WENR Channel 7 - Studs' Place - "Jimmy Romano is Home" (Complete Episode, 1951)

Transferred directly from a rare surviving 16mm kinescope, here's a complete episode of "Studs' Place" starring Studs Terkel, as aired on WENR Channel 7 (which became WBKB Channel 7, which then in turn became WLS Channel 7).
Studs' Place was a slice-of-life series of playlets, with rotating characters (almost opposite to the long-running radio series "Duffy's Tavern" which, despite having star guests, was more a vehicle for star Ed Gardner who played Archie) and dialogue improvised from a story outline. It ran on NBC via WNBQ Channel 5 from November to December of 1949, and on ABC via WENR from April to August 1950 and again from October 1950 to June 1952. Only a small batch of episodes are known to exist.
The cast of this episode, "Jimmy Romano Is Home," includes Beverly Younger as Grace the waitress, Win Stracke as Win, Chet Roble as Chet, John Galvarro as Jimmy Romano and Tal Jonz as Rex Talbot.
The plot has Jimmy, a neighborhood kid, returning from college on the East Coast, and embarrassed about his working-class roots; but in the course of this episode he sees that his old neighbors have more talent than he ever realized (represented in performances by Mr. Roble and Mr. Stracke).
The episode starts off with the phone in the restaurant ringing, and Grace talking to Jimmy. who plans to come over with a date. Jimmy arrives dressed up to the nines, and banters with Studs and Grace, while Studs gives him pointers on coming up in life (he plans to become an architect). Chet comes up to chat with Jimmy, while they bring up the Red Sox (surely, they meant the White Sox?) and other matters. Then Win arrives and chews his own fat with Jimmy.
In the middle of this show, a PSA advising, "Don't Be a Killer - Obey All Traffic Laws" (voiceover by ??)
Back at Studs' Place, Chet goes to the piano and sings a few bars of "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" with Grace next to him. Amid all this, the phone rings and Studs picks it up to speak to Jimmy's father Angelo; he promises Jimmy will be well fed at the restaurant. Finally, Rex arrives and they're all set up at the dinner table. Win sings an opera number to Chet's piano accompaniment, then explains to Jimmy how, at the candy store in his own younger days, he'd learned all the phrasing and emphasis, and Jimmy remembers his mother's Caruso records. In the end he cancels the meal and wants for Rex to meet his folks.
Technical crew (which, with the cast list, was read by voiceover, by ??):
Dialogue by The Cast, from a sketch by Bob Hartman
Created and Produced for Television Airshows, Inc. by Charlie Andrews
Technical Director - Roy Hayward
Directed by Dick Locke
Assistant Director - Gary Nathanson
Camera then pulls up to Studs who praises the meatloaf (a recurring theme in this episode) and says goodnight.
Early ABC logo card, with voiceover (by ??) announcing Chicago origin and "This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company"
Note: A slightly more complete representation of this episode, which featured a promo for Super Circus (voiceover by ??) after the opening titles and another for The Ted Mack Family Hour (voiceover by ??) before the ending credits, can be found (with another 1953 show hosted by Terkel, "The Living City," tacked onto it) at: mediaburn.org/video/studs-plac... (although ours is in better quality) ;-)
This aired on local Chicago TV on Friday, July 13th 1951 from 9:30pm to 10:00pm.
This video was brought to you through the generous financial support of Mr. Chris Tufts. :-)
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels; footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical purposes. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
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[@infantinofan]

Wonderful to finally see an episode of this classic Chicago show. Makes me miss hearing Studs on WFMT even more.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

Wonderful to see an episode of Studs' Place - at last! I've heard about it for decades and never thought I'd see it. Thank you!

[@Annoyinglyoptimistic]

Jimmy looked in Love

[@JimGrey]

A wonderful find!

[@junkboxxxxxx]

This isn't the Stud's Place I was looking for

[@guyazbell8169]

I,m suprised i dont remember this, oh well.