American Cancer Society - 1948 - Square Moon

Summary

Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio

Episode: American Cancer Society – 1948 – "Square Moon"

Date: March 20, 2026
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio

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Episode Overview

This episode features a classic radio drama—"Square Moon" (1948), produced for the American Cancer Society. The story dramatizes the personal and emotional journey of a man confronted with a possible cancer diagnosis in an era when cancer was deeply feared and poorly understood. Through the eyes of Frank Hastings and those around him, the episode explores anxiety, hope, scientific research, and the significance of public support in the fight against cancer.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Everyday Discovery ([00:37])

• Frank Hastings relates how he often notices a well-lit window at the local college, which he dubs the “square moon.”
  • Themes: Ordinary life; unnoticed scientific efforts happening beside us.

2. Sudden Illness & Uncertainty ([01:38] – [05:48])

• Frank discovers a persistent sore on his lip and asks his wife, Millie, for advice.
• Visits Dr. Stanley, who performs a biopsy and reveals it might be cancer.
  • Emotional impact: The fear and disbelief at potentially facing a cancer diagnosis.
  • Quote:
    • “Cancer? It may or may not be malignant. Understand that.” — Dr. Stanley ([03:38])
• Millie and Frank process the news, wrestling with its reality:
  • Quote:
    • “But it just… it just doesn’t happen to us.” — Millie Hastings ([04:59])
  • Quote:
    • “To other people, yes. To us, no.” — Frank Hastings & Narrator ([05:03])

3. The Search for Understanding ([05:52] – [06:46])

• Frank spends the next day researching cancer at the library; the program uses a layman’s explanation to demystify cancer’s biology.
  • Quote (narration from the book):
    • “In cancer, there is cellular anarchy, a revolt against the balance of nature... Cancer is nature gone mad.” — Narrator ([06:09])

4. Encounter with Science: The Cancer Research Center ([06:46] – [11:17])

• Frank follows his curiosity to the Cancer Research Center—the “square moon”—and meets Dr. Barton.
• Frank is impatient for a direct cure, baffled by research on frog embryos.
• Dr. Barton explains:
  • There are cures for many early-detected cancers (95% skin cancer, 75% early breast cancer; at the time).
  • The challenge is curing late-stage cancers and understanding cancer at the cellular level.
• Dr. Barton defends basic research as the foundation for future cures:
  • Quote:
    • “Now that's the cancer problem. That's what we're working on. But frog embryos... the nerve cells of frog embryos are just as much alive as the nerve cells that are making you jumpy at this very minute.” — Dr. Barton ([09:01])
  • Quote:
    • “The American Cancer Society is interested in fundamental research because it knows that the solution to cancer is knowledge. Not half knowledge, but complete knowledge.” — Dr. Barton ([10:51])
• Emphasis on the unsung, anonymous scientists working into the night.

5. Waiting for an Answer ([11:37] – [13:18])

• Frank receives the lab results: he does not have cancer.
• The conversation turns thoughtful—how cancer affects everyone:
  • Quote:
    • “We do know it strikes in one family out of two on an average. Pretty good odds. Pretty grim.” — Dr. Stanley ([12:32])
  • Frank reflects on the “square moons” shining for all—scientists in pursuit of cures.
• Dr. Stanley ends by encouraging support for the Cancer Society:
  • Quote:
    • “Every time you feel like that, just haul out your checkbook. Think how much you can give to the American Cancer Society. And then double the dose.” — Dr. Stanley ([13:06])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the sudden reality of cancer:
  “Cancer, the killer. It had come down out of the posters on the wall... It had suddenly become as personal as a toothbrush.” — Frank Hastings ([04:05])

• On research’s slow progress:
  “Here I am... praying for a cure, looking to science for life itself. And what's happening? You chaps haven't gotten any further than playing around with frogs. Will that cure my cancer? No.” — Frank Hastings ([08:21])

• On the scale of scientific effort:
  “Hundreds of men in hundreds of laboratories are burning the midnight oil, hanging up square moons, as you call them... from genetics to chemotherapy, from zoology to, well, to mouse diets, everything... The knowledge we need to fight cancer.” — Dr. Barton ([10:15])

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Important Segments and Timestamps

• Discovery of Sore & Seeking Help — [01:38]–[03:43]
• Diagnosis and Initial Reaction — [03:43]–[05:02]
• Exploring What Cancer Is — [05:52]–[06:46]
• Cancer Research Center Visit — [06:46]–[11:17]
• Lab Result & Reflections — [11:54]–[13:18]

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Themes & Tone

• The episode maintains a somber, contemplative tone, with moments of wry humor and tenderness (particularly between Frank and Millie).
• Hope is offered not through melodrama, but by highlighting the ordinary, unsung labor of scientists and the importance of supporting collective efforts.

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Conclusion

"Square Moon" delivers a poignant and timeless message: while the threat of cancer is frightening, collective action and support of scientific research offer hope. The play closes by urging listeners to recognize the quiet devotion of researchers everywhere—the "square moons" shining in the night—and to contribute to the American Cancer Society’s mission.

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For those seeking a blend of vintage drama, social history, and modern relevance, this episode is both moving and informative, humanizing the scientists behind the struggle and demystifying cancer for a 1948 audience—and today's listeners alike.

Transcript

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[Dr. Stanley]

When I passed at night coming home

[Frank Hastings]

from work, I could see the light burning. It hung in the darkness like a square moon. In summer, the window would be thrown wide open and I could see shadows bouncing on the wall. In winter, the window would be shut tight. The frost would splinter the light into a million little diamonds. Maybe on occasions I'd say to myself, poor guy, working overtime again. Doesn't he ever get home? And I'd be past the college buildings. I'd turn the corner into my street. And I'd be home.

[Narrator]

The American Cancer Society presents Square Moons an original radio drama written by Herb Tunick, produced and directed by Walter King. Starring Roger de Koven. Square Moons is the story of a search.

[Frank Hastings]

Millie.

[Millie Hastings]

Hello, dear.

[Dr. Stanley]

Millie, come here. I want you to do me a favor.

[Millie Hastings]

What is it? And hang your coat up on a hangar.

[Dr. Barton]

I want you to take a look

[Frank Hastings]

at that sorrel on my lip.

[Millie Hastings]

What about it?

[Frank Hastings]

It's beginning to feel pretty bad. It's bleeding a little.

[Millie Hastings]

Let me see. See? Yes.

[Frank Hastings]

What the devil do you think it is?

[Millie Hastings]

I thought you said you got it shaving.

[Frank Hastings]

Yeah, but why should it take so long to heal? Looks awful, doesn't it? Everybody who sees me says you hit me on the kisser with a coffee pot.

[Millie Hastings]

Sometimes I have a mind to. Well, what are you gonna do about it? And stop poking it.

[Frank Hastings]

I don't know. Guess I've let it go long enough. Millie, call Dr. Stanley. See if you can make an appointment for me to see him at 8 tonight.

[Millie Hastings]

Oh, that makes sense. Now go up and get washed. Dinner's getting cold.

[Frank Hastings]

Later, I sat in Doc Stanley's waiting room trying to get the point of a cartoon in a magazine. It may have been funny indeed, but I never did get the point.

[Dr. Stanley]

You can come in now, Hastings.

[Frank Hastings]

I dropped the magazine on the chair and walked down the narrow corridor to a small walnut paneled office.

[Dr. Stanley]

Glad to see you.

[Dr. Barton]

Sit down.

[Dr. Stanley]

How's the wife?

[Frank Hastings]

Fine.

[Dr. Stanley]

And now, what seems to be your trouble?

[Frank Hastings]

This stuck under My lip.

[Dr. Stanley]

Let's have a look. We'll get some more light on that subject.

[Frank Hastings]

I tried to watch his face for some sign of emotion. A wince, perhaps, a little smile, a shadow of concern. I drew an absolute blank. Then he took a tiny instrument and snipped off a piece of the saw. Just a speck. I watched him put it in a little bottle. I said to him, what's that for?

[Dr. Stanley]

Hastings, we don't have to go into any cat and mouse act, do we?

[Dr. Barton]

No, we don't. Give it to me straight, Doc. Okay.

[Dr. Stanley]

I'm testing that ulcer on your mouth for cancer.

[Frank Hastings]

Cancer?

[Dr. Stanley]

It may or may not be malignant. Understand that.

[Frank Hastings]

That's why I'm testing cancer.

[Dr. Stanley]

Now look, I am by no means sure that what you have is cancer. I'll know when I get the lab report.

[Frank Hastings]

Meantime, I. I suppose I'll just have to wait.

[Dr. Stanley]

There's nothing you can do.

[Dr. Barton]

Goodbye.

[Frank Hastings]

Thanks again. Outside in the street, the noises of the night had a faraway sound, like muffled echoes. I walked home with a feeling of something drifting in space. Cancer. Cancer, the killer. It had come down out of the posters on the wall. The bus cards, the billboards. It had suddenly become as personal as a toothbrush.

[Millie Hastings]

That you, Frank?

[Frank Hastings]

Uh huh.

[Millie Hastings]

What did the doctor say?

[Frank Hastings]

Well, he didn't say.

[Millie Hastings]

What do you mean?

[Frank Hastings]

He has to wait for a lab report. He sent them a specimen from the sewer. Let's sit down, Millie.

[Millie Hastings]

What is it, Frank?

[Frank Hastings]

Well, there's a chance that it.

[Dr. Barton]

It may be serious.

[Frank Hastings]

It may be cancer.

[Millie Hastings]

Cancer?

[Dr. Barton]

Maybe.

[Millie Hastings]

But it can't be.

[Frank Hastings]

No.

[Dr. Barton]

Why not?

[Millie Hastings]

Well, it just.

[Frank Hastings]

It just doesn't happen to us.

[Narrator]

To other people, yes.

[Frank Hastings]

To us, no.

[Millie Hastings]

But it looks like. Like nothing but a little open sore of some kind.

[Frank Hastings]

Well, who knows, Millie? What does one do in a situation like this?

[Millie Hastings]

What do you mean, dear?

[Frank Hastings]

It has its interesting points, you know. What's the proper reaction to news of this kind?

[Dr. Barton]

Is it fear?

[Dr. Stanley]

Horror?

[Frank Hastings]

Revulsion?

[Dr. Barton]

Surrender?

[Frank Hastings]

I don't feel anything like that.

[Millie Hastings]

How do you feel about it, dear?

[Frank Hastings]

Well, I'll tell you if I can put it into words. Something is happening to me that I don't understand. I want to understand it.

[Millie Hastings]

What can you do about it?

[Frank Hastings]

I don't know. Try to find out what cancer is. What's going on. I'll do that too, tomorrow.

[Millie Hastings]

Now let's go to bed.

[Frank Hastings]

I called the office the next day and told them not to expect me in. I had some research to do. I went to a library. I found a book on cancer written for the Layman for me, here's how it explained it.

[Narrator]

In cancer, there is cellular anarchy, a revolt against the balance of nature. Something, something unknown causes the usual discipline of a cell to go to pieces. The cells become wild, untamed masses of multiplying tissue. They crush the normal cells that lie in their path. They become greedy, avaricious parasites that steal the food of healthy cells and weaken them into submission. They are a mass of spreading malignancy, an uncurbed, unorganized growth. Cancer is nature gone mad.

[Frank Hastings]

Coming home that night, I passed the college grounds and automatically looked up at the window. The square moon was hanging in place. Then, for the first time, perhaps because I never bothered to notice it before, I saw a little brass plate on the side of the building. It said Cancer Research Center. I turned into the building and walked upstairs. Most of the rooms were closed and dark, but there was a light in one and a young man in a white smock.

[Dr. Barton]

Hello. Can I help you?

[Frank Hastings]

Well, my name's Hastings.

[Dr. Barton]

I'm Barton. Come on in.

[Frank Hastings]

I guess I've walked past this place every night for two years and I've never seen your light out. I've even got a funny name for it.

[Dr. Barton]

What?

[Frank Hastings]

I call it a square moon.

[Dr. Barton]

Well, I'm the man in the moon. Yeah, I guess I have been keeping late hours.

[Frank Hastings]

Working on cancer, in a way.

[Dr. Barton]

Working on a grant from the American Cancer Society.

[Frank Hastings]

Well, I've got a kind of personal interest in the subject.

[Dr. Barton]

Really?

[Frank Hastings]

My doctor tells me that there's a little gimmick under my lips. Maybe cancer.

[Dr. Barton]

I'm sorry, what are all these gadgets? Oh, a Polarigraph.

[Frank Hastings]

What does it do?

[Dr. Barton]

Well, right now we're using it to measure the oxygen consumption of nerve cells of frog embryos.

[Frank Hastings]

Come again?

[Dr. Barton]

I said I'm measuring the oxygen consumption of nerve cells in frog embryos. Yeah.

[Frank Hastings]

You're kidding, aren't you?

[Dr. Barton]

No, I'm not.

[Frank Hastings]

It's incredible.

[Dr. Barton]

I don't get you, Mr. Hastings.

[Frank Hastings]

Here I am, if I remember right, some hundreds of thousands of others walking around with cancer, praying for a cure, looking to science for life itself. And what's happening? You chaps haven't gotten any further than playing around with frogs. Will that cure my cancer? No.

[Dr. Barton]

No, it won't. Here, have a cigarette.

[Frank Hastings]

Thanks.

[Dr. Barton]

You've got a good case of nerves, wouldn't you?

[Frank Hastings]

In my spot, sure.

[Dr. Stanley]

Well, how about it? Why are you fiddling around with frog

[Frank Hastings]

embryos instead of trying to find a cure for cancer?

[Dr. Barton]

Let me get you straight on something right off. There are cures for cancer, for many types of cancer. Early cancer. Right now, 75% of all patients treated in hospitals for early cancer of the breast cancer being cured. Skin cancer, the type you may have, gets a 95% rate of cure when treated early. Better remember that 95%. 95% of early cases. Remember that. Of early cases. Well, certainly we haven't been able to find cures for all types of cancer, especially those cancers that can't be detected until they've spread in the body. Now that's the cancer problem. That's what we're working on. But frog embryos, well, the nerve cells of frog embryos are just as much alive as the nerve cells that are making you jumpy at this very minute. Do you know what cancer is?

[Narrator]

Yes.

[Dr. Barton]

A wild growth of cells. Okay. And the way to get to the bottom of the cancer problem is to understand the cell. How it grows, what it needs to grow, and how. What happens to suddenly send a tearing hog wild through the body.

[Frank Hastings]

But it sounds like such a long way around.

[Dr. Barton]

The only way around. Millions of dollars are being spent on cancer research. Hundreds of men in hundreds of laboratories are burning the midnight oil, hanging up square moons, as you call them. From simple biology to complicated microchemistry, from genetics to chemotherapy, from zoology to well, to mouse diets, everything. The whole gamut of science is being explored. Looking for knowledge, basic knowledge. The knowledge we need to fight cancer.

[Frank Hastings]

I never thought it was that big.

[Dr. Barton]

Yes, the American Cancer Society is interested in fundamental research because it knows that the solution to cancer is knowledge. Not half knowledge, but complete knowledge. Sure, I'm working my head off with frog embryos and that won't cure your cancer, but it sure may help cure or control cancer if it ever attacks your son or mine. Thanks.

[Frank Hastings]

Cigarette?

[Dr. Barton]

Going home?

[Frank Hastings]

Uh huh. Nerves. Feel better?

[Dr. Barton]

Swell. Drop in again.

[Frank Hastings]

I will.

[Dr. Stanley]

Goodbye.

[Frank Hastings]

I went home, had dinner, turned on the radio and read the papers. Millie said nothing about cancer. Neither did I. About nine o' clock, the bell rang.

[Millie Hastings]

Stay where you are, dear. I'll go. Why, hello, Dr. Stanley.

[Dr. Stanley]

Good evening, Ms. Hastings. Boss home? Morning, doctor. I happen to be in the neighborhood and I've got that lab report. Well, you want to hear it?

[Millie Hastings]

What is it?

[Dr. Stanley]

Good news?

[Frank Hastings]

No.

[Dr. Stanley]

Cancer.

[Millie Hastings]

Oh, doc, I. I think I'm going to cry.

[Dr. Stanley]

Oh, that's old fashioned. What about you, Hastings? How do you feel? Want to cry?

[Frank Hastings]

No, but I don't want to laugh either.

[Dr. Stanley]

I can understand that.

[Frank Hastings]

It's been an experience. Doc, what are the odds against my really having cancer before I die? Against Millie having cancer? Against you having cancer?

[Dr. Stanley]

That's hard to say exactly. We do know it strikes in one family out of two on an average. Pretty good odds. Pretty grim.

[Frank Hastings]

Odd, except for one thing.

[Dr. Stanley]

Square moons. Square moons?

[Frank Hastings]

Yep. Lights in the night. Men working overtime trying to get to the bottom of the cancer problem. Working for me and Millie and you and getting places. No Pasteurs, no cocks, no Flemings. Just plain men and women sweating out their lifetimes, looking for the answers. You know what it does? It makes you feel a little guilty.

[Dr. Stanley]

Well, I've got a prescription for that.

[Narrator]

Yes.

[Dr. Stanley]

Every time you feel like that, just haul out your checkbook. Think how much you can give to the American Cancer Society. And then double the dose. I'll buy that, Doc.

[Frank Hastings]

And the double dose, too.

[Dr. Stanley]

Good thing. That'll make sure your square moons keep shining all night all over the country. Jumping G hosifat. 10 o'.

[Millie Hastings]

Clock.

[Frank Hastings]

10 o'. Clock.

[Millie Hastings]

And all's well.

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