Square Dance: Tales of the Texas Rangers (May 20, 1951)

“Square Dance” is an episode of Tales of the Texas Rangers, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 20, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

At a square dance in West Texas, a drifter harasses a rancher's wife named Mrs. Rogers and gets into a fight with her husband Mort when he tries to intervene. The stranger stabs Rogers fatally in the throat and flees into the night. Ranger Jason Pearson and the local sheriff must track down the killer among the dance-goers and surrounding ranches before he disappears completely.

The Fun Spot, a barn-like dance hall on the outskirts of Bankerville in West Texas, on a Saturday night in October 1949.

Characters: Ranger Jason Pearson, Mort Rogers, Mrs. Rogers, The drifter, Sheriff, Captain Stinson, Deputy Charlie Higgins

Listen for: The tense confrontation at the dance hall, the discovery of Rogers' body, and Pearson's methodical investigation including the shakedown of all witnesses and the dispatch of clothing samples to Austin for blood analysis.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.