What happens
Fred Allen hosts a variety broadcast of Town Hall Tonight, sponsored by Ipana toothpaste and Sal Hepatica, with music from Peter Van Steeden and his orchestra. Allen's guests and sketches include a mix-up involving statistician Piedmont Seifer and a comic report on New York subway costs, in which a passenger named Dunbar Square loses his hat, raincoat and trousers on a ride. Later, a young scientist, Jess Haynes, discusses paleontology and dinosaurs with Allen, and the Town Hall Singers perform. The episode is a 1938 broadcast of the Fred Allen series, with an air date of October 12, 1938.
A radio variety broadcast hosted in a New York studio, with sketches and guest segments.
Characters: Fred Allen, Harry, Peter Van Steeden, Piedmont Seifer, Mr. Cipher, Dunbar Square, Jess Haynes, Harry Bonzel
Listen for: Listen for the subway sketch with Dunbar Square and the interview with the young scientist Jess Haynes.
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.