What happens
Jack Benny hosts his friend Groucho Marx at his house for an afternoon of checkers, while Rochester tends to the drinks and the visitors. The games are repeatedly interrupted by jokes and digressions, and Groucho's visit is marked by odd remarks and quarrels over the rules. Jack later heads to the studio with Mary Livingstone, where the cast prepares a mystery melodrama, Who Put the Thumbtack on Mrs. Gilroy's Davenport, with Jack and Phil Harris arguing over who will play the captain. The transcript breaks off as the sketch is about to begin. The episode is a Jack Benny comedy broadcast from February 20, 1944, on NBC and CBS Radio.
Jack Benny's house in California, then the radio studio where the show is broadcast
Characters: Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, Rochester, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Mr. Billingsley
Listen for: The checkers game between Jack and Groucho, Groucho's offbeat remarks, and the casting argument over the mystery melodrama
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.