What happens
Gildersleeve, a small-town Midwestern man, is buying a Christmas gift for his friend Fibber McGee, a man known for borrowing things. Gildersleeve is shopping with his nephew Leroy and his niece Marjorie, and he grows embarrassed when a more expensive gift from McGee arrives. The series, known as The Great Gildersleeve, aired on NBC on December 21, 1941, with Harold Peary in the title role. Willard Waterman, Lillian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle also appear. The episode covers a series of mishaps and misunderstandings as the household prepares for the holiday.
A town in the American Midwest, in the days before Christmas 1941, at the Gildersleeve house and in a department store.
Characters: Gildersleeve, Leroy, Marjorie, Uncle Mort, Fibber McGee, Judge Hooker, Birdie, Mr. Peavey
Listen for: Gildersleeve's attempt to buy a gift that matches the one McGee has sent him, and the mix-up over the reclining chair.
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.