What happens
Jack Benny, miffed at losing the Academy Award, decides to pursue dramatic roles and arranges for Orson Welles to coach him. On a Jell-O broadcast, Benny waits for Welles to arrive at the studio, where the cast including Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson passes the time with banter and music. Mary Livingstone is absent, recovering at home from a cold. When Welles finally arrives, Benny and the cast begin rehearsing a scene from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Benny hoping to master the role of Quasimodo. The episode is from the Jack Benny series, first aired on March 17, 1940, on NBC and CBS Radio, with Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson and Phil Harris in the lead roles.
A radio studio (Studio B) during a Jell-O program broadcast.
Characters: Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Orson Welles, Mary Livingstone, Miss Wentworth, Mr. Stone
Listen for: Benny's attempts at dramatic delivery and his groaning while rehearsing Quasimodo, and Harris's banter throughout the rehearsal.
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.