what you say.
18:23I still think it's thrilling.
18:27Here we go.
18:28You know what?
18:29Gene tells me this taping dish of his travels 10 miles an hour.
18:33Next year, we expect it to 18.
18:35By then, there'll be a law forbidding the sale of automobiles.
18:38The way there is with the steel weapons.
18:49Get up there, Leonard.
18:50Get up.
18:52Gee, Lucy, I'm sorry you're cold.
18:54I'm not anymore with the wind behind us.
18:56And I do hate to go back.
18:58It's so pretty out here in the country.
19:00Yeah.
19:01Yeah, it is nice.
19:02Is this all yours?
19:04The Andersons, I mean, all this land?
19:06Beautiful.
19:07Yeah, it used to be.
19:08It's getting all too much built up now.
19:10The way it used to be, it was like a gentleman's country estate.
19:12It's the way we ought to keep it.
19:14We let these people take too many liberties.
19:18What are you laughing at now?
19:19Oh, nothing.
19:21For heaven's sake.
19:22What?
19:23Well, look over there down the road.
19:24It's Popper.
19:25He's having trouble with the machines.
19:27What did I tell you about those old sewing machines?
19:29They're not old sewing machines.
19:30I wish you wouldn't say things like that.
19:31Get up.
19:32Get up.
19:33Well, you're not going to pass them and just leave them stranded there.
19:35You're taking them out to show them horses that belong on the road, not sewing machines.
19:38Get up.
19:39Oh, George, be careful.
19:40Get up.
19:41Why don't you get a horse?
19:44Get a horse.
19:46Get a horse.
19:49Oh, George, be careful.
19:50Look where you're driving.
19:51There's a ditch on that side.
19:54Lucy, how are you?
19:55I'm gone.
19:56Are you hurt, Lucy?
19:57Oh, no, Popper.
19:58Are you all right?
19:59Just go back to Brother Bear.
20:00Nothing's the matter with him at all.
20:01George, how are you hurting?
20:02Don't make a fuss, Mother.
20:03Nothing's the matter.
20:04Well, you're going to catch a cold, George.
20:05Here.
20:06Let me brush the snow off you.
20:07Oh, leave me alone, Mother.
20:08You'll ruin your gloves.
20:09You're getting the snow all over yourself.
20:11Now, why not try riding in my machine, George?
20:13Come on.
20:14Climb in, everybody.
20:15Come on, Isabel.
20:16All aboard, Lucy.
20:17George.
20:18Oh, look at your feet, George.
20:19Oh, no, Mother.
20:20You must clean them off.
20:21You'll catch cold.
20:22Oh, Mother.
20:23I can't have you catching cold.
20:24Now, here.
20:25Let me brush them for you.
20:26Stop that, Mom.
20:27You mustn't ride with wet feet.
20:28Well, then, nothing to get in you.
20:29You're standing in the snow yourself, Mother.
20:30Mother he's all right in the bell come on up here with me ready we're ready, but how about this wreck of yours well?
20:37We'll see
20:52You tried to swing underneath me and break the fall for me when we went over
20:55I knew you were doing that it was nice of you. It wasn't any fall to speak of. It couldn't have hurt either one of us.
21:02You're so friendly Arthur. Arthur quit good.
21:04I'll now forget.
21:06Father what makes George never behave like he does?
21:26What do you mean Lucy?
21:28He's rude and disagreeable and elegant yet this afternoon he tried to save my life wouldn't even let me thank him.
21:36I don't understand him at all father.
21:38He's sensitive Lucy.
21:40Rather but why is he?
21:42He does anything he likes to without any regard for what people think.
21:46Why should he mind so furiously when the least little thing reflects upon him or on anything or anybody connected with him?
21:53That's one of the greatest puzzles of human vanity dear.
21:56I don't pretend to know the answer.
21:58In all my life the most arrogant people I've known have been the most sensitive.
22:02But he's still a boy.
22:04There's plenty of fine stuff in him.
22:06Can't help but be.
22:08He's Isabel Ambrison's son.
22:10You liked her pretty well once didn't you father?
22:13I do still Lucy.
22:15Oh she's lovely.
22:16Yes I know.
22:18I wonder sometimes.
22:20I wonder why she happened to marry Mr. Minifer.
22:23Oh Wilbur Minifer's alright.
22:25He's a quiet sort of a man but he's a good man and kind.
22:28Those are things that count.
22:30Now Lucy I wouldn't worry too much about George.
22:34You need only to remember three things to explain all that's good and bad about George.
22:38Three?
22:40He's Isabel's child.
22:42He's an Ambrison.
22:44And he's a boy.
22:47Of those three things, which are the good ones and which are the bad ones?
22:51All of them.
22:53You are listening to the Campbell Playhouse presentation of The Magnificent Ambrison starring Walter Houston and Orson Welles.
23:16This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
23:23This is Ernest Chappell ladies and gentlemen welcoming you back to the Campbell Playhouse.
23:43In a moment we shall resume our presentation of The Magnificent Ambrison.
23:48But before we learn more about the ways and the ultimate destiny of this extraordinary Ambrison family,
23:53I'd like to say just a word about a custom prevailing in some American families, perhaps in your family.
23:59No doubt many of the soups you serve and enjoy in your home are Campbell's soup.
24:04But perhaps there are one or two kinds of soup you still make yourself.
24:08The reason may be a, well, habit for one thing or perhaps it's the understandable pride you take in your good home cooking.
24:15If this is true in your case, then believe me, we honor it and you sincerely.
24:21But because I'm sure you'll agree that making soup does lengthen your kitchen hours, lengthen them as most women feel needlessly,
24:28I'd like to invite you, if you haven't already done so, to try just once these soups as Campbell's make them.
24:35Try them and compare them with the product of your own kettle, soup for soup.
24:40When you do that, I earnestly believe you'll appreciate their fine, home-like flavor so much that you'll let Campbell's make all your soups.
24:48You see, we make these soups for many of your friends, so naturally we'd like to make them for you too.
24:54Now we resume our Campbell Playhouse presentation of The Magnificent Ambrison starring Orson Welles and Walter Houston.
25:01Even after the turn of the century in that Midland town, it seemed impossible to doubt that the Ambrisons were entrenched in their nobility,
25:16behind polished and glittering barriers which were as solid as they were brilliant and would last forever.
25:25And to those fervent souls who continued to hope that the youngest of the Ambrisons, George Ambrison Minifer, would soon get his comeuppance,
25:33the following year, I'm afraid, brought little comfort or the next.
25:38But in his last year at college, three things occurred to upset the even tenor of George Ambrison Minifer's life.
25:46Wilbur Minifer, beloved husband of Isabel Ambrison Minifer and father of George Ambrison Minifer, died at his home last night after a brief illness.
25:57Wilbur Minifer.
25:58Quiet, ma'am. Town will hardly know he's gone.
26:02That was the first thing. His father's death.
26:06Second, certain changes in the Midland town where he lived. Perplexing at first, then irritating.
26:15Every time you came home for the holidays, you saw new things. New faces at the dances.
26:21Riffraff, people whose names you never heard of.
26:25The town itself was less and less familiar.
26:28Even in Ambrison edition, there was drastic and tragic change.
26:33The first owners of the big houses sold them or rented them to boarding housekeepers.
26:37Cheaper tenants took their places. Rents were lower and lower, the houses shabbier and shabbier.
26:43And not even the Ambrisons themselves seemed able to stem the tide.
26:48And third, third, there was a certain subject upon which George and Lucy Morgan found it impossible to agree.
26:59Whoa, ten minutes.
27:01Why are you stopping, George? Why don't you go on?
27:04Lucy, when are you going to marry me?
27:07Oh, not from noon to noon.
27:09Why not?
27:10You're too young.
27:11Is that the only reason?
27:12Oh, I don't know, George. Everything, everything...
27:15What about everything?
27:17Well, everything is so unsettled.
27:20You aren't the queerest girl.
27:22Why, what's unsettled?
27:24Oh, for one thing, you haven't settled on anything to do.
27:28At least if you have, you've never spoken of it.
27:30What are you going to do, George?
27:32Well, I...
27:34I tell you, I expect to lead an honorable life.
27:37And now that my father's dead, that sort of makes me the head of the family, Uncle Fred.
27:43You don't really mean to have any regular business or profession at all?
27:46I certainly do not.
27:48I'm afraid so.
27:50I suppose it's your father's influence that makes you think I ought to do something, is that it?
27:54No, I've never once spoken to him about it, never.
27:57But you know, without talking to him, that's the way he does feel about it.
27:59Well, yes.
28:00Do you think I'd be much of a man if I let another man dictate to me my own way of life?
28:04Well, George, who is dictating?
28:06Who's in the whole world washing dishes and selling potatoes and trying law cases?
28:11I dare say I don't care any more for your father's ideas than he does for mine.
28:15So if your father would just mind his own business...
28:17Take me home, George.
28:19Please, take me home at once.
28:21If that's the way you want it, all right.
28:23That's the way I want it.
28:24All right, that's the way you want it.
28:25That's the way you want it.
28:26Get up, Pandanus.
28:28Get up.
28:37A little brandy, Eugene?
28:40No, thanks.
28:41How about you, George?
28:42Thanks.
28:43Oh, it's too bad that Lucy couldn't be here tonight.
28:45I do hope it's nothing serious, Eugene.
28:47Just a headache.
28:48She asked me to excuse her, Isabella.
28:51Maybe you'll take her out driving tomorrow, George.
28:53That'll do her good.
28:55Maybe.
28:56You know, Eugene, I heard the other day there's another automobile firm opened up here in town.
29:01Oh, I'm bound to have competition.
29:03That's part of the game, isn't it, Eugene?
29:05Shows business is good.
29:06Maybe they'll drive you out of business.
29:08Or else the two of them will drive all the rest of us off the street.
29:11No, no, Isabella.
29:13We'll just extend the street.
29:14You see how simple it is?
29:17It isn't the distance from the center of the town that the time takes to get there.
29:21Automobiles will change all that.
29:23You really believe, Eugene, that automobiles are going to change the pace of the land?
29:27Yeah, they're already doing it.
29:28And it can't be stopped.
29:30No, automobiles are...
29:31Automobiles are a useless nuisance.
29:34What did you say, George?
29:35Well, I said all automobiles were a nuisance.
29:39They'll never amount to anything but a nuisance.
29:42They never had no business to be invented.
29:45You forget, George, that Mr. Morgan makes them and also did his share in inventing them.
29:50If you weren't so thoughtless, he might think you rather offensive.
29:53That'd be too bad.
29:54I don't think I could survive that.
29:56George.
29:57Well, I'm not so sure that George is wrong about automobiles.
30:02With all their speed forward, they may be a step backward in civilization,
30:06that is, in spiritual civilization.
30:09It may be that they will not add to the beauty of the world nor to the life of men's souls.
30:14It may be that George is right
30:16and that the spiritual alteration will be bad for us.
30:19Perhaps in 10 or 20 years from now, if we can see the inward change in men by that time,
30:24I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline engine,
30:28but we'd have to agree with George that automobiles had no business to be invented.
30:34Well, Fred, I'm afraid it's getting late and I have an appointment with my foreman,
30:38so I'd better go along.
30:39Oh, but Jean.
30:40Eugene.
30:41Oh, good night.
30:42Don't bother to take me to the door.
30:44I'll find my way out.
30:45Good night, Eugene.
30:46Yes, good night, Jean.
30:49Good night.
30:52George, dear, what did you mean?
30:55Just what I said.
30:57You hurt him, George.
30:59He doesn't sound very hurt to me.
31:01He sounded pretty cheerful, if you ask me.
31:02Why don't you think he was hurt?
31:04I know him.
31:05He must think so.
31:06Well, I don't care much what Mr. Morgan thinks.
31:10I suppose he's trying to borrow money from you, Uncle Fred.
31:12That automobile factory of his.
31:14No, George.
31:15I think Eugene Morgan's perfectly able to finance his own inventions these days.
31:19George, what made you say that?
31:21Well, he strikes me as that sort of a man, that's all.
31:24Anyway, I want to know what he's hanging around here for now.
31:26George, Mr. Morgan's an old friend.
31:29By Jove, George, you are a puzzle.
31:31In what way, I'd like to know.
31:32Well, it's a new style of courting a pretty girl for a fellow to go deliberately out of his way to try and make an enemy of her father.
31:40That's a new way to win a woman.
31:42That is.
31:55Is there anything wrong, Isabelle?
31:57You've been so quiet all afternoon.
31:59Nothing, Eugene.
32:01It's the weather.
32:03The end of summer.
32:05It's been a very happy summer for me.
32:07A few more weeks and it'll be gone.
32:09There'll be other summers, Isabelle.
32:11Time changes things, Eugene.
32:14And once they change, you can't bring them back.
32:18Things are like smoke.
32:20You know how a wreath of smoke goes up from a chimney?
32:24You see it getting thinner and thinner.
32:27And then in such a little while, it isn't there at all.
32:31Nothing is left but the sky.
32:34And the sky keeps on being just the same forever.
32:38Things won't change for you, Isabelle.
32:40You'll always have me and George.
32:42It's George that's troubling me, Eugene.
32:45Why doesn't he like you?
32:47He doesn't have any reason.
32:49He says so himself.
32:51Well, boys can't help their likes and dislikes, Isabelle.
32:54I think perhaps he sensed from the first
32:56that I care a great deal about you.
32:58Even when I was so careful not even to show you
33:00how immensely I did care.
33:02Eugene, I can't believe that.
33:04Well, someday he'll have to know how we feel about each other
33:06and I think it should be from you that he learns that.
33:10Oh, Eugene.
33:12It's only fair to George.
33:14Much better that he should hear it from you
33:16than from someone else who gossiped about him.
33:19Oh, I know. I know you're right, Eugene.
33:22And I will tell him.
33:24I tried to tell him last night, only...
33:27Oh, Eugene, it's so hard.
33:30Let me wait until just before he goes back to school.
33:32No, no. Sooner, Isabelle. Sooner.
33:34For all our sakes, sooner.
33:36But it's only such a few days till he leaves.
33:40Surely a few days can make any difference.
33:47Oh.
33:54Uncle Fred. Uncle Fred.
33:56Good gracious, Georgie. What's up?
33:58I've got to talk to you.
33:59Say it. What's happened to your face?
34:00Oh, forget about that. I've just been on a flight.
34:03I've heard what people are saying.
34:04Saying about what? For heaven's sake,
34:05if you're going to talk, be coherent.
34:06The whole town's talking about my mother and that man Morgan.
34:10They say my mother is going to marry him.
34:13And that proves she was too fond of him before my father died.
34:16Everybody in town knows about it but me.
34:18Heavens, is that what you're so excited about?
34:20Why do you listen to stuff like that?
34:21I'm glad I did listen. I have a right to know.
34:23Did you know it? Did you?
34:24Georgie, you can be sure there's been more gossip in this place
34:26about the Amberson family than any other family.
34:28You see, the more prominent you are,
34:29the more gossip there is about you.
34:31And the more people would like to pull you down.
34:33But they can't do it as long as you refuse to listen.
34:35The minute you notice it, it's got you.
34:37Is that all you've got to say?
34:38That's about all there is to say, Georgie.
34:40There's nothing to be done about it.
34:41Did you propose to sit here and let this rip-rap bandy
34:43my mother's good name about it?
34:45Is that what you proposed to do?
34:47Didn't you understand me when I told you
34:48the people are saying my mother means to marry this man?
34:50I understood you.
34:51And you think if such an unspeakable marriage took place
34:54it would make people believe they've been wrong and say...
34:57Do you know what they'd say?
34:59I don't believe it would.
35:00There'd be more badness in the bad mouths
35:01and more silliness in the silly mouths.
35:03But it wouldn't hurt Isabel and Eugene if they decided to marry.
35:06Good heavens, you speak of it so calmly!
35:08Why shouldn't they marry if they want to?
35:09It's their own affair.
35:10Why shouldn't they?
35:11Why shouldn't they?
35:12I don't see anything precisely monstrous
35:13about two people getting married
35:15when they're both free and care about each other.
35:17What's the matter with marrying?
35:18It would be monstrous.
35:20Monstrous even if this horrible scandal hadn't happened.
35:23But now in the face of this...
35:25You can sit there and even speak of it.
35:26It's your own business.
35:27For heaven's sake, don't be so theatrical.
35:29Come back here.
35:30What is it?
35:31Don't you speak to your mother about this.
35:32I don't intend to, but I'm going to do something about it.
35:34You can be sure of that.
35:35I'm going to do something about it.
35:36You'll see if I don't.
35:41THE END
35:51Oh, it's you, George.
35:53How do you do?
35:55Uh...
35:56Your mother expects to go diving with me, I believe.
35:59Would you be so kind as to send word to her that I'm here?
36:01No.
36:03I beg your pardon, I said...
36:04I heard you, Mr. Morgan.
36:06Said you had an engagement with my mother.
36:09I told you no.
36:11Well, guess what is the difficulty?
36:13My mother will have no interest in knowing that you came for her today or any other day.
36:17I'm afraid I don't understand.
36:19I doubt if I can make it much plainer, but I try.
36:22You're not wanted in this house, Mr. Morgan, or at any other time.
36:27Perhaps you'll understand this.
36:30THE END
36:36Fred will bring this to you, dear Isabel.
36:41He is waiting while I write.
36:45He and I have talked things over.
36:49And before he gives this to you, he will tell you what has happened.
36:56I should have been better prepared for what took place today.
37:02I ought to have known it was coming.
37:05A week ago, I thought the time had come when I could ask you to marry me.
37:11And you were dear enough to tell me.
37:14Sometime it might come to that.
37:17Well, you and I, left to ourselves, wouldn't pay much attention to things like slamming and talk.
37:25But now we're faced with not the slander of our own fear of it, because we haven't any.
37:34But someone else's fear of it.
37:37Your son's.
37:39And that frightens me.
37:42Let me explain a little.
37:44I don't think he'll change.
37:48At 21 or 22, so many things appear solid, permanent, and terrible.
37:55Which 40 sees are nothing but disappearing miasma.
38:0040 can't tell 20 about this.
38:05That's the pity of it.
38:0720 can only find out by getting to be 40.
38:12And so we come to this, dear.
38:15Will you live your life your own way, or George's way?
38:20Dear, it breaks my heart for you.
38:23But what you have to oppose now in your son is the history of your own selfless and perfect motherhood.
38:32Are you strong enough, Isabel?
38:35Can you make the fight?
38:37I promise you that if you will take heart for it, you will find so quickly that it has all amounted to nothing.
38:46You shall have happiness.
38:48And in a little while, only happiness.
38:52I'm saying too much for wisdom, my dear.
38:56But oh, my dear, would you be strong?
39:01Such a little short strength it would need.
39:06Don't strike my life down twice, dear.
39:10This time, I've not deserved it.
39:14Eugene.
39:22Did you read it, dear?
39:24Yes, mother, I did.
39:25All of it?
39:26Certainly.
39:28Except for the most offensive piece of writing that I've ever held in my hands.
39:30But George, I thought...
39:32Don't you really think this was a pretty insulting letter for that man to be asking you to hand your son?
39:36Oh, no. No, you can see how fair he means to be.
39:38Fair?
39:40Do you suppose it ever occurs to him that I'm doing my simple duty?
39:44That I'm doing what my father would do if he were alive?
39:48He's got my mother's name bandied up and down the streets of this town until I...
39:52I can't step in those streets without wondering what every soul I meet is thinking of me and my family.
39:57Now he wants you to marry him so that every gossip in town will say...
40:01There, what did I tell you? I guess that proves it's true.
40:03But George, it isn't true.
40:04Is it fair for him to want you to throw away your good name just to please him?
40:09That's all he asks of you.
40:12And to... to quit being my mother?
40:15Do you think I can believe you really, carefully?
40:19Don't.
40:21You're my mother, and you're an ambassador.
40:25I... I believe you're too proud to care for a man who could write such a letter as that.
40:30Well?
40:34What are you going to do about it, Mother?
40:42George...
40:44Dear...
40:46I have been out-mailed, darling,
40:51with a letter
40:53I've written Eugene,
40:56and he'll have it in the morning.
41:01I think it is a little better for me to write you like this
41:08instead of waiting till you wake up
41:11and then telling you
41:13because I'm foolish and might cry again.
41:17And I took a vow once long ago that you should never see me cry.
41:23Not that I'll feel like crying when we talk things over tomorrow.
41:28Don't fear.
41:29By that time, I'll be all right and fine,
41:33as you say so often.
41:36I think what makes me most ready to cry now
41:40is the thought of the terrible suffering in your poor face
41:46and the unhappy knowledge that it was I, your mother, who put it there.
41:53It shall never come again.
41:56I love you better than anything and everything else on earth.
42:02And Eugene was right.
42:05I know you couldn't change about this.
42:09So I've written him just about what I think you would like me to,
42:14though I told him I would always be fond of him
42:18and always be his best friend,
42:21and I hope his dearest friend.
42:26He'll understand about not seeing him.
42:29He'll understand that,
42:31though I didn't say it in so many words.
42:35You mustn't trouble about that.
42:38Eugene will understand.
42:41Good night, my darling.
42:44My beloved.
42:46You mustn't be troubled.
42:49I think I shouldn't mind anything very much
42:51so long as I have you all to myself,
42:54people say,
42:56to make up for your long years away from me, college.
43:00We'll talk of what's best to do in the morning,
43:03shan't we?
43:05And for all this pain,
43:08you will forgive your loving and devoted mother,
43:15Isabel.
43:21Three weeks later, George and his mother went abroad.
43:25Isabel never returned.
43:28Nearly two years later,
43:30a small item tucked away in one of the back sheets of a morning paper
43:34announced the death in Paris of a Mrs. Isabel Amberson Minifer.
43:39That was all there was.
43:41And there were only a few people left in the Midland town
43:44to whom either name, Minifer or Amberson, meant anything.
43:50Some weeks later, George returned only to learn from his uncle Fred
43:53what couldn't be kept secret any longer.
43:57The Amberson estate was gone.
43:59What with extravagances, taxes, and the new order of things,
44:04suddenly, there was nothing left.
44:07Well, here we are, nephew George.
44:10All that's left of the Ambersons.
44:13Two gentlemen of elegant appearance in a state of bustitude.
44:18A few years ago, we wouldn't have thought it, eh?
44:21That's how it is.
44:24Life and money.
44:26They're like loose quicksilver in a nest of cracks.
44:30When they're gone, we can't tell where,
44:32or what the devil we did with them.
44:34What are you going to do, Uncle Fred?
44:35Oh, don't worry about me in this new world.
44:38I'll be contented with just surviving.
44:41I'll get a councilship somewhere.
44:42An ex-congressman can always be pretty sure of getting some such job.
44:46I live pleasantly enough with a pitcher of ice under a palm tree
44:49and native folk to wait on me.
44:53What about you, George?
44:56What will you do?
45:08The night George saw his uncle off,
45:10he walked homeward slowly through what appeared to be strange streets
45:14in a strange city.
45:17For the town was growing
45:19and changing as it had never grown and changed before.
45:23It was heaving up in the middle incredibly.
45:26And as it heaved and spread,
45:29it befouled itself and darkened its sky.
45:33From day to day, from week to week,
45:36great new industries were springing up,
45:38steel and oil,
45:40and this new all-conquering thing,
45:43the automobile.
45:45Strange people swarmed about him,
45:47obliterating, destroying every trace of the magnificence
45:51that once was Amberson's,
45:53destroying with it the last of the Ambersons,
45:57George Amberson, minister.
45:59The city rolled over its heart and buried it
46:03as the city had rolled over Amberson's and buried them.
46:09For the last vestige,
46:11the thing had happened,
46:13the thing which years ago had been the eagerest hope of many,
46:18the hope of many good citizens,
46:21had finally come to pass.
46:24But not one of them was there to see it.
46:28George Amberson, minister, got his comeuppance.
46:32He got it three times filled and running over.
46:38Later, as he walked down Amberson Boulevard,
46:40now known as 10th Street,
46:42then filled with second-rate shops and cheap boarding houses,
46:46and climbed the stairs of the old house for the last time,
46:51a terrible loneliness assailed him.
46:54He opened the door softly into Isabelle's room.
46:58It was still as it had been.
47:01Tomorrow, everything would be gone,
47:03and soon after that, the very space which tonight was still her room
47:08would be cut into new shapes by new walls and floors and ceilings.
47:14Yet, Isabelle's room would always live.
47:18For it couldn't die out of George's memory.
47:22And whatever remains of that old, high-handed arrogance was still within him.
47:29He did penance for his deepest sin that night.
47:35And it may be to this day
47:37that some impressionable, overworked woman in a kitchenette,
47:41after turning out the light,
47:44will seem to see a young man,
47:47kneeling in the darkness,
47:49clutching at the covers of a shadowy bed.
47:53And it may seem to her that she hears a faint cry,
47:57over and over.
47:59Mother.
48:01Mother, forgive me.
48:04Mother.
48:06Mother.
48:08Forgive me.
48:14You must have guessed by now who George Amberson Minifer was.
48:18Take my word for it, please,
48:20that the George Amberson Minifer who was
48:23is no more.
48:27Papa.
48:28Why, Lucy.
48:29What brings you downtown this morning?
48:31I tried to get you at one of the factories,
48:33but no one could locate you.
48:34I wanted to talk to you, Papa.
48:36Are you very busy?
48:37I'm never too busy to talk to you, Lucy.
48:39Is something wrong?
48:40Yes, Papa, there is something wrong.
48:42It's George.
48:43George?
48:45You mean...
48:46Yes, Papa.
48:47George Minifer.
48:50Well?
48:51He's been hurt.
48:52Badly hurt.
48:53He's in the city hospital.
48:54Both his legs broken.
48:56That's too bad.
48:58He was run down by an automobile.
49:00An automobile?
49:02George Amberson Minifer.
49:05Run down by an automobile.
49:07Papa.
49:08Do you know what he's been doing the past two years?
49:11No.
49:12No, and I couldn't honestly say, Lucy,
49:14that I'm very interested.
49:15He's been working with explosives
49:17at the Acres Chemical Company.
49:19A dangerous job.
49:21The most dangerous job there is.
49:23No, I never thought he lacked nerve, Lucy.
49:25You don't understand, Papa.
49:26No one else would take the job.
49:28He needed work so badly he took it and...
49:31And, Papa, he's made good.
49:33He's changed.
49:34He's not the old George at all.
49:37And now this has happened to him.
49:39Well?
49:40I want you to go to see him.
49:42No, Lucy.
49:43After all, you can't expect me to have
49:45any particular affection for that young man.
49:48I'm sure that Isabel...
49:50Isabel.
49:53Isabel's been dead three years.
49:56Three years.
49:59If it hadn't been for him, she might...
50:02She might...
50:03It's what she would want you to do, Papa.
50:05You know that.
50:06She'd want you to be kind.
50:09She'd want you to come with me to the hospital.
50:12He's lonely, Papa.
50:13His heart's broken.
50:15He needs us.
50:16We can help him.
50:18You could do so much for him and I...
50:21I could...
50:24Well, Papa, what are you going to do?
50:30Isabel, my dear.
50:32Up there in that small, bare hospital room this afternoon,
50:36you were by my side.
50:39Do you remember, Isabel, that last day we were together?
50:43You said that things in our lives were like smoke
50:47and time like the sky into which the smoke vanishes.
50:51And I told you that for us,
50:53things did not change like that.
50:57Things did not change like that.
50:59And we would always be together.
51:02You were with me when I walked into that room
51:04where your son was lying,
51:06with Lucy sitting beside him.
51:09He felt you, too.
51:11He lifted his hand in a clear gesture,
51:13half forbidding, half imploring.
51:16You've come, he said.
51:18You must have thought my mother wanted you to come
51:21so that I could ask you to forgive me.
51:25And as he held my hand in his,
51:28if you could have seen Lucy's face at that moment, dear Isabel,
51:32she was radiant.
51:34But for me, another radiance filled the room.
51:37For then I knew that I had been true to you at last,
51:41my true love.
51:43And that through me,
51:45you had brought your boy under shelter again.
51:55© BF-WATCH TV 2021
52:25© BF-WATCH TV 2021
52:55I'm sure the soup you often choose
52:57is Campbell's tomato soup.
52:59Yes, it's certainly the soup people enjoy again and again
53:02and never seem to tire of.
53:04Why don't you and your family enjoy
53:06Campbell's tomato soup tomorrow?
53:08And now here is Orson Welles with Walter Houston.
53:13Great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen,
53:14to welcome back to the Campbell Playhouse
53:16the very distinguished actor and one of my favorite guests,
53:19Mr. Walter Houston.
53:20Thanks, Orson.
53:21You know, there's one thing that makes me
53:23particularly happy about tonight's broadcast,
53:25and that is at the end of the story,
53:27you and I, Orson, did finally get together and shake hands.
53:31The last time we met, if you remember,
53:33you spent 30 years of your life savagely persecuting me.
53:36You went so far as to swim after me
53:38through the sewers in Paris.
53:39I did indeed, and I caught you, didn't I?
53:42Mr. Houston, ladies and gentlemen,
53:43is referring to our broadcast of Les Miserables last spring.
53:47That same evening, Walter, as we were saying goodbye,
53:50I remember you announced your intention
53:51of spending a few quiet weeks
53:53in the north of Scotland shooting grouse.
53:55Well, I'm afraid those grouse are still alive.
53:58The only shooting that I was able to do this summer
54:00was done right here in Hollywood,
54:01making kittlings the life that failed.
54:03You know, Orson, there's another thing
54:05I like about tonight's broadcast.
54:06It gave me a chance to play with my favorite leading lady.
54:09Will the lady who played Isabel Amberson
54:11please step to the microphone?
54:13Yes, she is.
54:14Good evening, everybody.
54:15Ladies and gentlemen,
54:16I want you to meet Miss Nan Sunderland.
54:18My partiality for this lady is understandable.
54:22It would be anyway.
54:24But I think our audience would like to hear your reason, Walter,
54:26if they don't happen to know it.
54:28Well, I wooed Miss Sunderland throughout tonight's script,
54:31but lost her at the end.
54:33In fact, this is not so in life.
54:35You know, in life, I wooed Miss Sunderland and won her.
54:38Ladies and gentlemen, this is Walter Houston.
54:41Who is hereby invited to come again
54:43to the Campbell Playouts whenever she can.
54:45Thanks, Orson, I'd certainly like to.
54:47Which invitation, Nan, also extends to your husband.
54:50Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Houston.
54:52We'll look for both of you soon.
54:58In tonight's Campbell Playhouse production
55:00of The Magnificent Ambersons,
55:01the role of Eugene Morgan was played
55:03by our guest of the evening, Mr. Walter Houston.
55:06Orson Welles was heard as George Amberson Minifer.
55:09Nan Sunderland played Isabel Amberson.
55:12Eric Brutus played the part of George Minifer as a young man.
55:15Ray Collins was Uncle Fred Amberson.
55:17The part of Lucy Morgan was played by Marion Burns.
55:20Archie Malick-Smith by Everett Sloan.
55:23The Reverend Malick-Smith by Richard Wilson.
55:26Lee Benederet was Mrs. Foster.
55:29Music for the Campbell Playhouse, as always,
55:31was arranged and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
55:33And now we wish to thank the makers of Maxwell House Coffee,
55:36sponsors of Good News of 1940,
55:38for their courtesy in permitting Walter Houston
55:40to appear with us tonight.