Act 1, Part 1 Summary

The play is set in the press room of the Criminal Courts Building in Chicago where reporters covering the courts fill time while waiting for news to happen. As the play begins several reporters are in the middle of a raucous poker game - Murphy, Endicott, Schwartz, and Wilson. Another reporter, Kruger sits by himself strumming his banjo and occasionally singing. With the poker game continuing noisily in the background yet another reporter, McCue works three phones simultaneously talking to his paper, a police sergeant, and a woman reporting a peeping tom. As he interviews her other reporters tell him what questions to ask her hinting lewdly they'd like to interview her as well. The woman becomes upset with McCue and hangs up. A fire-alarm box, which rings whenever there's a fire in the city, goes off loudly. The reporters look...