What happens
Jeff Lambert, a young white musician in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, forms a Dixieland band with his friends Memphis, Pepper, Deke and Suds. After Memphis is jailed, Jeff and the band try to raise bail money, and Jeff meets Betty Lou, a woman who has her own reasons for wanting money. Jeff's band begins performing at a local nightspot, and Betty Lou becomes its singer. Phil Harris plays Memphis, Dinah Shore plays Betty Lou and Bing Crosby plays Jeff in this Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of Paramount's film The Birth of the Blues, first broadcast January 18, 1951. The episode is the first of two parts and ends with Jeff's band facing a choice about its future at the club.
New Orleans, around 1905
Characters: Jeff Lambert, Memphis, Betty Lou, Pepper, Deke, Suds, Blackie
Listen for: Jeff's first meeting with Memphis and the band in the jail scene, and the Dixieland songs performed as the band takes the 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.