The Have Gun, Will Travel Radio Program

Background

For almost all of our Radio articles we generally provide some background on the production, discuss the production itself, then, when appropriate, cite Television or Radio productions that the subject production may have spawned in later years.

With Have Gun, Will Travel the process must be reversed. Television's version of Have Gun, Will Travel first aired on September 14, 1957. Quickly becoming one of Television's fastest rising Westerns, by the Summer of 1958 CBS executives began weighing the practicality of introducing the series to Radio.

This was by no means unheard of, but rare just the same. Many of Radio's most popular programs entered early 1950s Television at about the same time as their Radio counterparts. In other instances, they'd air on both Radio and Television for an overlapping period of two to three years before dropping off Radio and continuing on Television.

But as Television continued to establish its popular supremacy over Radio such instances became the rare exception rather than the rule. It was clearly a gamble for CBS to launch concurrent Television and Radio versions of a program in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But gamble they did, much in the model of Radio and Television's wildly popular Gunsmoke.

CBS rolls the dice on Have Gun, Will Travel over Radio

And so it was that Have Gun, Will Travel premiered over Radio a year and a half after its Television rendition on November 23, 1958. Veteran Film, Radio and Television actor John Dehner was tapped to portray the mono-named Paladin. The great character actor Ben Wright was selected to portray 'Hey Boy' ('real name' Kim Chan) and as the series progressed Radio legend Virginia Gregg was tapped to portray Miss Wong, Hey Boy's ostensible lady friend.

For the uninitiated, 'Paladin' (last name only) was a Renaissance Man: an adventurer, bon-vivant, gourmet, enologist, raconteur, gambler, and investment speculator--who also happened to be a very adept and deadly gun for hire. Based in San Francisco, Paladin occupied a suite of rooms at The Carlton Hotel. Most comfortable dressed as a dandy, Paladin's San Francisco 'valet' is Kim Chan, a Chinese immigrant who works primarily for The Carlton Hotel when not in the service of Paladin. Dubbed 'Hey Boy' since he began working in San Francisco, he appears to have at least two generations of roots in the San Francisco area.

While Paladin seemed to attract--and enjoy--an apparently limitless supply of female companions while staying at The Carlton, Hey Boy, by contrast, appears to have had only one steady female interest: Miss Wong, a well-educated, well-read friend of Hey Boy's family.

Paladin's daily routine, immediately after checking his financial investments, appears to have been poring over several newspaper subscriptions--for which he had a standing order--to check for possible new adventures. He has also apparently placed personal ads in numerous other newspapers of the day, advertising "Have Gun - Will Travel, Wire Paladin, San Francisco."

His adventures arrived by either wiring or posting his business card to potential interested parties or by answering responses to his personal services ads. Paladin's services don't come cheap: he customarily asked at least one thousand dollars for his services--plus expenses. But being the 'knight' he is at heart, he often took on causes at nominal or paltry charges on principle alone. Indeed, Paladin accepted $1.61 for one of his commissions.

The 'knight' references permeate both the Television and Radio incarnations of Have Gun, Will Travel:

• Paladin's surname [if indeed it was his actual surname] means 'chivalrous hero' or knight in most languages
• Paladin's business card is emblazoned with a white knight chess piece
• Paladin's holster and at least one of his custom saddles are marked with a knight chess piece in relief
• Paladin's basic service--'Have Gun, Will Travel'--is every bit in the mold of knights throughout history
• Paladin, also in the mold of knights of the past has a loyal attendant--Hey Boy--and lives the life of a successful knight from his spoils (e.g., the various payments for his services)
• He's the epitome of chivalry, often to a fault: never drawing first, often acting as a devout protector and defender of the weaker sex, and invariably--though mostly reluctantly--taking on ostensibly lost causes against highly unbalanced odds on principle alone.

It's no coincidence that a great number of the scripts or plots for the Radio incarnation of Have Gun, Will Travel seem identical to their Television version. It was reportedly CBS' intent from the outset to leverage as much of the writing talent as practical from the successful Television series into the Radio version.

The selection of John Dehner and Ben Wright to headline the Radio version was also a no-brainer for CBS. The pair had just completed Frontier Gentleman--often together in many episodes. Frontier Gentleman left the air on November 16, 1958. Indeed, for Dehner the Have Gun, Will Travel lead was a virtual extension of his characterization of J.B. Kendall in Frontier Gentleman.

The two roles had different settings and time frames to be sure, but the basic characters--J.B. Kendall and 'Paladin'--shared many similarities: both were men of breeding, military background, varied cultural interests, well-read, highly educated and adventurous. J.B. Kendall's weapons were his pen and his gun. Paladin's weapons were his intellect and his guns of choice--his perfectly balanced Cavalry Model 1873 Colt "Peacemaker" single action .45 calibre revolver and a dual-chambered, over and under Derringer usually concealed under his belt buckle. Paladin also often sported a Bowie knife and was demonstrably adept with both bullwhip and lariats. Once at his adventure's destination, Paladin wore black from head to toe, accented only by a light colored cravat.

Paladin's ostensible West-Point Military Academy education and service with the Union Army during The Civil War also set him apart, both culturally and philosophically from his peers of the era. Both the Television and Radio series' are set between the end of The Civil War and 1875 San Francisco. Several of the plots in both Television and Radio incarnations reflect on the slow-to-heal wounds left in the wake of The Civil War.

San Francisco's mythical Hotel Carlton is framed as one of early San Francisco's finest, and while in residence Paladin spares no expense in his personal pleasures. The Hotel Carlton, as portrayed in the Television version of Have Gun, Will Travel is juxtaposed against the infamous Barbary Coast of the Bay Area. As such, Paladin is equally at home attending the opera as meeting with modern day pirates.

Character development remains strong throughout the Radio version. John Dehner couldn't have been more perfect for the role of a turn of the century Renaissance Man. In real life Dehner had been a Walt Disney animator, a professional pianist, a fencing champion, a news editor and Peabody Award winning commentator, as well as a Stage, screen, Radio and Television actor, writer, producer and director. Ben Wright's characterization of Hey Boy is allowed to develop to the point of introducing Virginia Gregg in the role of Miss Wong, Hey Boy's love interest. Both Wright and Gregg perform in multiple roles throughout the Have Gun, Will Travel run over Radio.

Comparing and contrasting the Radio and Television versions

It's impossible to avoid the temptation to make comparisons between the Television and Radio incarnations of Have Gun, Will Travel. I heard--and watched--both versions as a child. Simply as a matter of personal taste, I preferred both the Television version and Radio versions of Have Gun, Will Travel over the Radio and Television versions of Gunsmoke, for example. I found Gunsmoke claustrophobic compared to Have Gun, Will Travel. While anchored in San Francisco, Have Gun, Will Travel allowed Paladin to range far and wide for his adventures. By contrast, Gunsmoke felt more like a soap opera to me than a western adventure series.

Radio was still 'the theatre of the mind,' and as a young boy, my imagination was as fresh and far ranging as it rightly should have been. Radio's Have Gun, Will Travel appealed to me--even after having watched almost a year and a half of the Television episodes--precisely because of my imagination. The superb writing and acting in the Radio version was the equal of its Television predecessor, but over Radio I could close my eyes, 'feel' every nuance of the rich detail of every episode and 'paint' my own scenes informed by the hundreds of other Radio, Film and Television westerns I'd heard and watched. My imagination was also informed by the many books, comics and magazines I'd read which carried western themes.

I mention my personal experience of both versions of the program only to frame my following observations. Today's audiences, unless they've viewed little cable or network television, have for the most part lost much of that ability to immerse themselves in an aural medium. The fact that the writing of the era was absolutely the finest in the history of mass communication is indisputable. That raw talent and genius isn't lost on contemporary listeners--when they actually listen. But therein lies the rub. Many of us in modern society have lost the ability to listen. We've been conditioned to have soundbites pasteurized, homogenized and sanforized by the time they're imparted to us. There's no room left for imagination--least of all over any visual medium.

That was the single, most compelling element of Radio of the era. The only distractions were the still infrequent commercial messages during the broadcast. The rest of the experience transported the listener to places and adventures and themes that the vast majority of the listening audience could only imagine in their mind's eye.

As one of the more visceral examples, Have Gun, Will Travel over Television was broadcast in black and white. But whenever I listened to Have Gun, Will Travel over the Radio I visualized it in color. My mind and imagination's ability to 'see' the Radio plays in color was, again, informed by my own extensive experience of books, magazines, comics and western films of the preceding thirty years.

Television and Radio's Paladins were not that far apart in my own imagination. I frankly felt that John Dehner brought more class and polish to the Radio version. But I'd also rush to add that by the time I'd seen Have Gun, Will Travel over Television, I'd seen Richard Boone's portrayals as Dr. Konrad Styner in Medic (1954). I, along with most of America at the time, was highly impressed with Boone's characterizations: curt, blunt, always professional, decisive and unprecedently realistic for the era. Boone's portrayal of Paladin was just as effective. But Television, being what it was becoming even then, was obsessed with visual 'hooks' and gimmicks: an oft-repeated sneer, elaborate and contrived gestures handling firearms, the 'ominous turn,' and so forth. I loved the action and I loved Boone's acting--when he was permitted to do so. But the rest of it, for me anyway, was all flash and contrivance.

Boone himself wasn't a very enthusiastic fan of the Television version. In a 1961 Life magazine article Boone expresses his amazement that CBS offered him $900,000 to return for another season of Have Gun, Will Travel. While of course not turning it down, it was Boone's feeling that no one deserved that much compensation for what would have been thirty-seven, twenty-minute performances of a Television drama. And of course, upon reflection, $1,216 a minute ($8,427 in today's dollars) for acting in just one of some twelve to fifteen Television westerns of the era does seem ridiculously absurd on the face of it. Boone had been very personally invested in Medic. I recall a Television special of the era in which Richard Boone visited a local Los Angeles hospital to assess, in documentary style, the cutting edge medical technology of the era. And indeed, the real talents behind all of those western productions--over both Radio and Television--were the writers.

In another point of comparison, John Dehner appeared once in the Television version (in 1957, prior to the Radio version) and Ben Wright appeared numerous times over the Television version of Have Gun, Will Travel. Even at that early age I'd become a fan of both great character actors, but when I watched their various characterizations in the Television version--while at the same time having heard them over Radio--I didn't 'see' Paladin when Dehner was on the small screen (even in reruns). And of course, given Ben Wright's amazing range and versatility over both Radio and Television, I certainly didn't 'see' Hey Boy when Ben Wright was on Have Gun, Will Travel's small screen. That was the genius of the aural medium--suspension of disbelief, informed by one's imagination.

The end of Radio's Have Gun, Will Travel arrives abruptly

My observations of Radio's Have Gun, Will Travel are necessarily colored by my own enthusiasm for the aural medium, to be sure. But I'm no Pollyanna either. Radio and Television were businesses, no question about it. That having being said, I heard no decline whatsoever in the quality of the Radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel. Quite the contrary. As the series progressed, I found myself enjoying it even more with each new installment. There's no question that it was commercially viable. One glance at the bewildering array of sponsors and co-sponsors of the Radio series puts that issue to rest. Boone's anecdote about his compensation for the Television version may hold part of the answer.

The Radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel cost a pittance in comparison to the Television version. CBS recycled many of the scripts from the Television series. Writers weren't paid residuals for their Television scripts so there was marginal overhead in adapting the vast majority of those scripts for Radio. The remaining talent costs for the Radio series were at scale for the era. The creators were the same for both renditions. The west coast actors for the Radio series were the equal of any performances over Radio of the era. In summary, there was no 'ratings' or quality reason to discontinue the series two episodes into its fifth order of programming. The reason for it's abrupt end was--in all probability--the exponentially rising costs of it's Television version.

Radio's Have Gun, Will Travel had been an ATM-machine for CBS throughout its run. But Radio and Television had, by 1960, become a zero-sum game for network executives and ad-men. As compensation and expenses for Television began to increase exponentially, they sucked all of the oxygen out of Radio. And so it was that Frank Paris himself wrote the series closer for Have Gun, Will Travel: a script that would have Paladin leaving San Francisco for good, to claim a $100, 000 inheritance in Boston. The week of that performance, the cast and crew were simply told that they needn't return the following week. . . game, set, match, poof.

Upon reflection it's no wonder that FCC Chairman Newton Minnow was compelled to cite Television as a 'vast wasteland' barely six months after Have Gun, Will Travel's demise over Radio. Television's Have Gun, Will Travel continued on for two more years after Minnow's cautionary and prophetic speech. For at least one of those two more seasons, Richard Boone was compensated $900,000 (over $6M in today's dollars) to continue in his role. The talent and production costs for Radio's Have Gun, Will Travel averaged about $2500 per episode--two minutes of small-screen compensation for Richard Boone, or the equivalent cost of three or four commercial spots over Radio of the era, in one regional outlet.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings and the KNX Collection of the Thousand Oaks Library.

OTRisms:

We've backed off some of our own debunking and criticisms of late. For one, they invariably fall on deaf ears since an inordinate number of OTR mavens don't pay any attention to corrections or debunking in the first place, and for another, the sheer number of corrections and debunking issues we uncover tend to be overwhelming in themselves. We do still take exception to some of the more egregious posers in the hobby, however--especially when they undertake hearsay attacks on others' efforts.

Since we undertook on our own logging efforts five years ago, we've steadfastly employed a practice of coding our own log entries (titles, dates, episode numbers) in red when we can't yet substantiate those elements. We've employed that practice in all 510 logs we've published to date--for free. Let's repeat that for those who demonstrably don't comprehend the written word; we routinely code all entries we can't substantiate ourselves--yet--in red. Get it? Red.

That having been established, we're obliged to undertake a critique of Martin Grams, Jr.'s Radio Drama: American Programs,1932-1962 (c. 2000 and 2008). This is a book that, in our opinion, is one of the most flawed such references in the hobby, including its demonstrably flawed Have Gun, Will Travel log--especially in light of Grams' own recent blog entries. Apparently Grams has undertaken a systematic series of attacks on internet misinformation throughout the OTR sphere while apparently lumping our own efforts into that category--an association that we categorically reject as insulting. While we take little exception to the demonstrable fact that OTR misinformation throughout the Internet remains notoriously pervasive, the operative term here is "OTR." Though we do find it fascinating that Grams himself has quite cravenly associated himself with the very OTR Community he attacks since he published Radio Drama in 2000.

Grams seems to take great satisfaction in deriding information from our own articles of late. He cites numerous myths and erroneous title and date entries in 'circulation' over the Internet regarding Have Gun, Will Travel in two of his latest blog postings. We find this somewhat hypocritical since several of the errors and myths he cites are still contained in his own most recent reissue of the Have Gun, Will Travel log in his Radio Drama (2008). Even more ironic, he states that the information he's using to debunk his own inaccurate Radio Drama entries could have been quite easily corrected if anyone had simply purchased his The Have Gun Will Travel Companion (2000). That's the same year he published Radio Drama and eight years before he reissued Radio Drama--with the same errors! Apparently Grams has no problem whatosoever in continuing to profit from his own published errors. And how much have we profited from the page you're reading now?--nothing . . . not a dime!

Grams' states on his blog: "What surprises me is how, eleven years after my book [The Have Gun Will Travel Companion] was published, mistakes like incorrect script titles are still popping up on web-sites [sic]." Huh?!?!? Really?!?

For one, Grams aggressively litigates any and all perceived copyright violations regarding his findings and publications. For another--the most egregious--Grams' own Radio Drama contains many of those same errors dating from the very same year he published both Radio Drama and The Have Gun Will Travel Companion--and he reissued Radio Drama with the exact same errors in 2008, eight years after his own The Have Gun Will Travel Companion! Did he never compare the two?

So let's see if we follow Grams' extraordinary logic correctly: all one would have to do to correct the erroneous entries in Grams' $90 Radio Drama (2000), would be to buy his The Have Gun Will Travel Companion (2000) for $147.99 (or used for $99) on Amazon? And indeed it's those same errors and misinformation that have been circulating over the Internet for the twelve years since he published Radio Drama in the first place! By extension of Grams' logic, he could himself have corrected those erroneous entries in his own Radio Drama reissue in 2008, could he not? The terms 'Pot' and 'Kettle' leap to mind.

We'd have to say that Grams' logic is impeccable--for Grams. For any rational person, however, it's a self-serving insult to intelligence. There's an old saying: "Don't believe everything you read," . . . especially on Martin Grams' self-promoting blog pages--or in Grams' $90 Radio Drama for that matter.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]