The Big Broadcast of 1938

4/10/2026

This is a bit different from your usual year-end extravaganza, with far more of a story underpinning the potpourri of acts. It's all centred around a great transatlantic race between the modern-looking SS Gigantic and the more traditional looking champion - the SS Collossal. The owner of the former liner ('T.F.') plans to put his brother ('S.B.') - both played by W.C. Fields, onto the latter to cause a bit of mischief, but instead he and daughter 'Martha' (Martha Raye) end up on the wrong boat! Things could have proved even more disastrous had their entertainments man 'Buzz' (Bob Hope) not been able to free himself from jail: he could not afford to pay the tax man and his three ex-wives from his wages. With the race finally underway, Fields settles into something of a secondary role whilst