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Like many early television series,
Death Valley Days began as a radio program created by
Ruth Woodman
in 1930. Unlike those other series, the
Death
Valley Days radio program was canceled many years before its television
debut, ending in 1945. The creation of the television series in 1952 is
credited to
Dorothy McCann and
Mitchell J. Hamilburg of the McCann-Erickson
advertising agency, which was then representing
Gene Autry's production company
Flying A Productions. What made
Death
Valley Days different was that it was a reality-based western drama
anthology at a time when westerns were not very prevalent on network
television, and the only two such network series were the more fantastical
Gene Autry Show and
The Lone Ranger. Even other syndicated westerns were of the
superhero variety, such as
The Cisco Kid,
The Range Rider, and
The Adventures of Kit Carson, which was
based on a historical character whose exploits had long ago been exaggerated in
dime novels. Later western series based on historical figures, such as
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and
Bat Masterson, painted their titular
characters as glowing and upright knights in the service of all that is good,
whereas their historical counterparts were ethically ambivalent at best.
Granted, the stories on Death
Valley Days likely have been tweaked for dramatic effect--television is
first and foremost an entertainment medium--but historical authenticity, or at
least the appearance of such, was clearly a high priority for the producers.
Most episodes end with the narrating Old Ranger showing off an actual artifact
relating to the story that has just been presented. The most unexpected example
of this is at the beginning of "A Wedding Dress" (February 13, 1960)
wherein the Old Ranger presents the still very much living 80-year-old widow of
the episode's protagonist, Marshal Bill Tilgham. Zoe Tilgham had published a
biography about her late husband in 1949 and attests during the episode's
epilogue to his upstanding character as just depicted, which is perfectly in
keeping with the times when characters in westerns tended to be either heroes
or villains. Complex, conflicted characters rarely appeared on television
during this era.
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However,
Death Valley
Days frequently featured redemption stories of characters who had gone
astray or started out on the wrong side of the law but eventually saw the
errors of their ways. One such character is
Matt Warner, a one-time colleague
of
Butch Cassidy, who appears in two different 1960 episodes--"The Devil's
Due" (January 21, 1960) and "The Young Gun" (December 27, 1960).
In the former tale, Warner has already gone straight but is keeping $20,000
from a bank robbery hidden on his ranch to make sure that his wife Rosie and
their baby on the way are taken care of. Cassidy shows up with a wounded
partner after a botched robbery and demands his money but then rides off with
the partner when the sheriff approaches. Warner's sister-in-law, who yearns for
the excitement of Cassidy's lifestyle, rats out Warner, which lands him in
jail, where Cassidy returns to spring him in exchange for the money. Warner
refuses to go on the lam and instead jumps Cassidy while also saving the
sheriff's life, prompting the sheriff to pretend to forget about the stolen
money Warner is still hiding. The Old Ranger tells us that Warner served prison
time for his past crimes before starting over as a rancher and eventually a well-respected
lawman. The Old Ranger's narrated epilogue jibes with the historical facts
about Warner's life, but the conflict with Cassidy is not mentioned in any of the
online biographies of Warner, though it is possible it was mentioned in his
memoir
Last of the Bandit Riders.
Still, one woman commenting on
one of his online biographies says that an article in the October 7, 1896 edition of the
Salt Lake City Desert Evening News reports that Warner kidnapped
his wife Rosie at age 14, forced her to marry him, and physically abused her,
breaking her knee and then refusing to get medical help, resulting in
complications that eventually led to amputation and death. This is hardly the
concerned family man we see depicted on
Death
Valley Days.
Warner's second story depicted in "The Young Gun" seems
largely true--that when his wife died while he was being sent to prison, he had
their just-born son Rex entrusted to the care of friend Frank Taylor and his
wife and even after being released from prison he never let Rex know that he
was his father. Warner did not want his son branded by his own outlaw reputation
and considered his separation from Rex as a form of penance for his past
misdeeds. However, the rest of the episode's story about how the incognito
Warner saved Rex from being prosecuted for the accidental death of a rival who
tried to frame him for a bank robbery is not mentioned elsewhere and is perhaps
a dramatic fabrication. But this part of the story aligns with the Death Valley Days spirit of providing
morality plays that show us the proper way to behave even when facing
adversity.
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Another redemption story with a heavy religious flavor is
"The Wind at Your Back" (December 5, 1960) featuring another young
robber named Johnny Carter. Carter robs and kills a prospector carrying $3000
worth of gold dust but is wounded himself and stumbles through the desert to a
religious mission for Native American orphans in the Mojave Desert. There he is
tended to by Sister Mary Frances who soon learns his true identity and crime
and urges him to turn himself and the money in. Carter instead hopes that his
successful heist will allow him to partner with notorious outlaw Forbes Buckner
and sends a message to Buckner to come meet him, since he cannot travel due to
his injury. When Buckner arrives and demands to know where the gold dust is
hidden, Carter eventually tells him since he is still too weak to move, not
realizing that Sister Mary Frances has already recovered and hidden the stolen
gold after Carter revealed its location during an early delirious outburst.
When Buckner returns without the gold, thinking that he has been
double-crossed, and threatens to shoot Sister Mary Frances if she does not tell
him where it is, she stands firm, but Carter thinks that Buckner will really
kill them both, so he grabs his gun from beneath his pillow and shoots Buckner.
Afterward, believing that Sister Mary Frances would have taken a bullet for
him, Carter turns over a new leaf and agrees to return the stolen gold and
serve jail time for his offense. As with other Death Valley Days stories in this vein, it is as if a switch has
been turned on to change formerly bad characters into good.
Which is not to say that the stories do not have an
occasional ambivalent character. "Eagle in the Rocks" (May 10, 1960)
tells the story of California outlaw Joaquin Murrieta, notorious for robbing
from white settlers near San Lorenzo. But when he is wrongly accused of killing
four miners and a $5000 bounty is placed on his head, he uses his wiles to
expose the real killers, a group of white settlers who wanted to take over the
mine, and disperses his share of the reward money amongst poor native
Californians as Robin Hood may have done. By placing him in the Robin Hood
mold, the author effectively smoothes over or exonerates any past crimes
Murrieta may have committed. This is the same approach used in
"3-7-77" (December 14, 1960) about a group of vigilantes in Alder
Gulch, Montana who hand out their own brand of justice by lynching those they
find guilty of crimes that the town's corrupt sheriff won't prosecute. And yet
the vigilantes are depicted as the good guys, even though they come dangerously
close to executing a young man who is tricked into robbing a drunken prospector
of his gold by a man claiming to be the man's stiffed partner. Fortunately, one
of the vigilantes believes his story and gets the others to agree to set him
free, though they plan to shun him. The corrupt sheriff gets wind of the deal
and tortures the young man to reveal the identities of the vigilantes, but the young
man refuses to crack and is accepted into the vigilantes' good graces. Though
it is clear that the intent of this episode is to depict the virtues of
loyalty, it gives a free pass to those who take the law into their own hands.
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While excusing extra-judicial killings is certainly
alarming, many other episodes have more palatable narratives. "His
Brother's Keeper" (January 9, 1960) is a plea for tolerance, in this case
not condemning a man outright because of the sins of his brother. It tells a
tale of actor
Edwin Booth trying to escape the shadow of his brother John
Wilkes Booth's assassination of
President Abraham Lincoln after moving to tiny Downeyville,
California where the former Booth is hoping to stage a production of Dickens'
The Mystery of Edwin Drood. A local
bully stirs up sentiment against Booth and tries to run him out of town, but
Booth finds an ally in tolerant rancher Jeb Hayes who finally stands up to the
bully, beats him in a fistfight, and turns the tide of public sentiment into
accepting Booth. "A Woman's Rights" (May 1, 1960) lobbies in favor of
women's suffrage and equal rights under the law but with a rather reactionary
argument--that the only way to establish law and order is to give women the
right to vote because men always settle arguments with their guns or fists,
whereas women are weak and defenseless, thereby requiring other means to settle
disputes. Still, the story's heroine
Esther Morris was appointed justice of the
peace in South Pass, Wyoming in 1869, 51 years before the United States gave
women the right to vote nationally. This episode sums up the general flavor of
Death Valley Days and reflects its
popularity as the second-longest-running western TV series--historically based
narratives of good, ordinary people winning out over villains and adverse conditions,
but without rocking the status quo. This uplifting but conservative viewpoint
is likely what attracted future governor and president
Ronald Reagan to take
over the job of host when the Old Ranger was ridden out to pasture. The series
also stood out from other westerns by avoiding the unrealistic hero who wins
every contest by outshooting his adversary.
Though the theme music for
Death Valley Days was composed by
Herbert Taylor, the scores for
all the episodes that aired in 1960 were composed by
Raoul Kraushaar, who was
profiled in the 1961 post for
The Lawless Years.
As of this writing, the first 3 seasons and Season 13 have
been released on DVD by
Timeless Media Group. Season 14 is scheduled for
release in early 2018. The series is also currently airing on the Encore Westerns cable channel.
The Actors
Stanley Andrews
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Born Stanley Martin Andrzejewski in Chicago in 1891, not
much is known about his early years. According to different accounts, his
parents Frank and Antoinette were either Polish or German, and he spent most of
his early years in the midwest, taking up acting after high school. He married
his first wife Mary Irene Moran in Seattle in 1917, but they were later
divorced. He remarried to Frances in 1928 after the two met while acting in a
play together in Omaha, Nebraska. He first made his mark in radio drama as the
voice of Daddy Warbucks on Little Orphan
Annie from 1931-36. He notched his first acting appearance on film in an uncredited
role in the 1933 Eddie Cantor farce Roman
Scandals. His first credited role came in the 1935 feature All the King's Horses. He appeared in no
fewer than 36 feature films that year alone, including Private Worlds, People Will
Talk, Wanderer of the Wasteland,
and Escape From Devil's Island.
Though not quite as prolific in later years, Andrews continued appearing in
scores of features up until the early 1950s. Among the biggest films he
appeared in, often uncredited, were Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town, Beau Geste, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Ox-Bow Incident, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Paleface, and Superman and the Mole-Men. His television career began in 1949 with
an appearance on The Lone Ranger. The next year he appeared on The Gene Autry Show, and in 1951 he had appearances
on Stars Over Hollywood, The Cisco Kid, The Range Rider, and The
Adventures of Kit Carson. The following year he began his 12-year run as
the Old Ranger, hosting Death Valley Days
for 296 episodes until the producers decided they wanted a younger man in the
role and replaced him with Ronald Reagan.
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During his earlier years as host
of
Death Valley Days Andrews
continued making numerous appearances on other TV programs as well as less
frequent feature film roles. He made multiple appearances on
Tales of the Texas Rangers,
Sky King,
Buffalo Bill, Jr.,
Annie
Oakley, and
The Adventures of Rin Tin
Tin and showed up in features such as
El
Paso Stampede,
Those Redheads From
Seattle,
Treasure of Ruby Hills,
Star in the Dust,
Gun for a Coward, and
Untamed
Youth, as well as appearing in the first five episodes of the serial
Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders. By
1960, however, Andrews was nearing 70 years old and confined himself solely to
his
Death Valley Days role. Once he
was replaced, he retired from acting and took up residence in the El Segundo
section of Los Angeles, where he died at age 77 on June 23, 1969.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 8, Episode 14, "His Brother's Keeper":
Harry
Townes (starred in
The Brothers Karamazov,
Screaming Mimi, and
Sanctuary) plays actor Edwin Booth.
Alan
Baxter (appeared in
Saboteur,
Close-Up, and
Paint Your Wagon) plays rancher Jeb Hayes.
Don Grady (shown on the left, see the
biography section for the 1960 post on
My Three Sons) plays his son Calvin.
Season 8, Episode 15, "The Devil's Due":
Robert
Knapp (Ben Olson on
Days of Our Lives
and SAC Noel McDonald on
The F.B.I.)
plays former bank robber Matt Warner.
June Dayton (Mary Aldrich on
The Aldrich Family) plays his wife Rosie.
Dan Sheridan (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Lawman) plays the local sheriff.
Howard
Caine (Schaab on
The Californians and
Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter on
Hogan's
Heroes) plays prosecutor Mark Redding.
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Season 8, Episode 16, "Money to Burn":
Lloyd
Corrigan (shown on the right, starred in
A Girl, a Guy, and a
Gob,
Hitler's Children,
Captive Wild Woman,
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, and
Son of Paleface and played Papa Dodger on
Willy, Wally Dipple on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Uncle Charlie on
Happy, and Professor McKillup on
Hank) plays tramp Carl Herman.
William Boyett (Sgt. Ken Williams on
Highway Patrol and Sgt. MacDonald on
Adam-12) plays train company agent Hume.
Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley on
Dallas)
plays train robber Browning.
Kelton Garwood (Beauregard O'Hanlon on
Bourbon Street Beat and Percy Crump on
Gunsmoke) plays an unnamed tramp.
Helen
Kleeb (Miss Claridge on
Harrigan and Son,
Miss Tandy on
Room 222, and Mamie
Baldwin on
The Waltons) plays hotel
chambermaid Lizzie.
Roy Wright (Callahan on
The
Islanders) plays a hotel doorman.
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Season 8, Episode 17, "Dogs of the Mist": James
Douglas (shown on the left, appeared in G.I. Blues, A Thunder of Drums, and Sweet Bird of Youth and played Steve
Cord on Peyton Place, Grant Coleman
on As the World Turns, and Dr. Marcus
Polk on One Life to Live) plays rancher
Steve Hewitt. Craig Duncan (Sgt. Stanfield/Banfield on Mackenzie's Raiders) plays storekeeper Luther Pond. Larry J. Blake
(played the unnamed jailer on Yancy
Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints
and Sinners) plays claimant Mac. Eddie Quillan (starred in The Grapes of Wrath, Mandarin Mystery, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Hi,
Good Lookin'! and played Eddie Edson on Julia
and Poco Loco on Hell Town) plays assayer
Alec.
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Season 8, Episode 18, "A Wedding Dress":
Brad
Johnson (Deputy Sheriff Lofty Craig on
Annie
Oakley) plays Marshal Bill Tilgham.
Mary Webster (Rachel Verinder on
The Moonstone, Jill Reed on
Emergency-Ward 10, Anna on
Circus, and Sarah Onedin on
The Onedin Line) plays his wife.
J. Pat
O'Malley (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Frontier Circus) plays banker Horace Capshaw.
Season 8, Episode 19, "Shadows on the Window": Dayton
Lummis (Marshal Andy Morrison on Law of
the Plainsman) plays former Union General Lew Wallace. Katherine Warren (appeared
in The Lady Pays Off, The Glenn Miller Story, and The Caine Mutiny) plays his wife Susan. Larry
J. Blake (see "Dogs of the Mist" above) plays Sheriff Pat Garrett. Martin
Braddock (Gordon Parker on Mannix)
plays Billy the Kid.
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Season 8, Episode 20, "The Battle of Mokelumne Hill":
Marcel Dalio (appeared in
Casablanca,
The Song of Bernadette,
Wilson,
To Have and Have Not,
Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes, and
Sabrina and played Capt. Renaud on
Casablanca) plays French patriarch
Victor Rousseau.
H.M. Wynant (shown on the left, played Frosty on
Batman
and Ed Chapman on
Dallas) plays his
future son-in-law Paul Martain.
Dallas Mitchell (Det. Fisher on
The Asphalt Jungle) plays U.S. Army Lt.
Bill Bradshaw.
Roy Engel (Doc Martin on
Bonanza,
the police chief on
My Favorite Martian,
and President Ulysses S. Grant on
The
Wild, Wild West) plays his commanding officer Col. Fremont.
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Season 8, Episode 21, "The Strangers":
Warner Anderson (shown on the right, appeared in
Destination
Tokyo,
My Reputation,
Destination Moon,
Detective Story,
The Caine
Mutiny, and
Blackboard Jungle and
played The Doctor on
The Doctor, Lt.
Ben Gutherie on
The Lineup, and
Matthew Swain and the narrator on
Peyton
Place) plays horse rancher John Gaunt.
Phyllis Hill (Mrs. Dawson on
General Hospital) plays his wife Jessica.
Virginia Aldridge (screenwriter for
Dallas,
Fame, and
Beauty and the Beast) plays his daughter Nan.
Richard Evans (Paul
Hanley on
Peyton Place) plays his son
Chris.
Robert Gist (directed multiple episodes of
Peter Gunn,
Naked City,
and
The Richard Boone Show and was
Agnes Moorehead's second husband) plays drifter Aaron Taggart.
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Season 8, Episode 22, "Goodbye, Five Hundred Pesos":
William Bryant (McCall on Combat!,
President Ulysses S. Grant on Branded,
Col. Crook on Hondo, Lt. Shilton on Switch, and the Director on The Fall Guy) plays Santa Barbara
commanding officer Capt. Lippet. Than Wyenn (Licenciado Piña on Zorro) plays simple farmer Enrique. Rafael
Campos (shown on the left, played Ramon Diaz, Jr. on Rhoda)
plays his son Manolito. Mark Allen (Matt Kissel on The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and Sam Evans on Dark Shadows) plays Lippet's desk
sergeant.
Season 8, Episode 23, "Forbidden Wedding": Ziva
Rodann (appeared in Forty Guns, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, The Story of Ruth, and College Confidential and played
Nefertiti on Batman) plays young
lover Josefa Carillo. Jan Arvan (Nacho Torres on Zorro and Paw Kadiddlehopper on The
Red Skelton Hour) plays her father Don Joaquin Carillo.
Season 8, Episode 24, "One Man Tank":
Dabbs Greer
(shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Gunsmoke) plays storekeeper Leo Harris.
Eddie Harmon (Eddie
Halstead on
The Rifleman) plays salt
company agent Mike Shannon.
C. Lindsay Workman (see the biography section for
the 1961 post on
The Donna Reed Show)
plays his assistant Jimson.
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Season 8, Episode 25, "The Man on the Road":
John
Raitt (shown on the right, Broadway musical star, starred in
The
Pajama Game, father of Bonnie Raitt) plays peddler John Abraham Dandridge.
House
Peters, Jr. (Sheriff Jim Billings on
Lassie)
plays condemned man Wilbur Rawson.
Douglas Fowley (see the biography section
for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays old-timer Zeb.
Mort Mills (Marshal Frank Tallman on
Man Without a Gun, Sgt. Ben Landro on
Perry Mason, and Sheriff Fred Madden on
The Big Valley) plays land-grabber Holt.
Rudy Solari (Frank Martinez on
Redigo
and Casino on
Garrison's Gorillas)
plays Holt's henchman Garr.
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Season 8, Episode 26, "The Man Everyone Hated": James
Craig (shown on the left, starred in Kitty Foyle, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Human Comedy, Kismet (1944), and Our Vines
Have Tender Grapes) plays California Indian Reservation Act author Gen.
Edward F. Beale. Charles Davis (Tennyson on The
Wild Wild West) plays dry goods salesman Alf Culkins. Ken Mayer (Maj.
Robbie Robertson on Space Patrol)
plays slave ship owner Jim Blanchard. Joseph V. Perry (Nemo on Everybody
Loves Raymond) plays his henchman Rafe. Linda Watkins (Robin Crosley on One Life to Live) plays dock gadabout
Kate.
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Season 8, Episode 27, "The General Who Disappeared":
Richard Webb (shown on the right, played Captain Midnight on
Captain
Midnight and Deputy Chief Don Jagger on
Border
Patrol) plays interim Montana governor Gen. Thomas Meagher.
Howard Petrie (Hugh
Blaine on
Bat Masterson) plays Speaker
of the House Arthur Justman.
Bill Quinn (see the biography section for the 1961
post on
The Rifleman) plays legislator
Haynes.
Joanna Lee (appeared in
The Joker
Is Wild,
The Brain Eaters, and
Plan 9 From Outer Space and wrote
screenplays for
The Flintstones,
My Three Sons,
Gilligan's Island,
Nanny and
the Professor,
The Courtship of
Eddie's Father, and
Room 222)
plays saloon singer Flora Dodd.
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Season 8, Episode 28, "The Million Dollar Pants":
Red
Buttons (shown on the left, starred in
Sayonara,
Hatari!,
The Longest Day,
Stagecoach,
and
The Poseidon Adventure and played
Henry Wadsworth Phyfe on
The Double Life
of Henry Phyfe, Al Baker on
Knots
Landing, and Jules Rubadoux on
ER)
plays blue jeans inventor Levi Strauss.
Richard Carlyle (Casey on
Crime Photographer) plays harness maker
Patrick Mahoney.
Dan Barton (Det. Sgt. Burke on
Dan Raven) plays banker Arnold Leacock.
Lisa Gaye (Gwen Kirby on
How to Marry a Millionaire) plays sickly
boat passenger Yvonne Benet.
Ted Knight (Ted Baxter on
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Roger Dennis on
The Ted Knight Show, and Henry Rush on
Too Close for Comfort) plays a ship officer.
Francis de Sales (Lt.
Bill Weigand on
Mr. & Mrs. North,
Ralph Dobson on
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Sheriff Maddox on
Two
Faces West, and Rusty Lincoln on
Days
of Our Lives) plays a San Francisco doctor.
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Season 8, Episode 29, "Pirates of San Francisco":
H.M.
Wynant (see "The Battle of Mokelumne Hill" above) plays ship's first
mate Tom Patrick.
George Wallace (shown on the right, starred in
Radar Men From the Moon,
Destry,
and
Forbidden Planet and played Judge
Milton Cole on
Hill Street Blues and
Grandpa Hank Hammersmith on
Sons and
Daughters) plays pirate leader Jake Handley.
Eddie Quillan (see "Dogs
of the Mist" above) plays his recruiter Salty.
Ann McRea (Midge Kelsey on
The Donna Reed Show) plays barmaid Gwen.
Charles H. Gray (Officer Edwards on
Highway
Patrol, Pico McGuire on
Gunslinger,
Clay Forrester on
Rawhide, and Bill
Foster on
The Young and the Restless)
plays newspaper editor Ed Wilson.
Edgar Barrier (appeared in
Phantom of the Opera (1943),
Adventures in Silverado,
Macbeth (1948), and
Snow White and the Three Stooges and played Don Cornelio Esperon on
Zorro) plays ship owner Richards.
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Season 8, Episode 30, "A Woman's Rights":
Dean
Harens (Noel Clinton on
General Hospital
and
SAC Bryan Durant on
The F.B.I.) plays storekeeper John
Morris.
Bethel Leslie (shown on the left, appeared in 15 episodes of
The Richard Boone Show and played Claudia Conner on
All My Children and Ethel Crawford on
One Life to Live) plays his wife Esther.
Stanley Clements (Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in 6 Bowery Boys
feature films) plays prospector Steve Nelson.
Bartlett Robinson (Frank Caldwell
on
Mona McCluskey) plays Nelson's
lawyer McGreevey.
Hope Summers (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Andy Griffith Show) plays
suffragette Lucretia Mott.
Frank Wilcox (see the biography section for the 1961
post on
The Untouchables) plays
Wyoming Governor Lee.
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Season 8, Episode 31, "Eagle in the Rocks":
Ricardo
Montalban (shown on the right, starred in
The Kissing Bandit,
On an Island With You,
The Singing Nun, and
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and played
David Valerio on
Executive Suite, Mr.
Roarke on
Fantasy Island, and Zach
Powers on
The Colbys) plays infamous
bandito Joaquin Murrieta.
Lisa Gaye (see "The Million Dollar Pants"
above) plays his girlfriend Raquel.
Jack Kruschen (appeared in
The War of the Worlds,
The Apartment,
Lover Come Back, and
Freebie
and the Bean and played Tully on
Hong
Kong, Sam Markowitz on
Busting Loose,
Papa Papadapolis on
Webster, and Fred
Avery on
Material World) plays his
chief lieutenant Manuel Garcia.
Karl Swenson (Lars Hanson on
Little House on the Prairie) plays shop
owner Joe Andrews.
Henry Beckman (Commander Paul Richards on
Flash Gordon, Mulligan on
I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, George
Anderson on
Peyton Place, Colonel
Harrigan on
McHale's Navy, Capt.
Roland Frances Clancey on
Here Come the
Brides, Pat Harwell on
Funny Face,
Harry Mark on
Bronk, and Alf Scully
on
Check It Out) plays rabble rouser
Brand.
Tom Holland (voice of Pancho and Japanese Beetle in
Tijuana Toads shorts) plays Brand's accomplice Eldon.
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Season 8, Episode 32, "Cap'n Pegleg":
Douglas
Fowley (see "The Man on the Road" above) plays vengeful sailor
Barnaby Quirt.
Jerry Paris (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Untouchables) plays newspaper
reporter Brian Brophy.
Paul Burke (shown on the near left, see the biography section for the 1960 post
on
Naked City) plays former sailor
John Starkweather.
Aneta Corsaut (shown on the far left, played Irma Howell on
The Gertrude Berg Show, Helen Crump on
The Andy Griffith Show, Head Nurse Bradley on
House Calls, and Judge Cynthia Justin on
Matlock) plays his wife Lydia.
William Schallert (see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays sailor Charlie Tetlow.
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Season 8, Episode 33, "Emma Is Coming":
Alan Reed (shown on the right, see
the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Flintstones) plays singer's manager Col. Mapleson.
Roy Barcroft (Col. Logan
on
The Adventures of Spin and Marty
and Roy on
Gunsmoke) plays Austin, NV
citizen Frank Taylor.
Robert Foulk (Ed Davis on
Father Knows Best, Sheriff Miller on
Lassie, Joe Kingston on
Wichita
Town, Mr. Wheeler on
Green Acres,
and Phillip Toomey on
The Rifleman)
plays citizen Bart Corey.
Rick Jason (Robin Scott on
The Case of the Dangerous Robin and Lt. Hanley on
Combat!) plays outlaw Duke Clayton.
Dan
Sheridan (see "The Devil's Due" above) plays the Austin sheriff.
Season 8, Episode 34, "Human Sacrifice":
Craig
Duncan (see "Dogs of the Mist" above) plays stagecoach waystation
operator Henry McCallum.
Steven Ritch (Nakaya on
Broken Arrow and wrote screenplays for multiple episodes of
Tightrope,
Frontier Circus, and
Wagon Train) plays medicine man Pimu.
Arlene Martel (Tiger on
Hogan's Heroes and Spock's Vulcan bride
on
Star Trek) plays Shoshone chief's
wife Julia.
Season 8, Episode 35, "Pete Kitchen's Wedding Night":
Cameron Mitchell (shown on the left, starred in Death of a
Salesman, Les Miserables, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Carousel and played John Lackland on The Beachcomber, Buck Cannon on The High Chaparral, and Jeremiah Worth
on Swiss Family Robinson) plays rancher
Pete Kitchen. Barbara Luna (Maria on One
Life to Live) plays his betrothed Dona Rosa. Charles H. Gray (see
"Pirates of San Francisco" above) player an army captain. Robert
Sorrells (Seaman Claude White on Ensign
O'Toole) plays Kitchen ranch hand Slim.
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Season 8, Episode 36, "Mission to the Mountains": Harry
Lauter (Ranger Clay Morgan on Tales of
the Texas Rangers, Atlasande on Rocky
Jones, Space Ranger, and Jim Herrick on Waterfront)
plays Nevada rancher Henry Schmidtlein. Wayne Rogers (shown on the right, played Luke Perry on Stagecoach West, Capt. John McIntiye on M*A*S*H*, Jake Axminster on City of Angels, Dr. Charley Michaels on House Calls, and Charlie Garrett on Murder, She Wrote) plays his brother
George. John Hoyt (starred in My Favorite
Brunette, The Lady Gambles, and Blackboard Jungle and played Grandpa
Stanley Kanisky on Gimme a Break!)
plays prospector Crandell. Charles H. Gray (see "Pirates of San
Francisco" above) plays an army sergeant.
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Season 8, Episode 37, "The Great Lounsberry Scoop":
Ron Hayes (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Bat Masterson) plays
Bismarck
Tribune editor Col. Clement Lounsberry.
John Clarke (Officer Joe Huddleston
on
The New Breed and Mickey Horton on
Days of Our Lives) plays his reporter
Mark Kellogg.
Michael Emmet (Cpl. Davis on
Boots
and Saddles) plays his New York publisher James Gordon Bennett.
Walter
Sande (appeared in
To Have and Have Not,
A Place in the Sun, and
Bad Day at Black Rock and played Capt.
Horatio Bullwinkle on
The Adventures of
Tugboat Annie and Papa Holstrum on
The
Farmer's Daughter) plays Bismarck telegrapher Carnahan.
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Season 9, Episode 1, "Pamela's Oxen":
Ida Lupino (shown on the right, legendary
actress and director who starred in
They
Drive by Night,
High Sierra,
The Sea Wolf,
Road House,
Women's Prison,
and
Junior Bonner and played Eve
Drake on
Mr. Adams and Eve and Dr.
Cassandra on
Batman) plays widow
farmer Pamela Mann.
James Coburn (starred in
The Magnificent Seven,
Charade,
Our Man Flint, and
In Like Flint and played Jeff Durain on
Klondike and Gregg Miles on
Acapulco) plays army Capt. Steve Barnes.
James T. Callahan (Dr. Yates Atkinson on
Dr. Kildare, Danny Adams on
Wendy and Me,
George Callison on
The Governor and J.J.,
Sgt. Hal Grady on
The Runaways, and
Walter Powell on
Charles in Charge)
plays his colleague Pvt. Riggs.
Robert Sorrells (see "Pete Kitchen's
Wedding Night" above) plays renegade Fergus.
Jack Donner (Alfred the
butler on
General Hospital and Walter
on
The Guest Book) plays renegade
Billy Crane.
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Season 9, Episode 2, "Splinter Station": Jane
Russell (shown on the left, starred in The Outlaw, The Paleface, Double Dynamite, Macao,
and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) plays Union
army widow Mary Taylor. Claude Akins (Sonny Pruett on Movin' On and Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo on B.J and the Bear and on Lobo)
plays Confederate soldier Caleb Luck.
Season 9, Episode 3, "Queen of the High Graders":
Will
Wright (Mr. Merrivale on
Dennis the Menace and Ben Weaver on
The Andy Griffith Show) plays mine owner Jim Barker.
Larry Pennell (see the
biography section for the 1961 post on
Ripcord)
plays mine detective Romer Maxwell.
Virginia Christine (was the Folger's Coffee
woman in commercials and starred in
The
Mummy's Curse,
The Killers, and
Night Wind and played Ovie Swenson on
Tales of Wells Fargo) plays mine thief
Kate Henson.
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Season 9, Episode 4, "Devil's Bar":
Ron Hayes (see
"The Great Lounsberry Scoop" above) plays pacifist prospector Dan
Bartlett.
Hugh Sanders (starred in
That's
My Boy,
The Pride of St. Louis,
The Winning Team, and
The Wild One) plays store owner George
Merritt.
Joe Conley (Ike Godsey on
The
Waltons) plays Merritt's friend Alf.
William Mims (shown on the right, see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays blacksmith Jake Higgins.
Raymond Hatton
(starred in
Oliver Twist (1916),
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and
Lord Jim, played Marshal Sandy Hopkins
in 28 westerns and Rusty Joslin in 7 other westerns, and played The Mole on
Dick Tracy)plays townsman Old Pete.
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Season 9, Episode 6, "Yankee Confederate": Elaine
Devry (daughter of a Disney animator who was Mickey Rooney's fourth wife) plays
Confederate conspirator Belle Waverly. Gavin MacLeod (shown on the left, starred in Operation Petticoat, The Sand Pebbles, and Kelly's Heroes and played Joseph Haines
on McHale's Navy, Murray Slaughter on
The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, and Capt. Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat) plays her fiance Dandy
Martin. Stan Jones (composer of the song "Ghost Riders in the Sky,"
played Deputy Harry Olsen on The Sheriff
of Cochise) plays Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Tod Andrews (Maj. John Singleton
Mosby on The Gray Ghost) plays Union
undercover agent Capt. Lynn Parker.
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Season 9, Episode 7, "The Gentle Sword": Roy Engel
(shown on the right, see "The Battle of Mokelumne Hill" above) plays explorer and mine
owner John C. Fremont. Lorna Thayer (starred in The Beast With a Million Eyes and played the waitress in Five Easy Pieces) plays his wife Jessie.
Karen Green (Mary Hammond on The Eve
Arden Show) plays her daughter Lily. Tom Reese (starred in Taggart, The Money Trap, and Murderers'
Row and played Sgt. Thomas Velie on Ellery
Queen) plays Merced Mining Company ramrod Blaster.
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Season 9, Episode 8, "Extra Guns":
Guy Madison (shown on the left, starred
in
Till the End of Time,
5 Against the House,
The Last Frontier, and
The Beast of Hollow Mountain and played
Wild Bill Hickok on
Adventures of Wild
Bill Hickok) plays saloon owner Luke Short.
Joan Taylor (see the biography
section for the 1961 post on
The Rifleman)
plays piano teacher Mady Lovett.
Jon Lormer (Harry Tate on
Lawman, various autopsy surgeons and medical examiners in 12
episodes of
Perry Mason, and Judge
Irwin A. Chester on
Peyton Place)
plays Dodge City County Attorney Mike Sutton.
Henry Corden (Carlo on
The Count of Monte Cristo, and Babbitt
on
The Monkees and did voicework on
The Flintstones,
Jonny Quest,
The Atom Ant
Show,
The Banana Splits Adventure
Hour and
Return to the Planet of the
Apes) plays Sheriff L.C. Hartman.
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Season 9, Episode 9, "The White Healer":
Lee
Philips (starred in
Peyton Place and
The Hunters, and played Ellery Queen on
The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen;
also directed 60 episodes of
The Andy Griffith Show and multiple episodes of
Peyton
Place,
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
The Doris Day Show, and
The Waltons) plays army doctor Lt.
Leonard Wood.
Harry Holcombe (shown on the right, appeared in
The
Fortune Cookie,
The Unsinkable Molly
Brown,
Foxy Brown,
Escape to Witch Mountain, and
Empire of the Ants and played Frank
Gardner on
Search for Tomorrow, Doc
Benson on
My Mother the Car, Mr.
Kendricks on
Barefoot in the Park,
and Dr. J.P. Martin on
Bonanza) plays
his commanding officer Gen. Nelson Miles.
Season 9, Episode 10, "The Wind at Your Back": Steven
Terrell (Tom on The Pride of the Family
and Clarence Day, Jr. on Life With Father)
plays young thief Johnny Carter. June Dayton (see "The Devil's Due"
above) plays desert mission nun Sister Mary Frances. Joel Ashley (Pvt. Boone on
Boots and Saddles) plays hardened
outlaw Forbes Buckner.
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Season 9, Episode 11, "3-7-77":
Joel Crothers (shown on the left, played Lt.
Nathan Forbes on
Dark Shadows, Julian
Cannell on
Somerset, Dr. Miles
Cavanugh on
The Edge of Night, and
Jack Stanfield Lee on
Santa Barbara) plays
job seeker Jim Badger.
S. John Launer (Marshall Houts on
The Court of Last Resort and the judge 33 times on
Perry Mason) plays town assayer Lundy.
Alexander
Lockwood (Judge Baker on
Sam Benedict)
plays store owner Ellis.
Sheldon Allman (appeared in
Hud,
The Sons of Katie Elder,
and
In Cold Blood, played Norm Miller
on
Harris Against the World, was the
singing voice for Mister Ed, and composed theme songs for the cartoons
George of the Jungle,
Superchicken, and
Tom Slick) plays corrupt sheriff J.J. Cornett.
Grady Sutton (see
the biography section for the 1961 post on
Lawman)
plays victimized stagecoach passenger Joe Shelton.
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Season 9, Episode 12, "A Girl Named Virginia":
John
Anderson (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays wagon train member Jim
Reed.
Mary Gregory (appeared in
Sleeper
and
Coming Home and played Dr.
Stanwhich on
Knots Landing and Judge
Pendleton on
L.A. Law) plays his wife
Margaret.
Patty McCormack (shown on the right, starred in
The
Bad Seed,
All Mine to Give,
The Explosive Generation, and
Frost/Nixon and played Torey Peck on
Peck's Bad Girl, Lisha Steele on
Young Dr. Malone, Anne Brookes on
The Ropers, Liz La Cerva on
The Sopranos, and Connie Campolotarro on
Have You Met Miss Jones?) plays his
daughter Virginia.
Edward Platt (appeared in
Rebel Without a Cause,
Written
on the Wind,
Designing Woman, and
North by Northwest and played the
Chief on
Get Smart) plays wagon train
leader Frank Graves.
Berry Kroeger (appeared in
Black Magic,
Gun Crazy,
Hitler, and
Demon Seed) plays moocher Lou Kesselberg.
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Season 9, Episode 13, "City of Widows":
Dayton
Lummis (shown on the left, see "Shadows on the Window" above) plays mine owner Capt.
John De La Mar.
Ross Elliott (Freddie the director on
The Jack Benny Program and Sheriff Abbott on
The Virginian) plays newspaper editor James Logan.
Season 9, Episode 14, "The Young Gun": Arthur
Franz (starred in Flight to Mars, The Member of the Wedding, and The Caine Mutiny) plays convicted bank
robber Matt Warner. Stephen Roberts (Stan Peeples on Mr. Novak) plays bank owner George Barrows. King Calder (Lt. Gray
on Martin Kane) plays Vernal, Utah
Sheriff Pete Harmon.