What happens
Lou Costello and Hanley Stafford star in this episode of the Abbott and Costello radio series, first broadcast on March 20, 1947, on NBC and ABC. With Bud Abbott absent, Stafford stands in as Costello's partner. Costello, feeling spring fever and smitten with Marilyn Maxwell, decides to plant a garden, and Stafford tries to help him learn the basics. Their gardening lessons turn into a string of mix-ups over words and seeds. Costello then asks the widow Wetwash for a plot of land on her property, which leads to an awkward conversation and a plot of bones turned up while digging. The episode is built around confused wordplay and mistaken identities, with the story moving from the garden to a detective agency.
A home and a garden in spring, a seed store, and a detective agency
Characters: Lou Costello, Hanley Stafford, Mrs. Wetwash, Marilyn Maxwell
Listen for: Costello's garbled gardening advice and the confusion over Herman Wetwash's bones
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.