What happens
Tallulah Bankhead hosts this episode of The Big Show, the 90-minute Sunday feature of NBC's All-Star Festival, and welcomes her old friend Clifton Webb. Bankhead, who has been lecturing across the country, teases Webb about his film career, and the two trade barbs about radio versus motion pictures. The program is a mix of banter, comic bits and song, with guests including Jimmy Durante, Mindy Carson, Imogene Coca and Eddie Arnold. Durante's exchanges with listeners and Coca's play-by-play for her mother at home add to the lively, sketch-filled format of the show.
A radio variety show broadcast by NBC on a Sunday night, with a live studio audience and orchestra.
Characters: Tallulah Bankhead, Clifton Webb, Jimmy Durante, Mindy Carson, Imogene Coca, Eddie Arnold, Charles Boyer, Joe Bushkin
Listen for: The running banter between Bankhead and Webb about radio and movies, and Imogene Coca's on-air narration for her mother at home.
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.