The Cisco Kid - 'Robin Hood of the Old West' - Old Time Radio Shows Available Now on CD

Aug. 21, 2008 - PRLog -- "The Robin Hood of the Old West" rides again in twenty uncirculated and newly discovered action-packed adventures, full of great western entertainment and newly transferred from original 16" transcriptions.

"The Cisco Kid," as old time radio and B-Western fans know him best, bears little resemblance to the character introduced by writer O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Cabellero's Way" -- a dark-skinned white man passing himself off as Mexican, a scabrous, cold-blooded criminal who expunged his victims as much for the sheer joy of killing as he did as a necessity of his work.

Such a personality would seem to have little potential as a long-running star of juvenile adventure fiction -- but the Kid made the transition, evolving from a series big-budget feature films at the dawn of the talking picture age, down into B-pictures, the comics, and radio. By the time Cisco arrived at the microphone, he had been greatly sanitized to make him acceptable kiddie fare and had picked up the obligatory humorous ethnic sidekick -- Pancho, lifted without acknowledgement from Miguel Cervantes' "Sancho Panza" character in "Don Quixote."

Thus modified, "The Cisco Kid" became a great favorite with western/adventure fans during the 1940s. Dubbed "the Robin Hood of the Old West," his radio adventures originated for many years at WOR, New York, and were widely syndicated by transcription by the Frederic W. Ziv Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Jack Mather and Harry Lang filled the lead roles, supported by the usual WOR stock company, and the transcribed series was produced for nine highly successful and lucrative years.

Since the 1947-1956 syndicated ZIV series was pre-recorded, a great many of Cisco and Pancho's adventures have been in the hands of collectors for years -- with the majority of available programs dating from earlier entries in the series. Recently, however, a large collection of beautiful discs was discovered in Des Moines, Iowa -- uncirculated and largely unplayed 16" vinyl transcription recordings, carefully preserved by a local advertising agency. These programs have, for the most part, been unheard since the 1950s and most have never been available to collectors - a real "find" for radio enthusiasts everywhere.

In addition to their rarity, a unique feature of these restored broadcasts is the reintegration of regional commercials, voiced by well-known announcer Marvin Miller. The series was sponsored on a number of midwestern radio stations by the bakers of Butter-nut Bread, and the program recordings were accompanied by separate discs containing the commercials. As presented in this set, the commercials have been edited back into the programs -- allowing you to hear them just as they originally aired in the early 1950s.

Of special interest to radio enthusiasts are the last two shows in this new Premier Collection: "Murder at North San Juan" and "Porfirio and the Bearded Lady," starring Jack Mather as Cisco and Mel Blanc standing in for Harry "Pancho" Lang as Pancho's cousin-in-law, Porfirio. Lang fell ill in early 1953 and, rather than have another actor temporarily fill in, the producers instead chose to have Pancho fall ill as well and be replaced with a series of relatives. For the next few months, a varied array of cousins and uncles would ride with Cisco until Harry was well enough to return to the show. Lang did return for a brief time but, sadly, he suffered a fatal heart attack in August of 1953. The relatives - including Uncle Jose and Great Uncle Cipriano - returned in his stead until, finally, Mel Blanc assumed the role of Pancho himself.

This 10 CD Collection has a list price of $ 29.98 and can be ordered online at http://www.NostalgiaTown.com.  Includes a FREE BONUS Robin Hood  DVD with 3 complete TV episodes.

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We specialize in restored original broadcasts of Old Time Radio shows in various collector sets: Comedy, Variety, Mystery, Detectives, and Westerns from the 1930's, 40's and 50's.

We are also the Co-publishers of the popular Pulp Fiction Novel reprints "The Shadow" and "Doc Savage" and are committed to bringing the best Nostalgia products back for all generations to enjoy.