What happens
Fred Allen hosts his comedy variety show, which is broadcast on CBS and NBC, with Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious among the regulars. Opening the show, the cast jokes about Missouri and about the departure of Mayor LaGuardia from City Hall. Gregory Ratoff, a film director, describes a Russian banquet he attended, with its many courses and an unusual whole bear dish. He and Allen then imagine how American radio programs such as a cereal serial might sound if broadcast to audiences in Russia. The first part of the program is mostly a series of comic sketches and jokes built around these ideas.
A radio studio during a live comedy variety broadcast, with sketches set in a village restaurant and in imagined Russian radio programs.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Gregory Ratoff, Mr. Moody, Mayor LaGuardia, Al Goodman
Listen for: Ratoff's description of the Russian banquet and the imagined Russian radio serial and commercial.
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.