What happens
Gracie Allen and George Burns host a holiday broadcast in which the cast chats about Christmas shopping and gift-giving, with Tony Martin and Henry King taking part. Gracie announces an original play, Gracie's Christmas Carol, a comic take on Dickens in which George Burns plays the stingy Scrooge figure and the cast play the three ghosts. The opening scenes set up the premise: Scrooge is haunted on Christmas Eve by visitors who turn out to be familiar radio figures, including Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor, who appear to pursue him over stolen jokes. The broadcast is a Burns and Allen program first aired on December 23, 1936, on CBS and NBC Radio, with Gracie Allen and Bea Benaderet among the cast.
A radio studio during a Christmas broadcast, and the Christmas Eve scenes of the dramatized play that follows.
Characters: George Burns, Gracie Allen, Tony Martin, Ken Niles, Henry King, Ebenezer Scrooge, Mrs. Fezziwig, Jack Benny
Listen for: The ghostly visitors confronting Scrooge over stolen jokes, and Jack Benny's appearance as one of the spirits.
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.