What happens
Fred Allen's comedy sketch series features a parody of Hollywood studio life in The Hollywood Mikado, broadcast on May 11, 1947. Mr. L. D. Allen, head of the Allen Productions studio, summons his staff to a conference room, where the staff breaks into song. The studio is planning a new film and insists on giving the public what it wants. Among the staff, a Western star complains about his roles and the poor treatment he receives from the studio. Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa appear in the cast, with Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious also featured in the program.
A Hollywood movie studio, Allen Productions, and its conference room
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, L. D. Allen
Listen for: The studio staff singing as the curtain rises on the conference room, and the Western star's complaints about his roles
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.