What happens
Host George Murphy welcomes guests Rosemary Lane, Mickey Rooney, Rudy Vallee, Joan Bennett and the Kingsmen to the Gulf Screen Guild Theater variety show. Lane sings a playful number about betting on love, and Rooney arrives boasting about his acting and songwriting. Vallee performs a wartime song about an air squadron commander whose leave is cancelled, and Rooney claims to have written many songs. Rooney then asks Vallee for help with love scenes, so he phones Joan Bennett to come over. The program was broadcast on April 9, 1939, as part of a series of variety shows raising money for the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
A Gulf Screen Guild Theater variety show broadcast on April 9, 1939, with the stars gathered at the studio for music, comedy sketches and banter.
Characters: George Murphy, Rosemary Lane, Mickey Rooney, Rudy Vallee, Joan Bennett, Oscar Bradley, The Kingsmen
Listen for: Rudy Vallee's wartime song about the squadron commander, and the scene where Mickey Rooney and Rudy Vallee try to teach Joan Bennett's character how to kiss.
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.