What happens
Smelly Clark, a teenage boy, believes he can get about twenty Christmas presents this year, so he spends a Saturday writing letters to relatives, acquaintances and fans, never mentioning Christmas. His brother Rush and their mother Vic Cook discuss his scheme, which he treats as a game. Smelly pays compliments and plays a variation of the same trick on several neighbors, hoping they will guess what he wants and buy him a gift. The series is Vic and Sade, originally aired November 21, 1939, with Bernardine Flynn and Bill Idelson in the leading roles.
The Cook family living room, a hotel reading room where Smelly writes letters, and the neighborhood around town.
Characters: Vic Cook, Rush Cook, Smelly Clark, Sade Clark, Mrs. Gutt, Millie, Mr. Crotcher, Harry Jones
Listen for: Smelly's letters, the pretend conversations in which he hints to neighbors about pens and bracelets, and Rush's comments on his scheme.
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.