Some of the classic series you can listen to on Venture Radio from the Pumpkin Old Time Radio Network!
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story “The Caballero’s Way”, published in the collection Heart of the West. In movies and television, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero, even though he was originally a cruel outlaw.
The Cisco Kid came to radio October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role and Louis Sorin as Pancho. With Vicki Vola and Bryna Raeburn in supporting roles and Michael Rye announcing, this series continued on Mutual until 1945. It was followed by another Mutual series in 1946, starring Jack Mather and Harry Lang, who continued to head the cast in the syndicated radio series of more than 600 episodes from 1947 to 1956.
The radio episodes ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, “‘oh, Pancho!” “‘oh, Cisco!”, before galloping off, while laughing.
Wild Bill Hickok
The Wild Bill Hickok radio series was first heard on the Mutual Radio Network in 1951. The series continued through 1956. Hickok was a solid cowboy hero of the kids along with his faithful sidekick “Jingles”, played by Andy Devine. Guy Madison played Marshal Wild Bill Hickok on his horse named “Buckshot” while Jingles rode “Joker”.
There could not possibly be a person alive today who has not heard, at some point in their life, of the Lone Ranger. Almost everything about the show became famous: the music, the silver bullets used by him, the great horse Silver and Tonto’s horse Scout. The program was conceived by George W Trendle and written by Fran Striker, together they created over 600 episodes.
The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on January 30, 1933 on WXYZ, a radio station serving Detroit, Michigan. The show was an immediate success. Though it was aimed at children, adults made up at least half the audience. It became so popular, it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and finally by NBC’s “Blue Network”, which in time became ABC. The last new episode was broadcast September 3, 1954. Transcribed repeats of the 1952–53 episodes continued to be aired on ABC until June 24, 1955. Then selected repeats appeared on NBC’s late-afternoon weekday schedule (5:30–5:55 pm Eastern time) from September 1955 to May 25, 1956.
Each episode was introduced by the announcer as follows:
“In the early days of the western United States, a masked man and an Indian rode the plains, searching for truth and justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!”
Tune in to Venture Radio and hear other great Western series such as Fort Laramie, Frontier Town, Gun Smoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Lightning Jim, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, Six Shooter, and many many more fantastic series!
Happy Listening 🙂