The Courtship of Eddie’s Father

Following the death of his wife Helen, Tom Corbett needs to adjust to a new bachelor life with his young son Eddie. Although they both dearly miss Helen, Tom and Eddie would like another woman to enter their lives as wife and mother. One woman already in their lives is Elizabeth Martin, a volunteer nurse, divorcée and Helen’s best friend who lives next door. Tom and Elizabeth like each other as friends, as do Eddie and Elizabeth, but Tom and Elizabeth are constantly bickering and place walls up between each other in developing anything more serious. The first new woman to enter their lives does so for more pragmatic reasons – Tom hires a housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston, to tend to the domestic duties in the household. The second woman to enter their lives is Dolly Daily, a naive but attractive young woman from small town America who is in the big city solely to build up her self-confidence. Tom feels more protective toward Dolly than anything, and a business meeting Tom sets up between Dolly and Tom’s womanizing colleague, Norman Jones, leads to a romance and ultimate marriage between the two. And the third woman to enter their lives is Rita Behrens, a chic fashion consultant. Tom and Rita immediately hit it off, but Eddie shows open disdain for Rita, solely because she has squinty eyes like all the “bad” girls in the comic books. Tom and Eddie have a falling out because of what Tom sees as Eddie’s irrational dislike for Rita. After a courtship, Tom asks Rita to marry him, an act that sparks two responses. Noticing Eddie’s disdain for her, Rita suggests they send him away during the beginning of the marriage just to give it a chance of success without the added pressure of Eddie’s judgment. And Eddie runs away from Tom into the safe and caring arms of Elizabeth, who he would really like to see as his new mother. Both responses show Tom that marriage to Rita would not work, and that perhaps the walls he and Elizabeth have placed between themselves really are what need to come down for both the Corbett household and Elizabeth to be truly happy.—Huggo