Roughly Speaking 1945

Louise Randall Pierson, Rosalind Russell, does not have an easy life. After her father dies during her teenage years, leaving the family short on money, she takes his advice to aim high and chase big dreams. She goes to college and learns typing and shorthand, and on her first temporary job she must confront the prejudices of her boss, Alan Hale as Lew Morton. Despite a gendered workplace landscape, Louise pushes forward with quiet determination and resilience, determined to prove that she can stand strong on her own two feet.

She later marries Rodney Crane, Donald Woods, who goes to work in banking, and together they start a family. Four children come in quick succession, and Louise nurses them through a bout of infantile paralysis, one child left somewhat lame. Yet after a decade, Rodney tires of her independence and devotion to work, choosing instead a younger wife with a more traditional view of a wife’s role, and he divorces Louise to pursue that path.

A year later, Louise meets Harold C. Pierson, Jack Carson, a man who is equally unconventional though less driven. After only a few hours, he asks Louise to marry him, and she agrees, perhaps surprised by how rapidly her life has shifted. They welcome a son together, and Louise inspires Harold to venture into his family’s business, taking out a loan to build greenhouses for growing roses. They seem poised to clear their debt when disaster strikes: the market over-saturates, the price of their crop collapses, and they are forced to sell nearly everything and hit the road.

Their travels bring them to a man in need, John Qualen as Svend Olsen, an aircraft builder who lacks funds for his invention. Louise and Harold pool their time and money to back the project, but once again timing is cruel. The day the aircraft prototype is finished and shown to hopeful backers, the stock market crashes, and the family is uprooted once more, starting anew in unfamiliar places.

Life for the Pierson clan settles into a rough cadence. Two of their sons attend Yale, another daughter marries, and the rest of the family survive through assorted work—selling vacuum cleaners, parking cars at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and other jobs that keep the family afloat through hard times. On Louise’s birthday Germany invades Poland, and World War II enters their lives as all three sons enlist. The youngest is just 17, and with some reluctance Louise grants her consent for him to join the United States Army Reserve. He rushes to the recruitment center as Louise confides her worry that she has not given them a stable, prosperous life. Harold reassures her with a steady faith in the power of their example, insisting that their unyielding perseverance is their true wealth. He urges them to press forward, and the couple begins to chart their next big project together—a plan to buy a farm that may offer the steady ground they’ve sought for so long.

They may be down from time to time, but never will be out.