What happens
Cummings, a salesman stranded in a New Orleans hotel during Mardi Gras, takes a Gideon Bible from his room and soon finds himself hunted by a masked devil and a clown. The episode is from the Escape radio series, first broadcast on May 5, 1950, and is narrated by Ben Wright. Cummings is pursued through the crowded streets, arrested after striking a policeman, and then tricked into a building where a woman with red fingernails and two men threaten him over the missing Bible. Cummings is struck and left unconscious, and the story continues from there.
New Orleans during Mardi Gras, including a hotel, the streets of the French Quarter, a police station and an old house
Characters: Cummings, The devil, The clown, The house detective, Frenchy, Poloni
Listen for: The mistaken identities of the masked men and the fake nun, and the reason the Bible matters
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.