Death Valley Days

This modestly produced but very popular anthology was one of the longest-running series in the history of television and of radio. It began on radio in 1930, as a means of promoting the products of sponsor 20 Mule Team Borax. The stories were all based in fact, and revolved around the legends and lore of Death Valley, California, where borax was mined. Most stories were human-interest stories, sometimes little more than vignettes, from the days when miners and homesteaders first fanned across the western United States in search of a better life.

Hundreds of actors appeared in the series, most of them not big names; the emphasis was clearly on the story. The only regular, in fact, was the host and narrator, originally Stanley Andrews as "The Old Ranger." When Andrews left the series in the mid-1960s he was succeeded by a number of hosts, including Ronald Reagan, who dropped out after he was elected governor of California in 1966. Other familiar aspects of the show were the opening bugle call, the scenes of the 29-mule team hauling the borax wagons out of the desert, and Rosemary DeCamp doing the homey commercials for the product.

Nearly 600 episodes were filmed most of them on location in Death Valley.

Information drawn from The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh

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