What happens
Kendall Browning, private secretary to cement executive Stephen Dexter, becomes alarmed when Dexter plans to hire model Phyllis Walden for an advertising campaign. Their working relationship is already strained by Dexter's spring-time attentions and Kendall's sharp manner. When rival General Cement threatens to tie up Dexter's assets through legal maneuvers, a lawyer suggests that marrying a trustworthy woman would protect his property. The story follows Dexter and Kendall as they arrange a hasty wedding, with Kendall agreeing to the marriage in a purely business capacity. This is the Screen Director's Playhouse presentation of Hired Wife, a 1951 radio comedy first broadcast on April 12, 1951, starring Rosalind Russell and Jeff Chandler.
A cement company office in New York and a Charleston marriage chapel in spring.
Characters: Kendall Browning, Stephen Dexter, William, Phyllis Walden, Roger, Dudley Leblanc Peabody
Listen for: Kendall's wry running commentary on Dexter's spring moods, and the sudden shift to Charleston when the wedding plan takes shape.
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.