What happens
Helen Chernan, a former coal-town girl turned stage performer, tries to make her younger sister Katie a star. Helen's ambition pushes Katie toward the vaudeville act of Albert Runkle and Paul Collins, and then toward a New York nightclub engagement. The episode of Lux Radio Theatre, broadcast on March 20, 1944, stars Miriam Hopkins, Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter and Chester Morris. Its opening acts show the sisters' hard beginnings in Green Hill, Pennsylvania, Katie's sudden rise, and the tensions that grow between Helen, Albert and Paul as Helen pushes the act toward a new direction.
Green Hill, Pennsylvania, during the Great Depression, and later the vaudeville and nightclub world of New York City and Louisville.
Characters: Helen Chernan, Katie Blaine, Albert Runkle, Paul Collins, Sam Chernan, Johnny Jilkin, Lily Emery, Mr. Shagrue
Listen for: Helen's pressure on Katie and Albert's reaction when the nightclub engagement changes their act.
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.