What happens
Luigi Basko, a newcomer to America, receives a letter from the Immigration Department announcing a visit at his home. Worried that he will be sent back to Italy, he turns to his friend Pasquale for advice, and the two devise a plan to make Luigi look like a settled family man. Their scheme involves borrowing a baby and recruiting Rosa to play his wife while they try to convince the visiting officer that Luigi has deep roots in the community. The episode is part of the comedy series Life with Luigi, which premiered on the air in 1950, and the program stars J. Carrol Naish as Luigi with Alan Reed as Pasquale. Luigi's efforts to appear respectable lead to a series of awkward encounters, and the story is told largely through Luigi's letters to his mother in Italy.
New York City, in late December 1950, in Luigi's antique shop and his apartment, with a night school class scene.
Characters: Luigi Basko, Pasquale, Rosa, Miss Spolink, Mr. Olsen, Mr. Schultz, Mr. Horowitz, Mr. Howard
Listen for: Luigi's letters to his mother, read aloud at the start of each act, and the arrival of the immigration officer at the apartment.
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.