Romance of the Ranchos (Southern California History on the Radio)

Romance of the Ranchos (Southern California History on the Radio)

Having spent the last few days in the Los Angeles area, I enjoyed listening to the Romance of the Ranchos from old time radio fame.  I will write more about this later - but I wanted to move this entry (first written for Valentines Day) over to the new blog.  When you are driving around here - all of these places come to lives through this great old series.  And Frank Graham (the wandering vaquero) was born in Detroit - so what is not to like.

Original Post:

There are so many ways to celebrate Valentine's Day this year, but this is probably not the one that comes to mind. I have wanted to share some links to the historical drama, Romance of the Ranchos for some time.

This seems to be a favorite of Greg Bell and I have heard it a great deal on Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82) on Sirius/XM or via the Internet Archive.

Romance of the Ranchos is not about romance (per se), but about the early settlers of California. The programs (recorded in 1941 and 1942) bring to life the true life records of the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles and featured Frank Graham, the "wandering vaquero of "Romance of Ranchos." These accounts of the early settlers in California are pretty good, and are one of my favorite historical series that I can listen to via Old Time Radio. For more information, see this great article from the Digital Deli. So maybe not the romance that you are looking for on Valentine's Day, but some pretty cool historical depictions of life in early California.