What happens
Fred Allen runs the Bedlam Department Store, where a chaotic series of customer complaints, odd requests and staff mishaps fill the day. Mr. Allen's office handles a bizarre sequence of phone calls and visits, from a wayward customer named Matilda and a shopper with a parrot problem to a rambling street singer and a salesman scheming to boost sales. The store's business grows more frantic when a feud with a rival cheese dealer erupts and the staff must improvise a defense. The Fred Allen series aired on CBS and NBC, and this episode first aired on April 25, 1934, starring Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious.
The Bedlam Department Store
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Matilda, Perkins, Louie
Listen for: The store's escalating chaos, the staff's absurd sales schemes, and Mr. Allen's improvised defense against the rival cheese gang.
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.