Armstrong Circle Theatre — Season 7

Aired 27 September 1955

Aired 11 October 1955

Factual story of Hurricane Diane, showing how the United States Weather Bureau operates in all its phases, from the storm's inception through a 24-hour vigil until danger is past. It shows the effects of the storm on two people, Josephina, a young girl, and Sebastiano, her brother in Winsted, Connecticut. The action switches from the Weather Bureau where Reinhardt Schmidt, chief forecaster, is charting the hurricane and the home of Josephina and Sebastiano. The storm gains in intensity as she, recently arrived from Italy, plans her first American picnic. Josephina is drowned.

Aired 1 November 1955

Aired 15 November 1955

A businessman leaves home after losing his job, vowing to return only when he can adequately provide for his family.

Aired 29 November 1955

Aired 13 December 1955

Aired 27 December 1955

Aired 10 January 1956

A documentary-style drama based on activities in a big city hospital, St. Luke's Hospital in New York City. The setting is Ward Three, the Women's Ward. Presiding over this little world is night head nurse Sally Lacey. The patients include Miss Mickler, a lonely embittered woman who makes life difficult for the nurses; Elena Ampuero, a young Puerto Rican woman suffering from malnutrition; and Mrs. Kafka, a young mother who is more concerned about the welfare of her two small children at home than she is about the hepatitis from which she suffers. As the drama closes, a new patient is wheeled in and thus life in a big city hospital moves on.

Aired 24 January 1956

Aired 7 February 1956

A writer wiretaps a man's home to find out about his business practices.

Aired 21 February 1956

This is the true story of Lt. Melvin Shadduck, an American pilot, who was captured by the Korean Communists during the Korean War. Thrown into a tent with four other Americans, he finds all of them wounded and without medical care, adequate food or hope of escape. He trades personal belongings and forages for food. By wandering further afield day by day, little attention is paid to him by the Chinese guards and he finally escapes. He manages to reach a friendly Chinese boy, who contacts the Americans. He refuses hospitalization until his fellow prisoners would be rescued, which was accomplished.

Aired 6 March 1956

Docudrama of a mentally ill man and the effort to help him recover. Paul Foster had to give up an engineering career to take over his father's insurance business because it was expected of him. He was ill-suited to the work and when the drama opens, the business is failing. Outwardly at the age of 31, he is a normal young man with a wife, Ruth, and a child.... Suddenly, he hits his secretary and accuses her of spying. Diagnosis by a psychiatrist finds he has suffered a mental breakdown, a schizophrenic reaction with marked paranoid tendencies. His mother refuses to believe it. His wife faces the facts and has him committed to a state hospital for treatment, which does not go well at first. But with the support of his family and with new drugs, Paul can communicate his problems and fears and return to his place in society.

Aired 23 March 1956

An ""actual"" drama about five Romanian patriots, who in February 1955 seized the Communist Romanian Legation in Berne, Switzerland, in protest against the plight of their people in Romania. The daring plot is conceived by Oliviu Beldeanu of the Romanian Liberation Movement and executed with Soare Codrescu, Ion Chirila, Dumitru Ochiu and Dorel Ciochina. They release a secret Communist code to the press resulting in one of the heaviest blows to the Russian spy network. The small band holds the Legation for 48 hours until the Swiss government assures them that they will be tried there and not extradited to Romania. They await trial in Berne.

Aired 3 April 1956

The setting for this ""actual"" is the Spence-Chapin Adoption Service in New York City. Three couples, the Muirs, the Nelsons, and the Arnquists, are seeking a baby for adoption. A woman arrives to arrange for the adoption of her baby when it is born. The case worker checks up on each of the couples to determine their fitness for parenting. The Muirs do not want to adopt after all and the Muirs are found to be unfit. The Arnquists are offered Baby X. They fall in love with her and take her into their family.

Aired 17 April 1956

Aired 1 May 1956

Aired 15 May 1956

Aired 29 May 1956

The sacrifices and problems of teachers in an average public high school as exemplified in an actual happening in Eastchester High School, Eastchester, N.Y., are examined in this drama. The school's most skilled teacher, Gordon Lacklin, is offered a better paying job and is torn between his loyalty to the school and his family obligations. The principal, Douglas MacDonald, must decide whether to dismiss a teacher, Alice Polcheck, who is dedicated to teaching but who cannot keep order in her classroom. In accordance with his guiding belief that the students come first, he lets her go, but she tells Lacklin that she regards him as a great teacher. After realizing that the students need good teachers, he decides that he is meant to be teacher and stays.

Aired 12 June 1956

An actual drama of a Yugoslavian youth who is now in America and hopes to stay here. Anton Steigerwald, a war orphan in Yugoslavia, is thought to be the child of an American citizen from whom he was separated during the war. Elizabeth Steigerwald, now in Philadelphia, wants to find her son. Her daughter Maria brings Anton to America although she knows he is not her brother Johann. She relies on him to tell her mother, but he does not. Anton's sister discovers that he is in America and reveals the truth to Mrs. Steigerwald. But she has known all along. He tells the U.S. authorities and the real Johann is brought to America. Anton is waiting for bill H.R. 3438 to pass which would allow him to stay.