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Hello, Miss Loretta Young?
Mr. Bailey's having some people over here at the house tonight.
He'd like to know if you would come.
Uh-oh. Uh, Miss Young, Mr. Bailey told me to tell you that would be after dinner.
That's right.
Goodbye.
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Hello, Miss Irene Dunn?
Uh, this is Rochester over at Mr. Bailey's house.
Uh, he'd like to know if you could come over tonight.
Uh, he told me to be sure to tell you that that's...
Oh, that's right. I forgot you've been here before.
Goodbye.
Cigarette, anyone?
Thanks, Paul.
Uh-uh. There aren't any.
Oh, that's our Jack.
Mm-hmm.
Here you go, Bill.
Thank you.
Well, hello, everybody.
Glad you could come.
Everybody comfortable?
Yes, yes.
Good, good.
Cigarette, Jack?
No, thank you.
Hmm.
Now, the reason I asked you all over here is because I want you to meet Father James Keller,
who is coming by in just a few minutes.
He wants to talk to you about making a movie.
Now, I know that everybody in Hollywood wants to make a movie,
but, uh, this fellow happens to have a very good idea for one.
You see, uh, Father Keller is the head of the Christopher's.
Now, as some of you may know, the main idea behind this movement
is to encourage more good, decent, normal people
to take up careers that strongly affect the fate of this country.
Like, well, like education, government, labor management,
and in the fields of writing, like newspapers, books, magazines,
motion pictures, radio, and television.
Now, I know this is a pretty big order,
but the Christopher movement has been sweeping the country.
So much so that it has reached a point where Father Keller
has been able to cover only a small portion of the invitations for talks on the Christopher's.
And he thinks that a picture explaining the idea would be a good substitute for a talk.
I think it's a good idea.
I think it's an excellent idea.
Excellent.
Father Keller.
Hello, Father.
Hello.
I suppose Jack told you that the chief purpose of the Christopher's
is to get more people of high purpose into the vital fields that affect,
for better or for worse, the lives of the majority of mankind.
The fields of teaching, government, writing, labor, social service, and library work.
And Jack mentioned that we were interested in one picture.
As a matter of fact, I'd be interested in lots of pictures on the Christopher idea
because I don't know of any medium in which we could reach the millions of people
more effectively through the motion pictures.
Anne, you seem to have a question.
Well, you know, I suppose it is a good thing to get into one of those fields,
but, Father, it's not quite so easy for young people to get any kind of job these days.
Well, that's just the point, Anne.
As long as it is difficult, why not try for a job that counts
instead of just taking something where you're filling in time between 9 and 5.
Why not get a job where you're doing something, a job with a purpose?
Oh, a job with a purpose, so you can whistle while you work.
Yes, very good, Anne. That's the way to put it. Whistle while you work.
But it's really much more than that, too.
I'm convinced we're on the brink of the greatest peace the world has ever seen
or the worst disaster.
You make it sound like a matter of life and death, Father.
But, Bill, I really feel it is.
Here we are in the greatest country in the world,
about the only country left intact.
And whether we like it or not, I'm afraid, as America goes, so goes the world.
My Father, that's a frightening thought.
Yes, Loretta, but a glorious challenge.
It's a wonderful time to be alive.
Just think, a little handful of people can change the whole course of history.
Well, maybe more than a handful.
I mean just that, a handful.
One percent is nothing more than a handful.
And just think what that one percent has been doing to mess up the world.
And they get in the fields that count.
That's right. You never see any of those...
Pardon me, Father, chaps out at the ballgame selling hot dogs.
No, you don't.
You're right you are, Paul. They're in there pitching.
Call them what you like. They have one thing in common.
They hate the basic truth in which our nation is founded,
that every human being is a child of God,
that he gets his rights from God,
that the purpose of state is to protect those God-given rights.
They, every one of them, get into fields where they can eliminate that truth.
So the purpose of the Christopher moment is to spark enough people
to get them into the same fields and work as hard to build as they do to destroy.
Yes, Bill, that's just it.
I'm really convinced that we can find enough people
who will be fired with the love of God and country,
who will gladly get into these vital fields,
dedicate their lives and get into government and teaching
and all the rest of these important spheres,
and work hard to keep in there that basic truth in which our country is founded.
To be for what these other people are against,
the number one item is the Declaration of Independence.
No, that's not everything, but it's mighty important.
I don't think many people realize the close connection
that the founders of our country explicitly stated was between God and country.
Over and over again, they emphasized that was the cornerstone of our liberty.
Then four times in the Declaration of Independence,
they repeated over and over again that our liberty depends upon God.
That's right.
Do you know the Declaration, Paul?
Naturally. It goes as follows.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station
to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.
Remarkable, Paul.
You're one of the first persons I've ever met that know that much of the Declaration.
There's something I have here I'd like to show you.
Right in the very first sentence of the Declaration,
it states very explicitly that all law flows from God.
And then there's another reference to God in the very next sentence.
The very next sentence, we hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
Amazing, Paul. And he knows it word for word, too.
Here's an odd thing about that second reference to God.
It wasn't in the first version at all. It's a straight write-in.
Here it is, a photostatic copy of the original draft.
The first version said, all men are created equal,
and from that equal creation they derive certain inalienable rights.
But apparently they want to emphasize the point still more.
So you can see where Jefferson crossed out the phrase,
from that equal creation they derive certain inalienable rights,
and wrote in the phrase, they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
Now that's not the only change that was made in the Declaration.
When it was submitted to the first Congress,
they made several changes, several deletions,
but they insisted on only two additions,
and both those additions were references to God.
And they're both in the last paragraph.
The last paragraph.
The last paragraph.
We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America,
in general Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world.
Very good, Paul.
Appealing to the supreme judge of the world.
That's just the point they want to emphasize.
And then again in the last paragraph.
And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on divine providence.
Thanks a million, Paul. You were a big help.
No reflection, Paul, but how did you learn all of that?
Yeah, I'd like to know too.
My teacher used to keep me in after school a lot.
I bet I wrote that in the blackboard 5,000 times.
I'll say this for the woman, though.
She didn't have me writing cat and dog, or Paul was a bad boy.
She must have a lot of that Christopher Purpose we've been talking about.
You know, that 1% is a cozy group.
All they want to do is tear the heart out of the Declaration.
And that's bad enough, Bill, but they're out to do much more than that.
They want to destroy the very pursuit of happiness,
the whole reason for being,
the joy of living that's come down through 20 centuries of Christianity.
And for over 3,000 years, the Jews have carried the sublime truth
that man is made in the image and likeness of God,
that he has an eternal destiny.
And all of this stands out ever so much more clearly
when you think of what Adolf Hitler and Karl Marx said
about their idea of the worth of the human being.
Here are Hitler's words.
He said,
In the ancient doctrine of the infinite significance of the individual human soul,
I oppose with icy clarity the saving doctrine
of the nothingness and insignificance of the human being.
And Karl Marx put it a slightly different way,
but his idea was just the same.
He said,
The democratic concept of man is false because it is Christian.
The democratic concept holds that each man is a sovereign being.
This is the illusion, dream, and postulate of Christianity.
Then our position is crystal clear, Father.
We say man is a creature of God, responsible to God.
That 1% say that man is a nobody.
Yes, just a nobody worth about $1.89,
just a bunch of chemicals.
And they don't want man to know his sacred worth.
And that's why they swarm into every field they can
to eliminate every trace of man's dignity.
They want to wipe it out, eliminate it from the face of the earth.
Well, is it correct to say, then, that the Christophers are an anti-communist movement?
No, the problem as we see it is this.
It's getting good people in, getting the good citizen to do his part
in saving our country and saving the world.
And so the Christopher approach emphasizes the affirmative, the constructive,
doing something positive.
We say that it's much more important to chase good people in
than it is to be too preoccupied chasing evil people out,
essential as that is.
I don't know how many of you realize it,
but according to reliable estimates,
60% of the parents of America don't want their own children
to work for their own government.
Can you think of any quicker way to wreck any country?
Then, on top of that, a million teachers are needed in the schools of America.
6,000 little public schools have closed because of lack of teachers.
Fewer and fewer parents are encouraging their children to take up writing careers.
17,000 librarians are needed,
tens of thousands in the social service field.
I could go on and on,
but it's more or less the same old story of what happened in Germany.
Most of the good Germans wanted good government,
good education, good everything else,
but they didn't want to be bothered.
They wanted somebody else to do it.
You know the old story, everybody wanted to eat, but nobody wanted to cook.
We know one of doing all the cooking.
Yes, Jack, and the world has had indigestion ever since.
The Nazis weren't strong in the beginning,
but they swarmed into every vital field.
The lines were drawn then, and the lines are drawn now,
for either for God or against God.
If it's the latter, we'll pay the penalty and soon.
William Penn said something along that line about being ruled by tyrants.
I remember he said...
Those who are not governed by God are ruled by tyrants.
Is that what you meant, Irene?
Yes, Father, something like it. He said it was what I meant.
Well, anyhow, that's where the Christopher approach comes in.
We feel that something can be done and soon.
As soon as there are more people turning on lights than there are turning them off,
there'll be a wonderful change for the better.
Just recently I finished a quick trip around the country.
I gave talks in 23 cities, 95 talks,
a little over four weeks.
Every place you go, you find wonderful people
all ready and set to do something to change the world for the better.
Yes, Father, the woods are full of good people.
Now all we have to do is get them out of the woods.
Father, you mentioned that you had been all over the country
and you met some very fine people.
Could you give us an example, for instance, of some constructive thing that has been done?
I certainly can, Loretta. I could give you hundreds of them.
But here's one that I think will interest you in particular.
I was down in Texas not long ago
and I met this 23-year-old Baptist schoolteacher.
She said she'd read an article about the Christophers in a magazine.
And the point that she liked best was its emphasis on what little people can do
to change the world for the better.
She said, and it was wonderful to hear the way she said it,
she said, you know, for the first time in my life did I realize
a little person like myself counts.
And then she went on to explain that she was teaching in schools.
It was hard work and so forth.
But she said, most of the girls I know are getting out of the teaching field.
They say there's not enough money in it. The pay is too low.
Well, after all, Father, they do have a point.
They don't make very much money, do they?
That's right.
Well, Father, is it even a living wage?
Well, I think for most it is, Loretta.
It's a living wage, but for many not.
And that's part of our job, to get a better wage for them, too.
But this girl had a very fine solution for the present.
She said she was going to stay in there teaching.
And moreover, and this was an important point,
she said, I'm going to become a committee of one
and get as many girls as I can to get in the teaching field.
It was wonderful to hear her enthusiasm.
And then she said, I got my first recruit yesterday.
So, Father, tell them all about the young fellow in the gas station.
Yes, there's a nice point to that story, Jack.
This young Negro student was working his way through college,
trying to support his family.
He had a job at a filling station.
A little bit of prejudice developed,
and oh, about 10 or 12 people stopped buying gasoline.
The man, or the owner of the station, was quite worried.
It was only a small business that he had,
and he felt that he had let the man go.
And the word got around, and this little housewife heard about it,
and she felt she should do something.
She'd caught this Christopher idea,
she should reach out to the world, and here was a specific opportunity.
So in a very nice way, she walked down to the station
and asked if there was anything she could do.
And this man was so surprised, he said,
well, you're the first one that's offered to do anything.
Everybody's complaining. Nobody's doing anything.
But she said, how many customers would you lose if you kept him?
He said, I don't know, about 20 maybe.
She said, if I go out and get you 20 new customers, would you keep him?
He said, I certainly will.
She went out and got 25 new customers.
One of the big magazines picked up the story
and carried it to at least 15 million readers.
I dare say that maybe a million people have done things through her example.
She wanted to reach the world, well, she did reach the world.
Oh, father, that's a marvelous story.
And that's what the Christophers can do, huh?
I could tell you thousands of stories like these.
Each one emphasizes over and over again
the big things that little people can do.
I'm convinced that God will bless any old fool who will try.
I don't think he'll bless the smartest person in the world
who says it can't be done.
You know, our forefathers left us a wonderful pattern,
a heritage we should cherish.
Each one of us can play a part in preserving it.
Yes, you and you and you and everybody else
can do something to change the world for the better.
Father, you have a customer.
You can count on me too, father.
I'm in.
I think I can speak for everybody.
Why not? You've been doing it all evening.
Oh, I'm really...
Father, I think what Paul means is that you don't have to take a vote.
You can have a boost from all of us here.
Because I really believe that everybody here is thrilled with the idea
that all over the country there are people simple enough
and wise enough to know that if you don't belong to the human family,
you don't belong to anything.
In other words, if you don't stand for something, you're full for anything.
That's right, Loretta. Very true.
Father Keller, there's a couple of songwriters here
who wrote a song they thought maybe you could use.
Their names are Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.
You remember them? They wrote that song.
Would you rather swing on a star,
carry movies home in a jar,
Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen.
Hello, father.
Hello, Johnny, Jimmy.
Hello, father.
Oh, yes, they brought a fellow along with them
that said he'd like to sing it.
Claims he's a baritone.
I didn't get his last name, but his first name is Bing.
Oh, hello, father.
Hello, Bing.
Well, what a major league talent you have here, huh?
Good evening, father.
Good evening, Bing.
Hi, Jack.
Hello, Bing.
Tell you, Jack, the boys here have written a song
that they think more or less suits Father Keller's purpose.
Oh, then you know his work.
Oh, certainly.
Good, good.
Did Father Keller tell you about the Declaration of Independence
and the pains our forefathers went to in writing this beautiful document?
Yes, he did, Jack.
In fact, that was sort of the inspiration for the song.
I hope it fits, father.
In any case, here it is.
The dream I'm building
Is early American
Something that won't go out of style
It makes you feel
That life's worth living
The way they must have felt
That's worth thanksgiving
You sure get sold on
That early American
After you look around a while
So I'm building a dream
For someone
Like the early American
The dream I'm building
Is early American
Something that won't go out of style
It makes you feel
That life's worth living
The way they must have felt
That's worth thanksgiving
You sure get sold on
This early American
After you look around a while
So I'm building a dream
For someone
Like the early American
Think it works?
I think it's wonderful.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, father.
Thank you, father.
Oh, here's a telegram for you, father.
Oh, Rochester, thank you.
Would you mind holding this, please?
No, no.
Oh, it's from Bob Hope.
He wants me to phone him.
Bob?
Yeah.
Oh, I'll get him for you.
I'll get him on the phone.
See, he lives right over here in North Hollywood.
No distance at all, you know.
Maybe, but that telegram says from Houston, Texas.
Father, don't you think it would be better to send Bob,
you know, write him a letter?
You know, sometimes the written word,
you can get so much more out of it.
I know how you feel, Jack,
but Bob says phone him right away.
If it makes any difference, I'll be glad to.
Oh, now, wait a minute.
No, no.
Now, father, please, no, certainly not.
I'll get him on the phone for you.
Yeah.
What's the number?
Jackson 4219.
Houston, Texas.
I know about Houston.
I know.
Oh, operator, I'd like to get Mr. Bob Hope, please,
in Houston, Texas.
The number is Jackson 4219.
Gee, Jack, I hate to put you to this expense.
No, listen, father, let me explain something to you.
Believe me, on the radio,
I'm supposed to be a real cheap, stingy character, you see,
but that's only to get laughs.
That's all right.
You know, you have to get laughs,
but don't confuse that with the real me,
because in real life, I'm not like that at all.
No, I'm certainly not.
Here he is, father.
Sir, I'm all right.
Hello, Bob.
How are you?
How is it down there?
Fine.
I hope to get down there myself in a few weeks.
How's the weather?
You asked him that already.
Sure.
Fine.
Did Dolores go with you?
Father, ask him what he wants.
Bob, I'm a Jax.
Can you make a snappy?
Yes, father.
Uh-huh.
I can hardly hear you.
Well, I have a little...
Would you wait till I turn this Crosby record off?
Hey, fellas, would you type down...
We're not talking long distance to Hollywood.
It's expensive.
How can I explain it to you?
Jack Benny's paying for it.
Father, I just saw a miracle.
Must be radio fans.
Hey, father, I'm sorry I wasn't at Jack Benny's house for the meeting.
I just want you to know I'm behind this project for the Christopher's.
It seems like a good idea to me,
getting the people back to the basic idea behind the Declaration of Independence.
Yeah, you couldn't push a better product.
Seems to me you don't hear much anymore about the Declaration.
All you hear about is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
But let's not forget for a moment that they don't add up to much if you pass up the Declaration.
Yeah, and I'm sure there's a lot of folks here in Texas who'll be behind you.
Just their dish.
Good luck, father.
Thanks a lot.
I'll be seeing you.
Bye-bye.
Jack, I can't begin to thank you for this. It's marvelous.
Don't thank me, father.
I want to thank you for the chance to help out on an idea as important as this.
And of all the things you mentioned,
the one that stands out in my mind is the part about the Declaration of Independence.
Jack, it stood out in somebody else's mind, too.
I wanted to tell the rest about it, but I didn't dare take any more of their time.
I have a copy here of Lincoln's last speech.
If you may, I'd leave it with you.
Notice his magnificent language. Just read a bit of that.
Hmm.
1858.
This was their lofty and wise and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to his creatures,
to the whole great family of man.
In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with a divine image and likeness
was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbrued by its fellows.
Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines which conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence,
if you have listened to suggestions which would take from its grandeur and mutilate the symmetry of its proportions,
if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal
in those inalienable rights enumerated by our Charter of Liberty,
let me entreat you to come back.
Return to the fountains whose water spring flows by the blood of the revolution.
Think nothing of me. Take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever,
but come back to the truth that are in the Declaration of Independence.
Do not destroy the immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of Independence.
God bless you, Jack. God bless you, too.
God bless you, too, Rochester. Thank you.