What happens
Rudy Vallee arrives at Duffy's Tavern, where Archie tries to recruit him for a radio program. Archie pitches a singing detective show, with Vallee cast as the Hummer, a private eye who solves a Beverly Hills murder. The pair rehearse the first episode, with the Hummer and Archie questioning a butler, a widow and a Yale dean about a corpse with an ice pick in its back. Duffy's Tavern is a comedy series, and this recording is an NBC sketch from 1951 with Ed Gardner and Shirley Booth in the cast.
Duffy's Tavern, and in the rehearsal, a Beverly Hills mansion, Yale University, Scotland Yard and other places
Characters: Archie, Duffy, Rudy Vallee, Miss Duffy, Rasputin, Mrs. Throckmorton, Inspector McIntyre
Listen for: The Hummer's rehearsed detective story and Archie's running jokes about Rudy Vallee
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.