OT-"Tales of the Texas Rangers" premium badge

[rangerider7]

Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to him), to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.

The series was produced and directed by Stacy Keach, Sr., and was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties.

Captain Manuel T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, a Ranger for 30 years and who was said to have killed 31 men during his career, served as consultant for the series.

The series was adapted for television from 1955 to 1957 and produced by Screen Gems. For the TV version, Willard Parker took over the role of Jace Pearson. On radio, Pearson often worked by request with a local sheriff's office or police department but on the TV show, he had a regular partner, Ranger Clay Morgan (who had been an occasional character on the radio show), played by Harry Lauter. During the opening and closing credits of the TV show, the actors would march toward the camera and sing the theme song, "These Are Tales of Texas Rangers", to the tune of "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You", which is also the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". The radio series used contemporary cases and modern detective methods to solve crimes; it was a procedural drama, in many ways Dragnet with a Western flavor. The TV show was aimed at kids (and aired on Saturday mornings) and was more of a traditional Western (with chases and shoot-outs). The TV series did both modern cases and cases set in the "Old West." With new cases using a car with horse float to get the rangers to their destinations it always made sure that the use of horses was only a step away. With older themes they would always ride into town on the horses to mete out their justice, they wore differing ranger attire for new and old scenes, also their weaponry was totally different.
I picked up the premium badge because I thought it might go good with the "Lone Wolf" Items I have. I remember both the radio and TV programs. How it stayed in such good shape is beyond me. Those were the good old days sitting in front of the TV or radio with my trusty Daisy Lever and helping out. Lets see, that was about 60 years ago.

[Tom Richardson]

Tales of the Texas Rangers was a good show.
I missed most of them because I had just discovered cold beer and girls down at the Cut and Shoot Tavern.
They shook you down for guns and knives at the door. If you didn't have one they would loan you one for the evening.
Couldn't get up in time on Sat. mornings to watch TV even if we had one.

rangerider7 I do enjoy your history lessons.

[woods-walker]

I enjoy the stories as well.

Thanks!

[Topside]

For your listening pleasure. Hope the link works.

http://www.radiolovers.com/shows2/T/Tal ... rs/001.mp3

T.

[Dave James]

I remeber that show my dad and I would listen to it, the TV show we only watched a couple of times, some thing about try'n to watch it dubbed over was just to much

[mikld]

I bought some mp3 cds of the radio program (on ebay under "Old Time Radio Programs"). I burn two episodes on a cd. giving me 1 hour of entertainment and I listen to them often. Freat old show.

[Griff]

Before my time! Thanks RR7! What I remember most was gettin' told, "SHUT UP, LUMP, I can't hear!"

[Ysabel Kid]

[765x53]

Thanks for the memories.
I also had a "Tales of the Texas Rangers" badge as well as a plastic model of Wyatt Earp's Buntline, a Heinz 57 foreign legion kepi, and a deed to one square inch of land in the Klondike from the Sergeant Preston show.

One of the more memorable shows was "The Twenty-six Men", about the original Arizona rangers. It was unique because they would sometimes interview the ranger whom the show was about.