What happens
Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa trade jokes in Allen's Alley, where Allen runs a comedy sketch show with a varied cast of regulars. The episode from October 1947 on CBS and NBC plays out a series of comic exchanges: a senator rambles about Washington investigations, a neighbor hostess discusses the trend from swing to sweet music, and Allen and Jack Haley pitch their life stories to a Hollywood producer, Mr. Schmidlapp. Their proposed scenes are one by one rejected as too dull, too much like other films, or too unlikely. The transcript covers only the first part of the broadcast, so the segment ends with the two comedians still wrangling over how their combined story should be filmed.
Allen's Alley, a radio comedy street set, and a Hollywood film office
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Jack Haley, Mr. Schmidlapp, Senator, Mrs. Nussbaum, Mr. Moody, Mr. Cassidy
Listen for: The running gag where Allen and Haley pitch their life stories and the producer keeps rejecting each scene
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.