Family Theater: The Denver Express

Family Theater presents Elizabeth Scott, Regis to Me and Gene Ruth. From Hollywood, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theater Incorporated, brings you Regis to Me and Gene Ruth in Alexander Hay's classic, The Denver Express.

To introduce the play, your hostess, Elizabeth Scott. Thank you, Gene. Back in the late 19th century, a quiet, studious man named Augusta Silent Hay's wrote a number of serious historical works and novels. On the strength of them alone, his name would have been little known, except by a handful of students and research workers.

The Mr. Hayes wrote a short story, and the impact of that story still reverberates in the pages of present-day literature, for he created a character who became the prototype of our modern-day heroes of action and melodramatic fiction.

The character's name is Major Harry Sinclair, and he's portrayed for you tonight by Regis Toomey as we present Augustus Island Haze's classic railroad story, The Denver Express. Now let me set you straight on something.

In spite of anything you may have heard or read, there's nothing romantic, exciting, or dangerous about the construction or operation of a transcontinental railroad. There are no heroes or heroines connected with it. Any ordinary man with a straightforward, logical mind can handle any situation that might arise.

Let me tell you the story about the first run ever made by the Denver Express, old number 17. That should prove it to you. You see, the story really began back in the 1870s while we were building the road.

We had pushed the rails across the plains to the old frontier town of Barker's, and we established division headquarters there. I was working in the engineer's shack late one afternoon when one of the contractor's superintendents came in.