What happens
Barbara Ainsworth, a string bass player in an all-women orchestra touring army camps, is the focus of this Screen Directors Playhouse adaptation of the film Music for Millions, broadcast on April 10, 1949. June Allyson plays Barbara, and the film's director, Henry Koster, introduces the program. Barbara's husband Joe is overseas with the army, and she is expecting a baby while living with her sister Marie, her sister Ross and Ross's young sister Mike. The household gathers around news from the front, and an unexpected letter from Joe changes the mood. Mike, the little girl in the household, is a steady presence throughout the story.
Manhattan and New York City during the Second World War, including Symphony Hall, the family's apartment, a restaurant and a hospital
Characters: Barbara Ainsworth, Joe, Marie, Ross, Mike, Uncle Ferdinand, Nikolai Stepner, Laverne Shelby
Listen for: The telegram from the War Department and the letter from Joe that follows
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.