Breaking Walls

Shortly after CBS debuted Frontier Gentleman in February of 1958, a second new western show, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, debuted on Sunday February 23rd, 1958 at 2PM eastern time.

Sam Buffington starred in the title role, with a vocal quality in line with William Conrad’s Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke and Raymond Burr’s Captain Lee Quince of Fort Laramie.

Buffington was only 26, and a relative stranger to American audiences. Born in Swansea, MA on October 12th, 1931, he was balding and husky, with a big mustache. He had the physicality of a man much older than his age, which lent itself to portraying an Arizona cavalryman turned cattleman. He’d found Hollywood western work in television for network shows like Tales of Wells Fargo, Maverick, and Cheyenne.

The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, who’d stuck by radio from its earliest days to its waning moments in the late 1950s. Tom Hanley expanded his abilities to include script writing. On Slaughter, he doubled as editorial supervisor, while also laying sound patterns with Ray Kemper and Bill James.

Although CBS ad sales managed to get the May 4th, 1958 episode sponsored by O’Brien Paints, finding regular sponsorship for a Sunday at 2PM western with little name value was impossible.

CBS cancelled the show after just sixteen episodes. The last Luke Slaughter of Tombstone aired on June 15th.

On November 24th, 1954 Fred Allen was a guest of Tex and Jinx's New York talk show for a discussion about his life and career. During the course of the interview, Allen talked about leaving radio in 1949 and his feelings on television.

On September 23rd, 1989, legendary radio and tv announcer and interviewer Mike Wallace was a guest of Chuck Schaden's (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/wallace-mike-announcer/) during Chuck's Those Were The Days program at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Here, Mr. Wallace recalled his early radio days.

In the April 20th, 1958 episode of Frontier Gentleman, starring John Dehner, J.B. Kendall meets Wild Bill Hickok and sits in on a card game that becomes part of American history.

For more information on Antony Ellis' wonderful production of Frontier Gentleman, please tune into Breaking Walls Episode 101: Frontier Gentleman and The Saga of Belle Siddons (1958), available for free anywhere you might download or stream a podcast, and at http://thewallbreakers.com/

On August 5th, 1976, Chuck Schaden was a guest at Arch Oboler's home for a conversation about the noted writer and director's career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/oboler-arch/). Throughout the course of the conversation, Mr. Oboler told a funny story about Boris Karloff being afraid of children.

On the April 15th, 1951 episode of The Jack Benny program, Jack's in trouble with the IRS for spending $17 on entertainment. The trouble began the previous week, and would continue into the following week when Jack took his cast to the circus.

On August 9th, 1986, Lawrence Dobkin, Lillian Buyeff, and Don Diamond were guests of SPERDVAC for a conversation about their radio careers. During the course of the conversation, Dobkin (who started in New York before moving to Los Angeles) explained the difference in attitudes between the two cities.

In 1955 CBS was relaunching Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as an evening strip to air weeknights for fifteen minutes.

On August 29th, 1955 Gerald Mohr recorded an audition for the lead. Mohr recently finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue.

On the April 12th, 1953 episode of Dragnet, Detective Sergeant Joe Friday is assigned to Robbery Detail. Somewhere in the city a man has been making phony calls, endangering the lives officers. With a simple dime, this man is disrupting law and order in the city of Los Angeles, for a joke. The detectives don't like it. It’s Friday’s job to get him

It's bargain day at the Bon Ton department store in Wistful Vista. Naturally Fibber McGee is caught in the crowds. He has to be saved by Molly. Fibber asks what they're doing there in the first place. Can you guess what her answer is?

These fifteen-minute serial episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly from 1953-1956 are often overlooked and underrated. For more on this era of the show, listen to Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955)