What happens
Lou Costello becomes convinced he is a great dramatic actor after a series of flattering remarks at MGM, and his partner Bud Abbott tries to talk him down. When a studio needs a dramatic actress for a final scene, Costello agrees to disguise himself as a South American actress and audition under the director Mr. Technicolovich. Before the audition he is coached at a School of Spanish Acting by Senior Melonhead, whose lessons on pronunciation and romantic gestures go badly. The broadcast includes a musical interlude by Connie Haines with Will Osborn and his orchestra, and the episode is from the Abbott and Costello series, originally aired on May 3, 1945 on NBC and ABC.
Hollywood film studios and a School of Spanish Acting
Characters: Costello, Abbott, Senior Melonhead, Mr. Technicolovich, Mabel Mustard Plaster
Listen for: Costello's comic insistence that he is a dramatic actor, and his disguised audition as a South American actress
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.