310511 - Missing

 

Recording status:  Recorded, not in circulation

This episode of Empire Builders is like a bad take-off on Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First.” In a printed list of episode titles, this one is missing. Or more correctly, Missing. But it’s not lost. It’s not completely unaccounted for. It’s just Missing. It took me quite a long time to chase down confirmation of all the air dates of this radio series, and to identify the titles of every broadcast that actually had a specific title associated with it. But as I neared completion of that effort, one broadcast was Missing. Despite dragging out that lame joke longer than it deserves, it is also worth noting that I have not yet located a printed continuity for this broadcast. So far, at least, it is missing.

Okay, I’m over it. Sorry.

What I do have is a copy of the off-the-air recording of this live broadcast, and a copy of the original press release for the show. Let’s begin with the presser.

“Missing,” a mystery drama in which a newspaper reporter solves the baffling disappearance of a college girl, is the story that the Old Timer will tell on Empire Builders Monday night, May 11.

Don Ameche, Lucille Husting and Harvey Hays as the Old Timer have the leading roles.

The story was written for Empire Builders by Roger Banning, a former newspaperman.

Great Northern Railway radio advertising expense accounts for the month of February, 1931, document paying Roger Banning for a story called “Glacier Park.” Having listened to the broadcast, I can assure you that the ultimate title of “Missing” was more appropriate, although the locale of the story was in fact Glacier Park. I have not learned much yet about Roger Banning, but a St. Paul Pioneer Press news item from 1920 reported that Banning left the newspaper for a position as assistant advertising manager of the Tri-State Telephone and Telegraph Company. There’s an old adage in the writing world that, particularly for those just getting started, it is often best to write about a topic that you are very familiar with. In this case, Banning seems to have used that advice to load his story with newsmen as some of the prominent characters.

Before we get to the body of the story, I’ll share with you my transcription of the opening dialog between announcer Ted Pearson and the ubiquitous Old Timer.

OLD TIMER:        Well, Ted, you look comfortable. Say, what’s that you’re readin?

ANNOUNCER:    I’m brushing up a bit on geology. Just listen to this …

OLD TIMER:        All right, go ahead. Go on and read it, Ted. You know, I don’t get much chance to catch up on my reading.

ANNOUNCER:    Well, ‘The superlative beauty of Glacier National Park is in part explained by the peculiar structure of the country. The twisted, tilted, and sometimes folded rocky layers of which the mountains are composed, and which lie from a mile to two miles above the level of the sea, were once the bed of an ocean.’ Just feature that, Old Timer! Mountain peaks that were ‘once the bed of an ocean.’

OLD TIMER:        Yup, I’ve seen fossils of fishes that once lived in the sea way up in these mountains, myself. Go on, Ted, read me some more.

ANNOUNCER:    Alright. ‘This portion of the earth’s crust was lifted in the course of thousands and thousands of years by some tremendous pressure from within, and the rising mountains slipped lengthwise along their crest. Then, during some more thousands of years, the higher strata were eroded away by glaciers until only the most ancient and colorful shales, limestones and sandstones remained. Here is the backbone of the continent, and the little and big beginning of things. Here, huddled close together are tiny streams that leagues to the north, south and the west, flow as mighty rivers into Hudson’s Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. Here, peak after peak, named and unnamed, rear their saw-toothed edges to the clouds. Three-score of glaciers are slowly and silently grinding away at their epochal past.  Three hundred lakes in valley and in mountain pockets give back to the sky its blue, gray or green. Half a thousand waterfalls cascade from perpetual snow amidst these torrents of milk-white traceries, while a clear Montana sun does tricks of light and shade on pine and rock.’ Oh, say Old Timer, I should think Glacier Park would be a regular paradise for our listeners.

OLD TIMER:        Well, I should say it is. You know, there’s dozens of artists out there every year, Winold Reiss, Kathryn Leighton, and a lot of others I might mention with famous names. Say, that reminds me of a story about a young lady artist. Yeah, and a right good one she was, too. That happened right out there, in that “Land of Shining Mountains,” as the Indians used to call that, you know, that country that’s Glacier National Park now.

ANNOUNCER:    A story, Old Timer! Come on, I’m listening.

OLD TIMER:        Well Ted, there was a bunch of newspaper boys from the city papers that got together for a little vacation out in Glacier Park. Those boys were just havin’ a great time -  forgettin’ all about city editors, and street editions, and extras. Well, one morning, they’re starting out on a bus trip from the Many Glacier Hotel, to take a look at old Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. The big red bus was hurryin’ away, and everybody was in high spirits.

I’ve elected to share the entirety of this opening scene for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s kind of fun to be able to get a good sample of the content of this long-lost radio broadcast. But just as fun (for me at least) is that they invoked so many icons and touchstones of Glacier Park, people and things that I can add more background to. Let’s start with the Old Timer’s comments about artists in Glacier National Park. This particular topic is worthy of an entire book. In fact, at least one book has in fact been published

on this subject. It is “The Call of the Mountains: the Artists of Glacier National Park,” by Larry Len Peterson. I’m also aware of at least one scholarly essay reporting on the artwork (and their artists) still found in and around the park, such as the many paintings on display in the several lodging facilities associated with Glacier Park. To my knowledge, there is no original artwork by Winold Reiss (1886-1953) in those facilities, but his art is still prominent in the form of prints. Glacier Park Lodge, for example, has hundreds of poster-sized prints of portraits of Blackfeet Indians drawn by Reiss. They are framed and hang on the walls along the hallways of the Annex building, and can be found in nearly every guest room. Glacier Park Lodge also is the home of an original wood carving, that of John Two Guns White Calf. Not long after the death of Two Guns, Winold Reiss’s older brother, Hans Reiss, carved this larger-than-life-size statue from a single log. The brothers regarded Two Guns as a special friend. In the existing audio of this broadcast, the Old Timer clearly mispronounced the name of Winold Reiss.

Granted, Reiss’s first name is uncommon, even among Germans. But the last name, with a letter combination of “eis,” is pronounced the same as the first syllable of the name of one of our presidents, Dwight Eisenhower. The Old Timer pronounced the artist’s name as “Why-nold Reese.” This is a very common mistake. The correct pronunciation is “Vee-nold Rice.” I know this to be accurate. No less than Winold’s own son helped me with that.

Another artist invoked by the Old Timer was Kathryn Leighton (1875-1952). She was a contemporary of Reiss, and although she, too, became known for her portraits of Blackfeet Indians, she began her Glacier Park work doing landscapes. This link will take you to a site that displays quite a few of her works: http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Kathryn-Leighton/C865C7010DF34F3B/Artworks

Previous broadcasts of Empire Builders had their share of advertising copy. A good deal of attention was routinely drawn to the railroad and the country it served, particularly in the case of Glacier Park. This broadcast was a little different in that the opening dialog was chiefly a case of Ted Pearson reading from a travel brochure or essay on the geology of the park. It’s possible that this part of the script was written exclusively for this performance, but it really sounds a lot like it came straight out of a

Great Northern travel brochure or published work on the geology of Glacier National Park. I have an extensive collection of such items. I’ve reviewed several likely candidates, hoping to identify a specific publication that Pearson was reading from. Although I’ve found some mighty similar prose, I’ve come up empty in the way of any kind of exact match.

After the Old Timer’s chat with Ted Pearson, the radio performance included the usual musical bridge to indicate a transition into the evening’s playlet. As the music faded, the sound effects boys provided the listeners with a scene in Glacier Park, with a Glacier Park Transportation Company tour bus rumbling along. It was filled with newsmen on holiday. To a man, they all weighed in on how this was to be a true vacation for them all – no worries about deadlines, and no competition between them to scoop a story from the others. Since the conversation consisted of the voices of several different men, all chiming in as a rapid succession (and because I do not have a printed copy of the original continuity to go by), I’ll let you listen to that part of the radio broadcast from 1931.

 

As the story evolved, it was revealed that a young woman was in Glacier National Park doing some painting. Meanwhile, a group of news men, eager to unwind in the park and forget about the daily grind of pounding the news beat, hired one of Glacier’s iconic red busses for a tour into the heart of the park. As the bus lumbered along the road, the men spotted (and immediately began to ogle) the young female artist. One journalist in particular, Sam Miller, decided she was effectively calling out to him like a mermaid, and when the bus slowed enough he climbed right out to chat the girl up. The rest of the boys, and their Jammer, drove off in the red bus and left Sam Miller to fend for himself.

Sam initiated a little harmless chit-chat with the young lady, but then quickly challenged her – did she remember him? No, she protested – never seen him before in her life. But the newsman with the scent of his prey said he recognized her – Miss Myra Durant, the missing heiress! She tried in vain to pass herself off as Miss Myra Blackwell, but Miller knew exactly who she was. She admitted her true identity, but then pleaded with Miller to keep it to himself and call her Miss Blackwell. She got especially agitated about the issue as a friend of hers, forest ranger Jed Hutton, approached.

Miller walked off as Hutton came upon Myra. Jed wanted to know who that man was – he saw how upset Myra seemed, and he was concerned for her. Myra said she finally remembered where she had seen Miller. It was two years ago, she told Hutton. She ran into Miller and some other reporters at a charity ball. Jed began muttering in confusion, but Myra suddenly asked Jed if he would promise not to stop loving her, even if it turned out that she had been deceiving him. Jed was a little flustered about her behavior, but he steadfastly declared his devotion to her. “Oh, Jed,” she swooned, “you’re one in a million!”

The next scene was a newsroom back in New York. The city editor was talking excitedly with some reporters about what stories they had to work with for the afternoon paper. Just then, a wire arrived from Sam Miller in Montana. The editor leapt into action while another newsman declared they had just nine minutes till deadline. The editor shouted “Say boys, hold everything – something big’s broken! Here – get up a banner head on this quick. ‘Missing Heiress Found!’” It turns out for the past eighteen months the world had the misconception that Miss Myra Durant had been missing (perhaps abducted, or dead). The radio listeners learned she had been hiding out in Glacier Park all that time. The editor shouted directions putting his whole staff in motion. He directed one of them to grab a taxi and chase down George Wentworth for a reaction. Wentworth, as it turns out, had been engaged to marry Myra Durant.

With a highly melodramatic musical bridge, the listening audience was conveyed back to Glacier Park.

It was the next day, and Jed found Myra finishing up her landscape painting. Myra launched into a lyrical summary of her new-found appreciation for nature, and everything, and what-not (she was feeling a bit emotional), but then Jed announced to her he was going away. He had signed up to guide a group of tourists into the Bowman Lake district – he wouldn’t be back until the end of summer. He speculated that by the time he returned, Myra would be gone. Jed got all morose about how he had let himself believe that Myra was just a plain, everyday gal, someone like himself. Myra tried to convince him that in fact she was, but with all the newspaper headlines blaring the discovery of the missing heiress, there was no convincing Jed that she was anything but a well-healed society girl. If he was looking for a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad, well, Myra was not that girl.

Myra wasn’t gaining any ground in changing Jed’s mind, but just then, a car approached. Myra recognized some of “those awful reporters” coming to pester her again. But Jed recognized another man with them, one who stood out from the others. It was the Old Timer.

But the Old Timer wasn’t the only “extra” being delivered by the paper hawkers. George Wentworth was there, too. A rather awkward, notably icy introduction was made between George and Jed. The reporters came rushing up, and George asked them politely to back off a few minutes to give him and Myra a little time to talk. The journalists retreated, the Old Timer and Jed right on their heels (to ensure they behaved themselves and kept their distance from George and Myra).

Unfortunately, the audio quality takes a decidedly unpleasant plunge at this point. The next few minutes of dialog are extremely hard to make out, but it seems Myra did her best to let George down lightly. Then she let the news boys in on the breaking news that she was about to get married – to Jed Hutton.

As all this unrestrained joyousness continued to carry the day, one reporter noticed that Myra had signed her painting “Nora West.” Well, scatter my chipmunks! Nora West! The reporter blurted out, “Why, she’s one of the most famous landscape painters, known all over the world!”

 The news boys fell all over each other, exclaiming about what a scoop this was, and how one amazing revelation was piling on top of another. They were all congratulating one another with their great luck, until one of them pointed out that Sam Miller had gone flying off to the nearest telegraph office with their bus. Jed piped up. “Is Sam Miller gonna get away with something?” he asked. The boys said they were about to fall victim to another Sam Miller news story scoop, since there was no way they could beat him to the telegraph. Jed had another notion. He offered them the use of his car, which was just down around the curve, out of view. The newsmen excitedly ran off to beat Miller to the telegraph, while Myra and Jed were left in peace to plan their happy future together.

A musical bridge – and a rather lengthy one at that – brought the listeners back to announcer Ted Pearson and the Old Timer. Here’s how they played out the final minutes of the broadcast.

ANNOUNCER:    Old Timer – I wonder if I’ve ever seen any of Nora West’s paintings.

OLD TIMER:        Well maybe you have, Ted, but [chuckles] I don’t think you’d know it. You see I had to twist the story around a little, and then “Nora West” wasn’t her right name, either.

ANNOUNCER:    Well, it was a nice story anyway. I’m just waiting to see that country around there.

OLD TIMER:        Never been out in that part of Montana, eh, Ted?

ANNOUNCER:    No I haven’t. I’m sure going to see those mountains you told about tonight, aren’t I?

OLD TIMER:        You sure are, Ted, when you’re on that vacation with me this summer. Why Many Glacier Hotel, you know it lies in sort of a big valley – a “cirque,” geologists call it – right on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake. And let me tell ya, Swiftcurrent Lake is one of the prettiest lakes in the park. Well right across the lake is old Grinnell Mountain, standin’ up there like an old sentinel. Pine trees comin’ right down to the water’s edge. And up to one side, Mount Altyn. It just goes straight up from the water like a great big wall, almost, colored like some big giant had been tryin’ out his paintbrushes on it. It’s so big, the pine trees look like moss alongside of it. And say – them pines are all of sixty feet high themselves. Back of the hotel, there’s Apikuni Mountain, another huge chunk of rock that looks like one of them old castles you see in France, only it’s about a million times bigger, and older. Say – I’ve gotta be goin’ up ahead, to see about my dog, January, and see how he’s getting’ along with the baggage man. And Ted – don’t wear that book out!

ANNOUNCER:    Well thanks, Old Timer. Good-night!

               [MUSIC UP, THEN FADE FOR CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT]

ANNOUNCER:    The Glacier National Park season opens June 15th, just a little more than a month from tonight. Plan to spend your vacation this summer in the “Land of Shining Mountains.” There are a number of splendid all-expense escorted tours ranging from a short stay in the park, at a surprisingly low cost, to the Old Timer’s deluxe ten-day, personally escorted vacation trip. There are Great Northern travel bureaus in most of the cities from which this program is broadcast. Or, you can write direct to the Great Northern Railway, 113 South Clarke Street, Chicago, for complete information and illustrated descriptive literature. May we again call your attention to the low summer tourist fares, which go into effect westbound next Friday – round-trip fares which are only slightly more than the regular one-way fare from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. You can arrange stop-overs as desired, and you can extend your visit until as late as October 31st, as your option. Similar low round-trip fares apply eastbound from the Pacific Northwest cities to the east, beginning May 22nd – one week from Friday. 

              [MUSIC UP, THEN FADE]

ANNOUNCER:    Tonight’s Empire Builders play again featured Harvey Hays as the Old Timer, Lucille Husting played the part of Myra Durant, Don Ameche was Jed.

 

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