LauriesStory – Radio Shows

The Lone Ranger was the top adventure story in our house. It was broadcast from Detroit on a weekday evening. There were also two Sunday afternoon shows, both written by Carlton E. Morse and broadcast from San Francisco: ‘I Love A Mystery’ and ‘One Man’s Family.’ These are the three shows that stand out. All the comedy and variety crap seem to have faded from memory. The reason?

They were great stories, true. But for me, soundtracks opened my imagination and brought those stories to life. And it was all classical music, the only ‘culture’ alive and well in the Sacramento Valley at the time.

Lone Ranger

Everybody knew the theme – William Tell Overture. BUT, there were also bits from Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes, Alexander Borodin’s ‘From The Steppes of Central Asia,’ Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave Overture, and more, all from royalty-free recordings that a brilliant music director in Detroit pieced together. Heres’ a link to the playlist:

http://www.audio-classics.com/theloneranger.html

I Love A Mystery had a great theme song, Sibelius’ ‘Valtz Triste.’ which perfectly set the tone of these edgy mystery stories from unusual geographic areas. I don’t remember much about ‘One Man’s Family‘ other than the local bounced around San Francisco—Sea Cliff, the Marina District (where a friend lived), Butcher Town (where my father’s kind of people lived). Here’s a wikipedia link to both:.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_a_Mystery

We had been listening to these shows for years before I found out I had been going to school with the scriptwriter’s nephew. Bill Morse brought his uncle to a career day in my senior year at San Juan.