What happens
Jack Benny closes his radio season with a final program, joined by Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie Anderson and Don Wilson. Between sponsor-style remarks about Grape Nuts breakfast cereal and wartime gasoline rationing, Benny trades jokes with Wilson about rival comedians and sends off Herman Peabody, an insurance salesman who visits to say goodbye. Harris's orchestra plays, and Harris announces he will take over Kay Kyser's program over the summer. Benny and Wilson argue over a panhandler story, a film about Benny's life, and a letter from Dennis Day in the Navy. Anderson, playing Rochester, announces his engagement, which soon falls apart over his pay.
The studio broadcast of the Jack Benny program on the final show of the season, June 1944.
Characters: Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie Anderson, Don Wilson, Herman Peabody, Dennis Day
Listen for: Benny's exchanges with Don Wilson, Herman Peabody's visit, and Rochester's news about his engagement.
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.