300428 - Topic: Tempermental opera singer rides the Empire Builder

This episode of Empire Builders was another one of the instances where the story was written by someone you might think of generally as coming from outside the Empire Builders family. Most of the stories used on the series were written by NBC staff writer Edward Hale Bierstadt. Others were usually written by other NBC or McJunkin Advertising Company staff. The GN’s own Harold M. Sims is credited with writing the story or at least composing the plot of several stories. On this night, however, the story was written by someone in the newspaper business – another frequently utilized resource for finding writing talent. However, this author was not the already-known Ben Hur Lampman or Dan Markell (both of Portland, Oregon). No, this time the author was associated with the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner – and yet was living in Seattle at the time. The author was documented as Alice Elinor, a.k.a. Alice Elinor Lambert, a.k.a. Alice Elinor Lambert Ransburg.

Alice Elinor Lambert was the birth name given this evening’s author by her parents, the Rev. Charles Edward Lambert (1842-1932) and Ella Amelia "Nellie" (Lathrop) Lambert (1852-1942). Alice was the fourth of seven children born to Charles and Nellie. Alice was apparently a “free spirit” in many respects. She was married at least 2, perhaps 3 times, and engaged or nearly engaged at least once more. She seems to have bounced around several locations on the west coast, including at various times San Francisco, Oregon, and the Washington communities of Seattle, Forks (on the Pacific coast) and Darrington (a tiny logging community tucked deep into the north Cascade foothills). Alice told people she had worked for William Randolph Hearst (in her capacity as a “girl reporter” for Hearst’s Examiner). She also published a few titles through vanity press publishers.

I do not have an official press release for this broadcast, but I do have a couple of published press items that probably got their material from an official release. One of these sources is a wonderful, obscure publication I located in the collection of the University of Washington (Manuscripts and Special Collections). The publication was called Northwest Radio Weekly. It featured program listings for each week, complete with radio station call letters and frequencies. Many of the articles were national in scope, but some concerned northwest radio news and local programming. Empire Builders tended to be mentioned more often if there was a local tie-in, as there was with this broadcast. The following snippet came from the Vol. 1, No. 4 (April 28-May 3, 1930) edition of Northwest Radio Weekly:

The Empire Builders’ program on KOMO, KHQ and KGW, at 6:30 features the story written by a Seattle girl, Miss Alice Elinor, and is described as a story of motion, colored peaks and rushing rivers, having as its setting the luxurious Empire Builder, which is speeding along the southern boundary of Glacier National Park.

Empire Builders typically aired on the West Coast at 7:30pm, but the time of 6:30pm (which was neither an accident nor a typo) reflects the fact that the eastern time zone had switched to Daylight Saving Time by that date, and was therefore airing the live broadcast one hour earlier. Seattle and the remainder of the West Coast were evidently still on Standard Time.

From one other published source (the Great Northern Goat magazine) we get this blurb:

Alice Elinor, on the staff of the Hearst papers on the Pacific Coast, wrote the Empire Builder travel story which will be broadcast April 28.

The Pitssburgh Press had a little more detail to offer about the story in its April 28^th Radio Log:

How Judith Paige, impoverished by her father’s death, unexpectedly realizes a fortune, will be told in the climax of the sketch.

After her father’s death, Judith takes a position as secretary to Mme. Thais, a temperamental opera singer. Enroute West, Mme. Thais meets an old friend, the “Old Timer,” returning from the East after an unsuccessful attempt to locate the owner of a valuable tract of West Coast property.

The plot takes an unexpected turn when the “Old Timer” discovers Judith is the daughter of the man he is seeking.

Harvey Hays and Virginia Gardiner are the featured players in this sketch.

 

Front and back covers of a book by Alice Elinor Lambert, titled "Women Are Like That." Notice the back cover and its map of the lumber country of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Before a review of the broadcast itself, here are just a couple more comments about the author. Alice Elinor was born Alice Elinor Lambert. The press blurb that appears to have been put out by the GN’s Harold Sims calls her “Miss Alice Elinor.” By the time she wrote this story for Empire Builders she had married Joe Ransburg (many years earlier, in fact), and took his name as hers. Perhaps the name “Alice Elinor” was some sort of writer’s affectation, but an online biography about her indicates she left her husband and children behind in about 1932 to further her writing career. One source (perhaps her actual divorce decree) has suggested she left her family behind specifically due to her husband’s “disrespect of her writing and his alleged derision about it, at least from Alice's point of view.” People do unexpected things for both love and money, and this certainly seems like one of those times where you kind of shake your head about someone – especially a wife and mother, in the early 1930s – abandoning her husband and especially her children as the only option available to advance her career. Perhaps there was a little more to that story.

This night’s story began with a young man named Rodney Harland leaping aboard the Empire Builder train as it pulled out of Glacier Park Station on its way westward toward Seattle. He immediately bumped into his beau, Miss Judith (Judy) Paige. It is soon revealed that Rodney is a newly-minted lawyer with hopes of establishing himself in Seattle. He explained to Judy that until he could do so, which might take at least a year or two, they could not go ahead with their plans to marry. For her part, Judy had gainful if not completely satisfying employment serving as personal secretary to Madame Thais, a French opera singer with a decidedly demanding and generally unpleasant demeanor. And it is further revealed that trains tend to really set her off. Judy described her job for Madame Thais as acting as the fire department:

Well, traveling is hard on Madame Thais, poor dear! Goodness knows, she’s temperamental enough when she’s at home, but on trains almost anything starts her off. She hits the ceiling about three times a day, and blows up. Then when things begin to smolder – I put out the fire.

I don’t have the documentation at hand to prove it, but I believe the role of Madame Thais was played by Empire Builders ingénue Virginia Gardiner.

As Rod and Judy stood there chatting about the merits of looking for work in Seattle, and the joys of spending the summer in a cabin near Glacier Park, Madame Thais appeared. Judy introduced Rod to Madame Thais and explained that Rod’s sister had been Judy’s roommate in college. As this introduction is made, Madame Thais reveals that she, too, has found a friend aboard the train. She introduced Rod and Judy to her old pal, the Old Timer.

Judy asked Madame Thais how she was feeling that morning, and to everyone’s surprise, the old gal said she had slept like a baby. “Not one jerk of the train! Not once did thees engineer break my bones in two. Not once did he snap my head from my poor neck!” Evidently Madame’s travels had not often carried her on the lines of the Great Northern Railway – until now. Judy realized it was getting late in the morning, and perhaps it was too late for Madame to get her breakfast in the dining car. Turns out the old gal had already had a pretty full morning.

JUDITH:               You’ve already eaten!

MADAME:           But of course! First, my bath. On thees train! What a nize bath I have! The little maid in the boudoir, she feex it for me. Such nize big fluffy towels – not little mean ones. Then I dress in two minutes, so good I feel. An’ then I meet Ole Timer, an’ he invite me to breakfast. Such a breakfast we had, did we not, Ole Timer?

Madame Thais continued with her review of the dining car service and (you should see this coming) – she loved it!

MADAME:           An’ Judy, you know something? That waiter – he must know me – my temperament. Before I have my seat, before I lay my bag down, he bring me a cup of hot coffee. Before I order, before have time to get cross, hot coffee I have to keep me happy until my breakfast comes. Is it not wonderful?

PIONEER:            Well, it sure is wonderful coffee, ma’am – but the Great Northern does that for everybody. It’s jest common sense, I reckon. I don’t much hanker after that little preliminary demi tasse cup myself, but it goes strong with most folks. Truth is that until an American’s had his coffee, and until an Englishman’s had his tea in the morning, most of ‘em ain’t fit to live with. People have got to thaw out.

MADAME:           Yes, thaw out! Me, I thaw out so much I eat a breakfast like I never dare before. Little peeg sausages – wheat cakes even! For why should one work an’ toil an’ become a prima donna if not to forget the waistline? Is it not so, Meestair ‘Arlan?

By golly, all that talk of the inviting Great Northern dining car has me feeling a mite peckish, too! But breakfast was over, and the little quartette of friends was relaxing in the observation car. Music carried over the dialog and through the listeners’ radios …

                              (FADE IN CONCERTINA WITH ORCHESTRA)

MADAME:           Mon dieu, where is those music?

JUDITH:               Some one’s turned on the radio. I rather like that old-fashioned concertina.

RODNEY:             The Great Northern certainly does well by you here on the Empire Builder.

PIONEER:            Speakin’ of sudden changes of fortune, and hearin’ that there concertina sort of reminds me of somethin’ I saw out here on the line quite a few years ago.

MADAME:           Eet ees a story! This old timer! Always he is full of stories, like the engine is full of steam – yes?

PIONEER:            (CHUCKLES)  Now, ma’am, I hardly know whether to take that as praise or not. This story, though is about one time when fortune turned the wrong way.

RODNEY:             Let’s hear it. Will you?

JUDITH:               Yes, old timer, this is the time and the place.

We can always count on the Old Timer to come through with a nice story. And so the Old Timer launched into another of his interesting tales of the old days on the line of the Great Northern Railway.

PIONEER:            Well, it was just about this time of year, and just about this section of Montana. I was at a little way station here on the Great Northern lines waitin’ for a train east-bound, and listenin’ to an Italian fellow that was playin’ a concertina on the station platform.

(ORCHESTRA UP WITH CONCERTINA:  ORCHESTRA OUT:  CONCERTINA ALONE: STOP:  APPLAUSE FROM SEVERAL PEOPLE)

Among those listening to the music was a married couple named Mickey and Mary Hogan. Their young daughter, Kathleen, was mesmerized by the music being played by a man named Michele Pezza. Mickey explained that Pezza used to be a section foreman on the division. It was soon revealed that Michele Pezza was departing soon to return to his home in Italy. It seems his wife had died and their little girl, Maria, was living with her grandmother. Pezza planned to bring his daughter back to America with him. As the Hogan’s were chatting with Pezza, someone came up with a telegram, calling out for Michele Pezza. The Italian identified himself, and once he read the telegram, he was suddenly overcome with grief. The Hogans pressed him for information. Pezza told them the telegram brought news of his little daughter’s death. He was crushed. The Hogans expressed their deep sympathy as the train pulled in. Pezza was originally going to join them on the train to begin his journey back to Italy, but now he simply stayed behind and mourned the loss of his little girl.

Judy was the first to point out what a sad story that was, to which the Old Timer replied “Fortune doesn’t always choose its time.” Rod responded by pointing out “And fortune isn’t always – good fortune.” Madame Thais, meantime, was in tears.

Rodney broke the collective gloom by asking the Old Timer what he had been up to back East. The Old Timer explained he had been to New York to try to locate a man, but that he came up empty. Well, dog my cats! We just went from one sad story to another one. Or did we?

Rod, Judy, and Madame Thais were none too eager to hear another depressing tale. They weren’t entirely certain they wanted to hear any more details. But the Old Timer pressed on anyway.

PIONEER:            Shucks, I reckon there’s no story about this. Truth is, me and some friends of mine want to build some hotels and golf links, and connect up a little chain of lakes with a good road. Cuss it, we’d have a sportsmen’s paradise! But the man that owns the land, Wesley Paige, has dropped clean out of sight!

MADAME:           Wesley Paige? What you mean – dropped out of sight? Ee ‘as been dead for five years!

JUDITH:               But – he was my father!

PIONEER:            What’s that?

Well, Old Timer – let me take a crack at it. You couldn’t find Wesley Paige because he’s dead. He was survived by his daughter. She’s standing in front of you. Don’t make me repeat this.

MADAME:           Wesley Paige was my little Judy’s father, ole timer. Her mother, she was my dear frien’. Always I have look after her since her mother died. And now, poor child, she is all alone but for me, and I guess I have to take her to Paris with me!

RODNEY:             Not if I can help it!

PIONEER:            Well, you won’t have to take her anywhere, ma’am, if she’ll just sell us that piece of property her father owned! Are you the only heir, Miss Judith?

JUDITH:               Yes – I’m all alone.

MADAME:           Tell me, ole timer, ees this property worth much?

PIONEER:            Well, it’s worth enough so that this little girl won’t have to do anything for a long time to come. It’ll sure keep her going for a while!

What do you know? They’re all riding along on a train, and it appears Judy’s ship has just come in. Judy suddenly realized there was no longer anything to stop Rodney from marrying her, provided he could accept that the money she was about to come into was not simply her money – it would be their money. Just then, the music welled up again:

                                             (ORCHESTRA IN WITH PRELUDE TO SONG)

RODNEY:             Someone’s turned on that condemned radio again!

JUDITH:               Wait a minute, dear, I like this song. Listen!

(MISS GARDINER SINGS FIRST VERSE OF SONG)

RODNEY:             Who is that? I like it.

JUDITH:               It’s Virginia Gardiner singing on the Empire Builders program of the Great Northern in New York. Quiet now – she’s going to sing the second verse.

(MISS GARDINER FINISHES SONG)

On the one hand, I think it’s kind of clever the way they kept squeezing in some “self-references” by having characters in the radio plays listen to portions of the Empire Builders program, in the very midst of the Empire Builders program. But it’s always been a bit disconcerting the way the Old Timer seems to just barely miss being in the observation car of the train and coming over the radio at the same time. In this case, they seemed to have pushed the boundaries just a bit more. As I mentioned earlier, I suspect Virginia Gardiner played the role of Madame Thais. So shortly after the Old Timer character of Harvey Hays and the Madame Thais character of Virginia Gardiner had departed the scene, here comes none other than Virginia Gardiner singing over the radio in the observation car she vacated just moments before.

Before the radio listeners had much chance to forget the sound of Virginia Gardiner’s singing voice, Madame Thais and the Old Timer strolled right back into the observation car to join Rod and Judy. The story closed after some happy chatter about Rodney and Judith’s pending nuptials, and the Old Timer announcing he was headed to the baggage car to look in on his faithful old hound dog, January.

My copy of this continuity is missing the closing announcement. We’ll just have to assume John S. Young had some glowing comments about the Great Northern Railway, its trains, and the territory it served.

As for the writer, Alice Elinor Lambert Ransburg (who by the way later married another man named Burdick) settled in the sleepy little lumbering town of Darrington, Washington. She lived out her final years there, and for a time was a featured radio personality on station KRKO in Everett. Alice passed away in 1981, just a month past her 95^th birthday. She was considered a genuine town character to the very end.

 

Until next week, keep your dial tuned to Empire Builders!