Brother Rat: Screen Guild Theater (January 28, 1946)

“Brother Rat” is an episode of Screen Guild Theater, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 28, 1946. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

At Virginia Military Institute, cadet Billy Randolph and his friend Bing Edwards face trouble after a series of events during the season's big baseball game weekend. Joyce Winfrey, a student's sweetheart, arrives with her friend Claire, and tensions grow among the cadets over a girl, a bet, and a missing deposit. Wayne Morris stars as Bing Edwards and Ronald Reagan as Billy Randolph in this Lady Esther Screen Guild Players adaptation of the Warner Brothers comedy Brother Rat. The broadcast aired on January 28, 1946 as part of the Screen Guild Theater series.

Virginia Military Institute, a college in Virginia, during the season's most important baseball weekend

Characters: Billy Randolph, Bing Edwards, Joyce Winfrey, Claire, Mrs. Brooks, Dan, Kate, Slim

Listen for: Billy and Bing's scheme to cover a bet with Bing's money, and the cadets' attempts to keep their girlfriends and their standing at the school

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.