What happens
Archer Atkins, the dean of New York drama critics, savages his old friend Everett Clayton's new play, The Whirlwind, in print. Clayton answers with a public challenge, and the two men's long rivalry turns bitter. When Clayton publishes a book of poetry under a young immigrant's name and Atkins praises it, the two men clash again over its authorship. Atkins's humiliation grows as the conflict spreads through the newspapers and the Stratford Club. The Whistler is a radio drama from 1955, first broadcast on March 10 of that year, with Bill Forman in the title role.
New York City, in the 1950s, at the offices of the New York Globe and the Ledger, the Stratford Club, and Clayton's apartment.
Characters: Archer Atkins, Everett Clayton, Barbara Ross, Murchison, Captain Fosse, The Whistler
Listen for: Atkins's review of Clayton's play and his sharp exchanges with Clayton in the coffee shop.
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.