Westerns

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Bobby Benson Star Billy Halop Led the Dead End Kids

Bobby Benson was one of those rare network shows that had two distinct radio series, with over a decade separating both runs. The original show was aired on CBS from 1932 to 1936. Thirteen years after its demise, it was resurrected with a new cast on Mutual in 1949 and it continued on the air until 1955. Despite the fact that both versions were of relatively short tenure, and were aimed almost exclusively at a juvenile audience, the Bobby Benson show did accomplish at least two ... (read more)

2023/03/26

Roy Rogers Always Comes Home to Sky Haven Ranch

An ad for Roy Rogers' Double R brand toys from 1958 If he weren't the top Western star in the land, Roy Rogers could easily become a professional advisor to the world's parents. Roy gets between 80,000 and 90,000 letters each month from all over the globe, about half of which are written by parents asking Roy to write their children telling them to eat their cereal, drink their milk, go to bed on time or take medicine the doctor ordered. Since Roy is the ideal of all children, they follow his ... (read more)

2022/12/04

Lone Ranger's Lost Treasures of the West

Three fabled lost gold mines Geronimo's Lost Mine After a disastrous fight with the U.S. Army, Geronimo, the great Apache warrior chief, found himself imprisoned in the stockade at Fort Sill. He told one of his guards of a fabulous mine where the Apaches mined the "green bads" that they used for ornaments -- and where they mined their gold. The guard promised to help the Chief escape if the Indian would guide him to the mines. But the plot was later discovered and the guard was sent to prison. ... (read more)

2022/11/02

Harry Ackerman Produced Our Miss Brooks, Gunsmoke on Radio

Harry Ackerman Harry Ackerman, long-time executive at CBS radio died Feb. 3, 1991. He worked on many of network radio's successful shows, including Our Miss Brooks and Gunsmoke. After graduating from college in 1935, Ackerman became an assistant to Raymond Knight and appeared as part-time announcer and comic poet on Knight's Cuck Coo Hour at NBC. Later he became the assistant director of the Phil Baker Show. From New York he moved to Detroit, where he was hired as agency producer for ... (read more)

2020/07/16

Catching Up with the Cast of Straight Arrow

Howard Culver, star of the Straight Arrow radio show My former agent just forwarded to me the letter you wrote inquiring as to my present whereabouts. As this letter will attest, I'm alive and well, continuing to ply my craft in southern California. You must have a great ear for voices to have remembered mine over a span of some 25 years. Since the demise of Straight Arrow I continued to work in television, theatrical movies and radio, until drama disappeared from the audio waves. ... (read more)

2020/07/13