What happens
Jack Benny has no script for his Sunday broadcast after his writers, Bill and Lenny, have failed to finish it, so he calls on the cast to improvise. Mary Livingston reads a rambling letter from her mother, and Phil Harris and Dennis Day offer music and banter while the writers are sent back to work. Benny's Rochester calls with news of a malfunctioning mechanical man at home. Eventually the cast performs a hastily assembled murder mystery, with Benny as Captain O'Benny of police headquarters investigating the death of wealthy stockbroker J. Malcolm Smith. The series is Jack Benny, first broadcast on January 12, 1941, starring Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson and Phil Harris.
The Jack Benny radio program studio, with a sketch set at police headquarters and a Long Island mansion
Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, Rochester, Bill, Lenny
Listen for: The writers' stalling, Mary's mother's letter, and the improvised murder mystery sketch
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.