What happens
Stephen Foster, a young Pittsburgh songwriter, is first seen trying to sell his songs to the minstrel entertainer E.P. Christie, who is performing in town. Foster finds inspiration in the Southern melodies he hears from the Black workers and musicians around him, and he falls in love with Jane McDowell, whose father disapproves of his prospects. Foster takes a business job to support a marriage, and Christie later offers him work with his troupe. This is the Lux Radio Theatre's 1945 adaptation of Swanee River, broadcast on April 2, 1945, with Dennis Morgan as Foster, Al Jolson as Christie, and Francis Gifford as Jane.
Pittsburgh, Louisville, and New York in the nineteenth century, including a riverboat and a boarding house.
Characters: Stephen Foster, E.P. Christie, Jane McDowell, Uncle Joe, Wilson
Listen for: Foster's songs, including Camp Town Races and Jane's song, and the scenes where Foster is turned down by publishers and later finds success.
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.