What happens
Lou Costello has moved to a country house he calls the Lumbago Ranch, and his friend Bud Abbott questions him about the property. Costello reveals that the house came with no bathtub, and he sets out to get one despite wartime rationing restrictions. Abbott dismisses his schemes while Costello phones suppliers and then visits a swap shop, where a dealer named Kitzel tries to sell him an old tub. The episode is an Abbott and Costello comedy from 1945, broadcast on NBC and ABC in its January 11 installment, with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the leading roles.
A country house and a swap shop in the 1940s, during wartime rationing
Characters: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Kitzel
Listen for: Costello's repeated attempts to buy a bathtub despite rationing, and his mix-ups over the words roof, tile and mortar
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.