Friday, April 27, 2012

More OTR


I tried to give famous radio soap Backstage Wife a chance, but even a short episode from 1945 was too much for me.  “The caveman locked his house with a stone” was the immortal line from this particular episode! 

I also tried to give Bobby Benson and the B Bar B Riders a chance, given it was one of the longest-running of the children’s serials (and I always wondered how a kid could own and run a ranch).  I think the episode I heard, “The Ghost Rustlers,” was from early in the second run of the series, 1952, as it gave quite a long (2 minute!) introduction to Bobby, who had been adopted as a baby by a ranch owner.  His pals were cool-headed Tex Mason, the (inevitably) Irish cowhand called Irish, and a Native American sidekick named Harka (?!), as well as Windy Wales[1] (who didn’t appear in this story).  To my surprise, Bobby Benson was conceived by an immigrant Brit, Herbert Rice.  I’m not sure if the Bobby in this story was played by Ivan Cury or Herbert’s nephew Clive, but I suspect the latter, given there was something not quite right about Bobby’s accent (Clive was British).  I expect this was all fairly interesting stuff to (boys) in the early ‘50s, but for me personally, one episode was enough.  

Finally,  I tried out Calling All Detectives which was simplistic in the extreme and oozed commercial sponsors!      


[1] I thought this character was named Wendy and was a woman.  No wonder they were putting “him” in charge of the ranch!

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