Anne Royall

Originally Aired: February 20, 1940 Cavalcade of America #175, "Anne Royall," stars Ethel Barrymore as the fiery journalist and activist who defends freedom of speech in Andrew Jackson's America. Anne Royall is a fearless petticoat editor who travels the country exposing corruption and hypocrisy with her blazing tongue and biting pen. When she publicly accuses John Coyle and his society of undermining the government, powerful men threaten to silence her through the courts. True to their word, they drag her before a judge on the obscure charge of being a "common scold," a forgotten law that carries the punishment of the ducking stool. At the trial, prosecutor Thomas Swan presses the charges while Anne struggles to find witnesses willing to testify on her behalf. Her friends have abandoned her out of fear, leaving only her loyal secretary Sally Stack by her side. As the shabby old women face the legal machinery designed to crush her, Anne refuses to back down from her principles. Despite the threat of a punishment she might not survive, she remains defiant, clinging to her belief in truth and the sacred right to speak it freely in America.