What happens
Throughout the episode, Gildersleeve, the water department commissioner, decides to economize after reviewing a pile of household bills, and he sets out to cut back spending and set an example for others. He cancels his charge accounts, rejects his own indulgences, and boasts of his frugal crusade to his friends Peavey and Judge Hooker, who tease him. Meanwhile his nephew Leroy is courting Paula Winthrop, and Gildersleeve, eager to show off his thrift, invites her on a dollar-only evening. The episode is from The Great Gildersleeve, first broadcast on NBC on October 1, 1952, with Harold Peary in the title role.
Summerfield, a small town, in the water department, the study of Gildersleeve's home, Peavey's drugstore, and a town park during a band concert.
Characters: Great Gildersleeve, Bertie, Leroy, Peavey, Judge Hooker, Paula Winthrop
Listen for: Gildersleeve's grand announcements of his economy crusade, and his attempts to show off his frugality while spending freely on Paula.
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.