Ron's Amazing Stories

On Ron’s Amazing Stories this week it is a western round-up staring the Jayhawkers of Kansas. We have a very entertaining tale from Australia called Tennessee Jed Stops A Wagon and follow that up with one of the best Gunsmoke episodes ever made. Our OTR Story - Jayhawkers Our old time radio story is about the Kansas Jayhawkers. They were bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives right after the Civil War. These men caused more trouble than good and it often led to full out skirmishes. Today the term has softened a bit and now refers to someone born, bred and raised in Kansas. Our OTR story comes from a time when they were not so nice and Marshall Dillon is forced to choose between fighting them or helping a cattle herd from Texas make its way to Dodge City.  It is called The Jayhawkers and first aired on the CBS radio network, April 4, 1953.

As promised we tunnel under the world to produce another science fiction week here at Ron’s Amazing Stories. On today’s program it is all about Frederik Pohl. We have two short stories by him titled, Tunnel Under the World and Pythias. We also have a reading of his very first published work, that he wrote in 1937. It is a poem called, Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna. So, please click the link and be dazzled! Our OTR Story - Tunnel Under the World On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming! That is how our OTR story begins today. It is classic tale which first was published under the title, The Tunnel Under the World, in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, January of 1955. Its author was none other than Frederik Pohl. One of history's greatest science fiction authors. The story itself is a Groundhog Day meets The Truman Show meets The Matrix. One thing is for sure is that all of it leads to one mind-bending plot. The tale comes from the series X-Minus One and is called the Tunnel Under the World. It was taken from the Hugo winning short-story by Frederik Pohl.  It first aired on April 14, 1956.

Did you hear the word? To The Future we go! Ron’s Amazing Stories is doing another science fiction week! Yep, another episode chalked full of great stories from the future. We have a freaky story a listener from Nevada sent in who says he will never return to New Mexico, then we will hear a story about a couple who escape the future by going into the past, and we end it with an instructional piece on the pitfalls of greater than light speed. So relax, grab a drink and press that play button! Our OTR Story - To The Future By Ray Bradbury Our OTR story comes to us from Dimension X, which was effective series in showing of what could be done with science fiction on the radio. Our story was written by Ray Bradbury and is titled, Into the Future. It tells of dark time coming, and what would happen if the people then used advanced technology to escape to the now. It first aired on May 27, 1950. The Horror Express Update Jason and I have got everything ready for Horror Express #14. The topic this time will be Bigfoot! We have the studio booked for January 20th, 2017 and the podcast should release the week after.  We are excited about the show and hope you guys are as well.

On Ron’s Amazing Stories this week you will find Science Fiction everywhere. So, pack your space suit and your blaster be ready for it. We have an episode of X-Minus one, followed up by a strange story about a man who hold the fates of two worlds in his hands.  So, press that play button and listen to this special Sci-Fi podcast. OTR Story - The Seventh Victim Our story is about a post holocaust society in which war has been eradicated. The human need for violence is satisfied by legally sanctioned 'hunts', in which volunteers take on the roles of hunters or victims. It is based on a short story first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, in April 1953.  The Story is titled The Seventh Victim and first aired on X-Minus One on March 20, 1957.

On Ron’s Amazing Stories  this week we take a look back at the year that was 2016. Our OTR story has an estranged woman who hates yellow wallpaper, a short bit about a lazy woman who meets ten fairies and of course another five minute mystery. OTR Story - The Yellow Wallpaper We have  a very strange, unsettling episode of Suspense. It is based on a short-story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and was first published in The New England Magazine, in January of 1892. It is about a woman suffering from depression and is confined by her doctor, who also happens to be her husband. She is left to her bedroom in a rented house, where she starts to believe that the patterns in the wallpaper contain dark, disturbing secrets. The tale is called THE YELLOW WALLPAPER and stars radio hall of famer, AGNES MOOREHEAD. It originally aired on July 29, 1948.

On Ron’s Amazing Stories we will travel with the Brothers Grimm from the German countryside of the 1800s to the bloody battlefields of Gettysburg, with JDR Hawkins author of the Civil War Novel, A Rebel Among Us! A Rebel Among Us - by J.D.R. Hawkins David Summers never expected any of this…not in a million years. He thought for sure he was a goner.After leaving Alabama and enlisting with the cavalry, his delusion of chivalry was suddenly quashed when he saw for himself the horrors of battle. Now, after being shot and ending up at a strange farmhouse, he’s found himself being nursed back to health by four beautiful girls, and has learned that his Confederate brethren have deserted him in Pennsylvania after fighting at Gettysburg. It’s more than he can fathom. About author J.D.R. Hawkins - J.D.R. Hawkins is an award-winning author who has written for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, e-zines, and blogs. She is one of a few female Civil War authors, uniquely describing the front lines from a Confederate perspective. Show Links for JDR Hawkins:  Twitter - Website - Amazon Author Page

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories titled, Gigantopithecus, a UFO crashes in a family's backyard. The story is expertly narrated by John Dehner.  Also, we tell the true story of a camping trip gone very wrong, and we have another five minute mystery. So, press that play button! Gigantopithecus: What is it? It is a very large fossil Asian ape of the late Miocene to early Pleistocene epochs. That is a fancy way of saying that it is probably extinct. We say that because many believe that this ancient fellow just might be the modern day bigfoot. Our OTR Story - Heavens To Betsy This week’s story comes from Suspense, and it could have made today. It tells the tale of an everyday suburban family who discovers a crashed UFO in their backyard. It is titled, HEAVENS TO BETSY and originally aired: October 11, 1955.

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have The Bigfoot Grafton Case. That might be enough for most shows but not the RAS. We also present a brand new segment called, In the Public domain and to round things out have a short story about a cute little shipwrecked alien. Our OTR Story - The Bigfoot Grafton Case. In 1945, Dick Powell portrayed Philip Marlowe in the movie, Murder My Sweet. This performance and one other as Marlowe prompted his selection for the part of Richard Diamond. Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC in 1949 with Powell in the lead. Diamond was a slick, sophisticated detective, with a sharp tongue for folks who needed it. Our story comes from this series and is called The Bigfoot Grafton Case and it first aired on August 30, 1950.

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have a big show for you.  To start things off we have a five minute mystery with some new news. Then we play a Raymond Burr western that tells the truth about the Buffalo Hunters. We follow that up with a short-story from none other than O. Henry! Sound like fun? Does to me too. Press that play button and let’s go. OTR Story - The Buffalo Hunters. By the mid-1950s westerns were the thing on old time radio and just about everywhere else. Whether it was for your son, daughter, wife, father or mother. There was a western for everyone. The series Fort Laramie debuted on January 22, 1956 with Raymond Burr as the captain of cavalry. Our story comes from about the middle of the Fort Laramie run and is called the Buffalo Hunters. Most westerns tried to glorify the buffalo hunts as sport.  This episode - not so much! It first aired on September 9, 1956.

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have good stuff!  We start off, with a story from a listener in New Mexico about a mysterious fog and then listen to an OTR tale from Suspense that stars William Conrad.  Also, Oscar Wilde joins us (in spirit) to give us A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated and we finish it all off with a Five Minute Mystery. Our OTR story - Waxworks! For our OTR story this time I have picked out one that could have easily been played during the month of spooky. It comes from the classic series Suspense, and is essentially a dramatized reading, rather than a full radio play. It is called The Waxwork. It tells the story of a freelance journalist who spends the night in the murderers' gallery of a waxwork museum. It first hit the airwaves in May of 1956.