What happens
Gildersleeve hurries through the snowy streets of Summerfield on Christmas week, heading to Catherine Milford's house to help decorate her tree. He is rattled by rival Dr. Clarence Olson, who has left a mysterious gift under her tree, and he resolves to outdo him. Gildersleeve tries to learn what Olson bought, first from a salesgirl at the department store and then from a clerk at the toy counter. He eventually visits Catherine's young patients at the hospital, where a story about a gift given from the heart prompts him to reconsider his motives. This episode of The Great Gildersleeve, broadcast on NBC on December 14, 1949, stars Harold Peary.
Summerfield, a snowy town at Christmas, including Catherine Milford's house, a department store, and a children's hospital ward
Characters: Gildersleeve, Leroy, Catherine Milford, Dr. Clarence Olson, Judge Hooker, Horace, Bertie, Peavey
Listen for: Gildersleeve's frantic attempts to find out what gift Dr. Olson bought Catherine, and the story read aloud at the hospital
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.