What happens
Fred Allen hosts a Town Hall variety broadcast, joking with his regular cast in a lively, comic mix of sketches, news parodies and music. The show opens with Portland Hoffa and Minerva Pious bantering as the audience heads into the hall. Allen's cast includes Kenny Delmar and the Ipana Troubadours. Their routines include mock news reels about postwomen, government theatre projects and an illegal artichoke. The original broadcast aired on 1935-12-25 on CBS and NBC. The transcript covers the opening portion of the episode, featuring the amateur contest that follows.
A Town Hall variety broadcast in the United States, with a comic town hall, a Christmas-season news parody and an amateur contest.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Harry, Peter Van Steeden, Frank Small, Peggy Dunn
Listen for: Listen for the mock news reels, the amateur contestants, and the running gags about the town hall and Allen's cast.
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.