What happens
Jack Benny stages a comic amateur version of the film Intermezzo with his radio company, which includes Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson. The episode is from the Jack Benny series, first broadcast on January 14, 1940, over NBC and CBS Radio. Before the play, the cast bickers about ages and about Gladys, a waitress running for Miss Vine Street, and Benny asks listeners to help her in the contest. Benny then assigns the roles, with himself as the concert violinist, Mary as his wife, Dennis as their child, and Phil as the manager. The transcript breaks off partway through the play, with the rehearsal and cast banter still running.
A radio studio during a live broadcast, where the cast rehearses and performs a comic version of Intermezzo.
Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Gladys, Eddie Anderson
Listen for: Benny assigning the roles for the Intermezzo play, and the quarrel over Gladys's Miss Vine Street campaign.
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.