Posted on 05/09/2015 7:58:35 PM PDT by Chauncey Uppercrust
History of Mother's Day -- A Mother's Day Gift to You The following transcript is from the 1955 movie A Man Called Peter (1955 Henry Koster Film). The movie was adapted from a book by Catherine Marshall by the same name. Catherine was the wife of the late great preacher, Dr. Peter Marshall.
The transcript below is directly from the movie. Catherine (prior to her marriage to Peter Marshall) was a college student. She and several other college students (one man and three women) were asked to accompany Dr. Peter Marshall to speak at a college event about their Christian faith and values. Dr. Marshall gives his opening address and is “booed” into silence. He asks the first young lady to come up to speak. She sees the hostile crowd, gets scared and runs off. The male football player is also unwilling to stand before his fellow students and endure possible ridicule. Dr. Marshall is about to call off the event, when Catherine speaks up and volunteers to say something to the rowdy crowd.
Dr. Marshall introduces Catherine. She climbs up onto the makeshift stage (the back of a pickup truck). She’s very pretty, so there is a lot of whistling, clapping and accolade for her femininity from the men in the audience.
This is the speech she gave in the movie:
If that’s because I’m a girl, thank you boys. And now, if you’ll let me, I’d like to talk, as a girl, to the girls here this afternoon. I know if you boys will listen, they’ll listen too. I’m just as sure that the only reason they’ve been just as rude and silly as you’ve been, is because they have the mistaken idea that you wanted them to be.
I never thought much about being a girl until two years ago when I learned from a man what a wonderful thing it is to be a woman. Until that Sunday morning, I considered myself lucky to be living in the 20th century; the century of progress and emancipation; the century when, supposedly, we women came into our own. But I’d forgotten that the emancipation of women really began with Christianity.
A very young girl received the greatest honor in history. She was chosen to be the mother of the savior of the world. And when her son grew up and began to teach his way of life, he ushered women into a new place in human relations. He accorded her a dignity she had never known before and crowned her with such glory that down through the ages she was revered, protected and loved. Men wanted to think of her as different from themselves, better, made of finer, more delicate clay. It remained for the 20th century, the century of progress, to pull her down from her throne.
She wanted equality. For 1900 years, she had not been equal. She had been superior [emphasis hers]. To stand equally with men, naturally she had to step down. Now, being equal with men, she has won all their rights and privileges; the right to get drunk, the right to swear, the right to smoke, the right to work like a man, to think like a man, to act like a man. We’ve won all this, but ought we to feel so triumphant when men no longer feel as romantic about us as they did about our grandmothers; when we’ve lost something sweet and mysterious; something as hard to describe as the haunting, wistful fragrance of violets?
Of course, these aren’t my original thoughts. They are the thoughts I heard that Sunday morning. But somehow, some thoughts of my own were born and the conclusion reached that somewhere along the line, we women got off the track.
Poets have become immortal by remembering on paper a girl’s smile. But I’ve never read a poem rhapsodizing over a girl’s giggles at a smutty joke or I’ve never heard a man brag that his sweet heart or his wife could drink just as much as he and become just as intoxicated. I’ve never heard a man say that a girl’s mouth was prettier with a cigarette hanging out of it or that her hair smelled divinely of stale tobacco.
[applause]
And that’s all I have to say. I’ve never made a speech before.
[end of transcription]
A really great movie - one that is worth watching again and again. Richard Todd was wonderful as Peter Marshall.
If this movie or this portion was shown to all school age kids, just think what could happen. If you have never seen the movie, this transcript probably does not do it justice.
The Peter Marshall Story
Absolutely and Jean Peters was wonderful as Catherine.
Yes, I should have mentioned her, too - when she was so sick and nearly died....I could start crying again over him almost losing her....
Bump
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