What happens
Gildersleeve, the pompous head of the Summerfield water department, decides his former Navy friend Ben Waterford should try selling life insurance. Gildersleeve starts Ben out as an agent for the Indestructible Life Insurance Company, then goes around town drumming up prospects for him. Their first attempts with Mr. Peavey and then Judge Hooker produce mixed results, and Gildersleeve insists on coaching Ben through the sales pitch in the judge's library. The series is The Great Gildersleeve, first broadcast on NBC on January 13, 1946, starring Harold Peary, with Willard Waterman, Lillian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle in the cast.
Summerfield, a small town; the Summerfield water department office, Peavey's pharmacy, the Gildersleeve home, and Judge Hooker's library
Characters: Gildersleeve, Ben Waterford, Bessie, Leroy, Marjorie, Uncle Mort, Peavey, Judge Hooker
Listen for: Gildersleeve's sales coaching of Ben in Judge Hooker's library, and Uncle Mort's closing gift of a life insurance policy
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.