What happens
Jack Benny is delayed on a train returning to Hollywood, so his friend Georgie Jessel fills in for him on the Jell-O program, with Mary Livingstone and Phil Harris also in the cast. Jessel, anxious about being paid for the evening, banters with the regulars while waiting, and the program's cast chatter about Benny's stinginess and his New York trip. Benny finally arrives, the two men haggle over Jessel's fee, and a check is written. The series, broadcast on NBC and CBS Radio, aired on April 3, 1938.
The Jell-O program radio studio in Hollywood, and a train returning from New York via Albuquerque.
Characters: Jack Benny, Georgie Jessel, Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie Anderson, Kenny Baker, Don Wilson
Listen for: Jessel's worry about being paid, and the haggling over his fee when Benny arrives.
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.