What happens
Professor Bertram Potts, one of eight middle-aged bachelor scholars writing an encyclopedia at the Totten Foundation in New York, leaves the house to research modern slang after a garbage man speaks to him in colloquial English. He meets Sugarpuss O'Shea, a nightclub singer, and asks her to help his study. Gangsters are looking for her after a police incident involving Joe Lilac, and she accepts an invitation to stay at the Foundation. The professors begin to cope with having a woman in the house. This Lux Radio Theatre production of Ball of Fire stars Barbara Stanwick and Fred MacMurray and first aired on June 1, 1942.
New York City, at the Totten Foundation house and a nightclub
Characters: Professor Bertram Potts, Sugarpuss O'Shea, Miss Bragg, Professor Robinson, Professor Gurkoff, Professor Pigram, Professor Oddley, Professor Quintana
Listen for: Potts's enthusiasm for slang and the professors' reactions when Sugarpuss arrives at the house
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.