What happens
Fred Allen hosts a broadcast of comic sketches and running bits, including a banter about the word peccadillo, a segment on court rulings letting workers inspect employers' books, and a visit from a window cleaner at the Empire State Building named Mr. Richard Hart. Harry Von Zell and Portland Hoffa trade lines with Allen throughout the show. The program is a 1940 episode of the Fred Allen radio series, first broadcast on April 3, 1940 on CBS and NBC. Allen's guest interview with Hart covers how he works on the building's windows and his safety belt. The transcript ends partway through a later segment, a mock Round Table discussion with audience members.
A live radio variety show broadcast from a New York studio in 1940, with comic sketches, a news parody, and a guest interview.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry Von Zell, Portland Hoffa, Mr. Richard Hart, George Hepner
Listen for: Allen's exchange with Harry Von Zell over the meaning of peccadillo, and the window cleaner Mr. Hart describing his work on the Empire State Building.
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.