Naughty Marietta

Ladies and gentlemen, the Railroad Hour. And here comes our star-studded show train. Tonight, the Association of American Railroads presents the romantic operator, Naughty Marietta, based on the Metro-Golden Mayor motion picture with Victor Herbert's beloved music, and starring Jeanette McDonald and your host Gordon MacRae.

Acquire is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and our music is arranged and conducted by Carmen Dragon. Yes, tonight another great musical success is brought to you by the American Railroad. The same railroads that also bring you most of the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the fuel you burn, and all the other things you use in your daily life.

And now, here is Gordon MacRae! Thank you and good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is your host Gordon MacRae. Bringing up the curtain on one of Victor Herbert's most melodic and popular operators, Naughty Marietta.

In the character of Captain Dick Warrington, I meet and fall in love with Naughty Marietta and New Orleans, when Louisiana was still under the rule of Louis XV of France. Ah, but the story of Marietta begins much before that, and no one is more familiar with it than that lady herself.

So may I introduce her to you in the person of our lovely and charming guest star this evening, known and loved by all, as the Naughty Marietta of the Screen. Miss Jeanette McDonald I heard that melody one night in a dream, and lived with the memory of it ever after.

I remembered only the beginning of that unexplained song, and somehow I felt that if I could complete it I could find the answer, not only to the mystery of life, but to the mystery of my own unhappiness as well.