What happens
George Burns is asked to write a guest newspaper column for Ed Sullivan and struggles to find anything worth printing. He wanders the studio asking neighbours, friends and fellow performers for gossip, and each lead turns into a comic mix-up. Gracie Allen pitches in with her own offbeat ideas. The mood tips toward alarm when word spreads that a gangster named Huey Salas is angry about a line George has printed, and George calls the police for protection. The episode from the Burns and Allen series first aired on September 23, 1940, with Gracie Allen, Bea Benaderet, Meredith Willson and Mel Blanc in the cast. This part of the broadcast ends with the threat still hanging over George.
Hollywood, at the Burns and Allen household and the studio, with a recording of a radio broadcast in progress.
Characters: George Burns, Gracie Allen, Huey Salas, Ed Sullivan, Bud Houston, Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet, Meredith Willson
Listen for: George's attempts to find gossip for his column and the rising alarm over the gangster Huey Salas.
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.