What happens
Fred Allen hosts a live broadcast from the Old Town Hall, presenting a parade of comic sketches and bits. In one, a government-trained landlord visits a tenant family and claims he will fix their apartment, while in another a hotel run by college students treats a guest with chaotic service. The show also features a news spoof about a judge's ruling on married women, a pants invention for married men, and a melodrama called Whoopi on the Volga, in which a wife hides her visitor from her jealous husband. Later, the program turns to an amateur contest, with a photographer named Bill Housler set to play the harmonica. The evening mixes topical satire with broad vaudeville humor and sponsor interludes. Fred Allen and the Allen's Alley players deliver the material in the style of the period's radio comedy.
The Old Town Hall, a radio studio audience, in New York
Characters: Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, Bill Housler, Harry, Peter van Steeden, Mrs. Fleece
Listen for: The landlord sketch, the Whoopi on the Volga melodrama with its English accent and jealous husband, and the Bill Housler harmonica segment at the amateur contest
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.