What happens
Hallmark Playhouse presents Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster, broadcast on June 10, 1948. A struggling New Hampshire farmer, J.B. Stone, is plagued by bad luck until a dark-dressed stranger called Scratch offers him seven years of prosperity in exchange for his soul. When the seven years end and Scratch comes to collect, Stone turns to the famous lawyer Daniel Webster for help, and Webster agrees to argue his case before a jury of notorious figures from American history. John Nighty Dyer plays Webster and Alan Reid plays Scratch.
Rural New Hampshire, near the border with Massachusetts and Vermont, and a courtroom in the devil's domain.
Characters: J.B. Stone, Jane, Scratch, Daniel Webster
Listen for: Webster's courtroom speech to the jury, in which he appeals to their shared American heritage.
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.