301006 - Carmelita

Virginia Gardiner in Glacier Park, August, 1930

The first season of Empire Builders leaned heavily on stories of a historic nature. In the second season, Edward Hale Bierstadt, W.O. Cooper, and a few other regular script writers turned out stories that were more contemporary. Some stories had a railroad theme, others focused on cities and attractions along the Great Northern line. As preparations were made to shift production of the radio series from New York to Chicago, Harold Sims wanted to open his options to a larger pool. The railroad launched a radio script writing contest, they sponsored their former starlet Virginia Gardiner on a trip to the West to gather script material, and they sought out additional professional writers on an ad hoc basis. This night’s story was written by one such person: 35-year-old Elsie V. Baxter.

I’ve been unable to locate much information about her thus far. It seems she was married to Griffeth L. Baxter, advertising manager of a Klamath Falls, Oregon, department store called Moe’s.  One source says Elsie Baxter was from Mt. Shasta, California. The Baxter’s may well have lived in both Klamath Falls and Mt. Shasta at one time or another. I’ve also learned they were both born in Texas.

The program of October 6, 1930, was a romance of the west, featuring a young Spanish-speaking maiden (Carmelita) and her British suitor (Herbert St. John). The Old Timer played a part in uniting the two, with stories of the long-ago mingling with the present day to weave a tale of wild mustangs and the balance of progress and preservation in the wild country of central Oregon.

Announcer Ted Pearson began the segment with a fictional conversation with the conductor of the Empire Builder train, asking if he couldn’t have a couple of minutes to encourage listeners to jump aboard. The conductor pointed out that the Empire Builder couldn’t wait, and would pull out in “… one minute – and – 47 seconds.” Pearson charged into a segue for the night’s presentation by reminding the listeners about the story of the show the previous week:

Remember, we left the Old Timer out in Oregon last Monday night. He was busy starting the dirt flying on the Great Northern Railway’s extension into California. Well, there’s about two thousand men working on the new line right now. When that’s finished you can get on the Empire Builder right here at Chicago and get off at San Francisco. And you’ll see scenery the whole way that’s just – well, just unsurpassed anywhere! Great rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, colorful canyons. And that reminds me – if you’re going to California this fall or winter, use the Great Northern and on your way visit those great cities of the Northwest – Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland. Enjoy the luxury of the finest pair of transcontinental trains in America – the new, fast Empire Builder, and the famous Oriental Limited. Ask to have your ticket to California routed at least one way via Great Northern … Perhaps you’ll want to visit the territory that will be opened up within the next two years by the new line to California – new country, new markets, new opportunities – that’s where we’re going tonight –

With that, the conductor shouted a hearty “All Aboard!” and off the Empire Builder began to chug. A musical bridge landed the listeners in a woodland scene somewhere near Klamath Lake, Oregon. Herbert St. John (his dialog heavily-laden with seemingly British standards such as “I say” and “by Jove”) attempted to woo a lovely young senorita, when all the while she was dismissive of him as a tenderfoot, treating him as incapable of handling himself around horses.

With their conversation shifted to horses, the Old Timer cajoled Carmelita into telling St. John the story of a wild horse the folks in those parts called “Nero.” St. John let on that he had spent some time on a Montana ranch, and therefore was not really a tenderfoot at all (seems he got a lot of cheap mileage out of allowing Carmelita to think he was a novice around horses – she helped him saddle them and so on). Carmelita asked the Old Timer if he wouldn’t lead St. John out among the wild horses and let him see them for himself. St. John then questioned if they were truly wild horses, and not just some domesticated horses that had “turned outlaw.” Carmelita obliged him with an explanation:

Si, Señor, domestic animals do sometimes join the wild herds, but – ah, I see I must tell you. There are two kinds of wild horses, Señor – the Arabian stock brought over by Coronado and his conquistadores, and the mustangs, which are found in all parts of the West.

She said that many of the Arabian horses were lost in the canyons of the South and gradually wandered northward, some being caught and controlled by various Indians of the area. Then came more talk of Nero . . .

It turns out that there were a number of wild horses roaming around that area of south central Oregon, and one horse in particular held the interest and fascination of all the horsemen of the region. Carmelita described Nero as “the noble descendant of a noble sire. Black as the ebon hue of night, with arching neck, slender limbs, and feet that dance over the mesa as though they were winged!” St. John showed his growing excitement with the prospect of chasing down and perhaps capturing Nero, to which Carmelita took great exception. She said Nero represented a vanishing sense of untamed wildness that the region was losing rapidly to expansion and growth, and she did not like it one bit. (cue up the Eagles and their classic lament of change, “The Last Resort”)

Being a radio show put on by a major railroad, this was the time to tread a careful path. St. John seemed to take up the cause of the railroad:

I say, really, I can’t entirely agree with you there, Carmelita! We have to believe in progress, whether we want to or not. Else, we’d still be using the old trails of the trapper and the miner – Oh, I’ll grant they gave California and Oregon a colorful place in history. But, for me, give me the paved roads and railways every time. And look at the productive, irrigated farms that replace the old-time burned-up grazing lands.

Carmelita turned to the Old Timer for support, but he said he had to disappoint her (he knew which side of his bread was buttered!):

Why, scatter my chipmunks, these mountains look just about the same to me as they did the first time I saw them – nearly forty years ago! Why, even this lake – it hasn’t lost any of its romance. The sunsets haven’t lost any of their beauty. The air has the same feelin’ of newness to it! Why, I feel almost forty years younger every time I get into this country. Shucks, the romance of the old west is still here – even though there has been progress.

See. Our sponsor knows best. With us you get it all: wilderness, romance, history, progress, commerce. Okay, now on with the story.

After a bit more bantering about the pros and cons of progress and its impact on wilderness, Carmelita simply declared that regardless of any good that might come of changes, Nero would never submit to capture. She then compared herself, in some measure, to the wild spirit of Nero the horse: “He is supreme in the desert – and so he will remain, just as my own spirit, within me, is free and will ever be, regardless.” Rather than see this as a final word on the subject, the indefatigable (if not slightly annoying) St. John took Carmelita’s words as a challenge. He proclaimed he’d start on Nero first, to test his valor, then switch to winning over the determined Carmelita. Seeing that St. John was serious about chasing after Nero, the Spanish señorita started to let St. John have an earful about what a horrible thing it was he was about to set off to do. St. John tried to calm her down by insisting that he would turn Nero loose immediately after roping him. Carmelita only grew more agitated. She became downright distraught when St. John said there could be no harm in roping the horse and then turning him loose, the only other outcome being that he might merely fail.

The wise Old Timer began to see what was eating Carmelita. He encouraged Carmelita to tell St. John the story that had her so worked up. Oh goody, another story.

As Carmelita began to tell about her grandmother, a “daughter of the ancient Zuni pueblo, of those proud Indians who trace their ancestry back to the Aztec civilization of old,” the sound effects boys and the orchestra rolled in with some transitional music and effects to carry us all back in time…

(FADE IN STEADY BEAT OF INDIAN DRUMS. UP, THEN FADE TO HOOFBEATS WHICH COME UP QUICKLY, THEN STOP ABRUPTLY.)

INDIAN WOMAN:  (LAUGHS HAPPILY)  Of course I trusted you, my brave señor! You see – not one inch did I move! And your horsemanship! The Señor is in truth one noble chieftain when astride his charging stallion!

SPANIARD:                Merely a caballero in love, dear child. But permit that rainbow of love to obscure your vision forever, Carissima. Is your priest ready for the ceremony?

And so we were introduced to Carmelita’s grandmother, Carissima, who was in the process of being courted by a Spaniard who would become her husband. But just then, a Zuni medicine man appeared, making an awful racket with gourds filled with pebbles. The Spaniard asked him what it was the medicine of his gourds informed him about. The medicine man revealed his insights:

MED. MAN:              (IN SING SONG CHANT)  You take daughter of Zuni to wife … but sorrow follow … to those you love … long trail wind … lead to sorrow … Horses … You love horses … but horses bring sorrow … Death …

Yikes! Doesn’t sound like the medicine man ought to raise the first toast at the wedding reception. But now the story came back to the present-day, and Carmelita explained more of what happened next:

CARMELITA:       And so, my good friends, despite the warnings of the Zuni medicine man, my grandmother became the wife of a Spanish caballero, first with the Zuni ceremony, then with the nuptial mass at the old Mission San Miguel. Ah, one can in fancy still behold them, riding away upon the great black stallion, forgetting the prophecy when the sun rose hotly over the Sierra happy in their romance … Then, Señors, since my grandfather had wealthy relatives in Santa Barbara, the last stronghold of the padres, they came to sunny California. At the Santa Barbara Mission, she was christened, in time of fiesta –

I think the script left a little something out at this juncture – I believe the one being christened at Santa Barbara was Carmelita’s mother, but they didn’t quite say so. In any event, the story shifted back to the past once more, back to the mission at Santa Barbara, and to the screams of a frightened mother when confronted with a terribly ill baby. Carissima raced desperately about the mission looking for the Zuni medicine man to treat her suffering baby, but a Spanish man admonished her to leave the medicine man alone, and encouraged her to instead summon the padre to aid the child. Carissima was not to be dissuaded so easily – she located the medicine man and enlisted his help. Thankfully, the old Zuni still had his trusty gourds filled with pebbles, which he proceeded to shake with great enthusiasm and intent. Once more he fell into his own peculiar method of communicating his revelations:

MED. MAN:         (SING SONG CHANT)  Galloping! Danger! Sorrow! Blood! Those you love always – a horse – and Death!

(SHAKING OF GOURDS WITH PEBBLES IS RESUMED)

This news of course rattled Carissima just as jarringly as the medicine man was getting on with those pebble-filled gourds. Another segue, brought to us through music and sound effects, was meant to convey the following development:

(TRANSITIONAL MUSIC. ENSUING SCENE IS AT GATE OF MISSION. THE MONKS PASS NEARBY, CHANTING, AS THEY MARCH TO CHAPEL. VESPER DOORS ARE CLOSED. A HORSE, GALLOPING, APPROACHES QUICKLY. A WOMAN RIDER DISMOUNTS, BREATHING HEAVILY AND SOBBING. RINGS BELL AT MISSION GATE FRANTICALLY. THE CHANTING SWELLS MOMENTARILY AS THE PADRE OPENS AND CLOSES CHAPEL DOOR TO ANSWER THE ALARM.)

It’s one thing to read the preceding direction for the sound effects, but it would have been very interesting to hear how effectively they went about conveying all of that through sound alone, without utilizing any dialog or narrative.

At this point, the story took a dramatic turn indeed. It seems a “woman servant” came to be looking after the baby girl, and the listeners were to understand that she took the child to the good padre for assistance. The padre asked the woman to explain what was going on, why she had brought the baby he had christened only the day before, and without the child’s mother.

WOMAN              There is no one else, good padre! Both the father and the mother of the child

SERVANT:            were killed but yesterday. The father thrown from his horse – and, oh --- … The mother, when she stooped to lift his body, herself trampled to death under the heels of the great brute.

Back to the present, and Carmelita explained what transpired from there:

CARMELITA:       And so, dear friends, my mother was reared by the padres, while her faithful nurse did in truth dedicate her life to the orphan. Years later, my mother was known all over the countryside as a fearless horse-woman and – a beautiful maiden. Then she was wooed and won by an American who brought her here to Southern Oregon as his wife … But, alas, while I was still a tiny child, my father rode away one day, across a deep arroyo, slippery after the rains. Somehow, just out of sight, his horse stumbled, and threw him to his death!

Carmelita’s widowed mother was offered, and accepted, a home in Mexico City by her father’s Castilian relatives. Carmelita now explained more fully that it was for fear of the lives of St. John and the Old Timer – due to this dreadful litany of equine misery – that she dreaded certain calamity if the two of them went chasing about after the wild stallion Nero. And yet, she confessed that she was so drawn to that spirited creature that she had, some years before, tracked him down herself:

Often had I seen this Nero and his herd from a distance. But at last came a day when I longed to place my hand along his glossy neck, to see him champ a silver bit, to know him as mine … We made our camp at sunset, beside a low butte, near where a tiny brook trickled away and lost itself in the sage. We had trailed Nero throughout long days, so that fatigue caused him, too, to halt for rest. Wandering away from the campfire, I stood watching the moon lift itself from behind a great butte when, beside me, I heard a rustle. Startled, I turned. It was Nero! –

With another hearty “By Jove!” from St. John, Carmelita finished her tale by describing that fleeting moment when she sensed that she and Nero were sharing a great bond of kinship for one another – she gently reached out her hand and stroked his neck, and in a flash he was gone.

The scene shifted once more to a camp where St. John, Carmelita, the Old Timer, and an assistant to Carmelita named Dolores all set up to pursue Nero.

It was early morning, and an eager St. John set out before sunrise to chase the stallion. After a bracing cup of hot coffee, the remaining trio strained to see across a valley to where they thought they heard the movement of a small band of wild horses. The Old Timer handed Carmelita a pair of binoculars to see better, and asked her to describe what she saw (lucky for us – with only sound to work with, Carmelita’s description of the scene served as narrative to advance the story).

CARMELITA:       Nero – Nero – at the head of his band – there he flies! Ah, a night’s rest has been his. Yet a night spent without water! Oh, his fury will know no bounds when he finds St. John there to block his way …. Ah, St. John, can you take him? Your skill pitted against his speed and endurance!

(TRANSITIONAL MUSIC, THROUGH WHICH FLYING HOOFBEATS AT FULL GALLOP COME UP FROM DISTANCE, THEN FADE. SPIRITED MUSIC FADES TO BACKGROUND.)

What ensued was another couple minutes of Carmelita’s description of what she was watching through the binoculars. Tension mounted as she told Dolores and the Old Timer about St. John’s exploits in chasing Nero and attempting to rope him. A crescendo of dramatic emotion welled up until Carmelita cried out “Ah, Dios, the prophecy!”

A cloud of dust obscured Carmelita’s view of the distant scene. There was no telling whether Nero had trampled poor St. John or not. Carmelita was overcome, and the Old Timer told Dolores to fetch water. The sound effects boys and the orchestra provided an answer to that tremulous question …

(MUSIC UP, AND THROUGH IT FLYING HOOFBEATS COME UP AND FADE. MUSIC FADES AND CHANGES TEMPO AND MOTIF. FADES AS ST. JOHN COMES LOPING UP.)

DOLORES:           (IN SPANISH)  Carmelita! Old Timer! St. John is coming – with Nero.

CARMELITA:       Oh, thank God!

OLD TIMER:        (CHUCKLES)  St. John – an’ with Nero! Well, I reckon that’s the end of the Medicine man’s prophecy!

CARMELITA:       Oh, how shall I greet him – what shall I say? Yet, I cannot doubt the omen – now!

St. John joined the others triumphantly, showing them all his prize – Nero. Carmelita lamented how thin and haggard Nero looked, but before she could castigate St. John for defeating a weakened foe, St. John released Nero. The horse trotted away a short distance and then stopped, looking back at the small band of friends – and at St. John in particular. The Old Timer exclaimed “Well, dog my cats, if he isn’t standing there a-watchin’ you!”

St. John explained that he had led Nero to a water hole and fed him alfalfa. Carmelita recognized that, far from treating Nero as a simple trophy or a challenge to be overcome,  St. John truly respected and cared for Nero. Carmelita compared this to herself and to St. John’s courting of her, and she finally decided St. John was not trying to conquer her too, but instead was simply trying to woo her and win over her sincere and unbridled affections. It worked, of course. The Old Timer added his pithy comment to the scene: “Well, all I’ve got to say is, don’t you go and turn her loose.”

And so another pleasing episode of Empire Builders drew to a close, with these helpful words from our sponsor (and the announcer, Ted Pearson):

You have been listening to another of the Old Timer’s tales of the West. When you plan your next Western trip, whether to California or to the Pacific Northwest, have your ticket routed “via Great Northern.” The Great Northern maintains travel bureaus in almost all of the cities from which this program is broadcast. Its representatives will be glad to assist you with your plans. You will find the address in your telephone directory, under Great Northern Railway. Information about the territory to be opened by the Great Northern’s extension into California, can be obtained by writing the Agricultural Development Department, Great Northern Railway, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

 

Until next time, keep those dials tuned to Empire Builders!