What happens
Professor Eustace P. McConkell, a fast-talking patent-medicine seller, travels through a small Indiana town in 1881 with his daughter Poppy, selling purple bark tonic and dodging the sheriff. Poppy wants a settled life and a real home, and her father promises to provide one. When their money runs short, Poppy meets Billy Farnsworth, the mayor's son, and the two fall in love. The Lux Radio Theatre adapts the Paramount film of Dorothy Donnelly's play Poppy, with W.C. Fields and Anne Shirley in the leads. The broadcast aired on March 7, 1938.
A county fairgrounds at the end of a midway in a tiny Indiana town, 1881
Characters: Professor Eustace P. McConkell, Poppy, Billy Farnsworth, Whippen, Mrs. Tubbs, Mayor Farnsworth, Mrs. Sarah Brown
Listen for: The Professor's fast-talking pitches and the swindles that follow, and Poppy's growing hope for a settled life and her meeting with Billy Farnsworth at the swimming hole
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.