What happens
A Scottish-born emigrant, Simon Lang, arrives in New York and is taken in by James and Mary Scott, who are adopting him as their child. Over dinners and visits, the Scotts tell him about the American idea of freedom, a word that has meant different things to the many immigrants who came before. Their stories move from Puritan settlers and a German professor persecuted for his speech to Irish famine emigrants and the American Revolution. Simon, a boy, asks questions about the country he has joined, and the family works through what it means to live in a free nation. The broadcast is presented as part of the Campbell Playhouse series, with Orson Welles as producer and Cornelia Otis Skinner starring. The original air date is May 26, 1939.
New York, United States, in the late 1930s, with flashbacks to 17th-century England, 19th-century Germany, Ireland, and the American Revolution
Characters: Simon Lang, James Scott, Mary Scott, Officer
Listen for: Simon's questions about freedom and the law, and the family's stories of immigrants who came to America seeking it
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.