Pan on shadowy, pre-dawn passageway, series of stable doors.
Fade to close-up: groom’s hand with curry comb, horse’s neck & nose,
tendrils of steam from nostrils; open newspaper on stall-side bench:
HANDICAP KENTUCKY DERBY WEATHER:
May 4, 1940: minimum temp, 36 degrees.
Cut to hospital waiting room: pacing 33-year old man, hair rumpled,
in wrinkled slacks & vest, smoking; ignoring newspaper on coffee table.
Close up on banner headline: ALLIED FORCES CONCENTRATE NEAR NARKIK.
Fade back to pacer, fingers to his lips, drawing on cigarette, exhaling smoke as a
white-uniformed nurse enters, speaks & beckons.
Cut to nursery window. Pan on rows of bassinettes seen through panes.
Close-up: Galloway bassinette, pink-swaddled infant, eyes tight shut.
(Elsewhere, May 4, 1940) Fade to thematic montage of family celebration:
A banner birthday for 2-year old Billy Bryant globing frosting on his face.
Cut to bride and groom before an altar, innocently glowing
(they couldn’t know they’d be progenitors of a man who’d become President,
nor guess they would go down in history as Tutu & Gramps).
Dissolve and cut to movie set, “The Pinto Kid,” May 4, 1940.
Paul Sutton in a studio chair frowning (he dislikes working on
his 30th birthday, or he’s dreaming of a gaucho on horseback:
Sargeant Preston of the Yukon, his best radio role.)
Reprise opening shot of stable, horse, & groom. Flash headline:
GALLAHADION WINS KENTUCKY DERBY.
Dissolve to flashback of rumpled dad at nursery window.
Dissolve to distance shot of horse and rider approaching the camera at a gallop.
Frame and hold the approach to close up. (Could this be Galloway?
Now her eyes are open.)
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