It Had to Be You: Screen Directors Playhouse (January 27, 1950)

Screen Directors Playhouse, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“It Had to Be You” is an episode of Screen Directors Playhouse, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 27, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

George, a figment of Vicki Stafford's imagination, steps out of a dream on a train and into the Stafford household. Vicki, a sculptress, is engaged to the stuffy Oliver H.P. Harrington, and George complicates the planned wedding by declaring that she loves him. Joan Fontaine stars as Vicki in this Screen Director's Playhouse presentation, a comedy presented by RCA Victor. The story unfolds as George tries to convince Vicki that her feelings for him are real and that they stem from a childhood attachment she has forgotten.

New York and a Stafford family home, with a train journey from Maine to New York

Characters: Vicki Stafford, George, Oliver H.P. Harrington, Martha Stafford, Horace Stafford, Evans, Johnny Blaine

Listen for: George's letter to the American Institute of Psychological Phenomenon describing the events, and the Stafford household reacting to his sudden appearance

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.