On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have The Bigfoot Grafton Case. That might be enough for most shows but not the RAS. We also present a brand new segment called, In the Public domain and to round things out have a short story about a cute little shipwrecked alien.
Our OTR Story – The Bigfoot Grafton Case.
In 1945, Dick Powell portrayed Philip Marlowe in the movie, Murder My Sweet. This performance and one other as Marlowe prompted his selection for the part of Richard Diamond. Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC in 1949 with Powell in the lead. Diamond was a slick, sophisticated detective, with a sharp tongue for folks who needed it. Our story comes from this series and is called The Bigfoot Grafton Case and it first aired on August 30, 1950.
On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have a big show for you. To start things off we have a five minute mystery with some new news. Then we play a Raymond Burr western that tells the truth about the Buffalo Hunters. We follow that up with a short-story from none other than O. Henry! Sound like fun? Does to me too. Press that play button and let’s go.
OTR Story – The Buffalo Hunters.
By the mid-1950s westerns were the thing on old time radio and just about everywhere else. Whether it was for your son, daughter, wife, father or mother. There was a western for everyone. The series Fort Laramie debuted on January 22, 1956 with Raymond Burr as the captain of cavalry. Our story comes from about the middle of the Fort Laramie run and is called the Buffalo Hunters. Most westerns tried to glorify the buffalo hunts as sport. This episode – not so much! It first aired on September 9, 1956.
On this edition of Ron’s Amazing Stories “the blog” we look at Raymond Burr. Who was he? Why Was he? We will attempt to fill your brains with knowledge, which is power! How will we do it? Let’s play, True or False with Raymond William Stacy Burr.
Raymond Burr publicity shot from 1960. Probably taken for his series Perry Mason.
Q1 – We start with the Burr Truth.
TRUE – Raymond William Stacy Burr was a Canadian-American actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. He was prominently involved in multiple charitable endeavors, such as working on behalf of the United Service Organizations (USO).
Q2 – Raymond Burr’s early acting career usually depicted him as the villain.
True – His portrayal of the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window is his best-known film role. There was no doubt that he was not a good person in that one. There were many other roles in radio, television and on stage that made it quite clear Burr had no problems being bad.
Q3 – Burr was handy to have around since like his character, Perry Mason, he was a bar certified lawyer.
False – Not only was the star not a lawyer, but Burr said himself that he never attended high school. However, he did take courses at Long Beach Junior College, Stanford, and the University of California. He was a benefactor of legal education, and in June 1973, The Raymond Burr Award for Excellence in Criminal Law was established in his honor.
Q4 – TV Guide lists Raymond Burr as one of its greats?
True – In 1996, Burr was listed as one of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time by TV Guide. He was ranked #41. Also, a 2014 study found that Burr was rated as the most favorite actor by Netflix users, with the greatest number of dedicated microgenres. Other accolades include: He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Blvd, received six Emmy nominations, won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and In 2008, The Canadian Post issued a postage stamp in its “Canadians in Hollywood” series featuring Burr.
Q7 – Raymond Burr was married three times?
False – His official biography stated that he had been married three times, but two of his wives and one child had died. However, these details were fabricated in an attempt to hide the fact that Burr was gay. Only one brief marriage had actually occurred, and it had ended in divorce. The other two marriages and the child were fiction.
Q6 – Raymond Burr was offered the role as Matt Dillon on the TV version of Gunsmoke.
False – He was considered for the role of Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke. The show’s first producer Charles Warren recalled, “His voice was fine, but he was too big. When he stood up, his chair stood up with him”. William Conrad, who played Matt Dillon on radio, was rejected for the TV version for similar reasons. In a memorial article in TV Guide published shortly after Burr’s death, the original producers of Perry Mason almost rejected Burr for that role, again because Burr was overweight. He went on an intensive diet to get down to a size acceptable to the producers.
Raymond Burr – May 21, 1917 to September 12, 1993 Geyserville, California.
There you have the truth and fiction of Raymond Burr. To me he will always be Perry Mason. I remember as a kid faking being sick just to see repeats of that show at noon. My mom would bring my soup in and I would relish in one of Perry’s unsolvable cases. My thanks to the man and his incredible talent.
This Week’s Podcast:
On the show this week we have a mysterious death by poison, a western starring Raymond Burr and short tale from O-Henry! You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.
On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have good stuff! We start off, with a story from a listener in New Mexico about a mysterious fog and then listen to an OTR tale from Suspense that stars William Conrad. Also, Oscar Wilde joins us (in spirit) to give us A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated and we finish it all off with a Five Minute Mystery.
Our OTR story – Waxworks !
For our OTR story this time I have picked out one that could have easily been played during the month of spooky. It comes from the classic series Suspense, and is essentially a dramatized reading, rather than a full radio play. It is called The Waxwork. It tells the story of a freelance journalist who spends the night in the murderers’ gallery of a waxwork museum. It first hit the airwaves in May of 1956.
With the end of the month of spooky comes a new year of the program and with that comes Ron’s Amazing Summary. The podcast first began in April of 2011, but it was not until October that I started to get the hang of things. So, for me the podcast’s birthday is always the spooky months. Here is a brief summary of the show.
Where Can You Listen to the Show?
One of the things that I am most proud of is that we have gotten the show into every major market except for Spotify and I am working on that one. You can find the show on iHeartRadio, iTunes, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher Radio, Google’s Music Play, Soundcloud, Spreaker, and many others. Thanks to the support of Jason Dowd and the folks at AMFM247.com the show is heard on the radio airwaves in nine cities accross the the nation. Every Friday night you can tune in the show at 8pm eastern time.
Are There Two Podcasts?
Yes! The main podcast is called Ron’s Amazing Stories and has over 260 episodes available. This show is the heart of soul of the project. There is however a second podcast called The Horror Express which I co-host with Jason Dowd. There are currently twelve episodes available. While this show does have its own show page. It does not have its own RSS feed. Jason and I both thought to piggyback the show on to the main podcast as it started out. If I can find a sponsor for the show it will find it’s permanent home on soundcloud. It will cost about $20.00 a month to do this. It may interest you to know that I did two other podcasts over the years that failed. They were called TSS – Flash Gordon and TSS – The Six Shooter. As I write this I can’t even remember what the TSS stood for. I think it was The Six Shooter, which was poor thinking.
Two RSS feeds – Why?
First what is an RSS feed? It stands for Rich Site Summary, which was originally called RDF Site Summary, and is most often called Really Simple Syndication. It uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information like blog entries, news headlines, audio or video. Ron’s Amazing Stories has two of them.
RSS feed number one is the behind the scenes workhorse. It delivers the podcast to all of the major sources. The second RSS feed is for the older generation of podcast listeners. People who use only their email to listen. This feed not only contains the podcast, but the weekly newsletter as well. To clarify, if you listen to the show from your email you are using this feed. If you want to subscribe to it head to our home page and sign-up.
That’s It!
That is the end of Ron’s Amazing Summary on some things I thought I wanted to clarify. If you have any questions or have an idea for a show or blog post please contact me at ronsamazingstories@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!
-Ron
This Week’s Podcast:
On the show this week we have some good stuff. A story from a listener in New Mexico about a mysterious fog and an OTR tale from Suspense that stars William Conrad. Also, Oscar Wilde joins us (in spirit) to give us A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated. You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.
The Calendar:
October 27 – Old Time Horror VI – (RAS264) November 03 – The WaxWork – (RAS265) November 10 – (RAS266) November 17 – The Horror Express #13 – (RAS267) November 24 – Thanksgiving Replay 2016 December 01 – (RAS268)
On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we have The Bigfoot Grafton Case. That might be enough for most shows but not the RAS. We also present a brand new segment called, In the Public domain and to round things out have a short story about a cute little shipwrecked alien. 
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Ron's Amazing Stories - The Blog 