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THEATRE GUILD ON THE AIR {U.S. STEEL HOUR}: CALL IT A
DAY {GERTRUDE LAWRENCE, FRANCHOT TONE} (RADIO)

Summary

One in this series of radio adaptations of successful Broadway plays, and occasionally, books or films, presented by the Theatre Guild. In this presentation, Gertrude Lawrence and Franchot Tone star in Dodie Smith's comedy "Call It a Day" as a married couple whose fancies turn to thoughts of love on the first day of spring. Announcer Norman Brokenshire opens the program. Roger Pryor introduces the play, which marks the 200th production of the Theatre Guild on the Air and which also features Irene Worth and Robert Flemyng, members of the current Broadway production of T. S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party." The play opens on the Hiltons, Dorothy and Roger, at their home in Scarsdale on a beautiful spring day. While the Hiltons seem stuck in a bit of a marital rut, their children are oddly affected by the seasonal change. Their youngest daughter Ann, stirred by the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay, has decided to become a poet, while the 17-year-old Catherine has grown moody and strange since she began posing for a portrait with married painter Paul Francis. Dorothy's friend Muriel calls to meet up for a matinee and cocktails with her brother Frank, a tennis-playing bachelor who has spent the last several months in Brazil on a rubber farm; Roger announces that he will be meeting with the actress Beatrice Gwynne to give her tax advice. The housekeeper ominously warns that the "first spring day is in the devil's pay." In Act II, Catherine flirts obviously with the painter Paul, but he resists her advances; he admits that he gave her the wrong idea in their first meeting on Orchard Hill and agrees to meet her there one last time that evening. At lunch, Muriel tells Dorothy of her plan to set her brother up with one Dorothy Walton. Muriel abruptly leaves Dorothy with her brother, but Frank mistakes her for the woman his sister wants to set him up with. When he discovers his error, he insists on still seeing Dorothy later at her home, having fallen in love with her already. At the office, Roger meets with the actress about her taxes. Miss Gwynne flirts shamelessly with Roger and invites him up to her place that evening, to which Roger agrees despite some hesitation. In Act III, Catherine faces disappointment when her mother tells her that Mr. and Mrs. Francis have abruptly left town to see some friends. That evening, Dorothy resists Frank's advances, despite the temptations of spring, while Roger staves off the amorous Miss Gwynne with tax details. When the couple return to bed that evening, they quarrel, revealing their jealousies, but all is resolved when each fully confesses their "offers" and their decisions to refuse them. Includes commercials.

(Network affiliation varies: An earlier series "Theatre Guild Dramas" aired on CBS from 1943 to 1944; "The Theatre Guild on the Air" also aired on ABC from 1945 to 1949.)

The acquisition and cataloging of The Theater Collection was made possible by The Park Foundation, Inc., and the Verizon Foundation.

Details

  • NETWORK: NBC
  • DATE: June 4, 1950 Sunday 8:30 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:59:44
  • COLOR/B&W: N/A
  • CATALOG ID: R:0262
  • GENRE: Radio - Comedy
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Theater Collection, The
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - Radio series, 1949-1954
  • COMMERCIALS:
    • Radio - Commercials - United States Steel

CREDITS

  • Armina Marshall … Executive Producer
  • H. William Fitelson … Production (Misc.), Managing Director
  • S. Mark Smith … Production (Misc.), Editor
  • Lawrence Langner … Production (Misc.), General supervision by
  • Theresa Helburn … Production (Misc.), General supervision by
  • Homer Fickett … Director
  • Harold Levey … Composer, Conductor
  • Dodie Smith … Writer
  • Erik Barnouw … Writing (Misc.), Adapted for radio by
  • Norman Brokenshire … Announcer
  • Roger Pryor … Narrator
  • Gertrude Lawrence … Cast, Dorothy
  • Franchot Tone … Cast, Roger
  • Jimsey Somers … Cast, Ann
  • Mary Fickett … Cast, Catherine
  • Eda Heineman … Cast, Mrs. Milson
  • Viola Roche … Cast, Muriel
  • Roger Pryor … Cast, Paul
  • Robert Flemyng … Cast, Frank
  • Irene Worth … Cast, Beatrice Gwynne
  • Barbara Weeks … Cast, Elsie
  • James Monks … Cast, Policeman
  • George Hicks … Talent, United States Steel