What happens
Fred Allen hosts the Town Hall variety program from the Old Town Hall, opening with a song and a series of comic sketches and announcements. Harry von Zell assists him, and Portland Hoffa and Minerva Pious appear in dialogue skits. The Old Town Hall program aired on the Fred Allen series on April 8, 1936, carried by CBS and NBC. Listeners hear a number of short bits, including a card game at the Harris home, a clothing-store puller routine, and a comic argument between Mr. Fogg and his companion Mr. Guppy. Later, Doc Luke, a veterinarian, faces a legal challenge from the constable Elmer Crabb, while the hen Hortense stops laying Easter eggs and a cow is struck by a dime. The episode is titled Hortense's Dilemma, and this is a partial account of the broadcast.
The Old Town Hall variety program, with comic sketches set in Boston, New York and on a farm.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry von Zell, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious, Kenny Delmar, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Casey, Mr. Fogg
Listen for: The clothing-store puller routine and the card game between the Harris and Casey households.
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.