[This film was duplicated from a 16mm original by Colorlab for the National Library of Medicine, August 2004, NLM Call Number, HF738] [Music] [Your Tuberculosis Association Presents] [A Fair Chance] [Planned and supervised by Film Counselors, Inc.] [Cast: Robert Osterloh, Barbara Wooddell, Gloria Winters, Frank Ferguson, William Forrest, Don Beddoe, Ann Doran] [Director of Photography, Robert Pittack, A.S.C.; Screen Play by John Thiele; Film Editor, Ben Marmon] [An Apex Film Corporation Production] [Directed by William J. Thiele] [Narrator:] This man has just spent 10 months, three weeks, and one day in this hospital. Today he has been discharged. The disease he had was tuberculosis. The man's name is Edward R. Evans, and the woman getting out of the car to meet him is his wife, Martha. For her this has been 10 months, three weeks, and one day of waiting. She wonders if their marriage will ever be the same. [Music] [Ed Evans:] Ohhh, this is the best meal I've had in months. Martha, when it comes to pot roast, you are a genius. [Martha Evans:] Glad you enjoyed it, Ed, but tonight all the credit really belongs to your daughter. [Ed Evans:] Dorothy? Well, last I remember you wouldn't even set foot inside the kitchen, hated to boil eggs. [Dorothy Evans:] That was before I took home economics in school. You won't believe it, but I like to cook now. [Ed Evans:] Will miracles never end? Hey, Martha, still think you can win a game of canasta from me? [Martha Evans:] We'll find out as soon as I clear away. [Dorothy Evans:] Don't bother, Mom, I'll do it. [Martha Evans:] Well, if you don't mind. Oh, wasn't Johnny coming over to study with you tonight? [Dorothy Evans:] He couldn't make it. You go on, Mom, I'll be careful with the glasses. [Martha Evans:] All right, dear. Come on, Mr. Evans. [Ed Evans:] I warn you I've had a lot of time to practice. Things are going to be a lot different from now on. [Dorothy Evans, thinking to herself:] I guess everything will be different from now on. Johnny knows why dad's been in the hospital. Maybe he won't come over anymore. I'm sure Dad's cured, not dangerous or anything, but will Johnny understand that? Suppose his folks tell him to stop seeing me? Maybe I'll even have to quit school and get a job to help out. Why? Why did this have to happen to us? [Martha Evans:] Ed, will you have much trouble in getting an office job at the plant? [Ed Evans:] Why should I? I've been with the Martin Company as long as anybody. I know the business backwards. [Martha Evans:] Yes, dear, but as foreman your experience has all been in the shop. [Ed Evans:] Martha, I know you can't help worrying about it. Our savings are almost gone and, well, I'm sure it hasn't been easy for you and Dorothy. So I can't [?] the gang at the furniture plant, but I can still put in my eight-hour day and earn my pay as well as anybody else, and don't forget that studying course the hospital recommended. Those hours I put in studying bookkeeping are going to come in mighty handy. I may not be a CPA yet, but it's a place to start. It'll be all right, dear, I know it will. [Martha Evans:] Of course it will, Ed. Let's finish the game. It's your play. [Martha, thinking to herself:] Will it really be all right after all this time, and all the money we've had to spend? Well, all we can do is hope. [Music] [Mr. Wilson:] Of course we're delighted to see you back on your feet again. The TB people said you'd be released soon. [Ed Evans:] They tell me I'm as good as new. [Mr. Wilson:] Oh, that's fine, fine. It's a real shame you can't go back into the shop. We really could use you there. [Ed Evans:] Well, I still know the furniture business, Mr. Wilson, and as I've told you, I've been studying up on bookkeeping methods in the hospital. [Mr. Wilson:] Yes, yes, I know. I really wish I could do something for you. [Mr. Wilson, thinking to himself:] What do you do in a case like this? I could find a job for him, sure... then it's on my shoulders if anything goes wrong. Suppose he gets sick again? Suppose his TB is still contagious and some of the other men get it? I can't be responsible for him. [Mr. Wilson:] The trouble is, Ed, we're overloaded on our office staff now, and I'd have to let somebody else go to fit you in, you see? [Ed Evans:] I understand. [Mr. Wilson:] I'm sorry, Ed. Perhaps later if there's an opening? [Ed Evans:] Well, thank you very much, Mr. Wilson. [Mr. Wilson:] If you want references or anything like that, I'll be glad to give them to you anytime. [Ed Evans:] That's very kind of you. Thanks a lot. [Mr. Wilson:] Good luck. [Music] [Female reviewing job application:] So far so good, Mr. Evans. [Music] [Pen alights on Medical History: Tuberculosis] Well, I think that gives me a pretty complete picture of your employment background. Unfortunately, I don't have anything in your line right at the moment. However, I'll certainly keep your application on file, and if anything does come in... [Ed Evans:] I see. Thank you very much. [Music] What's the use? I fill them out and they file them. Thank you, Mr. Evans, we'll call you if something comes up. If something doesn't come up soon, Martha, I don't know what we're going to do. [Martha Evans:] I wish I knew what to tell you, Ed, but you've just going to keep trying. [Ed Evans:] Yeah. Maybe this will be the lucky one. [Mr. Verity:] We've been doing business with the Martin Furniture company for a good many years. Anybody with them as long as you were comes pretty highly recommended. [Ed Evans:] Glad to hear it, sir. [Mr. Verity:] Besides, I appreciate what you're up against, learning something new, starting all over again. I had to do it myself about 15 years ago. Let's stop in here a minute. I'll introduce you to the man you'll be working under. Oh, by the way, I don't see any real reason for telling any of the boys in here what you've been doing the last year, do you? [Ed Evans:] No, not if you don't, Mr. Verity. [Mr. Verity:] Good. Bill. Meet Ed Evans. Ed, this is Bill Keating. [Bill:] How do you do? [Ed Evans:] Hello. [Mr. Verity:] He's in charge of the department and you'll be working directly under him. [Bill:] Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans. [Ed Evans:] Same here. [Bill:] Say, don't I know you from somewhere? Evans? Why, sure, you used to belong to our Legion Post. [Ed Evans:] Of course. I remember you too. You led the drill team one year. [Bill:] That's right. Say I haven't seen you around for a while. Must be almost a year. Have you been out of town? [Mr. Verity:] Bill, you can introduce Ed to the rest of the boys a little later. Right now I want to take him around and show him the rest of our place. [Bill:] Fine, Mr. Verity. See you later, Evans. [Ed Evans:] All right. [Bill, thinking to himself:] Ed Evans. There's something else connected with that name. Sure. I remember. The Legion Post sent him flowers in the hospital. He had tuberculosis... and now he figures to sit at the desk next to mine. Listen fellas, I don't know how you feel about it, but personally I think we've got a little problem here. That fellow that just left with Mr. Verity. [Martha Evans:] But I don't understand you, Ed. Mr. Verity told you the job was yours, and just because this fellow recognized you from the Legion... [Ed Evans:] I told you it wasn't that, Martha. You should have seen the look on his face. I remember that look often enough these past few months. I could tell what he was thinking. He remembered that I was in the hospital and why. [Martha Evans:] Ed, please. You're just getting yourself all worked up. Suppose we take in a movie after dinner? [Ed Evans:] Don't we ever go out with our old friends anymore? I thought you were going to call Bill and Jane this morning. [Martha Evans:] Well, I did, but Jane said their boy was down with a cold. [Ed Evans:] I wouldn't believe it if I read it in a book. In this day and age... [Martha Evans:] What are you talking about, Ed? [Ed Evans:] The Warrens last week, Joe and Betsy Kimball the week before. A remarkable number of our so-called friends seem to be seeing less and less of us since I've been home from the hospital. [Martha Evans:] Ed, you're just adding up things that don't exist. [Ed Evans:] Am I? Nobody has really come out and said so, but people are afraid of me, Martha. [Martha Evans:] But they told you at the hospital there would be a certain number of people who would always be... [Dorothy Evans:] Gee, you're still here. I thought you were going out tonight. You said you were going to the Ellsworths. [Martha Evans:] It's been called off. [Ed Evans:] Does it make any difference? [Dorothy Evans:] No. Only I invited Johnny and some of the gang over a little later, but I can still phone... [Ed Evans:] Wait a minute, Dorothy. What are you going to phone them about? [Dorothy Evans:] Well, if you're staying home, I thought we'd better go to Johnny's house, or one of the other kids. [Martha Evans:] Well, you don't have to do that. We don't mind having them over. [Dorothy Evans:] How can I tell them that I don't want to ask the gang over? I'm afraid they won't come because of dad? [Ed Evans:] You don't want them to come over because of me. Dorothy, I can remember when your friends used to swarm all over this house. [Dorothy Evans:] They're older, dad. Not the same ones you remember. [Ed Evans:] Well, this Johnny I keep hearing about. I've never met him yet. Dorothy, are you afraid you might get sick, might catch tuberculosis because of me? [Dorothy Evans:] No. [Ed Evans:] Then you know that I wouldn't have been released if there was the slightest chance... [Dorothy Evans:] I know it, but some of my friends don't. [Ed Evans:] Then why don't you tell them? [Dorothy Evans:] I tried to at first, but we got into an argument and I was afraid they wouldn't believe me anyway. After that I made up my mind to avoid the whole subject, and as long as they didn't come over while you were here... well, I didn't know what else to do. [Ed Evans:] I understand. Believe me, I do, and I'm sorry I haven't tried to help you on your problems before, but you see now that avoiding the subject is really no answer at all, don't you? Then why don't you go upstairs and fix up your face and when your friends come, if they are any arguments to be settled at all, maybe I can sort of act as referee. [Dorothy Evans:] All right, dad. Don't you worry about me. I'll be fine now. [Ed Evans:] Okay. [Martha Evans:] You know, Ed, that was awfully good advice you gave Dorothy. I'm just wondering if you shouldn't try some of your own medicine on that Keating fellow at the lumber company. [Ed Evans:] That's funny. I was just thinking the same thing. [Ed, back in his new office:] That's about all I can say. I'm completely cured. As a matter of fact, I'm really safer to be near than you are, because I have to keep going back to the hospital for my regular checkups. There's absolutely no danger of infection. My doctors told Mr. Verity that. Except for the fact that I need more rest than most people, I'm no different than any of you. [Bill:] Bill Keating, will you ever learn? There you were, all ready to strike out a man before he ever got a chance to go to bat, and why? Because you didn't stop to think. You listened to rumors and jumped to conclusions, that's why. Evans, I think I owe you an apology. I didn't have all the facts straight, but I do now. As far as I'm concerned, I'll see that you get every break possible. [Ed Evans:] I'm not asking for any special breaks, just a fair chance, that's all. [Narrator:] Ed Evans got his fair chance and made the most of it. Despite the handicap of his late start in the accounting business, Ed makes good at his job and becomes well-liked by his fellow employees and his employer. The Evans home once more becomes the popular meeting place for all of Dorothy's young friends, and Johnny in particular. Dorothy's fears that she might have to leave school and help support the family have been dispelled, and things seem to be working out well on all fronts. Through his new acquaintances, Ed's friendships soon begin to multiply, and before long most of his former friends also begin to drift back. Once more Ed is able to relax and enjoy himself, knowing that he has fought his way back again, able to face the future with a full measure of confidence. Returning to the hospital for his regular examination, Ed Evans can report that he has been fully rehabilitated in employment, friendship, and family. Unfortunately, it has taken too long a time. Unfortunately, it had been hard on Ed and his family. Needlessly, Ed's former employer lost a valuable worker. A lack of knowledge, understanding, and faith has caused these unnecessary losses. That has been Ed Evans' story. Will this man's be the same? His name is Richard Milton, and he has spent nine months, one week, and four days in this hospital. Today he has been discharged. The disease he had was tuberculosis. A decision as to what happens to his future, whether he will be received back into an active, full and worthwhile life by his family, his friends, and his employer, or whether he will be shunned and will have to fight his way back step-by-step, is something that only one person can say, and that person is you. [Music] [The End] [Through your purchase of Christmas Seals your Tuberculosis Association fights TB]