What happens
Luigi Basco, an immigrant who has been studying at night school, believes he has invented a lifetime shoelace that can be cut to fit any shoe. He first tries to borrow thirty dollars from Pasquale, a wary friend, and then sets out to turn the idea into a patent and a sale. Along the way he gets help from his classmates and from Rosa, and he tries to persuade shoe manufacturers to take the invention seriously. This episode of Life with Luigi is a comedy starring J. Carrol Naish as Luigi and Alan Reed as Pasquale, first broadcast on April 17, 1951.
New York City, in the neighborhood and night school where Luigi lives and studies, and at a shoe company's offices.
Characters: Luigi Basco, Pasquale, Rosa, Schultz, Olsen, Miss Spalding, Mr. Howard, Mr. Geiser
Listen for: Luigi's pitch to the shoe company executives and their reaction to his lifetime shoelace.
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.