What happens
Fred Allen hosts a lively Town Hall program that opens with a parade, an auction, and a mock newsreel of the week's events. Among the sketches, a filling station doubles as a hospital, and a precocious toddler named Baby Bobby is interviewed about politics and toothpaste. The show moves to a backstage bit in which a comedian is coached on his act. Later, a film studio sketch follows the troubles of a Hollywood producer, whose new pictures are struggling at the box office. The episode is the 1936 broadcast of the Fred Allen series, with its sponsored segments woven through the comedy.
The Town Hall, a small village hall hosting a variety show, with comic sketches set at a filling station, a film studio, and a radio studio.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Harry Von Zell, Baby Bobby, Elmer, Peter Van Steeden, Minerva Pious, Trudy Tadpole
Listen for: The newsreel send-up at the filling station, Baby Bobby's interview, and the Hollywood studio sketch with Trudy Tadpole.
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.