What we did before TV and computers

It takes a few minutes to get started. This is the origin episode

The Lone Ranger was one of my favorite radio programs, and like all radio programs, you had to provide your own image of each character. I had a pretty good idea what Texas Rangers looked like in the early days, up to and including the Civil War. They wore, typically, what was considered a business suit in the 1830s, -40s, -50s and -60s.

This is Ben McCulloch, one of the founding members of the Texas Rangers, and an important figure in early Texas history:



When I first saw that joker on television, my first though was "That ain't no Texas Ranger!" I didn't expect him to look like ol' Ben, but I sure as hell didn't buy that Hollywood look. I wasn't buying the Jay Silverheels look, either. I never watched that BS again.

Here's Frank Hamer (center, seated) and the "posse" that shot down Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker:



They still went around in business suits a hundred years after Austin founded the Rangers in 1823.

I never liked the TV Lone Ranger, but I loved it on radio.

At one time this show aired over radio two or three times per week and two over TV. Sometimes they titled the reruns: Badge 714.

News broadcasts were not the same then. We listened to this guy regularly.

It was one of my favorites along with The Shadow and The Inner Sanctum.

Where everybody knows your name

Say, if anyone's interested in old time radio production, check out Two O'clock Eastern Wartime, by John Dunning. I can't rate the book or the author too highly.