On Ron’s Amazing Stories we have a strange but true OTR story for you. It is the dramatized account of the early life of legendary journalist H.L. Mencken newspaperman, and is based from his own journal notes. It was produced by CBS Radio Workshop. The story is called, Bring on the Angels, and first aired on June 8th 1956, Just a few months after his death at age 76.

Also on this program, we share one of Mencken’s commentaries on Zoos , a poem he wrote and we top it all off with the RAS news and a five minute mystery. Does that sound like a pretty good show? It think so, but I might be a bit bias.

-Ron

On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories we present one the golden age of radio’s best plays, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The tale is set in 1792, during the early stages of the French Revolution. Marguerite St. Just is the wife of wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney, a baronet. Before their marriage, Marguerite took revenge upon the Marquis de St. Cyr, who had ordered her brother to be beaten for his romantic interest in the Marquis’ daughter. This all ended with the unintended consequence of the Marquis and his sons being sent to the guillotine. When Percy found out, he became estranged from his wife. Marguerite, for her part, has become disillusioned with Percy’s shallow, dandyish lifestyle.

This where our story begins and it is handled quite well by Lux Radio Theater. This production brings back one its stars from the original 1934 movie cast, The Scarlet Pimpernel himself, Leslie Howard. Playing the role of his estranged wife is Olivia de Havilland. Quite the cast, and two of hollywood’s greatest, to be sure. The film was adapted to radio by Lux in 1938 and played in December of that year.

On this amazing episode we have three different stories. Debra Yates join us to update us about her book release and read a passage from, Woman of Many Names. Then we have one from Suspense, and we follow that up with a skit from me called ‘A Simple Sunday Morning’. So press that play button, you know you want to.

On our OTR story for this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories – A timid, henpecked husband dreams of being a tough-guy gangster, and when his idol comes to town, he seeks him out to help him deal with his domineering wife. You might be saying what the heck kind of story is that? Well, one that is actually pretty good!

A few weeks ago I did a special tribute to Mark Twain. While doing the research for that show I ran across a song about Twain called 1,000 Years by Sincerely, Iris. I contacted them and got permission to play the song as part of the tribute. Since then I have had the good fortune to meet the founder of the group, Todd Murray and he is here to share his music, tell some stories and tell us all about Road Trip music. This is a very cool episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories!

Sincerely Iris Interviewed -show links:

Website
Facebook
Official Video for Just Like a Dog
Cover of AC/DC’s – Done Dirt Cheap & Thunderstruck

Program Note – All of the music used in today’s show was approved by Todd Murray and Sincerely, Iris. Ron’s Amazing Stories appreciates Todd for allowing us to play his music, but hold no rights to these works and any questions about their usage should be directed to Todd Murray <todd@sincerelyiris.com>.

We have an amazing show. Two aliens walk into a city, two aliens escape, or do they? A professor is contacted by aliens, has this first contact doomed the earth? And finally a one legged man is murdered and you must solve the crime. Sound like a good program? I agree!

Our old time radio program for this week comes from a little known show called Hall Of Fantasy. This was a mystery based broadcast on KSL radio, Salt Lake City Utah. It was on the air in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The story is called, The Man From Second Earth  and it first aired August 10, 1953.

On, “As read by”, we have a classic science fiction story written by G.L. Vandenburg called Jubilation USA. It first appeared in Amazing Stories Magazine in the late 1950’s and is read by Phil Chenevert.