Episode 141 - Lone Star Law and Order (Tales of the Texas Rangers)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Tv & Film

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2015

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Big screen cowboy star Joel McCrea came to radio in Tales of the Texas Rangers, a series of modern-day Western crime dramas adapted from the case files of the legendary lawmen. The Rangers used a combination of traditional methods and twentieth century police work to catch Texas' most wanted. We'll hear McCrea as Ranger Jayce Pearson in "The Trigger Men" (originally aired on NBC on July 29, 1950) and "Death in the Cards" (originally aired on NBC on January 14, 1951).

Transcript

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0:00.0	The The West was a popular setting during the golden age of radio. Just as Western's played
0:27.6	across movie screens and crept onto television, radio brought listeners adventures of Cowboys and cavalrymen, U.S. Marshals, and masked riders of the
0:37.6	Plains. But by and large those shows were set in the Old West, the lawless days of the frontier.
0:45.0	One show brought listeners modern day accounts of Western Lawman,
0:49.0	keen investigators who mixed traditional methods with new innovations and police work.
0:55.6	That show was Tales of the Texas Rangers, and besides being an entertaining crime drama, it was
1:01.5	a showcase for big screen star Joel McCray.
1:05.0	Producer director Stacy Keach developed the series based on the exploits of the legendary
1:09.8	Texas Lawman.
1:11.9	Like Jack Webb's Dragnet, tales of the Texas Rangers pulled its stories
1:16.4	from the case files of the Rangers and it employed a member of their ranks as a technical
1:21.3	advisor, Captain M.T. Gonzalez, nicknamed Lone Wolf, a ranger who was said to have
1:27.6	killed 31 men during his three decades on the job. Most of the scripts for the show were penned by Joel Murkotte, a writer who later wrote for Bonanza on television.
1:39.0	The lead character was Ranger Jace Pearson, who over the course of two years and nearly 100 radio episodes, was dispatched all over the Lone Star State to investigate murders, robberies, and kidnappings. It proved to be a perfect marriage of actor and character.
1:56.8	Joel McCray was already on the road to show business at a young age. As a California high school
2:01.6	student, he worked as a stunt double and wrangled horses for Tom Mix, even while he attended classes and acted in school plays.
2:09.0	In 1928, after working as an extra, he signed a contract with MGM and he won his first major role in the
2:16.2	Jazz Age in 1929.
2:19.2	In the 1930s, a move to RKO brought in more roles and more acclaim.
2:23.0	Performances in the most dangerous game, Wells Fargo, and Union Pacific.
2:28.0	The early 1940s were perhaps the high point of his film career.
2:33.0	McCrae starred in two films from Preston Sturgis, Sullivan's Travels and the Palm Beach
	...

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