Breaking Walls

On February 1st, 1959, Have Gun Will Travel broadcast an episode called “A Matter of Ethics.”

The program's opening was a four-note motif composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann. The show's closing song, "The Ballad of Paladin", was written by Johnny Western, Dick Boone, and program creator Sam Rolfe. Western played the song for the TV show.

Paladin studied at West Point and emerged from the Civil War a mercenary with morals. His card had a simple message. It said: Have Gun, Will Travel/Wire Paladin/San Francisco. The only symbol on the card was a white chess knight—a Paladin. John Dehner approached the radio role as if Boone had never existed. He didn’t imitate.

The first set of scripts were all adapted from the second season of the TV show. The writers were paid no residuals. Norman Macdonell used the same Hollywood regulars he used for Gunsmoke. Jack Kruschen was often one of them.

Perhaps you’d have listened to this episode in Clear Lake, Iowa with anticipation for the next evening’s Winter Dance Party. If you’d gone, you’d have been witness to the last concert ever by Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. The morning hours of February 3rd, 1959 have since become known as “The Day The Music Died.” It’s one of the most infamous moments in Rock-N-Roll history.

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Sunday, November 23rd, 1958 was a sunny, cold day in New York. Conway Twitty had the nation’s top song with “It’s Only Make Believe.” The inside cover of the New York Daily News spoke of President Eisenhower’s slashes to the 1960 government budget. Meanwhile Texan Democrat Rep. George H. Mahan demanded the military budget remain robust. West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt called for allied powers to stop Russia’s campaigns aimed at destroying democracy in western Europe. And a mechanics strike grounded all but four of TWA’s more than 200 planes.

If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts, talk, and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 5:00PM.

At 5:05, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar signed on starring Bob Bailey. Bailey had been playing the lead since the fall of 1955. He’d hold it until November 1960 when the program shifted production from Hollywood, to New York. For more info, tune into Breaking Walls episode 102.

After Dollar, Suspense signed on at 5:30 with a play called “A Statement of Fact.” Directed by William N. Robson, it guest-starred Cathy Lewis as an international beauty accused of murdering her husband. As further proof of Hollywood radio’s tight-knit community, it also featured John Dehner. George Walsh announced.

After Suspense went off the air, Have Gun Will Travel debuted over CBS with “Strange Vendetta.” The show aired on Sundays at 6PM in New York and at 7PM in Los Angeles. This episode was broadcast just one week after the end of Frontier Gentleman.

When Have Gun Will Travel signed off, Gunsmoke signed on with “The Correspondent.” George Walsh, in a completely different voice, also announced the show. Gunsmoke was the final CBS dramatic offering of the evening.

By 1958, Norman Macdonnell was a radio veteran with thousands of broadcast hours under his belt. He’d been producing and directing Gunsmoke since 1952. Gunsmoke’s radio show was one of the first to offer a more-accurate portrayal of events and relationships from the Western era, as writer John Meston remembered.

MacDonnell also directed the critically acclaimed Fort Laramie in 1956, but unlike with Gunsmoke, Fort Laramie was never able to secure national sponsorship. For more info on that series, tune into Breaking Walls episode 114.

Frontier Gentleman ran into the same issues. The show was superb, but thanks to Television, there was no national advertiser appeal.

So, when CBS canceled Frontier Gentleman they did so with another western in mind. Have Gun, Will Travel was in the midst of a successful second-TV season starring Dick Boone. Its lead character, Paladin, was a gun for hire based out of a posh San Francisco hotel. He advertised his services with a card that featured the series’ title words.

CBS felt the crossover appeal could attract national advertising dollars. Norman MacDonnell was given the task of directing the show.

On November 8th, 1958, Macdonnell conducted three tests for the lead. Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, and John Dehner all auditioned. They delivered the opening lines from what would become the debut episode. This is Mr. Bartell’s. John Dehner would ultimately win the role.

John Dehner was born John Forkum on November 23rd, 1915 in Staten Island, New York. His father Leroy was an artist. His career allowed John to attend school in Norway and France. John was also a gifted artist, and pianist. He studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, while simultaneously getting into acting.

Forkum’s talent took him west. He found animation work at Disney before landing a job at KMPC. At the radio station, John did everything from dramatic work to newscasting. He later earned a Peabody Award for his coverage of the first U.N. Conference.

He spent the last half of World War II in the Army. After being honorably discharged, he returned to California. Now using his mother’s maiden name, Dehner, hoped to act. Lawrence Dobkin remembered how difficult it was for an outsider to find Hollywood work.

But Dehner had good timing. Thanks to William Paley’s Packaged Program initiative, CBS was piloting dozens of shows. By 1948, he was a regular on the network, where a new crop of directors like Elliott Lewis and Norman MacDonnell were joining veterans like Bill Robson and Bill Spier. On August 1st, Dehner appeared on Escape in Bill Robson’s production of “The Man Who Would Be King.”

On April 11th, 1950 Dehner appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. It was noted because Bill Conrad subbed for star Gerald Mohr. The pair’s relationship went back to their days at KMPC. By the early 1950s, Dehner had appeared on The NBC University Theater, The Screen Directors Playhouse, Escape, and The Whistler. Dehner became a regular on Gunsmoke after its 1952 debut. This is from the December 27th, 1952 episode called, “The Cabin.”

Dehner spent the next six years playing a variety of parts on shows like Gunsmoke and Johnny Dollar. He was a toothless drunk, dashing leading man, vile psychopath, pillar of the community, and no nonsense anti-hero.

In 1955 Gunsmoke’s success led CBS and director Norman Macdonnell to launch a second adult western called Fort Laramie. John Dehner auditioned for the lead on July 25th, 1955. But he was worried about being typecast and Captain Lee Quince went to Raymund Burr. With no sponsorship Fort Laramie lasted only ten months before being canceled after the October 28th, 1956 episode.

Gunsmoke remained CBS’s only western until February of 1958 when Dehner was cast as J.B. Kendall in Antony Ellis’ production of Frontier Gentleman. Kendall was an English journalist writing for the London Times, weaving his way through the Western territories of the US in the late nineteenth century.

In the September 1st, 1958 issue of Broadcasting Magazine WCBS Radio in New York took out a local ad touting their station as having the city’s most persuasive radio salesmen. They also hailed their star personalities like Jack Sterling, Lanny Ross, Jim Lowe, Martha Wright, and Galen Drake. More and more network programming was being left to local stations. William N. Robson remembered that time.

Frontier Gentleman lasted nine months. In November, the network announced it was dropping several shows, including Nora Drake, Our Gal Sunday, Backstage Wife, The FBI in Peace and War, Indictment, The Galen Drake Show, City Hospital, and Frontier Gentleman.

James Scully here. Hell Gate City is an award-winning comedy fiction podcast about Kirby Bevins, a neurotic radio jockey in a dystopian cyberpunk version of NYC. After Kirby uses a newfangled device to broadcast his nightmares for ratings – and accidentally shares a repressed memory of a murder – he must overcome dark forces and folly to solve the crime before he becomes the next victim.

The entire first season is out right now everywhere you’d get a podcast. Go to HellGateCity.com for more information.

Here’s the trailer.

In June of 1983, Jack Carney broadcast a two-part audio documentary on the life and career of Jack Benny featuring interviews and recollections with the cast, and audio from the show.

During the first part of the documentary, in an interview recorded years before, the late Jack Benny spoke of the importance of organic character and joke development on the Jack Benny Program.

In late 1972, Vincent Price sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-32.html).

During the course of their conversation, Price spoke about the power of dramatic radio for the listening audience.

In Breaking Walls episode 135 it’s February of 1958 and CBS has just launched a new western, Luke Slaughter, of Tombstone. It’s a forgotten sixteen episode gem. Five years earlier it might have been a hit.

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Highlights:

• William N. Robson and The Hollywood Radio Western

• Planning Luke Slaughter

• Slaughter Launches

• The Radio Dial on February 23rd, 1958

• Tracks Out of Tombstone

• The End of Slaughter

• Looking Ahead to Paladin

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Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• On the Air — By John Dunning

• Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg

• “Luke Slaughter of Tombstone: The Man Too Tough To Die.” by Stewart Wright’s for the April 2018 SPERDVAC RadioGram

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On the interview front:

• Lilian Buyeff, Mary Jane Croft, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards and Jeanette Nolan were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• William N. Robson was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Norman Macdonnell, and William N. Robson spoke to John Hickman for his Gunsmoke documentary.

• Roberta Bailey-Goodwin and E. Jack Neuman spoke with John Dunning for his 1980s 71KNUS Radio program from Denver.

• Vic Perrin spoke to Neil Ross for KMPC in 1982.

• Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell were guests of Jim Bohannan in 1987.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Pavane — By Steve Erquiaga

• I’ll Be Seeing You — By The Harry James Orchestra

• Who Lives Up There — By Snuffy Walden

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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.

For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.

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Thank you to:

Tony Adams

Steven Allmon

Orson Orsen Chandler

Phil Erickson

Jessica Hanna

Perri Harper

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Earl Millard

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Ray Shaw

Filipe A Silva

John Williams

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

In 1961, William N. Robson joined The Voice of America. It’s the civilian overseas broadcast agency for the US government. During his fifteen years there, Robson wrote, directed and produced documentaries. He won four more Peabody Awards.

Frontier Gentleman lasted five months longer than Slaughter. CBS canceled it in November, but with another western in mind. It’ll be the focus of our next Breaking Walls episode.

Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s 1875 and we’re at the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco. We’ve got a meeting with a man who calls himself Paladin. His card has four simple words: Have Gun, Will Travel.