What happens
Fred Allen, with his regular companions Portland Hoffa and Kenny Delmar, opens an episode of his comedy program with topical banter, including jokes about fixed sporting events and Van Johnson's marriage. In Allen's Alley, residents such as Senator Claghorn, Mrs. Nutsbaum and Titus Moody recount their experiences with radio quiz and giveaway programs, which give the episode its comic thread. Later, Allen takes Lauritz Melchior to an advertising agency, where the singer hopes to win a new radio show and is pressed into auditions for the program. The broadcast is a comedy of sketches, jokes and musical interludes, presented on CBS and NBC in February 1947.
A radio comedy show, with its opening topical chat and a recurring fictional street called Allen's Alley, followed by a sketch set at an advertising agency.
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Senator Claghorn, Mrs. Nutsbaum, Titus Moody, Jack Cassidy
Listen for: The comic residents of Allen's Alley describing their radio quiz and giveaway experiences, and Lauritz Melchior's audition at the advertising agency.
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.