Hi there everybody, this is Ken Merton Tarzan
Inviting you to join us again right here in the tack room of the old Diamond K. Ranch
Get around the fire and listen to a story. I'm going to tell you today a story
I called Chuck-A-Luck and the city of gold
Chuck-A-Luck was an old prospector and desert rat among many other things
I met him some years ago, and I want you to meet him too the city of gold was a ghost town and well
I don't want to get ahead of my story
So you gather around and get ready to hear a thrilling adventure just as it happened to me
As Ken said from the tack room of his Diamond K. Ranch we're bringing you stories of adventure
Stories of circus life, fascinating transcribed tales of the old west where cowboys still follow the cattle trail
Stories of rodeos and parades, colorful legends of the red man, hidden gold and buried treasures
The exciting tales from the Diamond K are told by Hollywood's champion of western stars
Internationally famous Ken Maynard
You know I can hardly wait to hear your story today Ken
And I guess nobody ever outgrows and joins the fabulous tales of the west of cowboys and Indians of circus adventures and hidden treasures
That's why I'm going to let you folks in on my secret. I bought a Diamond K. record album of Ken Maynard's story
Yes, I did. Of course I'll have to admit that they were supposed to be for my kids
But when the records arrived and the kids put the first one on the phonograph
I was right there listening and I just couldn't leave till I heard both of the stories
And you should have seen my young son's face when Ken Maynard said
Hello Dave. This is Ken Maynard with a story just for you
Yes, sir
Ken said that right on the record and you can bet that all the kids in our neighborhood have been in to listen many times
In buckaroos you'll get the same thrill when you have a Ken Maynard record album for your very own
Personalize with your name spoken right on the record. It's a beautiful album with colored pictures of Ken and Tarzan on the front and
Inside are two eight inch pure vinylite
absolutely
Unbreakable records with two complete wild west stories
Now because these records are made of the most expensive materials you can play them over and over again and you can't wear them up
So don't wait another minute
Send your name and address them the dollar to records in care of this radio station and your album will be mailed
Prepaid right from Hollywood now. Here's Ken
Well, sir folks, I bet there isn't anyone in my audience listening to me today who doesn't know what a ghost town is
But in case there may be someone who doesn't know I'll explain that it's the name
We give to the old abandoned town scattered all over the West
Once they were busy bustling places with sometimes as many as 20 or 30 thousand people
But something happened and everybody went away
Usually it was a gold mines which gave out of the silver veins were exhausted
There was nothing else to keep folks there after that they drifted away the other fields where the diggings were better
Some of the ghost towns were famous places in their day
Find stores hotels and houses there was silver cliffs in Colorado many other romantic names in California and all over
Would you like to hear some of them? Well, there was harness Chinese camp tunnel town volcano
volcano Yankee Jim
Michigan bluff El Dorada many many others
But it doesn't take many years for a town to fall apart and whether away when I know people there to keep it going
Well, sir, the ghost time I'm telling you about today was once called Rockerville
Now the Monomaps anymore, and I might never have heard of myself if I hadn't run into Chuck-A-Luck. I
Was sitting in the lobby of a little hotel one evening in a western town taking it easy and waiting for bedtime
I saw a shabby old fellow come in and shuffle over to desperate
They talked a few minutes the clerk kept shaking his head their voices got louder and I could make out the clerk saying
Not yet. Mr. Ross says I was not to give you any more credits or overnight room
I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay somewhere else
The old man cussed in violent and colorful languages. Yammin. He's had on his head stonked out the front door
I can see him stand on the sidewalk seemingly uncertain which way to go or what to do next. It was something by him that drew my
Incisive I guess it was his manner of owning the whole world yet. He was a picture of a desert rat
I got up one over to desk first a good evening. Mr. Maynard. He said everything all right. Oh sure
I told him I just wonder who that old fellow was if you were talking to you
You know
I'm interested in unusual stories of the West and that old man looks to me like he could tell one if you could ever get
him to talk
The clerk laughs that's old Chuck-a-luck. You can get in the talk
You'll do more than anybody else can comes into town once or twice a year for supplies
He used to say overnight here paying good money for it like anyone else
But the last few times though he's tried to run out without paying and mr
Ross the hotel owner told me not to put him up anymore. I'm sorry for mr. Maynard, but that's my heart
Why don't you go out and talk to him if you want to?
Thanks. I said I think I will
Chuck-a-luck was still standing out in front looking plenty angry muttered to himself. I walked up to him quietly
Hello, Chuck-a-luck. I said I'm Ken Maynard
You'll let a stranger give you a helping hand. I'd like to do it
Chuck stopped his mother and turned on me a person and angry look and his face were like he scratched his stubby beard
Maynard he said I reckon you ain't no stranger. I'll hear it of you. I'll accept your help
Thank you. I'm plumb tired and want to go to bed
That high and mighty feller in there gets me rile
I could buy his hotel if I wanted to and a dozen more like it
Fix it up with him. I'll see you in the morning
With that he turned around and walked back into the hotel without even glancing at the desk clerk and stalked up the stairs
Well, I fixed it up as Chuck-a-luck asked the next morning. I was down early waiting for him
I figured he might feel more like talking after a good night's rest
Wasn't long till down he come looking at faces for weather-beaten shabby
Old man could he did the stop at all but headed straight for the front door saying to me as he went
Howdy young fella. You got the price of a breakfast. Let's go. I
Caught up with him down the street. We went him not saying a word
It was only after he'd put away a man-sized stack of hotcakes and eggs
That he leaned back and begin a talk young fella
You're the first guy who's done me a kind turn since I can remember
I'd like to show you something because I know you can be trusted
How'd you like to come along home with me?
This really took me by surprise, but I told him I'd like to if he was right sure he'd like to have me for company
Well meet me north of the edge of town about half an hour and bring that horse of yours of what's his name?
Tarzan I said yeah. Yeah bring Tarzan cuz you'll need him
Well, I checked out a hotel and settled Tarzan down for stables. I laid in a few supplies
I figured I might need in about half an hour
I was waiting at the north edge of town pretty soon along came Chuckaluck riding a very good horse with a well-turned saddle
Tarzan when they greeting friendly like Chuck pulled up beside me. I
Want to warn you young fellow is fast riding for two days if you can't take it you better turn back now
I told you might spend all my life in the saddle in the wild cuz it didn't bother me a bit
All right, then he said I want to tell you I'm mayor and only living resident of Rockerville
That's where we're going the ghost town young fella. If you ain't scared, let's go
So off we went riding north into the mountains of some of the wildest country
I've ever seen toward the place. I'd never heard of me wanting to fold Chuckaluck was just crazy after all
But as you'll find out when I finished this story was far from crazy
And a ghost town can hold secrets to surprises, especially when the ghosts are made of solid gold
Now kids set back in your chairs there and I'll tell you what
Now kids set back in your chairs there and relax a minute. I'll finish my story in just a minute
Don't miss the finish. It's a humdinger
But before I get back to the story, I just want to tell you k-shirt owners
I'm mighty proud. I am to know I have so many friends why gosh darn
They tell me the postman can hardly carry all the letters that come in each day asking for a k-shirt like mine
I told you the story didn't I?
I thought I designed this k-shirt for me to wear while I'm practicing tricks with Tarzan to get ready to travel again with
The circus and how all the kids in the neighborhood one one like it
Well, the fellow says it still goes you want a real Western k-shirt like mine made especially to fit you
Of course, you could get one for just a one dollar bill
The k-shirts real pretty sandy color with my diamond K brand like smack on front in bright red and Tarzan
I are looking right at you
So if you want to join the rest of the kids that's join the diamond K
Just send me your name and address. Tell me what size you wear
Two four six eight ten or twelve and then close a one dollar bill and send it to k-shirt and care of this radio station
Well now let's get back to Chuckaluck
We can't the first night foreign the wild mountains beside the stream
He was never very talkative
But he did tell me that his name Chuckaluck was pinned on him when he used to run a gambling hall in the Klondike during the Gold Rush
He never would tell me his real name the thing that puzzled me most of all was that his equipment his gun and so on
We're all first class all except his clothes
I wondered why if he had no money for a hotel room or he Gus's fine stuff
Well, so the next even found us the long narrow Canyon and following it for some miles with the mountains on each side getting steeper and
Steeper we suddenly rounded turn and there it was
Rockerville the queen of ghost town and looking pretty ghostly in the gathering dust
It's hard to tell you how strange it feels to ride into a place like that at twilight with the odd sensation that any minute
Somebody's going to come out of a store or walk up the street and you'll wait and nobody does ever
You try to picture how it must have been when the town was bustling with roaring miners and lively cowmen and tough shopkeeper
But somehow you just can't do it. It's been dead too long
But none of this seemed to bother Chuckaluck to him. This was home. He looked as happy as a cowboy on payday
He led me down the dusty streets of the old black a saloon the best preserved building in town
After tending our horses we went inside and Chuckaluck with a couple of oil lamps
Come on out in the kitchen. I'll fix you some grub
He said as I watched him slice bacon and put on the beans. I realized that Chuckaluck was ready to talk
I'm lonesome here. Sure
He said but I'm my own boss and I'd rather be lonesome than to put up with some of these darn fool people
I'm eating the world outside
Of course if you count the ghosts I ain't so lonesome after all
In fact, it was a ghost who showed me where the stuff is and he grinned at my puzzled expression
It's a fact. I'm an old man. I aim to live here till I die and be one of the ghosts myself
But you're a good feller and done me a kind turn
I figure when I'm gone somebody ought to know where the stuff is and get some good out of it
Maybe you can't see the ghost like I can so after supper. I'll show you myself where it's hidden
Well, I understood what Chuck was talking about
But I still didn't believe he had anything valuable hid around and if for the ghost well that I could believe I
Figured I'd been seeing them myself if I'd have stayed in Rockerville very long
When we'd face the beans drunk couple cups of coffee Chuck took the oil lamp led me behind the bar
There was a trapdoor in a floor leading down some steps to the cellar where I guess they stored supplies long ago
The walls were lined with rock and one of them was loose and lifted out though
You never could tell it by looking at it Chuck reached in until my amazement brought out several small sacks of gold dust and a few
Nuggets of thumbnail size
There's more in there. Maybe more other places, but that's all the ghost showed me said
It took care of me a long time, but I do go broke
You see I have to be darn careful how I trade it
I'd have a thousand farmers up here tearing the place down
I just use the dust and never go to the same time more than once a year
I tell people I'm panning they get nosy they figure I work all year for just a little so they let me alone
Works out fine, but hard for me to cash in without getting folks excited
So I don't have much use for them. I reached in and out of a worn leather bag brought out a handful of perfect beauties
Where'd this come from Chuck? I asked him still hardly believe in my eyes
No one will ever know he said but somebody must have left it meaning to come back and never got to I
Figured the ghost knows if he'd talk
Well say there's a real Western story for you with a lot of color in it, too
Gosh, what excitement and you kids will find the same wonderful action-packed tales on the diamond K record album to play any time
You want stories that you really want to hear over and over again and to play for all your friends?
And what a thrill when you hear Ken's voice speaking right to you on the record and calling you by name
He'll say hello Phil or hello Paul or whatever your name is right on the record
And remember you can't buy these Ken Maynard records in any store
This is his own private diamond K album of 78 rpm standard speed records that can only be ordered by
Writing to this radio station these records are made of the finest material that money can buy
And they have a picture of Ken and the picture of Tarzan right on the records and on the album, too
So send today send your name and address and be sure to include your name
So Ken can say hello to you and slip a dollar bill in the envelope and send it to records and care of this station
Your album will be mailed direct from Hollywood
Now here's Ken to tell you about his next story
Well folks, it's time to bring our story round up to a close. This is Ken Maynard and Tarzan
Closing up the tack room at the Diamond Key Rest till I see you next time when I'll tell you the story
Craters of the moon we'll be looking for you so long. You've been listening to tales from the diamond case
Stories of adventure told by Ken Maynard internationally famous cowboy and Hollywood's champion of Western stars
Tales from the diamond K was produced and transcribed in Hollywood