“Great Days in Dayton”
Reproduced on these pages is the full script of a “Great Days in Dayton” broadcast. All music and sound effect “cues” are indicated just as they appear on the working scripts used by the cast. The sponsor hopes that you will find interesting these dramatized episodes from the life story of your city.
“Great Days in Dayton” is a Presentation Sponsored by
THE DAYTON POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY
SCRIPT No. 26—“DAYTON TODAY”
[Music: Theme. Starts fortissimo, then fades behind…]
ANNOUNCER: “Great Days in Dayton!”
MUSIC
ANNOUNCER: Six months ago a new radio program had its premiere in Dayton. It was a program presenting the romance and drama of our city’s century and a half of history. Week by week it has followed the colorful story of Dayton, from the arrival of the first settlers to the events of the present day. We have shared the adventures, the trials and struggles of generations of Daytonians long dead. We have seen how their courage and perseverance have shaped the destiny of our community, guided and strengthened its institutions, built a civic structure based on the concept that the welfare of the community as a whole is the first duty of city government and the only sure guide to civic growth and achievement. Our sponsors, The Dayton Power and Light Company, are proud of the part they have played in community progress, through supplying natural gas, electric light and power, and city steam, to the homes, businesses and industries of Dayton. Their plans for the future, in extension and improvement of their service, are plans for the future betterment of Dayton as a whole. (PAUSE.) Today we present our final historical drama, a review of the events of the last decade in Dayton. We are broadcasting from the National Cash Register Auditorium, where an audience of more than two thousand persons has gathered to see as well as hear our concluding program. It is an audience composed of hundreds of Dayton people who have been present at previous broadcasts, who have followed closely this dramatized history of our city and who have shown thereby that there exists in Dayton today a keen interest in civic movements and community advancement. (PAUSE.) We have as our guest star today a radio personality well known to the great majority of our audience, both here in the auditorium and on the air. He is Peter Grant, nationally-known news commentator. Mr. Grant will take an active part in today’s program. (PAUSE.) And now…here is your narrator, Mr. Charles McLean, who will introduce this concluding presentation of “Great Days in Dayton.”
MUSIC
NARRATOR: The many historical events which have made up the dramatic pattern of “Great Days in Dayton” have varied widely in character. Some have been romantic, some tragic, some even comic…the inevitable elements in the life story of an American community. Throughout the fabric of our story there has run the recurrent thread of community conflict. At first glance this would appear to be a civic misfortune, an obstacle to progress. Yet the truth is that honest and sincere difference of opinion as to community objectives and intelligent opposition to proposed movements constitute the best assurance of wisdom and soundness in all community progress. Sometimes, perhaps, opposition has slowed Dayton’s progress, unfortunately; but sometime, too, that opposition has produced better civic plans than those first proposed. (PAUSE.) And now, before we present the dramatic events of the past decade, let us go back for a few moments to some of the earlier “Great Days in Dayton” …days that carry us back across the decades to earlier chapters in our story.
MUSIC
VOICE: April 1, 1796. After a perilous journey by boat up the flood-swollen Miami River, the first party of settlers land on the site of Dayton. We hear two of them, Sam and Kate Thompson, as they stand together, facing their new life in the wilderness.
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SAM: Kate, look here! Here’s one of the trees Dan Cooper marked. See, it says, “St. Clair.” We’ll find others marked “Jefferson” and “Wilkinson” and “Ludlow.” Just think, Kate, some day we’ll be able to stand right here and look down that way; where there’s nothing but forest now, and we’ll see a wide street all cleared of trees and brush, and maybe there’ll be twenty houses along it. And, Kate, the thing that makes me feel good inside is that all those houses, warm and lighted up at night, will be filled with families that have come to live in Dayton and to help us make it a mighty fine town….
KATE: Yes, Sam, it’s wonderful to think that. It’s…it’s beautiful and…and sort of sacred. Oh, Sam, I just can’t help crying. Hold me in your arms, Sam.
SAM: There, there, Kate, darling. Don’t cry. We’re home now. [Music.]
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VOICE: 1865. The little frontier settlement of Dayton has become a city. Hundreds of well built homes have replaced the crude log cabins of the earlier days. Stage coaches, the canal and most recently the railroads have woven active lines of communication with the outer world, brought in thousands of new citizens, stimulated trade and industry. But during the last four years Dayton, like all of America, has suffered the tragedy of Civil War. Now it is ended, and the Dayton community faces the problems of reconstruction. On a night in April, the publisher and editor of the Dayton Journal discuss the days that lie ahead. [Music.]
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[Telegraph and voices off.]
DICK: It’s a different world, isn’t it?
COMLY: And a better one, a much better one! Dick, America can go ahead now, unfettered as the slaves who’ve been freed. This can be the greatest nation in the world.
DICK: But there’s something I’m afraid of, Will.
COMLY: What is there to be afraid of now?
DICK: Ourselves—the North.
COMLY: Ourselves?
DICK: Yes. The bitterness and rancour aren’t gone, not by any means. And they won’t be for years. There’ll be those among us who’ll want revenge, who’ll want to punish for the sake of punishment, who’ll want to rule because they’ve conquered. (PAUSE.) That’s our danger now, Will.
COMLY: [Slowly.] Yes, I think you’re right. [Brightening.] But, Dick, that can’t be—not with Abraham Lincoln in the White House.
DICK: And he’s our hope, and only hope, of being saved from ourselves. With his tolerance and patience and understanding to guide us…
PETERS: [Off.] Will! Will! [Coming on.] Will, I can’t believe it! It came in on the wire just now, but it can’t be true! It can’t!
COMLY: Let’s see it, Ed. [Gasps.] May God have mercy on us now! (PAUSE.) [Loud.] Quiet! Quiet, everyone! [Telegraph and voices out.] [Slowly, wearily, his voice breaking.] President Lincoln has been assassinated. [Music.]
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VOICE: 1913. Dayton has become an outstanding American city—famous for its many industrial products, know the world over as the birthplace of aviation. Then, even as the city moved toward still greater achievements, overwhelming disaster struck by flood and fire. Over night the community was faced with ruin and desolation. Here was the supreme test of Dayton’s spirit, but that spirit rose to triumph over tragedy. Though Dayton’s citizens had suffered appalling losses, they rallied swiftly to raise an enormous fund as protection against another such disaster. On a night in May thousands gathered in front of the old courthouse to see the completion of the campaign. [Music.]
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[Band music, voices, cheers, shouts…off.]
PAUL: Gee, Dad, I never saw so many people in my life!
SUE: Let me hold your hand, Mother. I’m afraid of getting lost. [Cheers.]
PAUL: There goes another twenty-five thousand!
MARY: But, Sam, the register only shows a million, six hundred thousand. Can they get the rest of it? It’s so late now.
SAM: I don’t know. But you can be sure they’re trying.
VOICE: [Off.] Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen! [Cheers down.] As you know, the National Cash Register Company has already given a quarter of a million dollars. But just now we have received another N. C. R. subscription. We’re going to ring it up on the cash register here. The amount is…two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!
MARY: Oh, Sam, how wonderful!
SAM: Now they’ll make it…only a few thousand more to go!
VOICE 2: Another twenty-five thousand!
VOICE 3: And five more!
VOICE 4: There’s another ten!
VOICE 2: There it is! Two…million…dollars! [Cheers and band.]
MARY: Sam, they’ve done it! They’ve done it!
SAM: Of course they’ve done it! It couldn’t happen any other way…not with the kind of spirit we have here in Dayton!
PAUL: They’re starting a parade! Dad, can I march in it? Can I?
SAM: Can you? We’ll all march in it. [Music.]
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VOICE: War engulfed the world in 1914, and the whole Dayton community played its patriotic part when America became involved. The Twenties dawned, a period of new developments, new progress, astonishing prosperity. But with the end of that decade there came, too, the end of a great national boom. In common with all America, Dayton faced the ugly fact of serious depression. Hardship and fear for the future laid hands on many Dayton citizens. [Music.]
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[Footsteps.]
VOICE 1: I don’t know what’s happened, Bill. No one does, I guess.
VOICE 2: Maybe not, Joe. All I know is that I’m out of a job, the way you are. I haven’t worked for four months.
VOICE 1: Five for me. Here we are, a couple of good mechanics, walking the streets. And everywhere we go it’s the same story. No help wanted…Sorry, but we haven’t got a thing for you. We’re laying off more men the end of this week.
VOICE 2: Yeah, I know. They say, “Nothing today, but you can leave your name if you want to. We’ll let you know if anything turns up.” I’ve heard that at every factory in town.
VOICE 1: I hate to admit it, but Alice and the kids and I are going to have to start eating at the soup kitchen.
VOICE 2: So are we. And why not? It’s better than starving, isn’t it?
VOICE 1: Hoover said that no one in America is going to starve. He says prosperity is just around the corner.
VOICE 2: What corner? And what does he mean, no one is going to starve? People are going hungry right now.
VOICE 1: I know. It’s tough, all right…and toughest on guys like us. But this is the richest country in the world, and I can’t believe that we won’t pull out of it some way.
VOICE 2: I’d like to know how and when. And I’d like to have a job right now…today…so I could pay the rent and buy some food and clothes for my family.
VOICE 1: Do you suppose it would do any good to try the Frigidaire factory again? Let’s walk over there.
VOICE 2: It won’t hurt to try. And we sure haven’t anything else to do. [Music.]
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VOICE 1: [Woman.] Fred tried to explain it to me, but I just can’t understand about banking. He says that the fact that banks and building associations are closed doesn’t mean that we’ll never get our money out of them.
VOICE 2: [Woman.] But when? That’s what I asked George, and he said he hadn’t any idea. It’s a serious thing for us. We’ve been saving for years to build a home of our own, and now we can’t get a dollar of the money we have put away.
VOICE 1: But there are others worse off than you are. They’ve had to give up their homes, move into smaller ones, and then had to worry about paying the rent.
VOICE 2: That’s not all of our trouble. We can’t keep young George at Ohio State. We had a special savings account just for that, and now…well, George isn’t going back this year. He’s going to try to find a job. And you know how that is now.
VOICE 1: Yes, I do. Fred has been worried sick. Everyone in the office has had to take a salary cut, and some of them have lost their jobs. Fred can hardly sleep at night for fear he’ll lose his. He says he doesn’t know what he’d do.
VOICE 2: But there must be some answer to all this. The whole country can’t be falling to pieces. We can’t lose all the money we’ve saved.
VOICE 1: I hope not. And Fred says he doesn’t think we will. He says that Dayton, like every other city in the country, is hard hit, and that it may be a long time before business and employment get back to normal. And he says that eventually the banks and building associations will be liquidated…whatever that means…and that we’ll get back some of our money, or maybe all of it. [Music.]
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[Band, cheers…off.]
VOICE 1: There you are, Harry. You said the N.R.A. wouldn’t work…that business generally wouldn’t go for it. Well, how about his parade? Just look out of this window.
VOICE 2: Sure, Frank, I see it. But then, I’ve seen a lot of circus parades, too.
VOICE 1: You’ve never seen one this big. There isn’t a business, an industry, or any other Dayton organization that isn’t represented. There are so many people marching that I don’t know how there are any left to watch it.
VOICE 2: Well, there are the unemployed, several thousand of them. They haven’t any reason to march and cheer, and they haven’t anything to do that would keep them from watching the parade. As a matter of fact, it’s the only show they’ve been able to see for months…because it’s free.
VOICE 1: Don’t be so sour, Harry.
VOICE 2: I’m not. I’m just facing the facts. What is the N. R. A. going to do anyway? I mean, after all the parading and shouting is over?
VOICE 1: It’s a step toward recovery. It means that all classes of business are getting together and trying to work out plans that will put this country back on its feet.
VOICE 2: Sure, I know…codes. Codes for this and codes for that. Do you think they’re going to work? Do you think that business men generally are going to live up to those codes?
VOICE 1: Not a hundred per cent, of course. There’ll be chiseling here and there…maybe a lot of it.
VOICE 2: I don’t think the N. R. A. is even constitutional. I don’t think it will last.
VOICE 1: All right, suppose it doesn’t. Suppose a test case goes to Supreme Court, and the whole thing is thrown into the discard. We’ll still have two things left. We’ll have some business activity that we wouldn’t have had if it hadn’t been for the N. R.A…because business of all kinds, tied together by any sort of code, will feel the confidence that it takes to go ahead. And we’ll have the spirit that’s represented by that parade passing down there in the street. Maybe this thing isn’t going to do any permanent good that can be measured in dollars and cents, but it’s brought Dayton people together, given them confidence when that’s what they need more than anything else. [Music.]
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VOICE: Despite the rigors of depression, which made themselves severely felt throughout the major part of the past decade, there were aspects of Dayton’s community life which marched steadily forward, setting new milestones of progress year by year. One of these movements encountered but largely overcame a resistance commonly felt in the American community. [Music: Fades out.]
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ISABEL: You see, Walter, it doesn’t hurt you at all to come to The Art Institute. There are a lot of other men here.
FRANK: Hello, Walter. What are you doing here?
WALTER: Hello, Frank. I never expected to see you in an art museum.
FRANK: Oh, I come here often; I’ve got so I like pictures. See that one over there, the portrait of the English squire?
WALTER: Say, that’s something!
FRANK: How would you like to have that in your home?
WALTER: Oh, I could never afford to buy that!
FRANK: You don’t have to buy it. You can borrow it, the way you borrow books from the Public Library.
WALTER: Borrow a picture like that? Do you hear that, Isabel?
ISABEL: Walter, I’ve told you that, but you’ve never paid attention to anything I’ve said about the Art Institute. Now, come on; I want you to see the classrooms. [Fade out and in.] You see, this isn’t just an art museum. People come here to work and study, to learn how to express themselves in the arts. There are more than five hundred students, in night classes as well as day classes. Drawing, design, painting, modelling, sculpture, commercial art…those are just a few of the things that are taught.
WALTER: Who did those water-colors over there?
ISABEL: Dayton school children.
WALTER: They did? H-m-m-m. I used to be pretty good at that when I was a kid. I really ought to take it up again as a hobby.
ISABEL: Well, you can. Lots of business men come to the night classes.
WALTER: Why, say! This place isn’t so bad, after all! [Music: Fades in and behind…]
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VOICE: In the autumn of 1938 Dayton was enjoying a period of comparative calm. The financial difficulties of the depression had been overcome to a great extent, and there were signs of further improvement. Political rancor ebbed; the last Presidential election was a thing of the past, and the next one two years away. Suddenly, however, Dayton was faced with a serious dilemma. [Music: Fades out.]
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TOMMY: Mother, there isn’t going to be any school after Friday. The schools are going to close.
MOTHER: That’s nonsense, Tommy. Of course the schools aren’t going to close.
ALICE: But they are, Mother. The teachers told us.
MOTHER: I can’t imagine why they’d tell you such a thing, Alice. But I’m sure your father will explain it when he comes home to dinner. [Fade out and in.]
FATHER: It’s true enough, all right. The schools are closing this Friday. There’s a lot of excited talk about it. They say there isn’t enough money to keep going.
MOTHER: We pay enough school taxes, don’t we?
FATHER: I don’t know just what the trouble is. But there’s going to be a meeting about it tonight. We’ll go and find out. [Fade out and in.]
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[Mixes excited voices. Gavel pounds.]
VOICE 1: Order, order, please! Before we try to suggest any remedies for this situation. Let’s listen to some of the facts that make up its background. [Voices down.]
VOICE 2: This is no overnight emergency. It’s been coming on us for a long time. And neither the Board of Education nor any other group can be blamed for it. In 1931 the tax valuation of the Dayton school district was $415,000,000, and the school operating fund amounted to $3,163,000. But by 1936 the tax valuation had fallen of 30%, and on account of that and poor tax collections, the school income had declined about 70%. Meanwhile, in 1934, the state had reduced the real property tax assessment limit from fifteen to ten mills. So…there we’ve been, with only about a million dollars to run our fifteen-million-dollar school plant.
VOICE 3: [Woman.] Couldn’t we have raised extra school taxes?
VOICE 2: We’ve tried to. School levies have been put on the ballot every year, but they’ve been rejected by small margins.
VOICE 4: I should think the Board of Education would be able to cut expenses, and keep going that way.
VOICE 2: They’ve practiced all kinds of economies for the last seven years…done away with the kindergartens, the supervisory staff, the junior teachers’ college, the visiting teachers, pre-vocational schools, summer schools, publications and research. They’ve reduced the personnel and rate of pay, cut the school year from ten months to nine. They’ve reached the point where no further economies are possible.
VOICE 5: [Woman.] Then what’s going to be done? Will the schools have to stay closed all year?
VOICE 2: No. We’ll be able to open them again about the middle of November and run for two or three weeks this year. And with the beginning of next year new tax funds will be available. But there still won’t be enough money to operate our schools for a nine- or ten-month year, or to operate them properly.
VOICE 4: I don’t believe our whole trouble is to be found in our school system or school budget. I think it’s deeper than that. I believe that what Dayton and Montgomery County need is a thorough examination of our whole administrative structure…perhaps with the emphasis on our school and their specific troubles, but also with full attention to every aspect of city and county government.
VOICE 6: That sounds like a good idea to me. If this community is sick, let’s find out what our trouble is, and cure it. And let’s not diagnose our own symptoms. Let’s call in the best specialists we can find…and then follow their advice. [Cheers.]
VOICES: That’s the kind of talk I like to hear…Sure, let’s get the whole picture…That’s right, let’s make sure that the schools will stay open. [Music: Fades in and behind…]
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VOICE: Out of this emergency grew the Montgomery County Public Advisory Committee…an organization made up of thousands of city and county members…a group completely free from partisan influences. A nationally famous civic research organization was brought to Dayton, under the direction of former city Manager Henry M. Waite. More than a year and a half was spent in exhaustive study of all important phases of the community structure. The result of that study was the publication of a report which included specific and detailed recommendations for extensive changes in the administration of city and county affairs. Immediately upon its publication, the entire city school system was radically revised. Other recommendations have been adopted by the city and county governments; and still others are in prospect for the future. (PAUSE.) While Dayton was going through this period of civic regeneration in free America, totalitarian power was growing in foreign lands. At last, in September 1939, war flamed anew in Europe. Poland, Denmark and Norway fell to the Nazi aggressor, and in the early summer of 1940 the world gasped at the conquest of France and the Low Countries. Overnight there rose a fearful threat against the free peoples of all the world. And again, as it had a generation before, American began to gird itself for defense…mobilizing its unmatched power of resources, men and machines. Swiftly Dayton took its place in the vast program of national defense, and spring of 1941 finds it already exerting a large measure of its vast industrial strength. [Music: Fades out.]
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[Newspaper sounds.]
VOICE 1: Joe! Joe Burke!
JOE: [Coming on.] Yeah?
VOICE 1: How are you coming with Sunday’s feature story on Dayton’s defense activities?
JOE: All right. I had no idea what was going on here until I began digging into it. It’s terrific. Dayton is one of the key defense centers officially designated by the Government. Already there are more than $120,000,000 in defense contracts operating, and that’s just the start of it.
VOICE 1: What do you mean…just the start of it?
JOE: Why, only about 40% of Dayton’s potential defense production is engaged so far. The real push won’t come until the last half of this year.
VOICE 1: How does it line up now?
JOE: All of the big plants and most of the small ones are under way with defense work. I have a partial list here of what’s being turned out now…machine guns, airplane propellers, landing gears, aviation instruments and radio equipment, munitions parts, precision gages, tools, and dies.
VOICE 1: And that list will grow, won’t it?
JOE: Sure. You see, the great thing that Dayton has to offer to the whole defense program is unequalled ability and equipment for precision work. Mechanized war demands not only more machines, but better machines…machines that will stand up under the heaviest pounding. When the defense program is rolling at full speed, we’ll find that Dayton is supplying an incredible number of products, parts and equipment that require the highest manufacturing standards.
VOICE 1: I’m going to write an editorial on that idea. The challenge to Dayton. We’re giving our young men to the armed forces, as every American community is doing…and we’ll give more of them as the need grows. But Dayton faces this other challenge, too…a challenge that’s an opportunity to serve America. Every factory, every citizen, should get behind Dayton’s defense effort…all-out, full-blast production of defense armament, not only in enormous quantity, but in the unmatched quality that Dayton can produce. [Music: Fades in and behind…]
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VOICE: As Dayton swings into the mighty national defense program, world war rages with increasing violence. Still greater grows the threat to the free peoples of the world. Day by day, hour by hour, fresh news bulletins tell of the conflict. And so we come to today, April 20, 1941. And to bring you the events of the vivid present…events in Dayton and in the world at large…we present now the distinguished news commentator, Peter Grant. (PAUSE.) Mr. Grant.
GRANT: Somewhere in southern Europe…in Bulgaria, in Jugoslavia, possibly within the borders of Greece…there has been a birthday celebration today. It has been held not in a home, but on a heavily guarded railroad train. The guests have been dressed in glittering military uniforms. Bugles have sounded, bands have played, crack troops have been reviewed. The guest of honor at this celebration has been a small man dressed in a simple uniform, a uniform unmarked by the insignia of high rank or by rows of dazzling decorations. Yet this small man is more than the guest of honor at a birthday party. He is the supreme ruler of the world’s greatest military nation, the ruler of nearly all of Europe, the potential ruler…if we are to believe his own prophecies…of the entire world. He is Adolf Hitler, fifty-two years old today. He has received the felicitations of other rulers, puppet rulers of countries which are now under his domination. And he has received presents, of which the most important comes from the man closest to Hitler in the supreme councils of the Nazi organization. That man is Herman Goering, and he has given to his leader, as a birthday present, a promise of victory, a promise that German armed forces will defeat the enemy wherever they meet him. Now…what is the immediate prospect for fulfillment of that promise? According to Berlin, it is excellent. The Anglo-Greek forces, says the German high command, are disintegrating under the smashing blows of the German panzer divisions. Complete Greek units are surrendering east of the Pindus Mountains. Trikkalae, an important Greek town eighty miles within the border, has been captured. In Greece, and in Albania, too, the Allied forces are retreating swiftly, falling back, in what may become a disorganized fight ending with the capture or annihilation not only of the Greek army, but also of the British forces rushed to the Greek defense under the command of General Wavell. The British and the Greeks deny these claims. They admit that their lines in Greece are under furious Nazi pressure, and that they are withdrawing at some points. But they say that it is a slow and orderly withdrawal, and that they are inflicting frightful casualties on the advancing Germans. They say that today untold thousands of German soldiers have given their lives as a sacrificial birthday gesture to Adolf Hitler. In North Africa, according to London, the situation is still more hopeful. There the British, instead of merely holding off the Germans and Italians, are counter-attacking successfully in the neighborhood of Tobruk and Sollum, while British planes are carrying out heavy bombing raids on Tripoli and Benghasi. And, finally, say the British, their spirit remains unshaken by another furious Nazi air raid which swept over London last night. In short, today’s news reveals no outstanding triumph of German arms as a feature of Adolf Hitler’s birthday celebration, whatever the promise of ultimate German victory. And even Hitler himself strikes a note of caution in his birthday message to his people. Instead of promising them an early and complete victory, as he has done so often in the past, he asks that they prepare themselves for still greater sacrifices and still heavier fighting during the year to come. Thus the world of Europe, aflame with war. Here in America, here in Dayton, today presents a striking contrast. Ours are the pursuits, the pleasures, the blessings of peace. Church bells summoned the people of Dayton to divine services this morning, and they attended those services in churches unmarked by the devastating effects of air raids. This afternoon, despite intermittent showers earlier in the day, the sun shines brightly, a strong breeze tugs at hats and clothing fresh with the touch of Easter styles. Riding or walking, Dayton people have been enjoying the invigorating air of one of the first mild Sundays of spring. Tomorrow morning they will return to the intensive effort that marks Dayton’s contribution to the National Defense program, but today theirs are still the unshadowed blessing of peace. And now we come to the present moment and to an event which seems to me to have great significance for every Dayton citizen. I refer to this final presentation of “Great Days in Dayton,” and I am going to take the liberty of expressing my sincere opinion of this most unusual radio program. (PAUSE.) This might have been like the ordinary commercial program, designed apparently to entertain the radio audience, but designed really to sell the products or service of its sponsors. Instead, I find to my amazement that the Dayton Power and Light Company has made literally no effort, through the medium of this program, to increase its business in any way. Its sole purpose seems to have been to instill in every Daytonian a stronger and more active civic spirit, a keener consciousness of the obligations as well as the privileges of citizenship. (PAUSE.) Again…this might have been a program of civic glorification. It would have been easy to present only the bright days in Dayton’s history…the days of swift and easy progress, achievement, and triumph. Instead, in these twenty-six historical dramas, one finds the truth. Balances against the bright days have been the dark ones…not merely those on which tragedy beyond human control has struck at the community, but also those which have been marked by weakness in the civic spirit and by the strength in the forces opposing civic advancement. These programs have told you the story of your city, as your city has really been. They have made clear not only the record of the community, but the character of its people. And with this strong, true light from the past, the people of this community may see clearly today the broad highway along which they may march toward still greater days in Dayton. [Music: Fades in and behind.]
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ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Peter Grant…for your participation in our program, and especially for the inspiration which we know your words have given to Dayton citizens. (PAUSE.) And now…the curtain is about to fall. Before it does, I wish to speak on behalf of our sponsors, The Dayton Power and Light Company, in expressing its gratitude to the many groups and individuals whose co-operation has made the success of this program possible. We are indebted to the Dayton Public Library for wiling and tireless help in providing virtually unlimited research material, and to individual Daytonians who have made available private records of marked historic value. Our thanks go also to the newspapers, both for the privilege of frequent research reference to their files and for excellent publicity given our program. The Dayton schools have paid us the compliment of accepting some ten thousand copies of each of our play scripts and of using them in their history and drama classes. We have received gratefully a very large number of encouraging suggestions and comments from members of the radio audience. The Dayton Art Institute has been so kind as to permit the uses of its auditorium for our broadcasts, enabling approximately fifteen thousand Daytonians to see as well as hear our programs; and the National Cash Register Company has made available its auditorium for this last audience which could have been accommodated nowhere else in Dayton. And that brings us to the last and largest measure of our gratitude…to those thousands of Dayton people who have made up our appreciative and generous listening audience during the entire twenty-six weeks of our season. (PAUSE.) The production of “Great Days in Dayton” has been under the management of The Ralf Kircher Company, of this city. The scripts for our plays have been written by Philip McKee. Our narrator has been Charles McLean. All dramatic roles in our plays have been performed by members of the Dayton Civic Theatre professional company, under the direction of your announcer, Morton DaCosta. (PAUSE.) Again…to all of you here in this auditorium, and to the much larger audience of the air…I extend the sincere thanks of The Dayton Power and Light Company, and of all those who have participated in the presentation of “Great Days in Dayton!”
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