What happens
Fred Allen hosts a St. Patrick's Day broadcast of his Town Hall variety show, with Peter Van Steeden's music and Harry Von Zell at his side. The program opens with the parade of the old Town Hall and a welcome to the crowd, then moves through a mock newsreel of small New York stories, a hay fever bit, and a sketch about a clothing-store puller-in. Fred offers jokes about Jack Benny and a gag about Demosthenes, while the commercials for Ipana and Sal Hepatica are woven into the banter. The broadcast then turns to a hillbilly feud sketch performed by the Mighty Allen Art Players, which the transcript covers only in its opening scenes.
The Town Hall, a New York radio variety show broadcast on St. Patrick's Day, 1937.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Harry Von Zell, Peter Van Steeden, Jack Benny, Casper
Listen for: The mock Town Hall News items, Fred Allen's exchanges with Portland Hoffa, and the opening scenes of the hillbilly feud sketch.
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.