What happens
Lum and Abner, the partners running the Jot-Em-Down store in Pine Ridge, are back together after Abner's legal trouble is dropped. Lum works on the store's bookkeeping, which is full of confusing entries, while Cedric Gilliken arrives asking for a large doll. Cedric announces he intends to become a ventriloquist and tries out a small throat device on his doll, Bobo. Lum and Abner puzzle over the ledger, including a sugar and lard entry that seems to have been recorded on the wrong side of the books. The episode is set in the small Arkansas town of Pine Ridge and aired on January 30, 1942, on NBC, Mutual, CBS and ABC, with Chester Lauck, Norris Goff and Lurene Tuttle in the lead roles.
The Jot-Em-Down store in Pine Ridge
Characters: Lum Edwards, Abner Peabody, Cedric Gilliken, Grandpappy Spears, Miss Barton, Mousey, Gusie
Listen for: Cedric's attempts at ventriloquism with his doll Bobo, and Lum and Abner's confused reading of the store ledger.
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.