What happens
Irving Berlin's songs frame a story of three young performers in San Francisco before the First World War. Stella Kirby, a singer, falls in with Alexander, a bandleader, and Charlie Dwyer, a pianist, after a rough night at a waterfront cafe. Their clashing ambitions and personalities strain their partnership as the band works its way toward a break. This adaptation of the film Alexander's Ragtime Band is performed on the Lux Radio Theatre, first broadcast on June 3, 1940, with Alice Faye, Ray Milland and Robert Preston in the lead roles. The transcript covers only the first part of the play.
San Francisco, the Barbary Coast, 1913, and later the Cliff House
Characters: Stella Kirby, Alexander, Charlie Dwyer, Dirty Eddie, Snapper, Miss Reddy
Listen for: Irving Berlin's song Alexander's Ragtime Band and Stella Kirby's first performance of it
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.