BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch

Subject: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 11:54 AM

Actor, Robby Benson was just on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me this morning.

That prompted me to recall an old radio show from my childhood:

Bobby Benson of the B-Bar-B Ranch--in the Big Bend Country Of Texas

Anyone else recall this or other kid shows fondly?

(...and now we know where all the bees have gone.)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: gnu
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 12:02 PM

Don't know that one Art. But, Texas is long away and far ago to me. Up here in the frozen north, I grew up on The Friendly Giant... look up, waaaay up... north.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: curmudgeon
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 12:03 PM

One of my favorite programs when I was 5 - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 12:16 PM

Gunsmoke, every Saturday night...we didn't have kids' shows.**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 12:51 PM

Good program this morning.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 01:31 PM

Hey, Art:

I always loved the way that phrase tripped over the tongue: Bobby Benson & The B Bar B Boys!

I sure do remember it.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: MarkS
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 01:48 PM

Sure do Art - and how about "No School Today" every Saturday morning.
I actually saw Bobby Benson at a supermarket opening in, I think, around 1953 or thereabouts. Got on line for an autograph and he signed the paper "Kraft Caramels."
Sigh
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: fumblefingers
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 01:58 PM

No School today-- Big Jon and Sparky. I have some of those old radio shows.

Don Knotts played "Windy" on Bobby Benson.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 02:47 PM

I think the exact title was "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders". I also tuned in Big John and Sparky regularly. Anyone remember "Straight Arrow"? What was his alter-identity?... You could get Straight Arrow Injunuity cards in shredded wheat or, or order them printed in booklets for a quarter of so; camping hints, how to make moccassins, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 02:56 PM

My dad also listened to the Arthur Godfrey Show which I got to hear when I was in his truck with him.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 02:59 PM

Bobby Benson
Big John and Sparky
Sky King
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and Yukon King
Gunsmoke
The Shadow
The FBI
Jack Benny
Amos 'n' Andy
Helen Trent
Our Gal Friday
Superman

and others....

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 04:06 PM

I remember all of these shows!

Straight Arrow? was that the mysterious stalwart Indian? His sidekick was called "Packy".
How about the Green Hornet?
Gang Busters
The FBI in peace and war.
Mr. Keen, tracer of lost persons.
Mysterious Traveler.
Tom Mix
Terry and the Pirates.
The Lone Ranger.
I love a mystery.
Suppertime frolic with Don Messer and his islanders. Great old time music from New Brunswick Canada.
I'm so old!

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM

Jack Armstrong (the all American boy)
Lorenzo Jones (and his wife, Bell)
Fibber McGee and Molly.
Jack Benny

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 04:33 PM

It's good to know there're a lot of old geezers here...besides me. I remember listening to almost every show mentioned above.
Packy was indeed the name Straight Arrow's side kick. I collected Injunuity Cards for a while.
I had a Tom Mix arrowhead with whistle, magnifying glass and compass from Shredded Ralston (now Wheat Chex, and not a Ralston product)
My favorite premium was an Atomic Bomb ring from the Lone Ranger. It flicked in the dark.
I also had a Superman tin button from Pep Cereal. (Bud Collyer, who played the dual role of Supe and Clark Kent would suddenly deepen his voice to speak Supermanese)
In 1949 or '50, my favorite show, a summer replacement, was Johnny Lujack, All-American--who really was a Notre Dame all-american, and later a star quarterback for the Chicago Bears.
Oh, the orgy of long ago memories! Stop me before I have more.
John OTSC (who is well into medicare years)

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 05:39 PM

Bonanza!
F Troop
Andy Griffith Show
Kung Fu/Grasshopper---what was the name of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: GUEST,allan .s
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 05:44 PM

Please correct me if I am wrong.. Back in the earily 40's I had a glass cerial bowl w/ a picture showing Bobby Benson and the HO Rangers this was w/ the sale of HO brand oatmeal I was at an antique show several years ago and there was one like it. Does any one remember these???

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 05:45 PM

I had a large collection of those Straight Arrow lore cards. The old large shredded wheat biscuits, the ones you had to break apart in the bowl, those were separated in the box by those cardboard Indian lore cards.
And I also had a Captain Midnight decoder ring---with a sun dial that I never figured out how to use...
Superman was every weed day evening a 6:00 PM.

Thinking of those times provokes really warm memories.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 05:50 PM

Weed days? You started pretty young. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 06:25 PM

Gang Busters -- that was the one with the machine gun fire.

Since we didn't get a television until 1954 (last on the block, of course) we used to listen to the radio.

A lot.

Even after we got the television (a 1954 Zenith with a...seventeen inch...screen!) we still listened to radio. After all, we'd be up in the bedroom and the TV was down in the living room and after "Davy Crockett" what was there to watch?

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Padre
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 10:03 PM

Don Knotts was the voice of Windy Wales, the cook on the B-Bar-B ranch!

Padre, who listened faithfully

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 10:10 PM

I had a Tom Mix ring that had a tiny mirror so you could see who was creeping up on you without turning your head.. Also had a ring with a siren in it.
Was it the Shadow that was sponsored by "Blue Coal"? there was a ring that glowed in the dark....

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 10:45 PM

Television-wise, we watched

Crusader Rabbit
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
Flash Gordon

and others at my Grandmother's house (she DID have a tv before 1954). She watched Liberace and Gorgeous George (who were unrelated).

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: frogprince
Date: 18 Nov 07 - 10:44 PM

Just remembered (for the first time in God knows how many year)
Sargeant Preston of the Yukon, and his dog King.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 08:40 AM

SGT. Preston, one of my favorites.

A few years ago there was a tv show called "DUE SOUTH". It was about a Canadian mountie assigned to the USA. He had a deaf dog named...





Defenbaker. Some Canadian, please correct the spelling. And, to you yanks who don't know who Defenbaker was, don't ask. Look it up.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Riginslinger
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 08:49 AM

Sky King
   Our Miss Brooks

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 12:02 PM

Don't forget Arthur Godfrey.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 12:45 PM

PAT NOVAC FOR HIRE was my favorite of the old noir radio detective dramas. Starring Jack Webb as Pat Novac, the writing was simply great---over the top--vivid--ironically funny and intelligent.

Novac, in describing a fem fatale, after alluding to her legs and her figure, said in one episode:

"She had a voice like a bowl of warm stew!"

I always think of Terry Gross when I remember that line...

Art Thieme

Subject: Straight Arrow
From: GUEST,MMM
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 09:01 PM

I too remember listening to all the mentioned shows plus a lot more. Those were the days when the picture was all in you mind and I think it made it more interesting than a lot of the TV shows now.

I still remember Straight Arrow's sponser "Nabisco Shredded Wheat"
N A B I S C O Nabisco is the name to know, for a better breakfast treat, eat Nabisco Shredded Wheat.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 10:19 PM

Straight Arrow was the reverse of the traditional hero. He was an Indian (or mixed race) passing as a white rancher, who disguised himself as an Indian to right injustice.

Hmm, looking over past posts I don't see:

The Cisco Kid (sponsored by Weber's Bread on the Sunset Coast):

"Ceesco, thee sheriff he is coe-ming closer!"
"This way, Pancho. Vamanos!"

She, after kissing the Kid to the strains of a rising organ coda, "Oh, Cisco."
He, after that same kiss, "Oh, Senyorita."

Red Ryder, Little Beaver, and the Duchess (Red's aunt and his employer).

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: GUEST,Lon Felker,
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 01:20 PM

Hi Art, I remember fondly the B-Bar-B and Bobby Benson. He was always solving mysteries way out West. I have recently learned that a very young Don Knotts of Andy of Mayberry fame was on the show. I think he played the cook and maybe several other characters as well.
Lon

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 07:46 PM

So who played the part of Tom Mix on the radio? And,what was the name of the Sheriff?

Jack Armstrong, the all American boy; what was the sponsor?

The voice of Superman?

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 08:04 PM

Curly Bradley in the late 40s--Sponsor Ralston, Instant and Shredded
Wheaties?
Bud Collier--who was also Clark Kent

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 08:10 PM

Also re Superman
Collier (and I'm spelling his name incorrectly) and Joan Alexander (Lois Lane) reprised those roles as the voices in the Fleischer Superman cartoons.
What laconic, comic actor was Bud Collier's sister married too. Hint she starred with her husband in an earlyish TV sitcom, which featured a bratty tomboy played by a future California Assembly Person.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 09:07 PM

And let's not forget...

SKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY King!

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 06:55 PM

Not that anyone tried to answer my question, but the answer is Bud Collier's sister, June Collier, was married to Stu Erwin. They starred in his show, Trouble with Father, in the early '50s. The tom-boy daughter was played by Sheila James, who later played Dobie Gillis' romantic nemesis, in the eponymous sitcom. She is now Shiela Kuehl (D), California Assembly Person.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:24 PM

Close John. I believe Jack Armstrong's sponsor was Ovaltine.

The Sheriff's name in the show was Mike Shaw.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:38 PM

You made me look it up, because I always associate Ovaltine with Little Orphan Annie.

From a Jack Armstrong on line article, "Sponsored for many years by Wheaties, Jack Armstrong transformed the "Breakfast of Champions" into a major marketing phenomenon."

I didn't remember Mike Shaw, but I did have a lucite Tom Mix Arrowhead, with magnifying glass, compass, and siren just in case I got lost in wild western Los Angeles when I was about ten.

If you care to play one more round, Shredded Ralston is still around, except it isn't part of Ralston anymore, and so has a different name (well it even had this name while owned by Ralston). Name it!

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 10:49 PM

I also fondly remember Bobby Benson. Another favorite was Smilin' Ed and Froggy the Gremlin. I almost hurt myself laughing at the way Froggie interrupted Ed and fractured worn out stories and fairy tales. From a little later there was the Story Lady with short three or four minute retelling of the old tales. That got a little spicy and was for an older audience. Finally found a source for MP3s of the Story Lady and have enjoyed those moments over again.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: kendall
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 01:41 PM

I could have sworn Jack Armstrong was sponsored by Ovaltine. Must have been Terry and the Pirates?

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 02:07 PM

Must have been Terry and the Pirates?

Strike 2!

Dari-Rich
Libby's (canned veggies and fruit)
Quaker (Puffed Wheat and Rice)

Ovaltine sponsored both Little Orphan Annie and Captain Midnight. I didn't much listen to either, though I did watch the TV Midnight some.

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 05:35 PM

Out of all the shows listed, I have at least heard of all of them, except that I never knew Orphan Annie was anything other than a comic strip. Anyone know what years it was a radio show?

Subject: RE: BS: Bobby Benson B-Bar-B Ranch
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 05:42 PM

I had a "code ring"; it had a rectangular tin box on top, with a worthless little telescope built in. You pressed the top of the box down, and a spot of glow-in-the dark paint showed through a hole in the end, so you could flash code messages, which you could probably see about as far as you could have whispered to some other kid anyhow. What I can't remember, is which of those shows I ordered it from.