What happens
Tom Dooley returns to his North Carolina mountain settlement after years away at war and finds that Laura, the sweetheart he left behind, has already moved on and is planning to marry a Yankee schoolmaster. Bitter and unsettled, Tom grows resentful toward the townspeople and toward Laura herself. At a betrothal party he plays the fiddle, and afterward he speaks with Laura privately, where their old feelings and hurt surface. The episode from the Suspense series, first broadcast on December 7, 1958, is built around Robert Horton in the title role.
A mountain settlement in the Carolinas shortly after the Civil War
Characters: Tom Dooley, Laura, Noah, Mr. Grayson, Jess
Listen for: Tom's bitter return home and his tense private talk with Laura at the betrothal party
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.