RAS #310 – Too Many Crooks

On Ron’s Amazing Stories we debut a brand new OTR series from the Towers Of London called: The Lives of Harry Lime. You might recognize the name from the classic Orson Welles movie, The Third Man. Also on the show, we have a Sherlock Holmes short story and a mysterious moment in time.

Our OTR Story – Too Many Crooks

Our OTR story today is as a suggestion from listener David Larsen. He writes:

Hey Ron, I remember another radio serial, based on the movie, The Third Man. It is called The Lives of Harry Lime. It is a crime show from the point of view of the criminal and is played by Orson Welles as Harry. It is an episodic serial that doesn’t have an overarching storyline. It was one of the first OTR shows that I ever listened to and is one of my favorites. If you ever want to watch the original movie it can be found on Amazon Prime. As a side note, the movie and the character are much darker than the radio version – David.

It turns out that Orson Welles does reprise his role of Harry Lime from the celebrated 1949 film. However, in the film, Lime dies and thus the third man. Well, how to continue the series? The radio series is a “prequel” to the film and depicts the many misadventures of the con-artist. I picked the very first program on the list to play and I have to say I love the writing on this one. It is titled, Too Many Crooks and first aired on August 3, 1951.

Ron’s Amazing Stories is produced and hosted by Ronald Hood
Email: ronsamazingstories@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronsamazingstories/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RASpodcast

New Changes At Home Page

On this edition of the blog, we talk about a couple of new features that have been added to the home website at ronsamazingstories.com.

The Archive – There is now a link to the RAS Archive Site. This is a page on the Internet Archive that contains all of the shows from 2011 through the end of 2012 (with a few from early 2013 tossed in). From here you can stream, download and view all of the early podcasts from Ron’s Amazing Stories. This ends a long-term project to complete the archive. There are a lot of good things there and all you have to do is click on “archives” on the side panel to find them.

The Bold and The Blog – A new TAB is available called “Blog”. Right now, this simply guides you to the current blog site. In the future, I plan to close the WordPress site and incorporate the podcast and blog in one place. It will be easier for me to maintain and for you find. However, when it goes live it will change how you subscribe to the blog. I will give out more information on that before the change is made. Why the wait? I am waiting for my WordPress subscription to run out.

So, head on over to ronsamazingstories.com, check out these two changes and let me know what you think.

-Ron

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week we are chalked full of mystery. We debut a brand new detective series, tackle a mystery from 1969 and hear a Sherlock Holmes story told only to the folks at Edinburgh University. You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer radio? We are heard every Saturday night at 6pm EST. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

January 04 – Knock – (RAS309)
January 11 – Too Many Crooks – (RAS310 – S7E2)
January 18 – Horror Week – (RAS311 – S7E3)
January 25 – The Horror Express #20 – UFO Stories

RAS #309 – Knock

Well, here we are with a shiny new year. This year at Ron’s Amazing Stories we will be moving forward with a whole new attitude. We will have more stories by you guys, more guests to talk about their stories, and of course make the numbers climb up the charts. 2017 was a very good year for growth and I hope to make 2018 even better. I love doing this podcast and it is quite clear to me that there are a whole lot of you that like it too. Thank you for that.

-Ron

On Ron’s Amazing Stories this week we have a Bigfoot story from Ike in Atlanta. Also, on the show, we will play a classic science-fiction story from Fredric Brown and we will then close with a very special Moment In Time from 1956.

Our OTR Story – Knock!

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door….

Knock by Fredric Brown is our OTR story for this episode – The last man on Earth becomes an exhibit in a zoo set up by alien invaders to showcase the flora and fauna of the conquered planet. Our tale comes from X Minus One and was written by Ernest Kinoy. Knock first aired on May 22, 1951

Special Music: “Hard Boiled” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ron’s Amazing Stories is produced and hosted by Ronald Hood
Email: ronsamazingstories@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronsamazingstories/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RASpodcast

Classic Science-Fiction – Knock

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) wrote: Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth, excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, Tripoli or Paris. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell.

Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) condensed Aldrich’s text to a sweet little action story that is only two sentences long. He wrote: The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…

Brown’s story was titled Knock and was published in the December 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. There have been three different radio adaptations (Dimension X, X Minus One and Sci-Fi Channel’s Seeing Ear Theatre).

Although, the first two lines are a complete story by themselves. Brown added to it just a bit. The Zan have killed off all life on Earth other than pairs of specimens for their zoo of exotic Earth fauna. Walter Phelan is the last man on Earth, but Grace Evans, the last woman, is not overly impressed with him and maintains her distance. The ageless Zan, become disturbed when, one by one, their captive animals begin to die. They turn to Walter for advice.

It is an amazing story and deserves to be heard on the podcast this week. We will play the version from X-minus One. Also on the show, we have a Bigfoot tale from Atlanta.

This Week’s Podcast:

You can listen to this podcast on Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or on the mobile version of Spotify. Do you prefer radio? We are heard every Saturday night at 6pm – Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

January 04 – Knock – (RAS309 – S7E1)
January 11 – Detective Week – (RAS310 – S7E2)
January 18 – The Horror Express #20 – UFO Stories
January 25 – (RAS311 – S7E3)