THE CHOCOLATE SAILOR

SAILOR FROM HARLEM

MY NAME IS NANCY
by
Charles Leonard
&
Langston Hughes

Skeleton Outline For A Screen Musical

CHARACTERS: JAKE HARRIS --- a Harlem boy

BETTY LOU HARRIS --- a Harlem girl

REV. HARRIS --- Betty's father

MOM HARRIS
from a tromp bond

LITTLE WILLEE --- Youngster who joins Navy

HOT SHOT --- comedy character

FLASH --- the gangster

TIME: THE PRESENT

STORY:

Ever since they were kids in their same Harlem neighborhood Jackie Jones and Betty Lou's father Harris have been crazy about each other. But time and economic pressure have a way of pulling young lovers apart. When they got out of high school a couple of years back Jackie found that jobs were difficult to get, even for a handsome colored boy very much in love and very much in need of money with which to take his girl out. Things were a little easier for Betty Lou, who was quite pretty, and determined never to be a kitchen mechanic. She got a job in the chorus at Wilkie's Plantation Club, where looks and legs were highly prized, by both black and white celebrants.

Betty Lou's father,Rev. Harris, was a pastor of a small church, didn't like the idea of her XEXX dancing for a living, but her mother, Mom, was more tolerant than most preachers. He understood about ambitions

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that burn in all young girls' hearts, and what symbols Ethel Waters and Florence Mills are to them.

Jackie Jones didn't like the idea at all, It meant that Betty Lou was seldom free to see him; that her tastes were getting expensive, and that there were always guys with big cars, fancy clothes and flashy jewelry hanging around as eternal temptations.

Then the war came. Harlem didn't feel it, ~~much~~ What was there to fight for, anyway? The government heard these rumblings. Equal opportunities in industry were being promised to the colored population, and some of these opportunities actually opened up, but young, not enough of them to accommodate the/unskilled Jackies. Jackie wanted to fix him to go overseas and fight, but enlistments for such as were not encouraged by the army, much less by the Navy.

But Jackie believed in the main objectives of the war, and the promises of a better future for those like him. So no ~~womer~~ he ran to Betty Lou with the news that colored girls could join the WAACS. He urged her to enlist, as he himself would if he could get into the Navy. But Betty Lou turned a deaf ear. She was coming up in the show business. Through FXXMXX MXXXEXX the intervention of Flash Miller she was going to get the second lead role in the new Plantation snow. FXXXMX MXXXX Banning!

Flash/MXXXEX This confirmed what Jackie had long suspected and feared: Betty Lou was going out with that mobster. Jackie went home, dejected, lost to himself and the world.

He had barely reached the stoop of his tenement house when the radio in the candy store blared forth the news that Secretary of the Navy Knox, impelled by the heroism of Dorie Miller, had at last opened up the navy to Negro enlistments. Jubilant shouts rose from within the candy store. Boys on street corners shouted the great news to each other. From the pool hals and the beer parlors the lost young non-XXXX poured forth into the

3

streets, and as if by pre-arrangement lines of them started
snaking along the sidewalks; snaking, snaking down to the Navy
recruiting office.

As if by instinct Jackie fell into a line as it passed
him, the line in which were Little Willie, and Hot Shot. They
tried to push Little Willie out, saying he wasn't fifteen yet, but
Willie hung on to his place.

It was an interminable wait and c rush down at that Navy
enlistment office, but they finally were signed a d sworn in,
even Little Willie, who was fourteen but lied that he was nineteen.

Then comes the training for the boys---naval training
(and xxxxxx musical numbers such as the Boogie Woogie Hornpipe)---
as members of the Construction xxxxxx Batallions or the Seabees.
How proud they are of their chance, their uniforms, and that they
are to be part of the Great Fight.

Back in xxx Harlem Betty Lou gets her chance and clicks.

Now Flash Banning is hotter for her than ever. She's going places,
he promises her---with him, of course. He gets her an important
radio broadcast. Betty Lou sings---a number about the xxxxx Harlem
sailors. Jackie reads all sorts of things into the song, and his
hopes rise even higher when at the end of the programx she sends
xxxzzz greetings to all the boys she knew. Jackie writes to her,
at last, and when Betty Lou replies he asks for a furlough to visit
her. He is determined to ask her to marry him. His furlough will
barely allow him time to accomplish it.

But when he gets to Harlem, there is no Betty Lou to meet
him. He waits to the bitter end, phones everywhere, but she never
shows up. Broken-hearted, he returns to his
post, where everything is a-buzz with the news that he, Hot Shot
and Little Willie have been selected to "ship out" with the first
group for an unknown destination.

4

The boys are packed and ready to leave the barracks for the last time when the Harlem papers arrived. Hot Shot and Little Willie try to keep the headline news from Jackie, but he manages to see it---BETTY LOU IS IMPLICATED IN THE MURDER OF BABE STEWART, FLASH BANNING'S EX-MISTRESS. The emotional conflict within Jackie is tremendous. Betty Lou is in trouble, and he is powerless to help her! *(Sentimental song as they board the troopship)*

### INSERT A---

Boogie Woogie Hornpipe -F

If only Jackie knew the reason why Betty Lou failed him. For while he was frantically trying to find her, Betty Lou was in the midst of a three-way fight among herself, Flash and Babe Stewart. Babe has both of them cornered in her HHHXXXXXXXXX swanky gambling apartment. She has backed Flash for years, raising him up to his present position; now he's trying to two-time her with a young chick who like Betty Lou. What do Flash and Betty Lou propose to do--- break it up or take the consequences? Click Flash wneedles her into talking it over. They go into the next room, leaving Betty Lou locked in. Betty Lou waits and waits. She thinks she hears a shot, but attributes it to her nerves. Finally she tries to leave, but the doors are locked. She pounds and punds until the doors are finally opened---by cops and detectives. Babe Stewart was murdered, pushed out on a window down to the street, fifteen minutes before, while she was waiting, and Flash has disappeared!

Jackie, not knowing nothing of this, searches for her, waits, worries, finally believes she does not care.

5

Several days out at sea the boys hear rumblings that they are headed for somewhere in the Solomon Islands, where they are to prepare a beachhead for landing of troops. Everyone is excited, everyone avid for action. They practice their gunnery, throwing oil cans out into the water and drilling them through even before they land in the drink.

But as they are nearing their destination, one night, the battle alarm sounds! Before the sailors can man their posts, the ship is struck by a torpedo. Pandemonium reigns as the ship begins to sink. In the moonlit night men jump overboard and rubber life-rafts soon dot the sea. Jackie, Hot Shot, and the chef and four others find themselves in a rubber raft and, struggling in the water, keeping afloat by means of his tin tub instrument, is Little Willie, the Harlem waif. They pull him to safety into the crowded rubber boat, but he is injured.

They drift for days, suffering thirst and hunger, keeping their spirits up with their song. (Incidents, comic and pathetic). Little Willie is the first to crack. He dies. The others bury him at sea, singing his funeral oration. Helplessly they drift on.

One night, when all are three-quarters dead, and when one is afloat on the raft, weak, and hopeless, the rubber raft bumps something. It bumps again, then grides onto a beach, washed up by a huge breaker, among the rocks. Instantly they boys roll out and stagger up on land, not believing their good fortune. They wobble single file into the wooded area. Through the trees they see a small light, like that of a campfire. They make for it, and the stronger helping the weaker.

But as they near the encampment, the faint motor noise of a plane in the distance startles the inhabitants. Orders are barked. Little yellow men rush to their posts, and for the first

6

time the sailors realize that they are trapped by Japs!

The boys retrace their steps into the jungle and follow a stream in deathly silence. When the daylight comes they are far inland, up in the hills, their strength somewhat replenished by fresh water and tropical fruits. Down below, in the clearing beyond the beach, they can see the Jap encampment.

They continue trudging wearily over the mountain, and before the sun has set an even stranger sight greets them. For down in the valley they make out the grass nuts of what they remember from their geography books to be those of Fiji Islanders! What do they headhunters? do now? XXXXX XXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

What they see next gives them a clue. At the foot of the hill they see a Jap stealthily approaching the village. A couple of natives jump out at him and knife him to death. That's all they wanted to know---the Fijis are on their side. But how can they convince the Fijis that the Harlem sailors are on their side, too? Finally they evince a plan, and Hot Shot and his Harlem jive lingo is elected for the task.

That night a strange apparition is seen approaching the Fiji village in the moonlight. He stands with arms upraised, singing the latetst boogie woogie number as if his very life depended on it--- as it does. He is garbed as an American Indian chief, and he is pounding poor Little Willie's musical drum in a manner that would arouse the envy of Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa combined. Slowly the natives approach and ring him, drawing closer and closer as they see that he is harmless---and hot! They natives find the rhythm irresistible! They dropped their spears.

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Soon the Big Fiji Chief and his entourage emerge. Hot
Shot greets him in his most mellifluous jive lingo. But the Chief
don't dig him. He ain't hep, but as the Chief he's got to pretend
that he is.

Hot Shot tried to tell him he's a friend, one of Uncle Sam's
boys, but it's tough. Ho he decides he'd better tell him about his
pals hiding up in the hills. So XXXEX, Hot Shot starts singing, his
depending on the echo to carry his voice, He sing an
Echo Blues. He sings two lead lines. The boys in the hills sing the
next two, and so on. The Chief thinks this is miraculous. Finally,
Hot Shot cues the boys to come down, but to keep singing, as he leads
the first to meet them.
The next few days sees XXXEX many more miracles in the
Fiji village. The sailors are filling the natives, teaching them
Hot shot meets Lulu. - M-13
commando tactic. And every night they boys are up on the mountain
top, XEINDIXXSIGMAIXSTHEXXXOWXX flashing signals they know not to
whom, but XXXXXEEPEEX hoping some American patrol will pick them up.

After a long XXXIX vigil and much perseverance, they are
rewarded. One night, from far out at sea, their signals are/returned,
EXXXX then cease. Hot Shot thinks it's only fireflies. But next night
they signals are returned again, but again nothing happens. And each
night the signal period grows longer, and the messages more in-
telligible. Eventually the boys learn that the Jap encam ent over
the mountain is an airplane base which the Navy has been trying to
find. The boys reply with the suggestion that arms be smuggled in
nightly in preparation for a big attack. That might be Hot Shot,
discovered by Jackie in a letter home. -M-14

And so, for several nights in succession, a small boat
silently unloads guns and ammunition, and the boys arms the natives.
Then, on the big night, a task force lands and, with the boys
XXXIXEXX and the natives in the vanguard a bloody battle is fought
taken by surprise and
and the Japs/wiped off the island completely. Only Jackie and Hot
Shot are the only two of the sailors to survive.

ballywoundel:

1

CHOCOLATE SAILORS

Let's salute the Chocolate Tars
Sailing the seas for the stars and bars.
On the watery fronts where things are jumping,
They're out to give the Japs a thumping.
Tall and strong in their uniforms of blue,
The chocolate sailors fight like lightning for me and you.

Building beach-heads or chasing submarines,
Chocolate Sailors know what war means.

Not afraid to work or fight,

They're out to get the enemy with all their might.

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-2

some colored boy very much in love and very much in need of money
with which to take his girl out. Jackie was good at jitterbugging
and tap dancing, but hoofers were plentiful. However, things were
a little easier for Betty Lou who was quite pretty, talented at
dancing, too, and determined never to be a kitchen mechanic. She
got a job in the chorus at Wilkie's Plantation Club where looks,
youth, and legs, were highly prized. At first the glamor dazzled
her. Sitting on her front stoop one June evening Jackie, in song,
tries to tell her that "Fine Feathers Aintt All."

Song: FINE FEATHERS developed as a duet. (1)

Betty Lou's father, Rev. Harris, pastor of a small church,
didn't like the idea of her dancing for a living, but her mother,
Mom Harris, is more tolerant. She understood about ambitions that
burn in all young girls' hearts, and what symbols Florence Mills,
Josephine Baker, and Ethel Waters are to them.

Jackie Jones didn't like the idea at all, however. It meant
that Betty Lou was seldom free to see him; that her tastes were
getting expensive, that she wanted to pay for all the treats now,
and that there were always guys with big cars, fancy clothes and
flashy jewelry hanging around as eternal temptations.

Then the war came. Greater opportunities in industry were
opening up for Harlem, but not enough to accommodate all the young
unskilled Jackies. Jackie wanted to go overseas and fight, but at
first enlistments were not encouraged for Negroes by the Army, much
less the Navy. But Jackie believed in the main objectives of the
war, and the promises of a better future for those like him. So he
ran to Betty Lou with the news when he heard that colored girls
could join the WAACS. He urged her to enlist, as he himself would
if he could get into the Navy. But Betty Lou now was coming up in
the show business. Through the intervention of Flash, she was going
to get the second lead role in the new Plantation Show.

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-8

M Flash Banning! This confirmed what Jackie had long suspected and feared; Betty Lou was going out with that lobster. Jackie went home dejected, lost to himself and the world. On his way he passes a little band of kids, a Harlem tramp band, entertaining on the corner. Among them is Wee Willie, a comically cute adolescent who plays on an imporvised bass viol made from a tin tub, an upright two-by-four nailed to one side, and a leather thong. This kids street band are singing:

Song: GET HEP TO THE JIVE, quartette style. (2)

Jackie had barely reached the stoop of his tenement house when the radio of the candy store next door blared forth the news that Secretary of the Navy, Knox, impelled by the heroism of Dorie Miller, had at last opened up the Navy to Negro enlistments. Jubilant shouts rose from within the candy store. Boys on street corners shouted the news to each other. From pool halls and beer parlors, young Harlemites poured forth into the streets and, as if by pre-arrangement, lines of them started snaking along the sidewalks, winding gaily down to the Navy Recruiting Office.

As if by instinct, Jackie fell into line as it passed him, the line in which were Hot Shot, a humorous fellow, and Wee Willie, the street musician who picked up his tintub instrument and fell in, too. The others tried to push Wee Willie out, saying he wasn't fifteen yet, but Willie stuck to his place, tub and all.

Meanwhile, Flash Banning is seen in the silken apartment of his aging mistress, Lily Babe Stewart. She entertains him, singing to him her philosophy of life:

Song: COME DAY, GO DAY, developed into a duet. (3)

As they drink and laugh and scheme to trick and cheat folks in through their gambling set-up, the scene fades to a group of serious Negro boys, including Jackie, Wee Willie, and Hot Shot, being sworn

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-4

into the Navy. After the induction, Hot Shot takes Lee Willie to task in a comic way for lying about his age, and for insisting that he be allowed to take his instrument with him.

THENKKENKEN Jackie seeks Betty Lou to tell her goodbye and all the sweetness of their childhood romance comes back to them, now that he is leaving. Then comes the period of training for the boys at the Great Lakes Naval Station (or at Hampton Institute, the great colored school in Virginia). All phases of their naval training are shown, boating, swimming, drilling, machine shops, and the use of guns. Then recreation---those having talent are chosen to put on a Training Base show. Jackie for dancing, Willie, and Hot Shot are among the actors. They do a number showing how proud they are to be a part of the great fight:

### Song: THERE AIN'T NO UNCLE LIKE MY UNCLE SAM. (5)

Then work again. Jackie is advanced to a petty officership and he rushes to a telegraph station to wire Betty the good news. Be tty is in the midst of being fitted in her gorgeous costumes for the new show when the wire comes. It is the day of the opening. Betty clicks singing a gay, happy ballad of Harlem, in which she leads the ballet as well;

### Song: SING A SONG OF HARLEM, production number. (5)

Now Flash Banning is hotter for her than ever. She's going places, he promises her---with him, of course. Babe Stewart, the once famous Lily Bave, now on the downgrade, senses that she is losing out. Alone in her apartment one night she sings:

### Song: WHEN A WOMAN'S LOST HER MAN

Flash gets Betty an important radio broadcast, and Betty wires Jackie to listen as she is dedicating a song to the Negro sailors. In the barracks, all Jackie's buddies gather about the radio. Betty sings:

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-5

Song: TIP TAP TAR, as Jackie dances in the barracks. (6-a)

OR

Song: CHOCOLATE SAILOR BOYS, with sailors' chorus

Jackie reads all kinds of hopes into her song, and he thinks she means him alone when, at the end, she sends her greetings to the boys. Jackie writes to her, telling her that he is applying for a MUNIM week-end leave soon to visit her. He is determined to ask her to marry him. His leave will barely allow him time to accomplish it. He asks her to meet him at the station, but when he arrives in New York, there is no Betty Lou there to meet him. He calls for her but cannot find her, and her mother tells him she has moved to an apartment of her own. There there is a doorman who will not let him in. He waits, he phones, but she never shows up. Broken-hearted, he goes to his humble tenement and goes to bed.

Jackie does not know why Betty Lou has failed him but, while he was frantically trying to find her, she was desperately trying to escape a sordid situation into which Flash had led her---a three-way drama between the gangster, the aging Lily Babe, and herself. Through a ruse, Lily Babe has them cornered in her swanky gambling apartment. She has backed Flash for years, raising him to his present position, now he's trying to two-time her for a young chick like Betty Lou. Also, he has misued her money of late, and transfered some of his business to a rival gang, which has gotten Lily Babe in dutch with the underworld powers. Her code in the past has been to gyp honest people, but to play fair with the cheaters, her kind, now he has my damaged her reputation in their eyes, and made life dangerous for her, and for him. Flash and Lily Babe go into another room to talk it over. Betty Lou waits and waits. Finally she tries to leave, but finds that she is locked in. Suddenly she things she hears a shot and shattering glass. She punds on the door until at last it

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-6

is opened---but by cops and detectives! Babe Stewart has been found murdered, pushed from her window into the street, and Flash has disappeared.

Jackie, knowing nothing of this, still searches for her in the morning before his train leaves. Finally, he believes she does not care for him any more. Sick at heart, he returns to his post where everything is a-buzz with the news that he, Hot Shot, and Wee Willie have been selected to "ship out" with the first group for an unknown destination.

The boys are packed and ready to leave the barracks for the last time when the Harlem papers arrive. Hot Shot and Wee Willie try to keep the headlines from Jackie, but he sees it: BETTY LOU IMPLICATED IN THE MURDER OF FLASH BANDING'S EX-MISTRESS, LILY BABE STEWART. As he reads it, the bugle signalling their departure is heard. The chocolate sailors get into line. The emotional conflict within Jackie is tremendous: Betty Lou is in trouble and he is powerless to help her! Uncle Sam is commanding him to duty.

Wind and sea and strong dark young sailors going about their duties on one of America's great ships. In the evening twilight, off duty, they gather for fun and song. Wee Willie plays on his tin tub, beating out a provocative rhythm. The chaplain lends then a baby piano. Hot Shot plays and Jackie leads:

Song and Dance: THE BOOGIE WOOGIE HORNPIPE. (8)

Hundreds of sailors dance the hornpipe in Harlem boogie woogie style.

One day the boys learn that they are headed for somewhere in the Solomon Islands, where they are to prepare a beach-head for the landing of the Marines. Everyone is excited, everyone avid for xst action. They practice gunner, throwing oil cans out over the water and drilling them through even before they hit the drink. Crack xmas shots!

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-7

But, as they are nearing their destination, one night the battle alarm sounds! Before the sailors can man their posts, the ship is struck by a torpedo. Pandemonium reigns as the ship begins to sink. In the moonlight night men jump overboard and rubber life-rofts soon dot the sea. Jackie, Hot Shot, and their fellow sailors, the Chef and the Wee Willie, find themselves in the same rubber raft. At dawn, alone on the vast sea, they spot what at first they take to be the periscope of a submarine, but it turns out to be only the upright two-by-four of Wee Willie's musical tub, and Willie therein. The Harlem waif has been wounded, but they manage to pull him safely into the crowded rubber raft.

They drift on for days, suffering thirst and hunger, keeping their spirits up with jokes and songs. Hot Shot has a delirious krystal nightmare one night in which he dreams he has been eaten by a whale, like Jonah, and in his mind he pictures the fantastic things that may happen to him down there in the whale's belly, the strange fish and even stranger people he meets. Then he imagines his skeleton washing up on a sandy beach and his bones drying in the sun, but he remembers the old song his mother used to sing about the judgement day and how:

Song: Spiritual--DRY BONES GONNA RISE AGAIN. (9)

His own singing wakes him up, he is not swallowed at all, and the others on the raft join in with him in singing about how the hip bone is joined to the thigh bone, the thigh bone to the back bone, etc. But as they sing Wee Willie's voice grows weaker and weaker and he knows he will never see land in life again. The Harlem waif dies, an unknown hero of Uncle Sam's, and his comrades bury him at sea, singing his funeral oration:

Spiritual: I'VE KNOWN STARLIGHT, I'VE KNOWN MOONLIGHT (9a)

And their rubber raft drifts on helplessly into the sunset and the darkness of wind and sea.

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-8

The song of the lost seamen blends into another song, a stronger
and more rhythmical spiritual sung in rich Negro voices---for back
in the little church in Harlem Betty's father and his friends have
gathered on prayer meeting night to pray for his erring daughter in-
volved in the sensational trial of Flash Banning, now captured and
under indictment for the murder of Lily Babe Stewart. Betty Lou's
father is humbled and ashamed by the disgrace that has come into his
life, but the mother is sure Betty Lou is innocent of any connections
with the crime. In trust and faith that their religion will stand
by them, they sing:

## Spiritual: JESUS IS THE ROCK IN A WEARY LAND. (10)

Sin has struck where it is most hated, in the church of God.
But the old man's heart is not to be broken after all for, as the
trial progresses evidence comes to light which clears Betty Lou and
convicts Flash and others of his gang. Betty Lou rushes to her
fathers arms, promising to make amends for all the troubles she has
caused him. Mom, Betty's mother remembers the song Jackie used to
sing:

## Reprise: FINE FEATHERS AIN'T ALL. (10-a)

In the midst of the happy family reunion, word arrives that
Jackie has been lost at sea with other boys of the neighborhood.
Through their tears the little family looks out their window at the
big service flag floating in the middle of their street: See how
many stars there are on that flag from one Harlem block.

Betty Lou wants to make her life of service to the war effort.
She calls at one of the Harlem bureaus for help and information. The
woman there in her neat service uniform tells Betty Lou about the
WAACS, the Red Cross Clubs on foreign soil that need workers, the
Army Nurses to care for the wounded. The Army Nurses........

Meanwhile, on their rubber raft, Jackie and the other two are

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-9

growing weaker and weaker, food gone, water giving out. Finally, one night when hope is almost gone, the rubber raft bumps against something, rips, and leaves them floating in shallow water among the rocks of a wide and sandy beach fringed by palm trees. Half-dazed, the weakened tars stagger up on land, not believing their good fortune. They wobble single file into a wooded area. Through the trees they see a small light, like that of a camp fire. They make for it. Jackie leads the way, Hot Shot helps the old Chef, who is almost gone.

But as they near the encampment, the faint noise of a plane in the distance startles the inhabitants. Orders are barked in a strange language. Little yellow men rush to their posts, and for the first time, the colored sailors realize they are trapped by the Japs. They retrace their steps into the jungle in the moonlight and follow a stream in deathly silence, scarcely pausing to drink. When daylight comes, they are far inland, up in the hills, their strength somewhat replenished by fresh water and tropical fruits. But down below, in the clearing near the beach, they can still see the Jap encampment, so they continue to trudge wearily over the mountain.

Before the sun sets an even stranger sight greets them. Far down in a green and lovely valley, they make out the grass huts of what they remember from their geography books to be those of the Fiji Islanders! Head-hunters! What to do now? Hot Shot feels that his head is too handsome to hang on a pole.

What they see next gives them a clue. At the foot of the hill they watch a Jap scouting party stealthily approaching the village. The Fijis seem to smell them, seize them weapons, rush out and come back with all the Jap heads on spiked sticks. That's all Jackie and his fellow tars want to know---the Fijis are on their side. But how

## CHOCOLATE SAILOR-10

Can a trio of Harlem sailors convince the Fijis that they---the sailors---are on the Fijis side, ok too? And what kind of language do they speak?

Finally, they evolve a plan: Hot Shot, with his jive lingo and hot Harlemese is elected for the task of emissary. He seeks a proper costume and paints his face for the occasion. That night the startled Fijis behold a most amazing apparition approaching their village in the moonlight. Hot Shot is garbed as an American Indian chief, and he is pounding poor Wee Willie's musical tub in a manner that would arouse the envy of Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa combined. Hot Shot stands with arms up singing a wild boogie woogie as if his very life depended on it, and advising the natives to:

### Reprise: GET HEP TO THE JIVE. (11)

Slowly the natives approach and ring him around, drawing closer and closer until they see that he harmless---and hot. The Fijis find his rhythm irresistible. They drop their spears and begin to dance. Soon the Fiji Chieftan and his entourage emerge and Hot Shot is presented at court. He greets the Chieftan in his most mellifluous jive lingo, and invites him to "spank the plank." But the Chief don't dig him. The Chief ain't hep. But as Chief, he has to pretend he is, so he comes back with some Fiji jive that is terrific.

Hot Shot tries to tell him that he's a friend, one of Uncle Sam's boys, a Harlem hep cat from the U.S.A.---but it's tough. When he finally gets that over, he decides he'd better tell him about his two pals in the hills, and also let them know things are coming along. So he starts singing, depending on the echo to reach them and bring back an answer:

### Song: ECHOING BLUES (12)

As he sings, the boys in the hills echo back each line. The Chief thinks this is miraculous. Hot Shot cues the boys to come down, as

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-11

he leads the Fijis out to meet them.

The natives and the Negroes are friends. The sailors drill the
natives, teaching them commando tactics. Hot Shot meets the Chief's
beautiful daughter, whom he calls Zulu Lulu, and one night beside a
mountain stream, they have a rendezvous. Hot Shot sings:

Song: BAMBOO BABY ON A BAMBOO ISLE. (13)

The problem with the natives is that they have no firearms, no
modern weapons to fight the Japanese. The sailors hope to be able to
signal an American ship. From a mountain top each night, they flash
their signals, hoping they will be picked up by some American patrol.
At last, after a long vigil and much perseverance, especially on
Jackie's part, they are rewarded. From far out at sea, their signals
are returned briefly, then cease. Hot Shot thinks it is only fire-
flies. But the next night, they are returned again, and the boys
learn by code that there is a Jap encampment guarding a camoflaged
air base on the Island that the American destroyers are trying to
find. Jackie, Hot Shot, Chef, and the Chieftan form a scouting
party and finally locate the well hidden enemy air base. That night
they signal the news out to sea, and also add the suggestion that
arms be smuggled in to them to be buried in preparation for the big
attack. For arms is what they need. Hot Shot has already dictated
a letter home to his mother expressing their dilemma:

Song: A LETTER TO MA

which Jackie takes down since Hot Shot cannot write---very well.

For several nights in succession, a small boat silently unloads
guns and ammunition, and the boys are the natives. Then, on the big
night, a task force of Marines lands and, with the boys and the
natives in the vanguard, attack the air base, take it, and clear the
island completely of Japanese. But Jackie and Hot Shot are both
wounded. To save their lives, the company commander orders both flow

CHOCOLATE SAILOR-12

immediately to a base hospital at Honolulu. As the plane sores aloft the natives wave farewell. Lulu cries. Jackie takes from his pocket a water-soaked picture of Betty Lou but when he thinks of how she treated him, he doesn't care much whether he lives or dies. Hot Shot tries to comfort him with stories of the hula girls they will see when they land.

But when they land, it is at a strictly American looking field with American ambulances drawn up to await them, and a group of beautiful colored nurses lined up to attend them. Can it be that dreams really do come true. Jackie cannot believe his eyes as he is carried from the plane, but there bending over him is---Betty Lou! He presses into her hand the little token for bravery that the general has given him. Then his eyes close.

Nurse Betty Lou is beside him during his serious illness and convalescence. She wheels him across the beach at Waikiki in his wheel chair. Gradually he walks again, lives again, becomes a man again. And they prepare for their wedding.

Grand finale: A Harlem Waval wedding in Honolulu. The natives and the Harlemites mingle their music and their gaiety.

OR

Alternate Grand Finale: Jackie and Hot Shot are ordered home to receive their decorations for bravery and Nurse Betty Lou is ordered to accompany them, as Jackie's nurse--and bride. Welcome parade through the streets of Harlem with all the windows of all the tenements full of dark joyous heads, streamers, confetti, and the music of:

SING A SONG OF HARLEM
and

CHOCOLATE SAILOR BOYS
or

the joyous rhythm of TIP TAP TARS bringing the picture to a close.

-END-

1- Suggested lyric ideas for
song for BETTY LOU & JACKIE.
(Langston Hughes & Charlie
Leonard)

FINE FEATHERS

Fine feathers make a fine hat.

A reet pleat makes a boot suit.

A gold key chain is all root---

But fine feathers ain't all.

Fine furs make a snug neck-piece.

Fine garbadine holds a mighty fine crease---

But you've got to have something else on the ball---

Cause fine feathers ain't all.

When you've got the one you love
Hanging to your arm,

You can be dressed fine or not---

Just so your heart is warm.

Listen, baby, I don't care

What kind of clothes you wear.

It's you---just you---for whom I MERRY fall.

You're the thing! Fine feathers ain't all,

-5-

Preliminary draft lyric
ideas for song for BETTYM
LOU in night club scene.

SING A SONG OF HARLEM

The little dancing songs of Harlem
When they start,
Start a beat-beat-beating in your heart.
Away down deep the rhythm's there
Mixed up with a riff and with a prayer---
For there's more than just a jazz-beat in my heart.
There's a happy shout of joy at break of day.

Hey! Hey!

There's a midnight boogie-woogie that's so gay.

Hey! Hey!

There's a spiritual on Sunday
And the wasday blues on Monday
And a marching song Emancipation Day.
There's a mixture of all kinds of things in Harlem,
And the songs we make up tell you all about 'em---
But in every song we start

There's the rhythm of the heart---

In all the dancing little songs of Harlem.

-6-

Preliminary draft lyric
for song for LILY BABY
deserted by FLASH.

LOST IN HER MAN

When a woman's lost her man,
folks can't seen to understand---
She's lost all the time is to lose,
You wear his picture in your pocket---
But your heart is in his pocket,
And he's gone---leaving you the blues.
What's the use?
What's the use to me on and cry
When you'd rather just lay down and die?
Oh! Oh! Oh! All I know---
folks can't seen to understand
When a woman's lost her man
She's lost all the time is to lose!

-7-

Preliminary draft lyric
for song for BETTY LOU to
sing in broadcasting scene
in honor of Negro sailors.

## CHOCOLATE TARS

Let's salute the Chocolate Tars
Sailing the seas for the stars and bars.
On the watery fronts where things are jumping,
They're out to give our foes a thumping.
Building beach-heads, chasing submarines,
Chocolate sailors know what real war means.
They are not afraid to work or fight.
They're out to get the enemy with all their might.
Tall and strong in uniforms of blue,
The chocolate sailors fight for me and you.
So let's salute the Chocolate Tars
Sailing the seas for the stars and bars.

*%*
-15-

Preliminary draft lyric for
HOT SHOT to sing to Zulu Lulu
on the tropical island.

BAMBOO BABY

Bamboo Baby on a bamboo isle---
Teeth as white as coconut meat when you smile.
Bamboo baby, dusky mistery,
Don't know what you're saying
But it's sweet to me.

Zulu Lulu, do your hula-hulu! Whee-ee-e!
Tropical sunset, pineapple moon,

Love God, don't let it end too soon.
Bamboo baby in a bamboo groove---

I don't mean maybe, you're the one I love.
Honey chile,
Hellow and fine,
I'm just wild
About that Bamboo Baby of mine!

2.

Lucky Richards, the manager of the Swanee, has to laugh to himself as the eliminations begin and he goes to his private office to fetch the loving cup. He dips into a box where seven such prizes remain. The unpaid bill for them is still there---$43.89 for the dozen the box once contained, including tax---$3.65 a piece. And for this the place is jammed, and there's more than $1,500 in the box office from spectators and contestants.

Those poor contestants! Chick Wilson's Orchestra and Louis Arnold's Band blow their lungs out to keep them hopping. The minute one band stops playing a number, the other begins, each number faster than the preceding one as the finals are reached.

Sitting in a ringside box is Flash Banning, Harlem racketeer and owner of the Plantation Club. With him is Lily Babe, gambling mistress and his money bags. She doesn't trust Flash when he's on these "scouting" expeditions for fresh girlie talent for his night club.

At long last only five couples remain on the floor. But there might just as well be one, for all eyes are centered on our boy and girl---Jackie Jones and Betty Lou Harris. How those kids step! Gravity is almost unknown to them; they're off the floor more than they're on it. They're grace, speed and beauty personified. The applause is all for them---and so is the cup!

3.

Flash Banning has already dispatched Lucky Richards to
bring them over to his box as they leave the floor. Flash
can't say too much with Lily Babe there, but he invites Jackie
and Betty Lou to come and try out for his new night club show.
Betty Lou is exultant; Jackie has no such ambitions, and he
knows too much about Flash to be excited by the offer.

********

Also tasting of success while this is going on is the
Reverend Harris, Betty Lou's father, pastor of a small Harlem
church. His choir is on the air for the first time this
Saturday night---a local broadcast that may lead to bigger
things, perhaps a weekly income with which to help the needy
of his flock. Mom Harris' rich contralto voice glories in the
solo work; she sings from the fullness of life. Here's the
wisdom which promoted the broadcast; here's the tolerance
which encourages Betty Lou to dance over her husband's protests;
her's the understanding of every colored girl's ambition to be
like Florence Mills, Marian Anderson, Ethel Waters, and all
others whose talent lifted them up in the world.

That first broadcast is afterward celebrated by all who
have a part in it, and there are coffee and cakes and pies far
into the night.

********

4.

Betty Lou walks on air as Jackie takes her home. She's oblivious to Jackie's lack of enthusiasm; she has enough for both of them.

On the way home they pass Wee Willie, the orphan musician, and his tramp band. He's still thumping his tintub instrument for pennies on the street corner at that late hour, while his quartet is singing "Get Hep to the Jive." Business is bad for Wee Willie; he hasn't got his "flop money" all in yet. Jackie gives him his last quarter and sends him home with Hot Shot, a comic zoot-suit character.

Also just arriving home as they reach the stoop of their tenement is the Rev. and Mom Harris. Mom is bursting with news of the broadcast and the party afterward. Betty is bursting with news of the jitterbug contest and proudly displays the prize cup. The Rev. frowns on both his wife and daughter, reminds them it's long past bedtime and drags Mom upstairs.

Alone on the stoop, the kids begin spinning dreams of the future. Apparently it is not the same future. Jackie pictures her as his happy young wife, in their own little home somewhere, and himself with a steady job, coming home to this bliss every evening---after the war, of course, when these long-promised things are realities for everyone. In the meantime there is the

5.

war to be won first. He's been thinking about it for some time---
about doing something besides jitterbugging to help win that war
faster.

But Betty Lou envisions their future together as something
else---a break in Harlem's big night club; then, maybe, Broadway.
What a couple they'll make, on stage and off! No kitchen mechanic
stuff for her; glamour and glitter are dangling and dazzling before
her eyes.

For some time they use the same words to describe their
different dreams, until each begins to sense that the other is
thinking of something else. Thus Jackie begins singing his "Fine
Feathers" song to her, and she replies with *her* version of it.
They finally end with a duet of the number, but still singing
their own lyrics to the music.

When they kiss good night, it is with the promise that each
will think over the idea of trying out for the Plantation Club
show as a team---Betty Lou hoping that Jackie will see it her way,
and Jackie hoping that she will see it his.

******

Monday and the hour of his appointment with Betty Lou roll
around, but Jackie has as yet arrived at no decision. The idea
of dancing for a living in these vital war times, and of being

6.

beholden to Flash Banning for anything, still doesn't appeal
to him. Nevertheless, he knows how determined Betty Lou is,
and that to oppose her not only will not stop her, but even
cause a split between them.

"You gonna git split up anyhow---" says Hot Shot, to whom
he is confiding this as they walk to Betty Lou's house, "now
that they draftin' 'em fum eighteen up. You gittin' a number,
man---and not the Hahlem kind. This gonna be fum Washington,
with 'Greetin's, brother, greetin's---"

As they round the corner into Lenox Avenue a strange sight
 greets their eyes. Headed by Wee Willie and some of his tramp
 band, a line of happy-faced colored boys, arms on each other's
 shoulders, is snaking along the sidewalk, gaily shouting and
 singing "Anchors Aweigh!" Jackie and Hot Shot fall into step
 with them and ask the meaning of all this.

"Man, ain't you heard? We kin join the Navy now! Looky
here, looky here! We's goin' to the Navy Recruitment Office!"

Several of the boys display newspapers with the headlines
of Secretary Knox's declaration, and pictures of Dorie Miller.
Other youths fall in as the line winds merrily down Lenox Avenue.

"Anchors Aweigh" being finished, a voice breaks out with
"Git On Board, Little Chillun, Git On Board!"

7.

Jackie and Hot Shot look at each other quizzically. Then, with a sudden resolve, Hot Shot splits the line, gets in between, and pulls Jackie in with him. Hot Shot's croaking voice rasps out, "We's in the Navy now, we's in the Navy now!" as they disappear down the street.

******

Betty Lou waits for Jackie as long as she can. Then, afraid of being late for the audition, she rushes off to the Plantation Club.

Flash Banning is already looking over the fresh chicks when Betty Lou arrives breathlessly. She is all apologies: her partner never showed up. Can she come back with him some other time?

Flash, now without Lily Babe, is all charm and smiles.
"Sure, sure," he reassures her. "But why waste a trip? Why not try out alone, so long you here?"

Betty Lou is hesitant. Flash doesn't let her get off the hook. "Just got an idea for a swell spot for you," he adds hastily. "Let's see how you'll look in front of lights. Maybe by that time your partner'll show up."

Before Betty Lou can resist again, Flash has cued the piano player into a hot number. "Tap it out, baby!" she shouts to her as he goes off to a ringside table down the floor. Betty Lou, alone under the spotlights, eases into the music. Her feet are

8.

soon flying in an improved pattern of percussion and precision.

"You're signed!" Flash shouts to her before she is half finished.

******

"Sign here," says the Navy recruiting officer to Jackie.

As Jackie takes the pen, Wee Willie slithers into line behind him. Hot Shot, who was to have been next, grabs Willie by the scruff of the neck and holds a quick, whispered but emphatic consultation with the ragged waif.

"You only fourteen, you monkey," says Hot Shot, clenching his fist threateningly.

"Ahm nineteen!" Willie growls in an undertone, tearing loose from Hot Shot's grasp and regaining his place at the desk just as Jackie finishes signing. Hot Shot tries to roll his eyes significantly as the recruiting officer begins to question Willie, but to no avail. As the scene ends Willie, pen in hand, is painfully trying to compose his full name.

******

Jackie and Betty Lou break into a run as they see each other approaching down the street. At the stoop of her house they fall into each other's arms, bothaglow with excitement and bursting with news. They both start jabbering at the same time, neither

9.

hearing a word the other is saying. They halt with laughter,
then do the same thing all over again. Finally Betty Lou crashes
through first with her news.

"I've signed!" she exclaims.

"So've I!" he shouts back at her.

"You mean you got there after I left?" Betty Lou asks.

"Yeah, I guess so. I went down with the other fellows."

"What other fellows? I didn't see any fellows there."

"You mean you went down there after me?"

"Sure I was there---before you. But there were only
girls there."

"Girls? I didn't see any girls there," says Jackie in
surprise.

"No girls? Say, are you sure you signed up in the right
place, with Flash Banning?"

"With Flash Banning? No, honey, I signed with Uncle Sam!"

Betty Lou stares at him, mouth agape.

"Don't you get it?" Jackie pleads. "Banning don't mean
nothing, baby. There's a guy that's more important to both of
us right now."

Jackie sings the "There Ain't No Uncle Like My Uncle Sam"
song to her. As he weaves into the chorus, Betty Lou starts

10.

dejectedly up the stairs. Jackie marches up after her, still
singing all the way up the stairs to her apartment. She slowly
enters and closes the door, leaving him singing out in the hall.

********

Later that afternoon Betty Lou goes back to the Plantation
Club to break the sad news to Flash Banning, that there is no
dancing team. Flash has gone, but the wise piano player tells
her where to find him, in the swanky apartment house around the
corner from the night club.

After considerable questioning, Betty Lou is admitted to
the silken apartment. As the butler goes to announce her, she
catches a glimpse of Flash and Lily Babe through the door to the
big living room. Babe is at the piano, an empty champagne glass
beside her as she sings "Come Day, Go Day." Flash, his glass
in hand, is reclining on a billowy divan, chiming in for a duet
of the number. Betty Lou sees the butler give Flash the high sign.

Flash leaves Lily Babe to sing the reprise alone and comes
out to meet Betty Lou, shutting the door behind him. But instead
of being disappointed by the news, he appears jubilant.

"Why, babe," he consoles her, "with what you've got you
don't need no dancing partner. What you need is somebody that can
get you places. Just you show up for rehearsals and leave the
rest to me."

******

11.

Betty Lou is already deep in rehearsals when the day comes for Jackie and the rest of the boys to leave for their naval training station. She asks for time out to see him off, but Flash tries to keep her busy and hopes she will miss going. She sees it's getting later and later and begins to get angry. To placate her, Flash offers to make up the time by driving her down to the Recruiting Office in his big limousine.

She arrives at the very last minute for a hasty and uneasy farewell. Finally they fly into each other's arms, and Jackie is in heaven again by the time Betty Lou leaves. But his heart sinks back into the depths as he and the boys emerge from the Recruiting Office and he sees Betty Lou being driven off by Flash!

******

It's a history-making day when this first contingent of colored sailors arrives and is sworn into the Navy at the training station, among them Jackie, Hot Shot---and Wee Willie and his funny tin tub bass viol instrument. When the ceremony is over, they break out with "There Ain't No Uncle Like My Uncle Sam," singing it as they march to their barracks.

******

Then comes the period of training for the boys at the Great Lakes Naval Station (or at the Hampton Institute, the great

12.

colored school in Virginia). All phases of their naval training
are shown: boating, swimming, drilling, machine shop work, and
the use of guns. Also the comedy incidents growing out of their
new and happy life.

******

Then their recreations. Those having talent are chosen to
put on a Training Base show. Jackie has the dancing lead; Wee
Willie and Hot Shot are among the actors and musicians. And
two of the big hits of the sailor show are the "Boogie Woogie
Hornpipe" and "Chocolate Tars" numbers which the three boys write
for the occasion.

******

Then work again. Jackie is advanced to petty officership
and he rushes to the telegraph station to wire Betty the good news.

******

Betty Lou is by this time but a few hours from her big debut
at the Plantation Club. It is the day of the opening. She is
being fitted in her gorgeous costumes for the show when the wire
comes.

As if inspired by the telegram, and her determination to
show Jackie and her recalcitrant father that she was right all
along, Betty Lou clicks in a big way. The hit numbers of the new

13.

show are a Negro ballet, which she leads, and a gay, happy
ballad of Harlem which she sings as her big solo.

(Song: SING A SONG OF HARLEM, production number.)

Her success makes Flash Banning hotter for Betty Lou than
ever. She's going places, he promises her after the show---with
him, of course.

******

But in the gaudy gambling apartment Babe Stewart, the once
famous Lily Babe of the Harlem hot spots, is drinking alone while
gaming is going on in all the rooms around her. Flash fails to
show up after the opening, as he always does. She senses that she
is losing out and doesn't like it. She keeps drinking herself into
a maudlin stupor, singing the song she once made famous---"When a
Woman's Lost Her Man."

******

As the days go by, Flash pursues his program of making Betty
Lou---a big star. He pulls all sorts of wires to get her on an
important radio broadcast.

Betty Lou gets the idea of stealing the show by singing a
new song dedicated to the Negro sailors of the nation. Flash
doesn't exactly like the significance of the idea, but she over-
rides his protests. And she wires Jackie to be sure to listen.

******

14.

The barracks are hushed as Jackie and all the boys are
crowded around the radio, waiting for the big moment of Betty
Lou's introduction and song. The number is "Tip Tap Tar."

Jackie contains himself as long as he can, but when Betty
Lou begins the second chorus he breaks into a dance, improvising
suitable Astairean steps to the music.

******

By the time the song and his dancing are over, Jackie has
read all kinds of new hope into life. And when, at the end of
the program, Betty Lou sends greetings to all the colored sailor
boys, Jackie is positive she means him most of all.

That night Jackie writes to Betty Lou, telling her that in
the morning he is applying for a week-end furlough and will visit
her soon. He confides to Hot Shot that he is determined to ask
her to marry him, come what may. His leave will barely allow
him time to accomplish it. Hot Shot is all for the plan.

******

So much so that he tips off everyone in the barracks. Every-
body prepares to surprise Jackie by going along to the wedding.
They all apply for furloughs at the same time. The commandant is
sympathetic to the secret plan, but he can grant leaves to only
eight of them at a time; that number, he is confident, will be
enough to lend naval prestige and color to the ceremony.

******

15.

Thus Jackie and the eight sailors from the naval training
station arrive in New York, loaded with pay and a festive spirit.
They find out that Jackie is going to attend the Plantation Club
show to see Betty work, then meet her afterward. To Jackie's
surprise, they troop in behind him in a body as soon as he arrives.
They drag him to a decorated table which they have reserved for
the occasion. The merriment is boisterously well under way long
before the show starts.

When the show finally begins, they can hardly wait for Betty
Lou's entrance. They're impatient with the other numbers and keep
calling for Betty Lou, much to the embarrassment of Jackie, and
the other performers.

Then Betty Lou comes on. But instead of listening quietly,
they keep calling to her, shouting hints of the proposal that
awaits her. Betty Lou is upset by this unseemly disturbance.
She signals to Jackie to exert some control, but Jackie is power-
less.

Flash Banning is also watching the proceedings. He is
gloating over Betty Lou's growing anger with Jackie, and prevents
several waiters from stopping the commotion. And also gloating
over Betty's misery is the rival Lily Babe.

The last straw is reached when the boys, tanked beyond

16.

their capacity, break out into a number they put on for the
naval base show, "Chocolate Tars." Betty Lou walks off the
floor in disgust as all the patrons' attention is diverted to
the singing sailors. The curtain in back of the floor comes
down abruptly. The show is now at the sailors' table. But on
order from Flash, the waiters stand by patiently and helplessly.

Then, when they've finished singing "Chocolate Tars," the
sailors go into the dance for the number, winding among the
tables and upsetting patrons, and eventually landing on the dance
floor with their routine.

Jackie can't stand this any longer. He rushes out of the
club and goes back stage to explain to Betty Lou that he had no
hand in this rowdyism.

While he waits backstage, Flash Banning breezes through.
He stops and stares at Jackie and with pretended anger bawls him
out for the demonstration out front. Jackie pleads his innocence
to no avail. Flash passes on, into Betty Lou's dressing room.

******

In the dressing room Flash takes advantage of the situation
by consoling Betty Lou with good news.

"Too bad this had to happen just tonight," he says regret-
fully. "I was planning to take you some place after the show, and
I wanted you to look and feel your best."

17.

"Take me? Where to?"

Flash sails into his spiel. "To meet Larry Lewis.
He's planning his new colored show for Broadway, the biggest
he ever produced, and I been building you up to him, honey."

Betty Lou is all attention.

Flash pushes ahead. "He's waiting for us up at the apart-
ment. I got it fixed so that he'll be winning by the time we
get there, and be in a good mood. What do you say?"

Betty Lou is all agleam, then her face wrinkles with in-
decision. "Jackie's waiting outside," she says.

"I know---but I can't get big shots like Larry Lewis steamed
up every day. What do you say I tell Jackie you'll meet him later?"

Betty Lou nods. "Yes. Tell him to wait for me. Same place.
He knows where."

*****

"Betty Lou says she'll see you sometime," Flash is telling
Jackie inside the stage door. "Maybe tomorrow."

"I got to see her tonight," Jackie protests. "It's important."

"My advice is not to try it," Flash suggests. "You'll only
spoil everything more. She's feeling pretty bad, after what
happened."

"It wasn't my fault. Honest, it was the fellows' own idea,
coming here."

18.

"Maybe so and maybe not. But if I was you, I'd let her cool off. Look her up tomorrow."

"Tomorrow---gee, there won't be too much time tomorrow. We got to start back in the morning. Takes a long time to get to the naval station."

"Sorry I can't help you none, but she just can't see you tonight."

Jackie leaves dejectedly, saying, "Tell her I'll be waiting for her, no matter what time she gets home."

******

Lily Babe is just coming backstage after Flash---when she sees him passing through the street door. His arm is around Betty Lou! The blow leaves her a pathetic creature. Slowly a crafty look comes into her eyes. With a grim resolve she draws the mink wrap around her and follows them out the stage door.

******

Lily Babe trails Flash and Betty Lou from a distance down the block. She halts when she sees him lead Betty Lou into the apartment house. Then she turns around and, cold as steel, walks to the corner drug store. She enters a telephone booth and dials. All we hear her say is "Hello. Police Department?....."

******

19.

Betty Lou is alone in one of the end rooms of the big
gambling apartment. Music is playing and a table full of drinks
is close by. Soon Flash enters in a gaudy dressing gown.

"Larry is still out there. Won't quit while he's winning,"
he announces. "I'll try him again in a few minutes."

Flash snuggles up to her. His wolfing begins in earnest.
Betty Lou gently discourages him. Then, as he gets more voracious,
she has to struggle to keep out of his grasp. But there is no
curbing Flash's desire. Betty Lou is in serious danger of attack
when---

The cops and detectives burst in! The place has been raided,
and all its customers are being piled into the wagon downstairs.

******

Lily Babe is standing on the sidewalk as the cops emerge
with Larry Lewis, Flash and Betty Lou. She grins sardonically as
Flash recognizes her in the darkness. Bitterly she hums the tune
of "When a Woman's Lost Her Man."

******

The early Sunday morning sun is shining in Jackie's eyes as
he sits on the stoop, blinking in his sleep. A cop soon appears
and wakes him up with, "Hey. Where's the Reverend Harris live?"

20.

"Anything wrong?" Jackie asks solicitously.

"That's something between me and the Reverend."

Jackie directs him.

Then Hot Shot, Wee Willie and the other sailor boys come running, their small baggage in hand.

"Where you been, man?" Hot Shot shouts. "We been looking all over for you. Come on, we got less'n a hour to catch that train back."

But just as Jackie starts to leave with them out comes the cop, followed by the weeping Mom Harris and the Reverend, who is putting on his coat on the way.

"A child of sin, a child of sin!" the Reverend mutters in despair.

Jackie stops Mom Harris. She tearfully informs him that Betty Lou was caught in a gambling house raid, and they're going to try to raise some bail money to get her out. Jackie offers her all he's got, but Mom refuses to take it from him because he needs it.

Jackie insists on following them to the police station. He has to see Betty Lou, just for a minute. The sailor boys reluctantly trail after him.

******

21.

In the police station Jackie begs for a moment alone with
Betty Lou. They talk through a wire screen in a little room.

"I just want to tell you that I'm sorry about what happened last night. It wasn't my fault. I come all the way up here to ask you to marry me, but somehow things got bollixed up. And now you're in a jam---and there's no time left at all...But maybe that's the way you want it. You always thought dancing and being a Miss Big was more important than being in love and doing something worth while with your life. Well, you got what you want, and I hope you're more satisfied with what happened to us than I am. Goodbye."

Jackie and the sailor boys crowd into a single taxi and dash
for the station.

******

When the boys get back to their naval post, everything is
a-buzz. The first consignment of boys to be shipped out has been
selected---among them Jackie, Hot Shot and Wee Willie. They are
to head for combat duty---destination unknown. There is great
to-do and preparation, but Jackie is silent and sad.

******

22.

tin tub, beating out a provocative rhythm. The chaplain lends them a baby piano. Song and Dance: BOOGIE WOOGIE HORNPipe.

******

After several days at sea, the boys learn that they are headed for somewhere in the Solomon Islands, where they are to prepare a beach-head for the landing of the Marines. Everyone is excited, everyone avid for action. They practice gunnery, throwing oil cans out over the water and drilling them through even before they hit the drink. Crack shots all!

But, as they are nearing their destination, one night the battle alarm sounds! Before the sailors can man their posts, the ship is struck by a torpedo. Pandemonium reigns as the ship begins to sink. In the moonlit night men jump overboard, and rubber life-rafts soon dot the sea. Jackie, Hot Shot, and the Chef find themselves in the same rubber raft. At dawn, alone on the vast sea, they spot what at first they take to be the periscope of a submarine, but it turns out to be only the upright two-by-four of Wee Willie's musical tub, and Willie therein. The Harlem waif has been wounded, but they manage to pull him safely into the crowded rubber raft.

["23.", "nightmare one night in which he dreams he has been eaten by a\nwhale, like Jonah, and in his mind he pictures the fantastic\nthings that heppen to him down there in the whale's belly, the\nstrange fish and even stranger people he meets. Then he imagines\nhis skeleton washing up on a sandy beach and his bones drying in\nthe sun, but he remembers the old song his mother used to sing\nabout the judgment day. He sings lustily for salvation.", "(Song: Spiritual -- DRY BONES GONNA RISE AGAIN.)", "His own loud singing wakes him up, and he is overjoyed\nthat he is not swallowed at all. The others on the raft join in\nwith him in singing about how the hip bone is joined to the thigh\nbone, the thigh bone to the back bone, etc... But as they sing Wee\nWillie's voice grows weaker and weaker and he knows he will never\nsee land in life again. The Harlem waif dies, an unknown hero of\nUncle Sam's, and his comrades bury him at sea, singing his funeral\noration:", "(Spiritual: I'VE KNOWN STARLIGHT, I'VE KNOWN MOONLIGHT")}, "And their rubber raft drifts on helplessly into the sunset and the\ngathering darkness of wind and sea.", "******", "The song of the lost seamen blends into another song, a\nstronger and more rhythmical spiritual sung in rich Negro voices."]

24.

For back in the little church in Harlem Betty's father and his
friends have gathered on prayer meeting night to pray for his
ingar daughter. The scandal has caused the suspension of the
radio broadcast for the time being, and the church faces the loss
of the interested sponsor. Betty Lou's father is humbled and
ashamed by the disgrace that has come into his life, but the
mother is sure Betty Lou is innocent of any connections with crime.
In trust and faith that their religion will stand by them,
they sing:

(Spiritual: JESUS IS THE ROCK IN A WEARY LAND.)

*****

Sin has struck where it is most hated, in the church of God.
But the old man's heart is not to be broken after all. For, as
the trial progresses, Lily Babe redeems herself by testifying in
Betty Lou's behalf. Betty Lou is absolved, and Flash let off with
a stiff fine, which Lily Babe pays.

Betty Lou rushes to her father's arms, promising to make
amends for all the trouble she has caused him. Betty's mother
remembers the song Jackie used to sing:

(Reprise: FINE FEATHERS AIN'T ALL.)

25.

Through their tears the little family looks out their window
at the big service flag floating in the middle of their street.
They're proud to see how many stars there are on that flag from
one Harlem block.

Betty Lou wants to make her life of service to the war
effort. She calls at one of the Harlem bureaus for help and in-
formation. The woman there in her neat service uniform tells
Betty Lou about the WAACS, the Red Cross Clubs on foreign soil
that need workers, the Army Nurses to care for the wounded. The
Army Nurses......

******

Meanwhile, on their rubber raft, Jackie and the other two
are growing weaker and weaker. Food gone, water giving out.
Finally, one night when hope is almost gone, the rubber raft bumps
against something, rips, and leaves them floating in shallow water
among the rocks of a wide and sandy beach fringed by palm trees.

Half-dazed, the weakened tars stagger up on land, not believ-
ing their good fortune. They wobble single file into a wooded
area. Through the trees they see a small light, like that of a
camp fire. They make for it. Jackie leads the way, Hot Shot helps
the old Chef, who is almost gone.

26.

But as they near the encampment, the faint noise of a plane
in the distance startles the inhabitants. Orders are barked in a
strange language. Little yellow men rush to their posts, and for
the first time, the colored sailors realize they are trapped by
the Japs. They retrace their steps into the jungle in the moon-
light and follow a stream in deathly silence, scarcely pausing to
drink. When daylight comes, they are far inland, up in the hills,
their strength somewhat replenished by fresh water and tropical
fruits. But down below, in the clearing near the beach, they can
still see the Jap encampment, so they continue to trudge wearily
over the mountain.

What they see next gives them a clue. At the foot of the
hill they watch a Jap scouting party stealthily approaching the
village. The Fijis seem to smell them, seize their weapons, rush
out and come back with all the Jap heads on spiked sticks!

That's all Jackie and his fellow tars want to know---the
Fijis are on their side. But how can a trio of Harlem sailors

27.

convince the Fijis that they---the sailors---are on the Fijis'
side, too? And what kind of language do they speak?

Finally, they evolve a plan: Hot Shot, with his jive
lingo and hot Harlemese, is elected for the task of emissary. He
seeks a proper costume and paints his face for the occasion. That
night the startled Fijis behold a most amazing apparition approach-
ing their village in the moonlight. Hot Shot is garbed as an
American Indian chief, and he is pounding poor Wee Willie's musical
tub in a manner that would arouse the envy of Lionel Hampton and
Gene Krupa combined. Hot Shot stands with arm up singing a wild
boogie woogie as if his very life depended on it, and advising the
natives to:

(Reprise: GET HEP TO THE JIVE)

Slowly the natives approach and ring him around, drawing
closer and closer until they see that he's harmless---and hot.
The Fijis find his rhythm irresistible. They drop their spears
and begin to dance. Soon the Fiji Chieftain and his entourage
emerge and Hot Shot is presented at court. He greets the Chieftain
in his most mellifluous jive lingo, and invites him to "spank the
plank." The Chief don't dig him. The Chief ain't hep. But as
Chief, he has to pretend he is, so he comes back with some Fiji
jive that is terrific.

28.

### (Song: ECHOING BLUES)

As he sings, the boys in the hills echo back each line. The
Chief thinks this is miraculous. Hot Shot cues the boys to come
down, as he leads the Fijis out to meet them.

### (Song: BAMBOO BABY ON A BAMBOO ISLE.)

29.

signals are returned briefly, then cease. Hot Shot thinks it
is only fireflies. But the next night, they are returned again,
and the boys learn by code that there is a Jap encampment guard-
ing a camouflaged air base on the island. The American destroyers
have been trying to find it.

Jackie, Hot Shot, Chef, and the Chieftain form a scouting
party and finally locate the well-hidden enemy air base. That
night they signal the news out to sea, and also add the sugges-
tion that arms be smuggled in to them to be buried in preparation
for the big attack. For arms is what they need.

(Song: A LETTER TO MA)

Thus, for several nights in succession, a small boat silently
unloads guns and ammunition, and the boys arm the natives. Then,
on the big night, a task force of Marines lands and, with the boys
and the natives in the vanguard, attack the air base, take it, and
clear the island completely of Japanese.

But Jackie and Hot Shot are both wounded. To save their
lives, the company commander orders both flown immediately to a base
hospital at Guadalcanal. As the plane soars aloft the natives
wave farewell. Jackie is delirious, not caring much whether he

30.

But when they land, it is at a strictly American looking
field with American ambulances drawn up to await them, and a group
of beautiful colored nurses lined up to attend them. Can it be
that dreams really do come true. Jackie cannot believe his eyes
as he is carried from the plane. But there, bending over him is—
Betty Lou! For the first time in months a smile breaks on his lips.
Then his eyes close.

Nurse Betty Lou is beside him during his serious illness and
convalescence. She wheels him across the beach in his wheel chair.
Gradually he walks again, lives again, becomes a man again. And
they prepare for their wedding.

Grand finale: A Harlem Naval wedding in the South Seas. The
natives and the Harlemites mingle their music and their gaiety.

OR

Alternate Grand Finale: Jackie and Hot Shot are ordered home
to receive their decorations for bravery, and Nurse Betty Lou is
ordered to accompany them, as Jackie's nurse—and bride. Welcome
parade through the streets of Harlem with all the windows of all the
tenements full of dark joyous heads, streamers, confetti, and the