I'm An American Day 1941 -- The Dangerous Days
On May 17, 1941, Maurice Evans reenacts"The Dangerous Days" a play based on the writings of the American poet Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman (Maurice Evans) comes home and burns his poems after having been rejected by his publisher. Democracy (Sophia Stewart) tells Whitman to speak of the democratic poem in his heart. She reveals that only he can see the future, hear in her spirit and speak her thoughts. The spirit admits America is the currently alone in democracy but other countries are preparing. She emphatically requests Whitman to shutdown any doubters and invoke her words in his poems. Whitman begins to speak of seeing immigrants arriving and leaving, foreign offspring, urban development, migrants working and foreign-born success. Democracy warns of men and possible war. She says one country must lead and Whitman agrees it must be America. Together, they compose a poem of Americans singing and being prosperous. Democracy asks Whitman to take notes and tell the future America what it must do. Whitman tells the patriotic spirit if one is destroyed they both are lost. The special dramatic broadcast closes with Whitman calling upon the fighting spirit of pioneers.
More information about Maurice Evans: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0263052/bio https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/14/obituaries/maurice-evans-stage-actor-dies-at-87.html http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/beography-me.htm http://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2012/01/maurice-evans.html More information about I’M AN AMERICAN: https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/historians-mailbox/im-american https://www.npr.org/2017/10/16/557338355/im-an-american-radio-show-promoted-inclusion-before-world-war-ii Bio: Maurice Evans was born on June 3, 1901 in Dorchester, England. He was raised in London. His father was a justice of the peace who moonlighted as a playwright. His father’s adaptations of Thomas Hardy novels fostered his love of acting and provided him with this earliest stage appearances. During his youth, Maurice also sang with London's St. Andrew's choir as a boy tenor. He made his professional stage debut in London in 1926 in the production of Sweeney Todd. After well-received performances in a number of other plays in London, he landed a season at the Old Vic during 1934-1935, where he first starred in William Shakespeare's King Richard II. In 1935, the talented actor made his American stage debut in New York when he appeared opposite Katharine Cornell in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Evans went on to star in"Man and Superman""Dial M for Murder""Bewitched""Batma" and many other films. He was proclaimed"the finest actor of our time.” Evans is still considered, by many, to be one of the greatest interpreters of Shakespeare's works ever to grace the stage.