What happens
Chester A. Riley, a riveter, is a proud father whose 13-year-old son, Junior, has been playing at gangsters with a BB gun and a barrel of concrete. Riley lectures him against crime, telling a grim story about a gangster who cracked at the end. That night Riley is stopped while hitchhiking by a driver with a prop tommy gun and loses his wallet, and he invents a heroic story when he gets home. His wife Peg doesn't believe him, and an argument follows. Digger Odell, the undertaker, tries to help make peace. The series is The Life of Riley, first aired April 8, 1949, on the Blue Network and NBC, with William Bendix as Riley and Paula Winslowe as Peg.
The Riley family's little California bungalow, a Los Angeles street at night, and a convertible on Mulholland Drive.
Characters: Chester A. Riley, Junior, Peg Riley, Digger Odell, Eggbert Gillis, Bert Lancaster
Listen for: Riley's dramatic tale of the gangster who screamed in the death house, and his exaggerated account of being held up.
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.