The Lone Ranger: Episode 266, October 12, 1934
Project Audion: Classic Audio Dramas for Modern Times · Fran Striker
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Show Notes
The Lone Ranger has got to be the most famous fictional character to come out of old time radio...every generation knows him, even if they don't know his radio origins. And those radio origins go WAY back - the Masked Man has been around 90 years, since 1933! But the radio version of the Lone Ranger has hundreds of episodes we'll never hear - because the show wasn't recorded from 1933-1937. A shame, because these earliest years would let us listen to the series and characters evolving into the forms everyone knows. A 1934 episode simply wasn't the same as a 1954 episode in story, characters, and even sound.
But thanks to historian Martin Grams, Jr. , who provided us with some scripts from 1934, Project Audion actors have now recreated one. We selected episode #266 (October 12, 1934), a story of a cattle rancher, the coming of the railroad, and a "greasy half-breed" named Magdalena - yup, definitely less sensitive and streamlined than subsequent shows. You'll hear the show as we think it would have sounded in 1934...from the original 78rpm music cues to a period-accurate Silvercup bread commercial. Our cast even includes one actor who performed on Ranger radio shows during the 1950s. Now 93 years young, Chuck Daugherty is a living link to those thrilling days of yesteryear...