The Cisco Kid
Volume 2



"Here's adventure! Here's romance! Here's the famous Robin Hood of the Old West..."

One of old-time radio's most popular juvenile adventure programs, "The Cisco Kid" received the appellation of "the Robin Hood of the Old West" from a 1907 short story, "The Caballero's Way," written by one of the masters of the short story form, William Sydney Porter - better recognized by his nom de plume, O. Henry. In the manner of the famed bandit of Sherwood Forest, Cisco robbed from the rich and gave to the poor; a dark-skinned, hard-drinking and hard-loving white man who passed himself off as a Latino and who possessed a particularly nasty violent streak. To the casual observer, such a character might seem inappropriate as a Western hero -- but with the release of "In Old Arizona" by the Fox Movie Corporation in 1929, in which star Warner Baxter copped an Oscar for his portrayal of the Kid, and many B-westerns after (played variously by Cesar Romero, Gilbert Roland and Duncan Renaldo) Cisco was on his way to entertaining children of all ages.

A long stint in the comic strips and in comic books soon followed and, on October 2, 1942, "The Cisco Kid" made his radio debut over the New York-based Mutual Network, starring famed "Superman" announcer Jackson Beck as Cisco and Louis Sorin (the poor soul on the receiving end of Groucho Marx's barbs in "Animal Crackers") as Cisco's sidekick Pancho. By this time, Cisco's violent outlaw tendencies had been noticeably whitewashed -- in fact, many of the show's stories featured the two men posing as bad men in order to trap the real criminals. All that remained of Cisco's sordid past was briefly mentioned in the show's opening, described by OTR historian John Dunning as "pure radio":

PANCHO: Ceesco, the sheriff...he ees getting closer!

CISCO: This way, Pancho...vamenos!

By borrowing the Lone Ranger formula of 'everybody thinks they're outlaws but they're really the good guys', "The Cisco Kid" became a hit over New York's WOR and, in 1946, moved West - literally - where it was heard regionally three times a week on the Mutual-Don Lee Network. Beck and Sorin were replaced by the two men who remain best remembered for the Cisco/Pancho roles: Jack Mather and Harry Lang. A year later, Mather and Lang were working for the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Frederic W. Ziv Company, where they remained gainfully employed, via pre-recorded syndication, well into the 1950s.

In early 1953, actor Harry Lang fell ill, and his character was written out of the show (Pancho, listeners were told, had come down with measles, mumps and chicken pox) to be replaced by a glittering array of cousins and uncles from Pancho's apparently massive family tree. One of these individuals was cousin Porfirio, who can be heard in the first three broadcasts in this set played by famed voice man and comic actor Mel Blanc, recycling his 'Pedro' voice from "The Judy Canova Show." Lang eventually returned to the show in an episode appropriately called "Pancho's Return" but, sadly, his tenure was brief - the actor succumbed to a heart attack in August 1953. Blanc was then pressed into service to play the part of Cisco's sidekick until the series came to an end in 1956.

Since the 1947-1956 syndicated ZIV series was pre-recorded and widely distributed, a great many of Cisco and Pancho's adventures have been in the hands of collectors for years -- with the majority of the 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. They constitute 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 announcer Marvin Miller ("The Whistler", "The Railroad Hour"). The bakers of Butter-nut Bread had sponsored the series on a number of Midwestern radio stations and the program recordings were accompanied by separate discs containing literally hundreds of episode-specific commercials. As presented in this set, the commercials have been edited back into the programs -- allowing you to hear them just as they originally were aired in the early 1950s.

#589 Dynamite at Rye Creek
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#590 Robber of the Rio Grande
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#591 Caravan of Danger
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#592 The Burning of the Jail
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#593 Raiders Roundup
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#594 Colorado River Desperadoes
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#595 The Frightened Witness
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#596 Dart of Death
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#597 Fight at Devil's Canyon
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#598 Cashiel Raynor's Revenge
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#599 Uncle Cipriano's Mule
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#600 Lochinvar Jones
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#601 Boomerang Vengeance
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#602 Stage to Silver City
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#603 The Scavengers
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#604 Pancho's Return
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#605 Double Frame-Up
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#606 Link Colby's Mine
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#607 Point of Honor
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread

#608 The Little Train Robbery
1950s - 30:00 - ZIV Syndication, sponsored by Butter-nut Bread