What happens
Skid Johnson and Bonnie Kane are a burlesque act in Kansas City in the 1920s, and Bonnie's lefty manager watches over them both. Skid's drinking strains the act, and when Bonnie is offered a chance in New York, she takes it and leaves Skid behind. The episode is the Screen Director's Playhouse adaptation of the 1950 motion picture When My Baby Smiles at Me, starring Betty Grable in her original role of Bonnie, and it is broadcast on May 5, 1950. The story follows the couple's careers, their rough romance, and the toll that drink and ambition take on their partnership.
Kansas City burlesque houses and speakeasies in the 1920s, then New York and Chicago theatres
Characters: Skid Johnson, Bonnie Kane, Lefty, Jack Curtis, Mr. Harris, Sylvia Marco, Harvey Hall
Listen for: Bonnie's new song, the wedding-mockery scene at the Waldorf Astoria suite, and Skid's final performance on stage
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.