Standing Room Only: Screen Guild Theater (July 2, 1945)

“Standing Room Only” is an episode of Screen Guild Theater, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 2, 1945. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Lee Stevens, manager of Todd's toy factory, travels to Washington to win a war contract for converting the plant, bringing his new secretary Jane Rogers along. When Jane loses the briefcase holding the conversion plan, they arrive late, and a shortage of rooms leads Lee to pose as a butler and Jane to pose as his wife in a Washington household. Lee and Jane are played by Ray Milland and Marguerite Chapman in this Screen Guild Theater episode, first broadcast on July 2, 1945, with Robert Benchley in a supporting role.

Washington, D.C., during the war years

Characters: Lee Stevens, Jane Rogers, Mr. Cromwell, Mr. Todd, Alice Todd, G. B. Richie

Listen for: Lee and Jane's makeshift arrangement in the Cromwell household and the mix-ups that follow

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.