What happens
Jack Benny is performing a personal appearance at a theatre in San Francisco, and his valet Rochester and his friends Mary Livingstone and Bob Crosby are around him backstage. Between errands, makeup and phone calls, Benny gets a visit from his old partner Fred Allen, who has arrived in town on business. The two reminisce about their vaudeville days, recalling a rough booking agent's office and the hard-luck tours they once took together. The show is a Jack Benny Program episode from the 1953 season, and it was broadcast in April of that year on NBC and CBS Radio, with Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson and Phil Harris in the lead roles.
A theatre dressing room in San Francisco, with flashbacks to vaudeville days in New York and on the road
Characters: Jack Benny, Rochester, Mary Livingstone, Bob Crosby, Fred Allen, Don Wilson, Mickey Rockford
Listen for: Benny and Allen trading memories of their vaudeville tours and the booking agent's office
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.