Gossip (1953)

[Music] pretty clever bird the parrot he can actually talk pronounce words of course he has no idea what the words mean so we never take him seriously unfortunately that's not true with gossips they use words just as carelessly as the pirate but sometimes we take them seriously and often innocent persons are harmed you see gossips don't stop to think that words are dangerous they influence our national life and in war they are powerful weapons gossips toss words around as carelessly as pirat with no more sense of the harm they can do did I hear somebody say gossiping is monopolized by women far from it anyone who uses words carelessly especially to talk behind someone's back is a go let me tell you a little story about a this is Marian High my school I'm the principal George eastmore there were some people in my office this particular morning Mr and Mrs Gage and their daughter Jean they told me Jean would have to leave school why because of the malicious gossip about it I was shocked and I asked for details to see if we could do something about it we began talking even though Jean thought it was already too late Mr and Mrs Gage had opened a grocery store at the start of the term and Jean helped out after school usually it's difficult for a boy or girl entering a new school to get acquainted and make friends but in Jean's case it was easy she's a very good artist her first drawing won a school award and the prize winning picture was posted on the bulletin board that seemed to open the doors for her all the girls were interested and anxious to meet her the first friend she made was Janice Nelson of course Marian High is co-educational and the other half of our student body is always interested in a pretty popular new [Music] girl so while Jean's new friend Janice Nelson was introducing her to some of the other girls Jack Monroe and Bill Ellis our two ranking casanovas were making a little bet at the witch would make the first date with her Bill Ellis made the first move he was waiting on the steps when Janice and Jean left school that afternoon and soon was off to a running start in the competition Jack wasn't called the best Broken Field runner in Marian history for nothing besides he still had some trumps in his hand like an open convertible which had help quite a few times in the [Music] past Bill didn't know it yet but he was about to be outmaneuvered by an old trck the fake flat tire jack was well in the lead now he drove 12 BLX out of his way to drop Janice off first then he took his time Jean back to the grocery store Jean introduced Jack to her mother and father and Presto he'd won he had a date with Jean for Friday night from the time Jack called for her and all during the afternoon and evening Jean kept thinking to herself how lucky she was that her father had moved to store here so she could attend Maran she was a brand new student and already she'd won the art contest made a whole circle of friends been to pled the girls club and now here she was out with the most popular boy in school but when they drove home Jean began to learn a little more about Jack his popularity had gone to his head he was completely sure of himself confident that none of the girls could resist him Jean's slap didn't hurt his face but it certainly injured his pride he tried to laugh at off but he was thinking that he'd have to get even Jack didn't lose any time giving the other boys a highly colored version of the date to regain his self-confidence and build himself up in their eyes he added a few details remarks about Jean completely untrue but then gossip seldom worry about the fruit now the gossip began to spread Bill Ellis colored it a little more and passed it on then Christine manners took over first she used her lunch hour to tell the story to every girl who had listened and that included practically every girl in the school when she got home she took over the telephone to call all those she'd missed yes gossip spreads like wildfire especially with a help of girls like Christine and by the end of the day the harm was done Jean's reputation was [Music] ruined the next morning Christine still wasn't true she'd been jealous of the new girl's popularity and talent from the start now was her chance but the picture gave Jean her first inkling that something was wrong she knew it had been torn down deliberately she asked her friend Janice if she'd done something wrong the Janice was too uncomfortable embarrassed to tell Jean to her face everyone took pains to ignore her she felt like an outcast yet couldn't imagine why Jean was hurt and bewildered marry and high had seemed so wonderful only last week now it was like a completely different School gossip Jean was lonely and miserable all week but she was still hopeful that once she was initiated into the Girls Club things would be better however Jean had already been blackfall even before the Club scavenger Hut had started but instead of telling her the club president had made Jean's assignments far more difficult than the other girls hoping Jean would fail thus disqualifying herself not knowing this Jean started out on the scavenger hunt as eagerly as any of the others she was willing to work twice as hard as the other pledges to be initiated the rest of the pledges had finished their assignments and had been notified of their acceptance before Jean returned now the girls were really embarrassed Jean came back with every one of her ass completed what could she do next nothing Christine told her she'd been black ball she wasn't wanted Jean couldn't understand she'd done her assignments as well as any of them why had she been rejected Chine said Jean knew very well why because they didn't want her kind of girl in their Club Jean still didn't understand Janice finally had to explain that they all knew about her about Jack's story Jean was stunned how could anybody believe that about her when Mr and Mrs Gage came home Jean told them what had happened that she hadn't been accepted by the club because of a gossip about it she said she was quitting school so that's the story she told me that's why the gages came to see me they agreed with Jean it would be better if she left school but I asked them to wait give me a chance to do what I could gossip is difficult to fight you have to go right to the source and stamp it out that's exactly what I did I called in Jack Monroe asked him Point Blank if he was the gossip Jack was surprised he thought only women gossip men just well talk he admitted he'd started the talk but he never realized the harm it would do when I had finished explaining what his loose talk had done to Jean Jack asked me what he could do and I told him a way the only way he thought it over it wasn't going to be easy it would be embarrassing and we both knew it but he finally agreed give Jack credit he went through with it his voice broke a few times but he managed to tell them all that there was nothing to the gossip that he had made up the story and was to blame for everything but that wasn't quite right I told him that anyone who listens to gossip is almost as much to blame as the person who spreads it we were going to discuss the problem in assembly make the whole school aware of the danger and make sure that no Maran student would ever again be hurt the way Jean was the next day the whole student body realized what they had done to Jean now they wanted to make it up to her she made a fresh start and was soon one of Marian's most popular girls one of our real leaders what could have been another gossip tragedy had been a happy ending but don't forget this there needn't have been so much as a near tragedy if our students instead of imitating this bird the gossipy pirat had instead copied three far wiser creatures the three little monkeys who See No Evil Hear No Evil and speak no evil [Music]