What happens
Fred Allen hosts his radio variety show, with guest Rudy Vallee and regulars Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious. The program opens with National Foot Health Week jokes and a run of comic exchanges about Jack Benny and the Roxy Theater. Allen then talks with a series of characters, including Senator Claghorn, Mr. Moody, and Mr. Cassidy, about how they cope with their troubles. The conversations turn to former President Herbert Hoover's remark about fishing and privacy. Later, Allen meets Rudy Vallee, who describes a retired routine built around his old bank job and Yale club. Allen urges him to return to show business, and the two work out a plan for Vallee's comeback.
A live radio variety show broadcast from New York in 1947, with monologues, sketches and interviews.
Characters: Fred Allen, Rudy Vallee, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Senator Claghorn, Mr. Moody, Mr. Cassidy
Listen for: Rudy Vallee's account of his retired routine and his return to show business, including the megaphone idea.
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.