The Cisco Kid
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are few media that The Cisco Kid and his mustachioed sidekick Pancho haven’t
infiltrated through the years. First introduced by O. Henry in his short story
The Caballero’s Way in the early 1900’s, the two pals have been fighting
injustice all over the Old West ever since. The radio program aired from 1942 to
1956 on Mutual, and between 1950 and 1956, The Cisco Kid television show
was syndicated by the Frederic Ziv Company – starring Duncan Renaldo and Lee
Carrillo. What made this program so extraordinary – at least from the technical
side – was that it was filmed in color, despite the fact that there were no
color television sets yet. Ziv had a hunch that color television was on its way,
and made sure he was prepared.
Today, Cisco Kid collectibles run the
range from toy rings to records to combs and shoehorns – and a magnificent run
of color comics from Dell publishing – all of which provide yet another example
of a simpler era in American history.
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