The Cavalcade of America: A Tooth for Paul Revere

New York: Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn, 1942. Draft script for the 1942 radio show episode, originally broadcast on May 14, 1942. With a few annotations in manuscript pencil and ink on the front wrapper.

The anthology series was part of a campaign by the DuPont chemical corporation to rehabilitate its image following the public exposure of its arms race profiteering during World War I. In lieu of traditional advertising, creative director Roy Durstine proposed that DuPont sponsor "Cavalcade," which integrated the company's slogan ("Better Things For Better Living Through Chemistry") and agenda into its stories of American achievement and inspiration. The show was an early experiment in propagandistic corporate brand-building, virtually unprecedented for a company that had no commercially available products to market to the public. To further promote their clean, humanitarian ideals, DuPont shied away from using attention-grabbing tactics, such as the sound of gunfire, that were popular on other radio programs at the time—a choice that attracted pacifist writers such as Norman Rosten and Arthur Miller to the show.

This episode was written by Stephen Vincent Benet, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and novelist best known for his narrative poem "John Brown's Body," and dramatizes the inception of the American Revolution.

White titled self wrappers, dated 5/14/42, with credits for actor Raymond Massey and writer Stephen Vincent Benet. Title page integral with the front wrapper, as issued. 37 leaves, with last page of text numbered 36. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. Pages Very Good plus, wrapper Very Good plus, unbound.

[Book #146014]