What happens
Jack Brewster, a struggling musician living in a New York boarding house, learns that a lawyer's firm has been searching for him because he has inherited a fortune. Lawyers Grant and Vanderpool explain that his uncle has left him a million dollars, but he must spend the entire sum within one year to receive a further six million from his grandfather's will. He cannot give the money away recklessly, cannot marry, and cannot reveal the conditions. Eager to spend, Jack begins a lavish buying spree, while his sweetheart Mary Livingston, who has waited years for him, grows increasingly puzzled and hurt by his behavior. Business manager Dudley worries that Jack's spending is reckless. Jack, played by Jack Benny with Mary Livingston as Mary, is presented on the Lux Radio Theatre, first broadcast on February 15, 1937, under the producer Cecil B. DeMille.
Hollywood studio broadcast; the story is set in New York City, first in a boarding house, then the offices of Grant and Vanderpool, and later Jack's new offices.
Characters: Jack Brewster, Mary Gray, Grant, Vanderpool, Timothy, Mrs. Gray, Sophie Smith, Dudley
Listen for: Jack's conditional inheritance and his increasingly extravagant spending, and Mary's growing doubts about him.
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.