Derailing the Rail Robber: The Way It Was, 27 August

FEATURED BROADCAST
DEATH VALLEY DAYS:
SAM BASS
(NBC BLUE, 1936)

A train robber---who has earned an undeserved reputation as "the Robin Hood of the West," and whose criminal history goes back to a gang into which he fell, that switched to train robberies after a stagecoach holdup yielded nothing---plans and executes a meticulous Union Pacific holdup in which nothing can possibly fail, in one of the only two or three installments known to survive of this legendary old-time radio Western.

Nothing can fail, that is, until one of the gang loses his bandana mask while they make their escape, forcing them to split into pairs and disperse around the West, swearing oaths of silence overheard by a storekeeper who reports the plans, resulting in three of the gang dead when the law catches up to them.

And the key to bringing down the leader becomes a farmer who aids him until the farmer himself is arrested as an accessory, compelling him to offer the Texas Rangers aid in bringing down the leader, from the inside . . . an offer that isn't exactly accepted with confidence.

Cast: Unknown, but likely including Edwin Bruce, Frank Butler, Geoffrey Bryant, Milton Herman. The Old Ranger: Jack MacBryde. Announcer: Dresser Dahlstead. Music: Joseph Bonime. Bugler: Harry Glantz. Writers: Ruth Cornwall Woodman, Ruth Adams Knight.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

LUM & ABNER: LUM BECOMES THE PROUD OWNER OF THE SILVER MINE (NBC BLUE, 1935)---Lum (Chester Lauck) is only too impressed with himself, now that the mine shareholders dumped Squire and gave the majority to him, but he'll learn the hard way what that kind of self-impression doesn't do for your future prospects . . . or your immediate needs. Abner: Norris Goff. Writers: Chester Lauck, Norris Goff.

VIC & SADE: VIC TO WRITE ARTICLES (CBS, 1943)---Happy as he is to be home, and happy thought he was on this particular business jaunt around the midwest, Vic (Art Van Harvey) is at once delighted and wary about suggestions he write newspaper articles about the jaunt. Sade: Bernadine Flynn. Russell: David Whitehouse. Writer/director: Paul Rhymer.