Showing results by author "John Rayburn" in All Categories

Just what is nostalgia? Here are provocative and exciting stories about a great period of popular music. It was a time when the nation was facing desperate days of the Great Depression as well on-going fears of a World War. The still young radio industry was a major force in helping provide a worried nation with a source of entertainment and comfort. The author/narrator had conversation/interviews with many of the major stars and he tells you about their talent and their wonderful music. It’s as though you’re sitting there listening as to one of the most memorable eras in the nation’s history.

This covers the great, near-great, and never-were in a wide range of athletic endeavors. Naturally, all major sports are included: Football, Baseball, Basketball, with many notes about Golf, Boxing, Horse racing, Auto racing, Tennis, Track, Bowling, Hockey, renowned broadcasters, and an overall mixture of such sports as Wrestling, Pool, Marbles, Archery, Cricket, even Horseshoe pitching. It’s all here! Written and narrated with exceptional knowledge and humor.

Of all the forms of theater, radio drama commanded the most effective stage. No medium - not theater, not film, not television - had more sheer space in which to achieve the basic goal of drama, telling a story. Theater is bounded by the bare boards and the footlights and the flats, film by the white screen, and television by the comparatively tiny tube. But radio...radio played itself out in boundless space...the listener’s mind...your mind.

Travel is one thing, but really going somewhere is something else. Here are firsthand tales of exciting places to see in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

This adventuresome voyage put John and Carol Rayburn on the road seeking out heartwarming human-interest stories about our great country and the positive accomplishments of its people. They visited with thousands of Americans at work and play and collected their upbeat attitudes about the way we are. 

Veteran broadcaster John Rayburn here combines philosophy, poetry, inspiration, motivation, and touches of humor to provide comfort, cheer, and encouragement. This audiobook is an opportunity to collect your thoughts and set aside a few moments for contemplation in a busy, busy world. 

Radio was the number one form of family entertainment for a quarter century. In a dazzling step back in time, veteran broadcaster John Rayburn talks about the fantastic era of broadcasting in these fascinating interviews.

Broadcasting veteran John Rayburn presents a historic reenactment of the classic 1946 World Series championship games between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. In Game 7 Enos Slaughter of the Cardinals scored the winning run from first when Boston shortstop Johnny Pesky seemed to hesitate on the relay throw. Southpaw pitcher Harry Brecheen won three games for St. Louis, including the deciding game in relief.

This book is an example of Alternative History. That, in essence, is asking what the future could be like. It suggests the US could have become a Dominion of America. Call this standard history with a twist, or even mythology in part. It is certainly historical material, told in fictional fashion.

Broadcasting veteran John Rayburn presents a historic reenactment of the classic 1956 World Series championship games between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Don Larsen’s perfect game, the only in World Series history, was in Game 5, Monday, October 8, 1956. This was the final Series for the Dodgers while still in Brooklyn. Their next Series appearance came after moving to Los Angeles. The Dodgers scored only one run in the final 28 innings of the Series. Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra each hit three home runs for the Yankees.

Broadcasting veteran John Rayburn presents classic, historic reenactment of the 1945 World Series championship games between the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers. Before the Series began, veteran Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown said he couldn’t select a winner because he “didn’t think either one of them could win”. Although a total of 61 runs were scored in the Series, there were only three home runs, two of them by Hank Greenberg of the Tigers.

A subtitle of this book is “The Lost World Under the Sea,” and it’s somewhat based on the famed legend of Atlantis. That was an ancient city or continent that was supposedly inundated by the sea. Whether it actually existed has been a question that has lasted for thousands of years.  Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it around 360 BC, so even his possible information was second-hand. Tsunamis (sea storms) have existed for centuries and if there really was an Atlantis, any survivors may have fled inland and built new cities.

Throughout the stories here is information on how places, cities, and states got their names. However, questions arise because Native American tribes of the day didn’t yet have a written alphabet, and none of those came along until Sequoyah invented one in 1821, one that was actually more of a syllabary with symbols that stood for consonant/vowel sequences and could make words, basically just a writing system.

This is a kind of history, or at least remembrances. It’s primarily personal but overall takes a look at the way things were many, many decades ago. Details may get a little out of whack from a chronological order now and then, but the gist of the way things in some desperate personal and national times will be fairly well put in place. It begins a trifle before the outset of the 1929 stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. Then, it points to the difficulties, financial and otherwise, that confronted individuals and the beleaguered nation overall.