One of the most respected shows of early radio, Death Valley Days was well written and endured throughout the decades. Ruth Cornwall Woodman was asked to write the show in 1930. Though she knew nothing of the desert and its people, New York Vassar graduate Ruth undertook the project with enthusiasm.
Each year Ruth would spend several months traveling through the desert to explore ghost towns, saloons, backpacking just outside Death Valley, and interviewing old timers. She would talk to gas station men, bartenders, and small town newspapermen. She did her research well, pouring over old newspapers and visiting old west museums, scouring the west for anything that would inspire a good story. The result of all this hard work was rewarding - a highly successful show that lasted over two decades, and later became a television show with Ronald Regan as the host. Death Valley Days presents stories of the old west, with realism and drama virtually unmatched by other westerns of the day.
Each episode began with a bugle call, followed by an announcer's introduction of The Old Ranger ("a composite character who had known the bushwhackers, desperados, and lawmen of the old days by first name"). For nearly six years, the program also included Western songs by John White, known as "The Lonesome Cowboy."
Death Valley Days was sponsored by the Pacific Borax Company, manufacturer of 20 Mule Team Borax.
The 558 television stories, which had different actors, were introduced by a host. The longest-running was "The Old Ranger" from 1952-1965, played by Stanley Andrews when the series was produced by McGowan Productions, producer of the Sky King television series.
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