Three-Cornered Moon Page #3

Mr. Kline?

I want just lots

of money this time.

I was just going to

phone you about that.

Your balance is

down to $1.65.

$1.65?

Hmm.

How much money

did you say

I had in the bank?

$1.65.

(CHUCKLlNG) Oh.

Oh, dear!

Good night.

ELlZABETH:
Hello, Jenny.

(ELlZABETH EXCLAlMS)

You shouldn`t have

bought those, honey.

You`re broke.

That`s all right.

He lets me charge him.

(LAUGHS)

How you call him?

Him?

I call him George.

Ah.

Yes, Jen.

Here, Jenny.

You take George

into the kitchen,

cut off his ends,

and give him

a little water.

I guess we`ll have

to put you in the room

on the third floor.

George!

(SNlFFS)

Beautiful George!

Things are never quite as

bad as they seem, are they,

Mrs. Johnson?

Why not?

What?

Mother!

NELLlE:
(EXCLAlMlNG)

That`s hot!

Mother!

Yes, dear?

Have you an extra

key to the front door?

What for?

Ronald`s coming

to live with us.

Well, take mine, dear.

It`s in my purse

on the bureau.

All right.

Oh, who did you say?

Ronald.

Oh, that`s nice!

Sell 5,000

Three Cornered Moon

at the market.

Make it snappy.

That`s the Rimplegar account.

Check.

Look here.

But, Mother,

what does this mean?

``Your half hour up.

Must deposit

additional margin.``

Margin?

What margin?

That`s just what

I wanted to know.

And listen

to this one!

``Unless we hear from you

by 2:
30, we`ll sell out

your account.``

What on earth is this?

Shh.

Oh, never mind her.

I`ll get the hot oil,

Mrs. Rimplegar.

(CHUCKLES) Yes.

Why, here`s another one!

``Having no response to our

two previous messages,

``we have closed you out.``

That one came last.

Well, what`s the

matter here, anyhow?

Matter!

Matter!

Well, all I can say is,

children, that from now on,

we`ll have to paddle

our own canoe.

Mother, why didn`t you ever

say something about this?

I`m not the kind of

mother who throws her

burdens on her children.

Mother,

have we any stocks?

Well, yes and no.

She means we did have,

but we haven`t anymore.

Mother, are we cleaned?

For heaven`s sake, Mother!

Don`t get excited,

children,

or you`ll all have

nervous breakdowns.

(GROANlNG)

And please sit down.

People always think better

when they`re sitting down.

I`m a lawyer.

I`m studying law,

so let me question Mother.

Mother, when did

you get these stocks?

Well, let me see.

Oh, It was a

long time ago.

The year after

Papa died, I think.

It was the year

Elizabeth won the

poetry prize in college.

When was that, dear?

About four years ago,

Mother.

Are you sure?

Yes.

The year you won

the poetry prize,

Ed was just graduating

from the Poly Prep.

I was having my

teeth straightened.

Who cares?

No, you weren`t, either.

It was after that.

All right, Ma,

so it was

four years ago.

Well, there I was,

left all alone with you

children to look after.

I wanted to plan

a surprise for you.

A surprise?

So, I invested

$75,000 in some stock.

$75,000?

And later on, $50,000 more.

Oh, Mama!

$50,000 more!

Well, a man told me

it was very good stock.

Who was he?

Where did you

meet him?

A strange man?

Don`t ask silly questions!

He was a very nice man.

Maybe we could

get some of the

money back!

Yeah.

Most of it was in

Three Cornered Moon.

DOUGLAS:
What?

Three Cornered Moon,

what`s that?

Well, it`s a

mine or something.

What kind of a mine?

Well, it`s a metal mine.

He was a very nice man,

and he was most enthusiastic.

What was the nice man`s name?

Now, let me see.

(CHUCKLES) ``D`` is on

the tip of my tongue.

Never mind the name!

Well, the stocks

were fine until...

The fall of 1929.

How did you know?

All right, Mom,

so they started

to go down.

Yes,

and then they went up again,

and I thought they`d stay up.

But then it went down again,

and then up again,

and down again,

and I thought it would

go up again and stay up,

but it didn`t.

It went down

again and stayed down.

Then, last week,

Mr. Briggs called me up.

Briggs!

That was the name, Briggs.

Well, he told me to deposit

some more money, and I did.

A whole lot more.

Then this morning,

he called me up again, and

when I went down to see him,

it was a different

man with a moustache.

No. No, without a moustache.

Well, I found my

margin was...

It wasn`t what it

ought to have been,

and I was going to

deposit some more money,

but there wasn`t any

more left in the bank.

Well, what did you do then?

Well, what could I do?

I`m not a child, you know.

I know just as

well as anybody else

when there`s no

more money in the bank.

So, I took a taxi home

and had my hair washed.

(SlGHS)

(BOTH CRYlNG)

Oh, Mrs. Rimplegar,

she is doctor for you.

Oh, Rimplegars!

(GlGGLlNG)

Oh, children!

Dr. Stevens is here!

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHlNG)

Hey, Doc!

Listen, Doc!

KENNETH:
Our money`s all gone!

It`s all gone!

EDDlE:
Mother lost it!

Three Cornered Moon!

KENNETH:
Flat!

We`re flat!

What are we gonna do?

We`ve got to do something!

Yeah. You know about

the stock market, Doc!

Now, wait a minute!

This whole thing

bowls me over!

(CRYlNG) Oh, help my poor

children, Dr. Stevens.

It was all my fault.

Yes, cry about it now,

Mother, dear,

when it`s too late.

That`s right,

that`s right,

blame it all on me.

You children never

took any interest.

Did you ever ask me

how our finances were?

Listen, all of you!

It isn`t all Mother`s fault.

After all,

there`s a houseful

of adults here.

The least we could have

done was to have realized

how incompetent she was

and taken things

out of her hands.

That`s right.

What do you think

of selling the house?

EDDlE:
That`s an idea.

Wait a minute.

We could put a

sign in the window.

Sure. A large,

beautiful home.

There`s a depression on,

you know.

Why, you can`t give

big places like this away.

On the other hand,

if you hang onto it,

at least you`ll be assured

of a roof over your heads.

I think l`ll get

you all some hot milk.

Sit down, Mother.

What about all

those rooms upstairs?

Instead of using

them to play house with,

why don`t you try

renting them out?

Oh, no! Imagine a lot

of strange people

running in and out,

destroying our privacy!

All right, l`ll rent one.

I live alone, anyhow.

Oh, what good will it

do to rent one room?

Let the house fall down!

We`re licked!

We`re done for!

We`re penniless!

I`m gonna get out of here.

Kenneth!

Let him go.

Let`s all go.

Let`s all hold hands

and jump in the river!

Now, look here,

the whole pack of you!

You`ve all been

crazy long enough.

This is the one time

you can`t fly off the handle.

And for once in your lives,

you`ve got to get

hold of yourselves.

You`ve got to stop

screaming and you`ve

actually got to think!

How about it, Elizabeth?

That`s right.

I`m sorry.

You were saying

that we`d have to

sell some things.

That sounds like

a very good idea.

Yes, and whatever money

you realize should be

turned over to you.

And Elizabeth will

take care of the books

and sign the checks.

Now, just a minute, children.

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