What happens
Fred Allen hosts a comedy hour from the Old Town Hall, with regular characters Portland Hoffa and Kenny Delmar and music by Peter van Steeden. Among the sketches, the household of Barnaby Limp shows how a visit to a therapeutic theatre changes his life at home. Later, a detective named Long Pan is called in when King Charles, a prize Great Dane belonging to Mrs. Van Dyke, goes missing from the family home just before a dog show. The story is still unfolding in the portion of the broadcast available here, which covers the early stages of the investigation and the questioning of the household staff.
The Old Town Hall variety program, with comedy sketches and a detective drama set at the Van Dyke home in a city during the mid-1930s
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Harry von Zell, Peter van Steeden, Barnaby Limp, Clarence
Listen for: The Barnaby Limp sketch at the therapeutic theatre, the Van Dyke household's reaction to the missing dog, and Long Pan's questioning of Bridget the cook
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.