What happens
Fred Allen, with guest Basil Rathbone, takes the audience through a comic broadcast of the Fred Allen Show, which aired on CBS and NBC on April 11, 1948. Allen and his writers trade jokes about radio, and Allen visits a string of comic characters, including Senator Claghorn, a farmer with Burma-Shave signs, and Mrs. Nussbaum, who has trouble with her husband Pierre. Allen then visits Basil Rathbone's apartment, where Rathbone is preparing to host a new mystery program sponsored by a frozen watermelon company. Allen pitches a mystery plot about a dead bird-loving lady, a solicitor, and a suspicious house boy, and Rathbone plays along as the story unfolds in a parody of detective drama. Lead actors include Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious.
A radio studio hosting the Fred Allen Show, then Allen's alley and the neighborhood around it, Basil Rathbone's apartment, and Lady Bensonhurst's drawing room during a tea party.
Characters: Fred Allen, Basil Rathbone, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Senator Claghorn, Mrs. Nussbaum, Pierre, Mr. Moody
Listen for: Allen's running gags with his writers and Senator Claghorn, and the parody mystery Allen pitches to Rathbone, complete with Long Pan's detective-style questioning.
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.