Would you like to know more about the spirit and times of the ranchos and vaqueros in Southern Califorina, well in this issue of Native Sons brother Fred Codoni tells of a wonderful radio show. Also we have a book recommendation Romance & History of California Ranchos by authors Myrtle. Goodacre, William Johnson

“Romance of the Ranchos” Old Time Radio Great Listening

Like well-written and well-acted stories of early Los Angeles History? Try “Romance of the Ranchos Free Radio Shows” and you’ll find 1940’s radio programs, sponsored by the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles, which attempted to recreate the spirit and times of the ranchos and vaqueros in Southern California when the way of life was considerably different. Although hewing to a strict story line, the show nevertheless was able to supply considerable descriptive color to the manner of life in those days.

For example, the listener may learn of the customs by which the master of the house is waited upon by his wife at all meals and that she and the rest of the family may not partake until the head of the rancho has finished. The commercials, too, proceeded along similar lines, recollecting that in the period being dramatized there were but a few parcels of land and those were of tremendous size, owned by wealthy individuals. Now there are over 2,000,000 separate parcels of land in Los Angeles County alone.

This show is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

This is the Single Episode Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.

Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.