What happens
Gildersleeve prepares a quiet New Year's Eve at home with his housekeeper Birdie, awaiting the return of his nephew Leroy, who is off at his first party away from home. Their guest Peavey drops by, and the household's evening is disrupted as Leroy's date Babs arrives looking for him. The episode, a broadcast of The Great Gildersleeve on NBC, aired on December 30, 1953, with Willard Waterman as Gildersleeve and Harold Peary in the role of Leroy's lead cast. Recalled memories of Leroy's childhood and of Margie's wedding are woven through the evening.
The Gildersleeve home on New Year's Eve, with later flashbacks to Leroy's school days and Marjorie's wedding preparations.
Characters: Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, Leroy, Birdie, Peavey, Babs, Marjorie, Irene, Bertie
Listen for: Gildersleeve's fretting over Leroy's whereabouts as midnight approaches and the arrival of Peavey and Babs.
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.