The Free Company 41-02-23 (01) The People with Light Coming out of Them

Summary

Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio – Episode "The Free Company 41-02-23 (01) The People with Light Coming out of Them"

Introduction

In this captivating episode of "Harold's Old Time Radio," listeners are transported to the Golden Age of Radio with "The Free Company" series. Hosted by Burgess Meredith, this inaugural episode features William Saroyan's original radio play, "The People with Light Coming out of Them." Released on April 8, 2025, the episode showcases distinguished American playwrights, actors, and radio workers dedicated to celebrating American democracy and civil rights through compelling storytelling.

Overview of "The People with Light Coming out of Them"

William Saroyan's play centers around Jim Smith, a dedicated painter who moves into a vibrant American neighborhood. Through his interactions with fellow residents, Jim discovers the inherent goodness and resilience that illuminate each person, symbolized by the metaphorical "light" emanating from them. The narrative weaves together personal stories and community bonds, highlighting the collective strength that sustains a happy and free society.

Key Characters

• Jim Smith (Played by William Saroyan): A passionate painter who seeks to capture the essence of his neighborhood through his art.

• The Old Man: A retired railroad worker who finds solace in crafting furniture, embodying perseverance and the pursuit of meaningful work.

• Granddaughter: A cheerful stenographer who balances her aspirations of becoming a schoolteacher with family responsibilities.

• Mike Akagawa: A 16-year-old delivering for his father's cleaning business, representing youthful enthusiasm and cultural diversity.

• Pete Dariola and Family: A hardworking father with seven children, showcasing the dynamics of a large, close-knit family.

• Dr. John Bailey: A compassionate doctor who uses humor and empathy to alleviate the fears of his young patients, illustrating the healing power of laughter and faith.

Themes and Discussions

1. Freedom and Democracy: The play underscores the importance of freedom as the foundation of American life. Burgess Meredith poignantly states, “For what avail the plow or sail or land or life if freedom fail” (00:55).

2. Community and Connection: Through Jim's interactions, the narrative emphasizes the strength derived from community bonds and mutual support. The characters' willingness to engage and help one another highlights the essence of a united society.

3. Innate Goodness and Resilience: The metaphor of "light" symbolizes the inherent goodness within individuals. Jim observes that even those facing hardships possess a radiant spirit that drives them to overcome challenges.

4. Artistic Vision and Perception: Jim’s dedication to capturing the "light" in his paintings serves as a commentary on the role of art in revealing deeper truths about human nature and society.

5. Healing and Optimism: Dr. John Bailey’s approach to medicine, combining professional care with personal warmth, illustrates how optimism and faith contribute to healing and personal well-being.

Notable Quotes

• Burgess Meredith (00:55):
  “For what avail the plow or sail or land or life if freedom fail.”

• William Saroyan on Painting and Light (11:08):
  “Even when there's no sun shining. If you look carefully, you can see light coming out of all sorts of things. But it's not easy to explain.”

• Dr. John Bailey on Laughter and Healing (21:51):
  “Laughter's just about as strong as sunlight. As a healing force. Where there's laughter, there's never fear.”

• William Saroyan’s Reflection on Community (27:31):
  “Look at the light shining out of those humble houses. That light is the light of a happy nation, a free and growing people, a human people.”

Conclusion

"The People with Light Coming out of Them" masterfully portrays the vitality and optimism that define the American spirit. Through rich character development and evocative dialogue, William Saroyan delivers a heartfelt homage to the everyday heroes who uphold the values of freedom and community. Burgess Meredith aptly concludes the episode by reaffirming the collective strength of a nation built on the luminous spirits of its people, stating, “Let us resolve again in the face of threatening shadows that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth” (27:31).

This episode not only entertains but also inspires listeners to appreciate the simple yet profound light within each individual, celebrating the enduring legacy of American democracy and the unyielding human spirit.

Transcript

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[Announcer]

The Columbia Broadcasting System presents the Free Company.

[Burgess Meredith]

For what avail the plow or sail or land or life if freedom fail.

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, today CBS is proud to contribute its facilities to a new and important development in radio history. The the Free Company. The Free Company is a voluntary group of distinguished American playwrights, writers, actors and radio workers who have joined their talents to bring you this series with no compensation other than the knowledge that it may serve America. With James Boyd as national chairman, Robert E. Sherwood, chairman of the Writers Committee, and Burgess Meredith, chairman of the Actors Division, the Free Company will present original radio plays written by its members. Maxwell Anderson, Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Vincent Binet, James Boyd, George M. Kohak, Mark Conley, no Green Ernway, Archibald MacLeish, Orson Welles, Elmer Rice, William Sorian and Robert E. Sherwood, nine of them Pulitzer Prize winners. The plays will feature America's most distinguished screen and stage stars in the leading roles. And now, Burgess Meredith for the Free Company.

[Burgess Meredith]

This is Burgess Meredith speaking from Hollywood. The purpose of the Free Company is to present in terms as eloquent as its members can command the meaning of freedom, and to serve as a free expression of their faith in American democracy and in the basic civil rights which make it possible. Some of these plays utilize for their dramatic themes particular sections of the Bill of Rights. Others, like today's drama, will be more general in scope. For our first play in this series, Pulitzer Prize playwright William Saroyan has written the People with light coming out of them. In the cast will be John Garfield, Nancy Kelly, Eduardo Cianelli, Edmund Gwynn, William Tracy, Tim Holt, and Clinton Rosamund. The brilliant work of these artists in motion pictures is known to all of you. When we asked William Saroyan to join the Free Company. Bill?

[William Saroyan]

Sure.

I'm fond of freedom. Crazy about company. What do I do?

[Burgess Meredith]

Write us a play.

[William Saroyan]

Okay. When?

[Burgess Meredith]

Now.

[William Saroyan]

Right now.

[Burgess Meredith]

Right now.

[William Saroyan]

Good. What do you want this play to be about?

[Burgess Meredith]

About the United States of America.

[William Saroyan]

My favorite subject.

[Burgess Meredith]

About why you like America.

[William Saroyan]

Why? You might as well ask me why I like to breathe. What do you really Want?

[Burgess Meredith]

Well, Bill, tell us something about why you think this country is worth living and fighting for. Give us your reasons in a little play.

[William Saroyan]

You have reasons, millions of them. As many reasons as there are places and people. Take California, for instance, or Texas, or New York. Take San Francisco or Peoria. Take any place. Rockville Center, Freeport, Merrick, Belmore, Wanta, Seaford, Massapequa, Amityville, Lindenhurst and Babel.

[Burgess Meredith]

Wait a minute. Can't you sort of break that down a little?

[William Saroyan]

Sure. We'll make it local. Now, look, we'll take one city block, any place. One American row of houses. Okay, now, there it is. Now, we'll take one American. Anybody. Let's take somebody, something like myself, so I'll know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, anybody. Instead of being a writer, let's say this fellow's a painter. He looks at things carefully and then paints what he sees them.

[Pete Dariola]

Okay.

[William Saroyan]

Now, there's one street and there's this young painter. He's standing on the corner.

[Burgess Meredith]

What corner?

[William Saroyan]

This American corner. Now, give me a typewriter and I go to work.

[Burgess Meredith]

Sure. Here you are. Now, you sit right down. Thanks.

[William Saroyan]

Come on, old Walt Whitman. Tell us about America.

Tell us about where we live, about.

Home and the family. Mark Twain. You tell us about it. And old dan Boone and 130 million people. You tell us about it.

This is a good block. I'll tell you who lives in this block. Well, in the flat below me is the old husband and the wife and their granddaughter. The old man's retired. He used to be a railroad worker. They gave him a pension about two years ago. Yesterday I saw him at the corner, just kind of standing in the sun there, burned up about having no job.

[Old Man]

And he said, how does anybody know when a man's through? I'm not through, and I never have been. As long as a man wants to work, he's not through. So I'm keeping busy. Aye, they're not going to kill me with kindness. Do you know what I'm doing now, eh? Well, it's the truth. I've got a whole setup in the basement. Last week I made a little table, and this week I'm working on a chair. I've got to keep going. I've got to do things. You can hear me hammering doon there now, can't you?

[William Saroyan]

Is that you hammering? Yeah.

[Old Man]

How does it sound to you, eh? Young and vigorous.

[William Saroyan]

It doesn't sound old.

[Old Man]

I'll say it doesn't. There's plenty of people around here that can use a table or A chair or one thing or another. And I'm going to go ahead and make these things. And if they can't afford to pay for the lumber, I'll make them a present of it. I like to be making something. I don't like the sitaroon, being an old man. Ever hear me sing while I'm working?

[William Saroyan]

Yes, I believe I have.

[Old Man]

Well, now, how does it sound? Come on, now, tell me the truth.

[William Saroyan]

Not bad at all. What is that song you keep singing all the time?

[Old Man]

Oh, it's Dolly Day.

[William Saroyan]

Is that what it is?

[Old Man]

Ah, you mean, oh, Dolly Day she looks again all around and ruined to hear her fairy footsteps play as she comes o'er the groond yes. Aye, it's my favorite Dolly Day. It's my wee wifey's name. Dolly.

[William Saroyan]

Yeah. So long, lad. So long, Pop. I'll be seeing you. Well, the old man and his wife, they're folks. And a girl, their granddaughter, she's a stenographer somewhere, and she goes to work every morning looking like a princess. The old man, he's Scotch, and his wife's English with a little French. And the granddaughter's mother, she has some Spanish. That's a lot of folks. Well, I was sitting on the steps last Sunday when the girl came home from church. I never saw anything prettier. She's something like her grandfather when it comes to starting a conversation anywhere at all. She came up the street and started talking from about 10 yards away.

[Granddaughter]

Hello. You're the man who's taking the flat upstairs, aren't you? No. It seems funny not hearing a lot of noise up there anymore. There were five growing kids in the family that moved out just before you moved in. And, gee, they sure used to have a lot of fun. Gosh, it's a beautiful day, isn't it?

[William Saroyan]

It sure is. One of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Too good to waste indoors.

[Granddaughter]

That's one thing I like about church. On a good day when it's all over, you go out humming the last song they sang. And you step into beautiful sunshine and walk home feeling glad and hungry and happy about everything.

[William Saroyan]

I've got to do that. I've got to go to a church next Sunday myself. What kind of sermon was it?

[Granddaughter]

Oh, it was a little sad and made me feel angry about the war and the way people are behaving. But, well, we gotta know about wars and what they mean to people and what they do. So the last song we sang was Rock of Ages.

[William Saroyan]

Rock of Ages? I haven't heard that Song in years.

[Granddaughter]

Oh, it's a beautiful song. Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me Let me hide myself. It's good for people to feel that something is solid for them to hang onto. People sing songs like that all over the world, I guess. What do you do?

[William Saroyan]

Yes, that's exactly how she said it. She's an American. She wanted to know, so she asked. She was sincere and she was interested. I told her I'm a painter.

[Granddaughter]

Oh, a house painter.

[William Saroyan]

Well, I paint houses too, among other things. But I don't mean that kind of painting. I paint on canvas.

[Granddaughter]

You mean you're an artist?

[William Saroyan]

Well, yes, although that sounds a little high tone for me. I'm a worker whose work as it is to paint. I've got no boss and I don't keep regular hours or anything like that. But I work like everybody else.

[Granddaughter]

Gosh, I never knew people could live so near artists.

[William Saroyan]

Wait a minute. Don't get me wrong. I'm not famous. In fact, I'm not very well known to more than 10 or 11 people in the whole world. I'm not rich either. I'm sort of poor. But it seems like everything I really want and need, I usually.

[Granddaughter]

Well, how do people get to be painters?

[William Saroyan]

Well, I suppose it creeps up on them gradually until they're so sure they're painters they're willing to work for years trying to prove it. I'm in my seventh year now.

[Granddaughter]

Have you got a lot of paintings?

[William Saroyan]

Lots of them. Dozens.

[Granddaughter]

Could I see them sometime?

[William Saroyan]

Well, I wish you would, but I've got to warn you, they're not nearly as pretty as some people in the world. Well, why don't you get your grandfather and grandmother and someday when I'm in town, go upstairs and loaf around. Doors always open.

[Granddaughter]

Oh, we wouldn't go into your house if you weren't there.

[William Saroyan]

Why not? It would be easy for you to look at the paintings. And I wouldn't be there to bother you in trying to explain them to you. It's not easy for a painter to explain his pictures. You see, you start to paint things, and after a while, as you learn more and more about painting, you start to paint what's inside of things and always coming out. Light comes out of most things, especially people. And it sometimes comes out of houses and streets and rooms and windows and all sorts of things that everybody sees every day. Well, I. I sort of concentrate on that light. I'm interested in it. Even when there's no sun shining. If you look carefully, you can see light coming out of all sorts of things. But it's not easy to explain.

[Granddaughter]

Gosh, you sound like a preacher. Only it sounds real, not like a sermon.

[William Saroyan]

Everybody's a preacher. Yes, but simply a question. What a man preaches.

[Granddaughter]

What do you preach?

[William Saroyan]

Tell you the truth, I believe something that's so ordinary, it's almost embarrassing to mention it. In fact, somebody sophisticated might laugh at me. I believe there's more good in things than anybody ever bothers to see. So I keep looking for it all the time. And when I find it, I try to keep it in a painting so other people can see it, too. After they see it in a painting, well, they see it everywhere else, too. That's what painting's for.

[Granddaughter]

Say, can we really go up and look at the paintings?

[William Saroyan]

I'm going to take a walk to town in about an hour. Why don't you all go up after you've had dinner? I won't be back until evening.

[Granddaughter]

Are you sure you won't mind?

[William Saroyan]

Mind? I want you to see my pictures. That's why I paint them.

[Granddaughter]

All right, then we'll go up and. Thanks.

[William Saroyan]

Okay. Well, she walked off and I went up to my room. You hear that? That's Michael Ogawa. He lives across the street. He's 16. His father runs that cleaning and pressing place. Mike delivers for his father. I've been here only two weeks and I know practically everybody in this block. Take Mike, for instance. He came upstairs one afternoon with one of my suits his father had cleaned and pressed. I was working at the time, and it looked as if it was gonna be a good picture. So I didn't want to stop working. I hollered, come in. The door opened and somebody said, I brought your suit. Okay, bring it up and put it on a chair somewhere. I went right on working. Guess I must have worked at least 40 minutes more before I stopped. The picture wasn't finished, and I didn't feel like doing any more work for a while. Wait till morning and go back to it fresh. Well, I lit a cigarette, inhaled and yawned and stretched. Hello. Who are you?

[Mike Akagawa]

Mike.

[William Saroyan]

Hi. My name is Jim Smith.

[Mike Akagawa]

Pleased to meet you.

[William Saroyan]

How long have you been here?

[Mike Akagawa]

Ever since I brought your suit.

[William Saroyan]

I'm sorry. How much? How much is it?

[Burgess Meredith]

Oh, it's all paid for.

[Mike Akagawa]

He paid my father the day you brought it in. Don't you remember? Then why I wanted to see you make the picture. I never saw a man paint a picture before. Can I look at it?

[William Saroyan]

Sure. It's not finished, but you can take a look at what I've got so far.

[Mike Akagawa]

Thanks. That sure is pretty.

[William Saroyan]

Do you really mean that?

[Burgess Meredith]

That.

[Mike Akagawa]

That second house?

[William Saroyan]

That.

[Mike Akagawa]

That's our house, isn't it?

[William Saroyan]

Do you live in that house with the green roof?

[Mike Akagawa]

Sure, Right over the shop. Well, I tell Pa. It sure is pretty.

[William Saroyan]

What's your last name? Mike Akagawa.

[Mike Akagawa]

Bet you know what nationality that is.

[William Saroyan]

Well, since it's yours, I'd say it's American.

[Mike Akagawa]

Oh, sure. But when it's my father's, it's Japanese. I guess he was born in Japan. I was bor. In that house in the picture. Gee, I never thought I'd see that little house in the picture.

[William Saroyan]

Listen to him, will you? Listen to Mike Akagawa across the street blowing the trumpet. Isn't that beautiful? That's what I like about this block. All the wonderful Americans living here doing their work and raising their families. Going to school, trying to learn how to play the trumpet. And looking around everywhere for the good things. Three doors from here is the Areola family. Father, mother and seven kids, all under 17. Well, they're a great gang of people. The father works in the wholesale produce market, so he gets up at three in the morning to go to work. You know, I sometimes walk around town late at night to see how things are there. And one night as I was coming home, I ran into Pete Dariola on his way to work. Well, it's very quiet at 3 in the morning. And you don't expect a stranger to come up to you and start to talk. But Pete did. Hello. Hello.

[Pete Dariola]

You are the new fella in this neighborhood, ain't you?

[William Saroyan]

Yes, I am. I've got that flat three doors up from your place.

[Pete Dariola]

Sure, I see you before. What's your name?

[William Saroyan]

Jim Smith.

[Pete Dariola]

My name is Peteriola.

[William Saroyan]

That's a good name. Pete. You're up early, aren't you?

[Pete Dariola]

I go to work every day at 3:00 in the morning. Where do you been? You work nighttime?

[William Saroyan]

Oh, in a way.

[Pete Dariola]

What do you mean?

[William Saroyan]

Well, I haven't got any working hours, so I guess they're all working hours.

[Pete Dariola]

Where do you work, Pete?

[William Saroyan]

I'm a painter. I paint pictures. I look around and paint what I see.

[Pete Dariola]

You Peter Artiste?

[William Saroyan]

Yeah.

[Pete Dariola]

I work wholesale. Purdue's Market. Where's your family?

[William Saroyan]

Well, my wife's visiting her folks. She'll be here in a week or so.

[Burgess Meredith]

Lonesome, huh?

[William Saroyan]

Oh, little.

[Pete Dariola]

You got kids? I got seven kids.

[William Saroyan]

Seven? That's. Well, I got only two.

[Pete Dariola]

I got seven. All go to school except two. The babies sometime. You lonesome, come over to the house. Have a drink of wine, eat some food and meet the kids.

[William Saroyan]

Thanks, Pete, I will.

[Pete Dariola]

Give me your name.

[William Saroyan]

Yeah, Jim Smith.

[Pete Dariola]

All right, Jim, come on over. We have a good time.

[William Saroyan]

Okay. So I went over to Pete's the next night and met the family.

[Pete Dariola]

Hello, Jim Smith. Come in, come in. You have supper with us. Hey, Angela, come and get some wine for our new neighbor. This is Jim Spinner. Angela, my wife.

[William Saroyan]

How you doing, Mrs. Ariel?

[Burgess Meredith]

Hello, young fellow.

[Pete Dariola]

These are my kids. Hey, kids, wait a one of them. Salute. Meet the new neighbor, Jim Smith. And now, let's see, we start with the babies. This is Nicky.

[William Saroyan]

Hi, Nick.

[Pete Dariola]

Hey, Angela, look, the neighbor. Pick up Nicky. Nicky, you like this fella? Sure, you like him, but that's fine. This little girl is named Laura. My little flower. This fella is Pat. Hey, Pat, how do you feel?

[Granddaughter]

Okay, Pa. Hello, Mr. Smith.

[William Saroyan]

Hello, Pat.

[Pete Dariola]

This lady. Oh, she's a lady. Look, those high heeled shoes. She's Rosa gonna be opera singer.

[Granddaughter]

I'm gonna be a schoolteacher.

[Pete Dariola]

All right. Rosa is cool teacher an opera singer, too.

[Granddaughter]

Papa wants everybody to be an opera singer.

[Pete Dariola]

Next, the big fellas. Joe, 14. Hi, Tom, 15 and a half.

[Mike Akagawa]

Hello.

[Pete Dariola]

And the oldest boy is Dominic, 16 and a half. There's another one on the way. All right, everybody, this fellow, our new neighbor, Jim Smith. All right, Jim, drink this wine now. Come on, kids, let's give a song. Oh, Solomon. Everybody together. Dominic, give me one chord enough and make it a good one.

[William Saroyan]

Well, we all sang and I sang as loud as anybody else. We drank and had supper together and talked. And before I left that house, I knew how important a part of America it is. What a fine American Peter is. And his wife and all the kids. They've all been up to my place for a visit now and then. The oldest boy, Dominic, comes up alone and talks. Everybody I've met on this block so far has had something. Dominic, for instance, wants to know if he ought to go to college like his father wants him to, or if he ought to get out and go to work down at the wholesale produce market and help out with the family expenses. Well, I don't say anything. I just listen. And after two or three visits, Dominic answers all his own questions. Gets up and he says, well, Thanks a lot, Mr. Smith. Thanks for telling me.

[Burgess Meredith]

That's what I'll do.

[William Saroyan]

I'll go to college and work both. I guess there's time for everything if a fellow makes up his mind to find the time. I can work during summer vacation and I can work Saturdays. I'd work Sundays too, but we're Catholics.

[Announcer]

And Ma'd get sore if I didn't.

[William Saroyan]

Go to church Sunday. Well, I'll be seeing you. Gee, that sure is a swell picture. There's a fellow who's got a furnished room in a house at the corner. He's a doctor at the hospital up the hill. There's a clinic up there. And I drop in once in a while to see the people when they're sick. And that's where I met this fella. Well, the kids love him. They're afraid of the other doctors, but they loved Dr. John. John Bailey is his name, but they call him Dr. John. We got to talking and he came up one afternoon for a drink. I wanted to know why the kids weren't afraid of him. Most people are a little afraid of anybody whose color is a little different from their own. And Bailey's color is the blackest black he ever saw. I asked him about the kids not being afraid of him.

[Dr. John Bailey]

Well, maybe it's because kids are people at their best. A kid with a pain, all he wants is to have the pain taken out of him. I don't go to work on a kid until I get him to know him. We talk a little while, and the first thing I know, they forget I'm a doctor. They even forget I'm colored. And then I know I can go to waste. The greater part of pain is feeling hopeless about it. And I never feel hopeless about anything. Kids find out about that and they stop being afraid of pain too. Well, by that time, more than half of it's gone. And what's left of it is on its way out. I laugh a good deal, too. Because laughter's just about as strong as sunlight. As a healing force. Where there's laughter, there's never fear. It helps the kids.

[William Saroyan]

How does it happen that you do laugh, though?

[Dr. John Bailey]

Well, I didn't used to. I used to let my own troubles grow. Until finally I found out that that was foolishness. The living a healthy life is healthy. I know that from my way. I've got to help them with medicine and heat and treatment and all that. But what really heals them is their own faith. Mind if I have another drink?

[William Saroyan]

Go ahead. Pour me one too. All the people in this block are like that. Like Bailey and Pete and Mike Okagawa and the old man and his granddaughter. But this block's no different from any other block in any other town in America. People are like that all over the place. And when you've got people with light coming out of them. Like it comes out of these people. And you've got light coming out of their houses and the streets they live in and the towns where these streets are and the whole land where these towns are. You hear them coming to life in the morning, the alarm clocks ringing, the faucets running, and everybody getting up to start another day. You know, they're a happy people because they belong to a happy nation. They're a free people, and they're glad to be alive. I've done a lot of looking around all over this country because that's my work. And everywhere I've gone, from the biggest city to the small, smallest town, I've seen people with light in them. Human people. People who are young and friendly and kind. Oh, I know. I've seen bad people, too, all kinds of them. But I looked a long time, and it's gotten so I can see them right through people who look as if they're bad, but they're not bad. They're having trouble. They're up against something. Things have gone wrong. They've lost faith. They need more things than they've got. They're out fighting because they don't know what else to do about the trouble. But even these people are good people. Something's pressing against their spirits, hurting them. Everything isn't perfect in any block in any town or city in this country. But in this country, it's always trying to improve. It's always working at the job the same as a painter's got to work at a picture. Look out this window, down at the street. It's not a fancy street. The houses aren't much. The people in them aren't people you read about in newspapers and magazines. But down there is America, that street and those houses and the people living in them. There is the strength of this nation and the hope of the world. Look at the light shining out of those humble houses. That light is the light of a happy nation, a free and growing people, a human people, a people without fear, a people who love instead of hate, whose casual, everyday humanity is stronger than any other power in the world. This is a good block. I like it here because the best in people from all over the world is growing here into the first real nation of the world, the American nation, the nation of human people.

[Burgess Meredith]

Burgess Meredith speaking. Thank you, William Soroyan. In many countries, the light of humanity flickers and dies, snuffed out by faceless men, by men who have no light in themselves and who therefore deny the existence of light anywhere. Our nation was formulated by men who cherish the light that comes from people. The meaning of our freedom is not here in our land. Darkness can never win. Let us resolve again in the face of threatening shadows that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. John Garfield, whom you will see soon in Warner Brothers A Sea Wolf. Nancy Kelly will be remembered for a work in Jesse James. Eduardo Cianelli, who played the unforgettable truck in RKO's Winterset. Edmund Gwen, whose performance as the murderer and foreign correspondent received high acclaim. William Tracy, who played the delightful fresh kid in MGM's little shop around the Corner and was now appearing in Daryl Zanuck's Tobacco Road. Tim Holt, who is starring in RKO's The Fargo Kid, and Clinton Rosamund, who is appearing in MGM's forthcoming blossoms in the Dust, have joined the Free Company in presenting the first in a series of broadcasts, William Saroyan's original radio play, the People With Light Coming out of Them. Lee Stevens composed and conducted an original music score Charles Vander produced to all these people, to the Screen Actors Guild, to the American Federation of Radio Artists, to the Columbia Network, all who have combined to make this series possible. Mrs. Burgess Meredith, offering the sincere thanks of the Free Company.

[Announcer]

All Those who enjoyed Mr. Saroyan's play, the People With Light Coming out of Them will be glad to know that a complete copy of the broadcast in printed form has been made available for distribution to all our listeners for 10 cents, the actual cost of printing and mailing. You will receive your own copy by writing to the Free Company in care of the station to which you are now listening. Copies of subsequent broadcasts during this entire series of productions by the Free Company will also be made available each week. Next week at this same time, the Free Company will present a play by the Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Connolly, titled the Mole on Lincoln's Cheek. The Free Company series is directed by Irving Reese. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.