Studs’ Place: Piggy Bank

"Piggy Bank," and episode of "Studs' Place," features Chet, Win, and Studs trying to convince Grace to smash open her piggy bank. Features songs from Chet and Win, and ends with a solicitation for the Red Cross's relief effort for victims of the Great Flood of 1951.

0:18Copy video clip URL Opening credits.

0:32Copy video clip URL Announcer: “It’s just a little place in the neighborhood where the food is good, the prices are reasonable, and the people you meet there are–well, let’s drop in and see what sort of people are around tonight.”

0:49Copy video clip URL Advertisement for Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club.

1:53Copy video clip URL Pan into the restaurant. A man is eating at a table and Grace is tidying up. Grace puts money in a piggy bank: “My umbrella for rainy days.” Grace tells him that she keeps tips from Fridays in the piggy bank. Grace drops a  menu onto a floor and the man leaves his seat and picks it up for her. Man: “Is it true what they say about Chicago…That it’s easy to get a job here?”

3:57Copy video clip URL The man asks Grace where he can find a job. She suggests working for the railroad, but he is a clothing salesman. They make small conversation. He talks about his travels and Grace awkwardly solicits the unemployed man for a donation to the Red Cross to help flood victims from her home town. He turns down a cup of coffee due to the price of the bill, but Grace reassures him that coffee refills are no extra charge. She offers him the help wanted section of the paper.

6:00Copy video clip URL He gets up to leave and, alone in the dining room, holds the piggy bank in his hands, measuring its weight. He leaves a note for Grace and a peso for her piggy bank and runs out of the restaurant. On the way out he runs into Chet.

8:03Copy video clip URL Grace finds the note and tucks it into her shirt pocket. Chet and Grace admire the peso, but Chet finds the coin unlucky, because it was produced in 1913. Grace: “[Still, it was a] Nice gesture.” Chet: “You ever try paying your rent with gestures?” Grace: “Bet it was all he had.” Chet: “Cut me a sandwich.” Chet leaves for the kitchen and Grace pulls the note out of her pocket. She reads outloud: “I’ll be back. Please accept my lucky coin as a tip.” Grace chokes up and drops the peso into her piggy bank.

8:59Copy video clip URL Studs and Chet enter the dining room. Studs: “Chet tells me that the customer left you a very munificent tip.” The man left without paying his whole bill and Studs “chalks it [Grace’s error in not collecting the bill] up to experience.” Grace suggests that the peso might be a rare coin and leaves into the kitchen. Studs finds a numismatics column in the paper. There is a special on pesos. The coin might be worth as much as $20. Grace returns from the kitchen.

11:58Copy video clip URL Grace: “That’s too bad, I already put it into my bank.” Chet and Studs try to persuade Grace to smash her piggy bank. Chet brings Win in from the kitchen. Win agrees with Chet and Studs. They argue. Win reminds Grace that her baby sister needs a new Sunday school dress.

14:48Copy video clip URL Win improvises a song about Grace’s money: “What you gonna do with all that money, baby?”

16:08Copy video clip URL They surround Grace, again, and Studs asks Grace what she will do when the man returns and asks for his coin back. This persuades Grace to open the bank. She leaves to get a hammer: “Father, forgive me!” Studs: “Look at that Grace. She won’t open this bank for a dress for her kid sister, but she’ll break it open for a stranger in need. What a babe!”

17:53Copy video clip URL Public service announcement alerting viewers about the importance of obeying traffic laws.

19:00Copy video clip URL Return to Win, Chet, and Studs with the piggy bank. Win: “I’m worried about Grace when she opens that thing. She’s been putting her nickles and dimes and pennies in there…You know how people are with a bank…they get to exaggerate the amount of money that they put in, and then when they open it up they’re disappointed.” Studs believes Win: “It may be like busting open a dream.” They start stuffing paper dollars into the bank so that Grace is not disappointed when she opens it.

20:48Copy video clip URL Grace comes back with a hammer before Studs had a chance to put their money into the piggy bank. The scene proceeds with Chet, Win, and Studs trying to prevent her from breaking it open. Chet: “We were talking, and if this is a grand opening…music…” Studs: “You gotta have a ritual!” Grace agrees and Chet starts a song on the piano. Grace brings the piggy bank to the table, but Win blocks Grace’s view and Studs is able to stuff the dollars into the bank.

22:21Copy video clip URL Chet plays Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.” They wrap the bank in a table cloth. Grace raises her arm, but stops at the apex. Turns out, Grace has kept exact records about the amount in the bank. She has saved $146.27. She breaks the bank and finds all the extra paper bills. The men walk away from the bank. Grace: “You fellas wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would ya?”

24:40Copy video clip URL Studs ignores the question and examines the peso coin, where he finds stars on its reverse side, thereby (per the newspaper article) negating the coin of any real value. Grace: “You mean it’s worthless?” And then it dawns on her: “I broke my bank!!”

25:06Copy video clip URL The man returns to the restaurant with the remainder of his bill and a tip for Grace. Grace accepts the coins and, with the paper money Chet, Win, and Studs put in her piggybank, pretends like they’ve cashed in the man’s ‘rare’ peso. She shoves the cash into the man’s hand and ushers him out the door. Grace: “I can’t imagine who put that money in there, that eight dollars, but whoever it is I’m sure that they’re glad the money went to such good advantage.”

26:50Copy video clip URL Advertisement for The Ted Mack Family Hour.

27:53Copy video clip URL End credits.

28:27Copy video clip URL Grace solicits money for Red Cross Relief for Kansan flood victims. Studs’s signature farewell.

29:41Copy video clip URL End of tape.