The Story of Gunsmoke Followup

In yesterday's posting of the 6 part series "The Story of Gunsmoke" (courtesy of Buck Benny's Podcast) they had the episode of "Marshall Proudfoot" which aired July 20th 1958 on CBS radio season 6.

The TV version of the episode also called "Marshall Proudfoot", but instead of Chester's father coming to visit it was his uncle but otherwise the script stay pretty close to the radio version.  This aired January 10th 1959, season 4.

Gunsmoke - Chester's Hanging

Time for another Gunsmoke on Radio and Gunsmoke on TV comparison.   Tonight's episode is Chester's Hanging which originally aired on radio Feb 12 1955 (Season 3) and then was made into a tv episode which aired May 17th 1958 (Season 3) on CBS television.


Here is the radio episode




The TV version

Billboard All-Time Top 100 Songs ( 1958 - 2008 ) - 50th Anniversary

Have Gun Will Travel

On Saturday at 930pm, September 14th 1957 CBS television debuted a western that was to become just as legendary as Gunsmoke in the annals of TV westerns,  Have Gun Will Travel.
Starring Richard Boone this was the story of a man called Paladin, a gun for hire in San Francisco.
The show ran on tv until the end of the 1962-63 season, a total of 225 episodes and became almost more famous for its tremendous closing theme song "Ballad of Paladin" written and performed by Johnny Western.

The premiere episode was titled "Three Bells to Perdido" 

November 23rd of 1958 "Have Gun Will Travel" debuted on the CBS Radio network as one of its last radio dramas to feature continuing characters. This version featured radio veteran and Gunsmoke regular John Dehner as Paladin.
The radio version ran until November 22nd 1960 and initially each episode was a radio version of the episode that aired on television earlier in the week.  Eventually original stories were written and produced for the radio show including the finale when Paladin left San Francisco to collect an inheritance back east.

Thanks again to the great Buck Benny podcast for the posting of the debut radio episode and the second episode of Have Gun Will Travel.

Gunsmoke on Radio - Amy's Good Deed

Episode originally aired on CBS radio November 27th 1955 Season 4 episode 14,  written by John Meston.




Aired on CBS television April 12th 1958 Episode 109 season 3 written for tv by Kathleen Hite.
Guest star Jeanette Nolan as Amy

Gunsmoke

Even though I like the radio version much more than the tv show, my father never missed it. It was such a part of growing up I never realized it had been around so long.

Here from 1958-59 the 4th season - Stage Hold Up written by co creator John Meston (who wrote over 95% of the radio and tv episodes.

Van Cliburn

Today in 1958 Van Cliburn of Kilgore, TX earned 1st prize in the Soviet Union’s Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.
He won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War. He came home to the USA to a ticker tape in New York City.


Here he is as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line?

31st Academy Awards

Today in 1959 the Oscars celebrated the year of 1958 in film by awarding the Best Picture prize and 8 more Oscars to Gigi, breaking the record of 8 Oscars won by Gone With the Wind in 1940.
The record would stand only one year as we saw in yesterday's post when Ben-Hur captured 11 Academy Awards to set the new standard.

The hosts for the ceremony were Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall,Bob Hope, David Niven and Sir Laurence Olivier. This show was infamous for the end where the producer had cut performance numbers to get the show in under 3 hours but he cut too much and left Jerry Lewis with 20 minutes of air time to fill. NBC eventually cut to a sports program for the remaining time.