radio – Texas History Notebook

Tales of the Texas Rangers

“Tales of the Texas Rangers” refers to two programs which aired in media during the 1950s. The first was a radio program and the second was a television series.

The radio program: It was conceived as a weekly half-hour program to broadcast fictionalized stories pertaining to the former law enforcement agency. It was set in the 1880s and used scripts in a style that might be reminiscent of shows like “Dragnet.” Stacy Keach, father of actor Stacy Keach, Jr., was producer and director. Joel Murcott was the head writer of the series.

Gordon McLendon

Gordon Barton McLendon was born June 8, 1921 in Paris, Texas to Barton Robert and Jeanette Marie Eyster McLendon. A week after Gordon was born, there was a birth announcement in an Oklahoma newspaper about Gordon, stating that his father was visiting his newborn son and wife from Idabel, Oklahoma where he was working. We also know that Gordon’s grandfather, Jefferson Davis McLendon was a lawyer and judge living there in Idabel at the time. A few months later, there was another short article in the local Idabel newspaper saying that Gordon was with his mother in California and that his father was visiting them while Gordon had been taken ill. By 1930 when the federal census was taken, Barton was practicing law and the family was residing together in Idabel, Oklahoma.