Ron's Amazing Stories

On this episode of Rons Amazing Stories we have a classic 1940s action hero, a question and answer session with a real life comic book expert and a short story sent in by one of our youngest listeners called, A Cold Day for Callie.

Our main story comes from the archives of The Blue Beetle. The original Golden Age Blue Beetle was Dan Garret, son of a police officer killed by a criminal. This version of the character debuted in Mystery Men Comics #1 in August of 1939. He began appearing in his own 60-issue series shortly thereafter. BB was a popular character in his era. He had his own short-lived comic strip and a radio serial that ran for 48 thirteen-minute episodes. It is from this serial that our tale for the RAS is drawn from. The Serpent Men first aired in June of 1940.

If you have read the Blog for this week you already know that we have an excellent episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Also, on the program, is a story from a mailman that will leave you scratching your head. If that was not enough I added a short story from Ambrose Bierce. A really packed show! 

 

For our main story, we have an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater. It ran from 1974 through 1982 on various networks, times and days.  The series was created by Himan Brown who was a huge part of the golden age of radio. It was his work that modeled the very fabric of old time radio and believe it or not what you see on your televisions today. The story that I have picked is a tale called the Circle of Evil and It first aired August 21, 1975.

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories, we have what I think will become a classic. Novelist Patty Wiseman joins us to talk about her series of books, The Velvet Shoe Collection. These are romance mysteries set in the 1920’s Detroit era. She also shares some of her family’s amazing history.  

 

Our story comes from Crime Classics a CBS radio drama from 1953. It described itself as: A series of true crime stories from the records and newspapers of every land, from every time. I have chosen an episode called, The Death of a Picture Hanger. It gives the true account of the murder of Jessie James based on newspapers, journals and court witness to the crime. It first aired July 20, 1953.

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They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings. Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.  - Bob Dylan

That quote is the perfect lead for our show today. We have both scoundrels and heroes taking the stage and at times it is hard to tell the difference. Also on the program is a spine chilling story that you just have to hear to believe. Jim Richards gives us yet another reason to be scared to fly.

We actually have an OTR double feature.  The first story comes from the classic western series Gunsmoke and is called Bag ‘O Rocks.  The second is an early broadcast from Challenge of the Yukon and follows our scoundrel theme perfectly.

 

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On this episode of the RAS we have three amazing stories. A fifteen-year-old girl shares what life is like on her haunted farm in California. Also, we have an episode from the OTR series Suspense and finally from Anton Chekov we throw in his short story, The Bet. A jam packed program with stuff for everyone.

Our main story comes from the creator’s of good radio, Suspense. What would you do if you wanted to prove your scientific theory? What if you had to be murdered to do it? Would you do it? Our story explores this idea and it consequences. The tale is called “The Last Letter of Doctor Bronson” and it is a well told tale calculated to keep you in suspense. It first aired on July 27, 1943.

 

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On Ron’s Amazing Stories this episode the have a classic OTR story, A classic short-story and a classic news story.  All in one show! I just can’t help myself. I am just that good. 

The Story:

Its time to get a bit creepy. We have not done that for while and what better way to do it then with tale from Father Time and The Clock. The Clock was a radio anthology broadcast from 1946 to 1948. Eighty episodes were made and 55 of them still exit today. Its stories were mostly mystery and crime with a tiny smattering of supernaturally-themed episodes. We have the later in a story called Nicky. It suggests at the lengths a hardened criminal will go, to protect his gal and his cash.  Please enjoy and it first aired on April 4, 1948.

The News:

There are some big changes coming to Ron’s Amazing Stories. I am very excited about it and I hope you will to. Beginning the first week of August the podcast will publish on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays. This is being done to help flatten out my schedule and make room for a new and improved weekly newsletter. This will cover interesting topics, what’s happening on Thursdays podcast and even a calendar of future events. Delivery for this is via email subscription for free or you can visit the main website and read the blog. There may be an audio version of the newsletter if it warrants it. If it does it will be delivered via iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Tunein Radio as normal.  For those of you that listen to the podcast on the AM/FM Radio. There will be no changes in the schedule. We will be on at 8:00 pm Eastern time on Fridays. 

The Calendar:

 

July 28 – Nicky (A Classic from The Clock)

August 6 – One from Suspense

August 13 – One from Gunsmoke

August 20 – An interview with an Author

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories, we have a Smokejumper’s story, a tale about modern day Cattle Rustlers and a short from Librivox.org called Mazy At The Movies. If that isn’t a jam packed show I don’t know what is.

I’ll bet you are asking, “what’s with the cows?”  Well the main story comes from the classic OTR series Tales of the Texas Rangers.  It was a western adventure that premiered on July 8, 1950, on NBC and remained on the air through 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson with his faithful horse, Charcoal. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases. The series was produced and directed by Stacy Keach, Sr. and was sponsored by Wheaties.

The story is called Open Range and gives us a view into the modern world of the 1950’s cattle rustler. It first aired on August 5, 1950.

 

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On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we celebrate this country's birthday in an unusual way. Imagine if in 1776 we had invented the radio. What would it have sounded like?  What would have been reported on that fated day in July?  I found a classic series created by Goodman Ace for CBS Radio called, You Are There. It blended history with modern technology by taking an entire network newsroom back in time to report the great occurrences of the past. 

What we will listen to are the events that surrounded July 4, 1776. What you will hear is episode 27 of You Are There.  It first aired on April 24, 1948.

You can listen to this program right here

Purchase You Are There DVD set on amazon.

 

Listen or download You Are There radio episodes on the Internet Archive.

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have an interview with author Edward Hancock II who talks about his award winning series of detective thrillers. We also have a listener’s missing time story and if that wasn’t enough how about Chinese fable that is a kin to something Aesop himself would have wrote. 

Raised a true East Texan, Edward Hancock II is a graduate of Sabine High School and Kilgore College. Born with Spina Bifida, Hancock was always a dreamer. These dreams became a reality at the age of 10 when he wrote what he considers to be his first real short story. By the age of 14, Hancock developed a deep love for writing poetry. By 19, he was a staff member of the Kilgore College Ranger Yearbook and Flare newspaper.

To date, Hancock’s writing resume consists of more than 15 short stories, over 100 poems, 3 self-published titles and two traditionally published novels. He is a proud member of the Northeast Texas Writers Organization (NETWO) as well as the East Texas Christian Writers. He is also a speaker for hire, regularly speaking to children’s and disabled groups on such topics as “life with no excuses” and “never give up on a dream”. His hobbies include reading, traveling, genealogy research and movies. He currently lives in Gilmer, Texas with a house full of four-legged children.

Author Links: Ed on Amazon - Ed on Twitter - Ed on Facebook

You can listen to this week’s podcast right here.

 

Program Note: The RAS newsletter is going through some changes.  The first part has been set in motion. So, if you are getting this version you are still on the old feed and only have two weeks left until it goes away.  If you want to continue getting the weekly newsletter all you need to do to is to re-subscribe on the main web page.  Follow this link.

On episode 203 of Ron’s Amazing Stories we had a story from NBC Theater that stared Bob Hope called The Ghost Breakers. The feedback I had was pretty good so on this program we are going to have one from Jack Benny. Jack’s story appeared on the series Suspense, but it’s not a gripping tale or a scary horror drama.  It’s not a comedy or a drama, but it is sort of a parody. So, I had to create a whole new genre.  I guess you would call it an Scfi-O-Drama-edy. It is called Plan-X and first aired on Suspense on February 2, 1953. 

What is does have is Jack Benny and he was the king of comedy. Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky February 14, 1894. He an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television, and film actor and, of course, violinist. He was truly a legend and is recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century.

Last week I announced that the RAS newsletter is going through some changes.  The first part has been set in motion. So, if you are getting this version you are still on the old feed and only have two weeks left until it goes away.  If you want to continue getting the weekly newsletter all you need to do to is to re-subscribe on the main web page.  Follow this link.

 

You can listen to this weeks podcast right here.