What happens
Screen Guild Theater presents a variety broadcast from Hollywood, hosted by an unnamed master of ceremonies, on May 21, 1939. Gertrude Niesen opens the show with a song from The Boys from Syracuse, and Robert Benchley and Errol Flynn trade jokes about different styles of introducing a speaker. The King Sisters perform a swing version of a Chinese folk song, and Maxie Rosenbloom appears as a comic boxer who joins the banter about romance and manners. Constance Bennett arrives late, and the three men compete for her attention before she turns them down for a date with someone else. Oscar Bradley's orchestra plays between the sketches, and the program closes with proceeds going to the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
A Hollywood radio studio, presented on the Columbia Broadcasting System for the Gulf Oil companies.
Characters: Robert Benchley, Errol Flynn, Gertrude Niesen, Constance Bennett, Maxie Rosenbloom, Oscar Bradley, The King Sisters, John Conte
Listen for: The running banter between Robert Benchley, Errol Flynn and Maxie Rosenbloom, and Constance Bennett's refusals.
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.