Good morning, this is Daniel Cantu. I am actually calling because I grew up in Riverside,

California, where unbeknownst to us at the time in the 60s, the place that I had grown up in was part of a camp that these soldiers would be received and also shipped off to Europe during World War II.

After the war, all the barracks were sold off and converted into homes.

We used to play across the street in the foundations of an old theater that had burned down obviously years before.

Little did I know until years later that same theater that we had played in the foundation of was host to all these celebrities like Bob Hope and all these radio celebrities that would come and broadcast from that camp.

Yes, sir, after they sit through our show, they can take anything.

I'm Dylan Thores and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible and amazing places.

And today we're calling Daniel back. We're going to talk to him about the joy of playing in ruins, about childhood, about raising kids with a sense of wild freedom, and together we'll explore the ruins of Campanza.

That's after this.

Hello.

Hi. Is this Daniel Cantu?

It is Daniel, yes.

This is Dylan Thores from Atlas Obscura. You called our caller number a couple weeks ago and left us a really lovely voicemail.

I do remember that being that I do have a lot of time on my hand.

We all do these days, don't we?

I was driving to work and my car had XM radio at the time and I loved listening to old time radio shows on XM radio.

Again this week, Pepsidin is proud to entertain the men and women in our armed forces.

And then I hear live from Campanza.

Campanza at Arlington, California, the Pepsidin show starring Bob Hope.

And it was a broadcast from 1942. Here's Bob Hope.

How do you do?

It was pretty amazing because it came to life. The whole area just came to life in terms of what it was originally.

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