What happens
Fred Allen hosts his final Town Hall Tonight broadcast of the season, a comedy variety show. Peter Van Steeden's orchestra and the Alan Reed players open the program, and Allen introduces a series of comic segments. The first is a New York heat wave report, in which a mounted traffic policeman, a nightclub entertainer and a society hostess describe their troubles with the weather. Later segments feature an inventor of cooling clothing, a delicatessen owner and a tobacco auctioneer named Speed Riggs, who demonstrates his rapid sales chant. The program also includes a quartet performance and a soliloquy advertisement for toothpaste. Allen's show is broadcast on CBS and NBC.
The Old Town Hall, a New York radio studio, during a summer heat wave.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry Von Zell, Portland Hoffa, Minerva Pious, Peter Van Steeden, Speed Riggs, Mr. Boswell Stratton, Dimples Rank
Listen for: The tobacco auctioneer's rapid chant and the heat wave interviews with Boswell Stratton and Mrs. Del Crath.
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.