What happens
Businessman Stephen Dexter faces a financial threat from a rival combine that could tie up all his assets. His secretary, Kendall Browning, is set on finding him a wife, and the two of them improvise a quick marriage as a legal safeguard. The episode is an adaptation of the Universal picture Hired Wife, presented on the Lux Radio Theatre with William Powell and Myrna Loy in the lead roles. The broadcast opens in spring New York, with Stephen's public image as a confirmed bachelor and the rival firm's pressure on his cement business setting up the plot.
New York City and South Carolina, spring
Characters: Stephen Dexter, Kendall Browning, Ferdy, David Van Horn, Mac, Phyllis Walden, William
Listen for: The swift plan to marry Kendall to Stephen so that his property can be put in his wife's name, and the awkward proposal that follows.
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.