What happens
Fred Allen hosts an episode of his Town Hall Tonight variety show, first broadcast on December 22, 1937, with Portland Hoffa and Kenny Delmar. Allen and the audience make their way into the old town hall, where the cast presents a sequence of comic bits. Peter Van Steeden leads the music, and Allen's comedy mixes running gags with interviews and sketches. Fred Allen and Minerva Pious are among the regular performers. Jack Benny makes an unexpected appearance and joins Allen in reminiscing about their early days in vaudeville, touching on their careers and their past work together. The episode is a light, topical broadcast built around the winter weather and holiday season.
The old town hall, a radio studio with a live audience, in Hollywood, California, during the winter holiday season.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Jack Benny, Peter Van Steeden, Willie King, Harry Von Zell
Listen for: The comic weather reports and interviews, the lunch wagon man Willie King's chat about movie stars, and the Jack Benny and Fred Allen vaudeville reminiscences.
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.