Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:50 — 13.7MB)
Leroy and Marjorie get ready for a day of ice skating, but it takes only a tiny bit of encouragement to draw uncle Mort into the fun. Later at the barber shop, Gildy talks to Floyd, and we get caught up on the latest happenings. Recently Gildy had become involved with a Spanish dance teacher in town, and through a misunderstanding became engaged to her. Gildersleeve also tells how he got roped into Judge Hookers boring party of lawyers.
Trying to find an excuse to not go, Gildy heads to Peavey’s drug store for a cure to an imagined ailment. Will he be spending a wild night out with Leila Ransom, or just sitting around with good ol’ Judge Hooker?
Each of the family members get ready to go out on their respective dates. Leila arrives for her intimate evening with Gildersleeve. As the midnight hour arrives, the two lovers remember their times together. Gildersleeve sings, Speak to Me of Love.
Caught up in the spirit of the holiday night, Gildersleeve is overly hospitable, until he meets a stranger who serves him with papers for a breech of promise law suit.
PS: It sounds strange in light of our modern times that a woman had the right to sue for such a thing as a broken promise to be engaged to her. It goes to show the leaps that women have come in being independent in taking a career path of their own. They can be anything they want to be in the world of work, including a wife and mom. They aren’t reliant on a man for a livelihood, where back in the mid 20th century and before, there weren’t many career choices available. A broken promise to the security of marriage was a big deal for her future plans.
Women didn’t live independently unless they were the heir of a huge financial endowment. Widows and divorcees often became destitute without a man in their lives to support them. It would seem that Gildersleeve was something of a scoundrel if you only viewed him in light of this brief run of shows. He’s really just a fickle bachelor who can’t make up his mind over women. He loves them all, and the one he loves best is the one that he’s with. Since the beginning of this season, he’s flitted between three women, and hinted at engagement to each of them. In the seasons to come, he would have even more women come into and out of his life.
