What happens
Fred Allen opens his radio program in the studio with his longtime sidekick Harry, delivering jokes and gags that keep getting cut short. Fred presents a comic news roundup about the 1940 census, including a bungled interview with enumerator Philbert Smith and a pair of troublesome interviewees at the census tent. Later segments feature a visit with Portland Hoffa, a conversation with the superintendent of construction at Madison Square Garden about how the building is converted between events, and a panel discussion where Fred joins audience members on a round-table debate. The show is a mix of sketches, interviews and music.
A radio studio in New York City, with comic segments set in the census, a circus, and Madison Square Garden.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry, Portland Hoffa, Philbert Smith, Richard Donna Priya, Harry Alpert, Mary M. Cohen
Listen for: The census enumerator sketch with Philbert Smith and the Madison Square Garden interview with Richard Donna Priya.
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.