What happens
Fred Allen hosts his radio variety show, with announcer Harry Von Zell and the bandleader Mr. Van Steeden, and offers the audience a cooperative plan for applause. A parade of eccentric guests follows: the street cleaner poet Fontaine Wealth, the surrealist Lily-Pad Drain, the Rondo-style poet Mr. Wacky, and the delicatessen worker Zimjian Boxbow, who recites a poem about a mutiny among the sandwich meats. Later, the Mary Mac vocal trio receives a Metronome award, and Eddie Antonio, an Eagle Scout, is interviewed about the Boy Scout ranks and oath. The program is a comic, unscripted-feeling variety broadcast, and this guide covers only its first part.
A New York radio studio during a variety broadcast, around Valentine's Day 1940.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry Von Zell, Mr. Van Steeden, Fontaine Wealth, Lily-Pad Drain, Mr. Wacky, Zimjian Boxbow, Mary Mac
Listen for: Fred Allen's deadpan exchanges with his guests, especially the absurd recitations by the poets and Eddie Antonio's Boy Scout interview.
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.