Ron's Amazing Stories

Are you ready for the second show of the fall spook-fest? So far this month we have had the conductor from The Horror Express host his own show. In my opinion he did an okay job, but it was painfully obvious he has little respect for humankind. This episode promises to be much more human friendly because Sylvia Shultz is here to share some scary, yet highly entertaining stories from her new book, Fractured Spirts. 

Sylvia Shults is a ghost story addict. She loves them so much she’s written quite a few of her own. She also writes horror fiction and romance, and is the first to admit that there’s a very fine line separating the two. When not behind a keyboard, she can be found out in her garden, wandering the woods, riding her Ducati Monster motorcycle, or happily lost in a book. She lives in Pekin with her husband, two furry German shepherd daughters, two rotten cats, and far too many books.

To find a full calendar of events for the RAS Month of Spooky click here.

Well, here we are in the month of spooky 2014. This is the fourth go-round for us here at the RAS and we could not be happier about the results. During the month you are going to hear great discussions, stories and even talk a ghost or two. To kick the season off I have employed a guest host for the first show.  He will present one of my very favorite Halloween stories from the radio series Quiet Please. It was written by Willis Cooper who made his mark telling the stories you didn’t want to hear with the lights out.  The story is considered to be not only the scariest of old time radio, but one of its best. It is called The Thing on the Fourble Board and first aired on August 9, 1948.

Well, we are only a few days away from the beginning of RAS month of spooky, October 2014.  But first we have one more episode in September and it is a good one. We are going to head up north, WAY up north, to our friends in the Canadian Rockies and the mounted police. Our tale comes from the Challenge of the Yukon, which was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit's famous radio station WXYZ (Currently called WXYT (AM)). It started out as a 15-minute serial airing locally from 1938 until 1947. Then went national when Quaker Oats and ABC bought the rights to the series, put it in a half-hour format, and moved it to the networks where it aired from 1947 to 1955. 

The story is typical of what you came to expect from the show. King and the sergeant have to outsmart a stone cold killer who has an entire outpost covering for him. It is called Ghost Town and first aired on September 29, 1948. Exactly 66 years ago. How about that?

What to know more about the upcoming events in October.  You can click here and be taken to a calendar of events. It promises to be a fun month of chills and kills.

On this episode of the RAS we have cannibals and not of the fine young kind. They don’t want to meet you, they want to eat you. Our story is actually a retelling of the Daniel Defoe classic Robinson Crusoe. It comes from the OTR series Adventure Ahead. This was a brilliant summer feature for 1944. The series comprised of fourteen stirring adventure novels from America's greatest fiction authors. Other stories included:  The talking Drums, The Greenmantle and Inside the FBI. The show was billed as famous stories for young people.  In my opinion they missed the mark on this on an actually created excellent adaptations of classic stories for the elder and child in us all. What you will hear is a condensed version of the Robinson Crusoe story, but it has more than enough meat to make it worth a spin.  The show first aired on September 2, 1944.

For this episode we ask the question: Did the British use a witchdoctor to foil the plans of Germany during World War II? Was this just the stuff of a story or did it really happen? You will find out in this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories. Also, hang around after the story to hear all about the upcoming month of spooky. October is the fourth annual event and this year and it will be bigger than ever!

Our tale comes from the archives of one of old time radio’s greatest series Suspense. It is called The Lord of the Witchdoctors and first aired during the height of the air war in Europe. Trust was hard to come by and deception more likely.  Listen in to October 27, 1942 and find out the truth.

Don’t forget the fifth episode of The Horror Express is available for streaming and downloading. This is a good show that you will not want to miss.

When I was looking for the story this week it dawned on me that we have a had a long string of interviews and that it was high time to head back outdoors for a classic western. Who better to fill that need than the great Jimmy Stewart? I have picked an episode from his OTR series The Six Shooter. Brit must protect a murder and see that he gets a fair trial. The victim’s brother, the sheriff, does not agree. The tale is called Revenge At Harness Creek and first aired on April 29, 1954.

The first RAS contest has been completed and a winner has been found.  Judging by the number entries we had I should have picked a bigger number than the fifth person. My thanks to everyone that entered. Jerry Coleman of Kentucky is the winner.  His copy of The Horse Lover: A Cowboy's Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs written by H. Alan Day is on its way!  I hope that you enjoy the book as much as I did.  You can listen to the interview with Alan in episode #166.

On the program this week Orson Welles makes is way back to the show hitchhiking on an excellent episode of Suspense. We have an update on the very first contest in history of Ron’s Amazing Stories and an announcement about the fifth episode of the Horror Express.

I have had the story for this show in the queue for a long time. I have not got around to playing it because I thought for sure that I had the plot all figured out. I could not have been more wrong! I guess I should have known better. After all it came from the series made famous for surprise endings, Suspense. The episode is called The Hitchhiker and is from early in the series. A man, played by Orson Wells, has a frightening drive across the U.S. being chased by… well you will just have to see. Our story was episode #11 of Suspense and first aired on June 9, 1942.

On this program we have one of my favorite detective dramas. Pat Novak for Hire will take the stage and hopefully entertain you and thrill you. Also, on the program I will announce the first ever Ron’s Amazing Stories contest. The topic for the tweets is #ImHappyBecause.

What can I say about Pat Novak for Hire that I have not said in past shows? It is one of the strangest, well-acted and best written programs of the golden age of radio. It is a classic detective drama starring Jack Webb as Pat Novak, a street wise guy who rents boats and anything else a good man pays a bad one to do. Novak is always getting into scrapes when taking on jobs for hire or occasionally as a favor to a friend. When he does, he goes to see "The Only Honest Guy I Know" an ex-Doctor and a boozer named Jocko Madigan (played by Tudor Owens). Novak's nemesis is Lieutenant Hellman of Homicide (often played by Raymond Burr). The show has a repeating plotline, but it is a work of art, with fantastic poetry. Pat Novak for Hire is memorable from start to finish. Our story is called, Agnes Bolton and it first aired on June 5, 1949.

When I say we have an amazing interview for you that is understatement. I have done a lot of these now and have a few that stand out. This one is right up there with my all-time favorites. H. Alan Day has the heart of cowboy and when he talks put’s you right there in saddle with him. His book, The Horse Lover, will do the same. I can tell you that when you start reading it you won’t put it down anytime soon. 

Alan Day’s upbringing branded him a cowboy from the day he was born. He was part of the third generation to grow up on the 200,000-acre Lazy B cattle ranch straddling the high deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. In the 1980’s, Alan purchased a cattle ranch in Nebraska and soon after, a ranch in South Dakota. The SD ranch became the first government-sponsored sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses. He developed and successfully used a herd modification-training program for his 2000 head of cattle and 1500 wild mustangs. Now retired from ranching, Alan divides his time between Tucson and Pinetop, Arizona.

Also on the program is a musical dedication, tweets about cowboys and of course the Ron’s Amazing Stories news.