What happens
Christopher Madden, a bookish writer whose novel is being adapted for the screen, travels by train across the country and meets two servicemen, Rusty Thomas and Dink. The episode is the Lux Radio Theatre presentation of Without Reservations, broadcast on August 26, 1946, starring Claudette Colbert and Robert Cummings. Christopher worries that the studio may not cast Cary Grant as the film's lead, while Rusty and Dink share their own views on men, women and romance. Their conversations in the club car and sleeping car show the three growing closer as the journey continues.
A cross-country train journey across the United States, from Hollywood through Chicago toward San Diego, in 1946.
Characters: Christopher Madden, Rusty Thomas, Dink, Kitty Klotch, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Fogg
Listen for: The running argument between Christopher and the servicemen about books, romance and Cary Grant's casting, and the bluebird story Rusty tells on the train.
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.