In our post on the 1960 episodes, we covered the origins of
perhaps the first realistic western TV program,
Death Valley Days, an anthology series whose individual stories
were based in some measure on real historical events. However, these stories
are often modified for dramatic effect, and in some cases the factual content
is minimal at best. For example, "The Red Petticoat" (March 29, 1961)
revolves around the loyalty of
Lt. Phillip Sheridan, later a Civil War hero as
a general in the Union Army, to an Indian scout named Kahlu while stationed in
Oregon in September 1854. In the TV version of events, the civilians and even
some of Sheridan's own men think that Kahlu is unfaithful to their cause
because several soldiers have been killed in ambushes while Sheridan and his
men have been out trying to capture renegade chief Tajin. Because he is an
Indian, the whites believe Kahlu is in cahoots with his own people, but
Sheridan refuses to waver in his loyalty to Kahlu, who once saved his life. As
a sign of civilian disgust with Sheridan, his girlfriend gives him her red
petticoat to brand him a girlyman, but he instead insists on having one of his
men tie it to his rifle like a flag, and at episode's end The Old Ranger says
he continued that tradition during his Civil War exploits. In the world of
facts, Sheridan was not assigned to the California and Oregon territories until
November 1854, according to his own memoir. And there is no mention of a red
petticoat or an Indian scout named Kahlu. However, he did reportedly have a
Rogue River Indian mistress called Frances by her white friends during this
period, though he does not mention her in his memoir either.
The story of Queen of the Outlaws Belle Starr told in
"A Bullet for the D.A." (November 13, 1961) is almost as fictional,
though it uses more real persons as characters. In the TV version, Belle Starr
has married an Indian named Sam Starr and has given up her outlaw ways after
the couple settles in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1886. However, Sam is accused of
horse thieving and is tried in front of Judge Isaac Parker. Sam argues that he
wandered onto the property from which the horses disappeared because he can't
read and therefore did not know that the sign he passed said "No Trespassing,"
but District Attorney Frank Clayton tries to discredit his claim by asking him
what a $10 bill is, what the building is across the street (a saloon), and so
on, all of which Sam correctly identifies, after which Clayton mockingly says
"but you can't read!" Belle is incensed at the way Clayton has
ridiculed her husband and determines secretly to get revenge, finally finding
the right time when Parker invites her to take part in a semi-centennial
reenactment of a famous stage holdup using blanks instead of real bullets. But
before she can carry out her plan, Sam sends her a handwritten note indicating
that Clayton has secretly been teaching him to read and write to make amends
for publicly humiliating him. In real life, Belle and Sam Starr were married in
1880 and in 1883 were accused of horse stealing and tried before hanging judge
Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The prosecutor was District Attorney
W.H.H. Clayton, but the couple were both convicted and sentenced to 9 months in
prison. Belle was a model prisoner; Sam was not, and in 1886 he was killed in a
gunfight with Officer Frank West. While the Death
Valley Days episode is a heart-warming redemption story, a favorite theme
in the series as we covered in our 1960 blog post, the real-life events offer
no such feel-good sentiments.
Another whitewashing of historical facts takes place in
"The Treasure of Elk Creek Canyon" (October 30, 1961) in which stage
coach driver Abe Williamson is robbed of his last 15 cents and has his
stagecoach burned by Confederate soldiers turned outlaws John and Jim Reynolds.
In the Death Valley Days version,
Williamson resigns his job with the stagecoach line and tracks the outlaws to
their hideout in a stagecoach waystation, where he pretends to be looking for
work and not recognizing them since they wore masks during the robbery. He
demonstrates his strength as a good worker by bending a coin in half and then
challenges both of them to arm wrestle at the same time, using his prodigious
strength to crush their hands and take away their guns as they writhe in pain.
In reality the Reynolds Gang was a group of Confederate soldiers assigned to
disrupt Union supply lines in Colorado, but one of their noteworthy robberies
was a stagecoach driven by Abner Williamson, who was incensed that they took
his last 16 cents and a watch and who publicized their crimes far and wide.
Williamson did not lead to their capture, though he later showed up as a
cavalry prison guard when a group of five gang members had been captured and
were awaiting sentencing at Fort Lyon. However, a Colonel Chivington wanted the
men executed before the commanding officer returned to issue sentence, and he
ordered Sgt. Alton Shaw to carry out the executions, but Shaw became sickened
after shooting one of the prisoners in the head at point blank range, and
Williamson stepped in and killed the other four men. However, John Reynolds was
not part of this group, having escaped to New Mexico Territory where he was
killed in 1871 near Taos. It is not known what became of Jim Reynolds.
Another story woven from the faintest thread of fact is
"Dead Man's Tale" (February 26, 1961) in which Little Bighorn
survivor Lt. H.M. Harrington, presumed dead, returns to exact vengeance on
former gun runner to the Indians Salem Putney, who has hidden his identity by
changing his name to Grant Noble and running a legitimate general store. Instead
of killing Putney, Harrington is persuaded by Dr. Allen Camden to expose his
perfidy to his fiance Bella Robbins, which Camden argues would be worse than
death. The TV version correctly portrays the Custer massacre as being driven by
corrupt traders at Indian posts, who happily supplied the Indians with rifles
but stole their other government provisions, such as food. This sent the
Indians off the reservation to join up with Sitting Bull, and George Custer was
sent to round them up only to be greatly outnumbered and outgunned. Harrington
was a real lieutenant under Custer, but after the battle his body was never found.
Obviously, there is no record of him resurfacing years later to exact revenge
on one of many corrupt trading post managers.
More aligned with the facts is the story of frontiersman
Joseph L. Meek told in "Who's Fer Divide?" (March 1, 1961). Meek was
indeed a fur trapper and teller of tall tales as well as friends with
Doc
Newell, as depicted in the
Death Valley
Days episode. He was also a key figure in having Oregon become a part of
the United States, though it is unclear if it played out the way the TV series
portrayed it, with a dramatic vote in which Meek recruits a pair of French
Canadians who have no real stake in the matter to cast their votes for the
Americans against British interests (even though they are subjects of the
Crown) as repayment for Meek and Newell saving their lives years earlier from
sure Indian massacre. The TV episode is set in 1842, whereas Meek helped form
the first provisional government in Oregon in 1843 and personally met with
President James K. Polk to persuade him to secure Oregon for the United States
in 1848. The Old Ranger tells us at episode's end that Meek was so highly
thought of by the Oregon citizens that he was named the first sheriff of the
territory. The real Meek did indeed serve as a sheriff, but was also named a
U.S. Marshal and occasionally served as unofficial territorial governor from
time to time before Oregon officially became a state in 1859.
Another episode with a solid historical foundation that was
heavily adapted for dramatic effect is "Deadline at Austin" (January
29, 1961), which tells the tale of how the Nevada Central Railroad was built to
connect with the Southern Pacific transcontinental railroad in 1880. As
depicted in the TV episode, the drive for the railroad was led by M.J. Farrell,
portrayed as the railroad foreman on Death
Valley Days though in real life he was the secretary of the Manhattan
Silver Mining Company, which needed the railroad to export its product, and the
state senator for Lander County. Also as shown on TV the Nevada legislature
authorized a $200,000 subsidy to complete the railroad by a specified date,
overriding a veto by the governor (named Lambert on TV, though in reality his
name was Lewis R. Bradley) to get the subsidy legislation passed. Farrell
didn't actually manage the work on completing the railroad; in reality it was
managed by Anson Phelps Stokes who brought in former Union army General James
H. Ledlie to help with the construction. As shown in the episode, the crews
came about 2 miles short of completing the link between Austin and the spur
from Battle Mountain with the deadline approaching, so the Austin Town Board
voted to extend the city limits the necessary 2 miles to meet the requirements
of the subsidy legislation. However, there is no record that the idea for
extending the city limits was concocted by a shady elixir salesman who was
romancing the mayor's daughter, as shown on Death
Valley Days. The TV episode also adds a conflict between the governor and
the mayor, with the governor hoping that the project will fail as payback to
the mayor who had earlier exposed his corruption. The mayor's daughter is thus
motivated to get the elixir salesman to freely offer his idea for meeting the
deadline after he initially had sought to profit from it by demanding $5000.
Likewise, "White Gold" (February 15, 1961) takes a
historical incident and fashions a good versus evil tale out of it. The
Death Valley Days episode takes a flour
shortage in the isolated mining town of Virginia City, Montana and spins a
morality tale about capitalist greed. In the TV episode, set in 1864, general
store proprietor "Doughy" Lucas, who has for years been the sole
importer of flour from remote Salt Lake City, creates a panic and a business
opportunity by claiming that due to snow in the mountain passes between his
town and Salt Lake City, no flour can be brought in and he has sold out of his
supply. Actually, though Lucas is still able to get his supply but divvies up
small portions to other local businessmen, who then raise the price from around
$25 a sack to $40 and eventually to $100 a sack. When the sheriff refuses to
take action after receiving complaints, newspaper editor Ed Cullen urges
citizens to take the law into their own hands, and miner Milt Baxter leads a
vigilante mob to seize and redistribute flour held by one hoarder, which only
forces Lucas and his cohorts to go more underground and raise prices higher. But
then Cullen meets cowboy Ab Garza who just came through the supposedly
snow-bound pass quite easily, and he unravels Lucas' plot by taking Garza with
him to Salt Lake City and bringing back more flour and an armed group of
deputies to break up Lucas' ring of dirty dealers and send them to jail. In
reality, the shortage took place in the spring of 1865 and was due to the
isolated community being cut off from any supplies. Those holding stores of
flour did raise the prices from about $25 to $100 per sack, but it was not part
of some underhanded and coordinated conspiracy, just merely ordinary price-gouging,
and there was no secret supply line being snuck in under cover of night. However,
the citizens did summon an army of some 480 men who marched in from Nevada and
seized and redistributed hoarded flour. The role of the
Montana Post newspaper in these actions is not entirely clear: a
group of citizens formed a Flour Committee, and the newspaper printed a
statement dictating that the price of flour would henceforth be between $27 and
$30 a sack. But a few days later a different group of citizens calling
themselves the Flour Committee published a statement saying that they had never
mandated the price of flour. A little over a week later the paper reported that
a few sacks sold for $80 and that there were no more to be had. Another three
weeks would pass before any more flour would appear on the market at a price of
$28 to $30, presumably because winter had passed and trading routes were open
again. The televised version makes newspaper editor Cullen the hero, bringing
law and order as well as the food supply back to a town strangled by business
greed, but the newspaper's role in the actual events is a bit more ambivalent,
and flour prices did not revert to normal levels until nature took its course.
The story told in "The Stolen City" (April 9,
1961) is principally accurate in depicting French-born former merchant Jose
Yves Limantour claiming to have land grants from the Mexican government that
would give him ownership of a majority of the city of San Francisco and
surrounding areas. U.S. Attorney Edwin M. Stanton (who would later be fired as
Secretary of War leading to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson) is
assigned to investigate Limantour's claims and discovered with the help of Auguste
Jouan that the documents were forgeries that used counterfeited government
stamps, prompting the arrest of Limantour. In the TV version Stanton is helped
by apothecary Zacharias Gurney and the counterfeited stamps are actually made
of wax, which does not use the secret mixture from former Mexican wax and candle
maker Juan Tarabal, whose daughter is in cahoots with Limantour and had thought
she knew how to make his special wax used for the seals.
While it sometimes makes for entertaining television, Death Valley Days maintains an
ambivalent relationship with the history it purports to portray--on the one
hand, it exposes the viewer to actual events and people that had a hand in this
country's history, but because it so frequently alters the truth, sometimes
turning it on its head, such as the aforementioned portrayals of Abner
Williamson and Sam and Belle Starr, it does a disservice in misrepresenting
what actually happened for the sake of entertainment. It is said that those who
fail to learn the mistakes of history are bound to repeat them, but as William
Faulkner so ably demonstrated, establishing what exactly constitutes
"history" is no easy task.
The Actors
For the biography of Stanley Andrews, see the 1960 post on Death Valley Days.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 9, Episode 15, "The Lady Was an M.D.":
Yvonne
De Carlo (shown on the left, starred in
Salome, Where She Danced,
Criss Cross,
The Ten
Commandments, and
Munster, Go Home!
and played Lily Munster on
The Munsters)
plays San Francisco physician Dr. Clare Reed.
John Vivyan (see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
Mr. Lucky)
plays her sea-faring boyfriend Ed Taylor.
Charles Watts (Judge Harvey Blandon
on
Bachelor Father) plays fellow
physician Dr. Thurston.
Guy Lee (Charlie Wong on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) plays Taylor's cabin boy Hing Chang.
Season 9, Episode 16, "The Salt War": Harry Lauter
(Ranger Clay Morgan on Tales of the Texas
Rangers, Atlasande on Rocky Jones,
Space Ranger, and Jim Herrick on Waterfront)
plays El Paso ranch foreman Jess Hixon. Jeffrey Stone (D'Artagnan on The Three Musketeers) plays surveyor Dave
Reid. Norman Leavitt (Ralph on Trackdown)
plays ranch hand Joe. Tom Greenway (Sheriff Jack Bronson on State Trooper) plays homesteader Pete
Dodd. Jonathan Bolt (wrote 19 episodes of Ryan's
Hope) plays his son Bob.
Season 9, Episode 17, "The Madstone":
George
Macready (shown on the right, played Martin Peyton on
Peyton Place)
plays wealthy rancher Caleb Rees.
Eloise Hardt (Karen Hadley on
The Dennis O'Keefe Show) plays his
daughter Ellen Denby.
Myron Healey (Doc Holliday on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays her husband Big Matt Denby.
Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert on
Fury) plays their son Matt, Jr.
Allen Emerson (Doug on
The New Loretta Young Show) plays their
neighbor Fred Westgate.
Jeanne Bates (appeared in
The Phantom,
The Strangler,
Eraserhead,
Gus, and
Mulholland Drive
and played Nurse Wills on
Ben Casey)
plays his wife Sarah.
Season 9, Episode 18, "Deadline at Austin": David
Janssen (shown on the left, starred in To Hell and Back,
Hell to Eternity, King of the Roaring '20's, The Green Berets, and The Shoes of the Fisherman and played
Richard Diamond on Richard Diamond,
Private Detective, Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive, Jim O'Hara on O'Hara,
U.S. Treasury, and Harry Orwell on Harry
O) plays elixir salesman Dr. Bill Breckenridge. William Boyett (Sgt. Ken
Williams on Highway Patrol and Sgt.
MacDonald on Adam-12) plays railroad
foreman M.J. Farrell.
Season 9, Episode 19, "South of Horror Flats":
John
Lupton (Tom Jeffords on
Broken Arrow
and Frank on
Never Too Young) plays Pinkerton
agent Allen Hodges.
Tom Fadden (Duffield on
Broken
Arrow, Silas Perry on
Cimarron City,
and Ben Miller on
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction) plays gold miner Tom
Briton.
Jocelyn Somers (Jessie Bartok on
The
Doctors) plays his daughter Abigale.
Hank Patterson (Fred Ziffel on
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction and Hank on
Gunsmoke)
plays general store owner George Jackson.
Season 9, Episode 20, "Gamble With Death": Ken
Murray (Academy Award-winning home movie cinematographer, host of The Ken Murray Show, appeared in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Son of Flubber, and Follow Me, Boys) plays jinxed prospector Dave Eldridge. Dick
Sargent (shown on the right, starred in Bernardine, Operation Petticoat, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played
Dick Cooper on One Happy Family, Lt.
Maxwell Trotter on Broadside,
Terrance Ward on The Tammy Grimes Show,
the second Darrin Stephens on Bewitched,
and Richard Preston on Down to Earth)
plays gambler Cliff Streeter. 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 Eldridge's friend
Job Darius. Tom Greenway (see "The Salt War" above) plays the
Goldfield sheriff.
Season 9, Episode 21, "White
Gold":
Charles H. Gray (shown on the left, played Officer Edwards on
Highway Patrol, Pico McGuire on
Gunslinger,
Clay Forrester on
Rawhide, and Bill
Foster on
The Young and the Restless)
plays Virginia City, Montana newspaper editor Ed Cullen.
Paul Bryar (Sheriff
Harve Anders on
The Long, Hot Summer)
plays general store owner Doughy Lucas.
Larry J. Blake (played the unnamed
jailer on
Yancy Derringer and Tom
Parnell on
Saints and Sinners) plays disgruntled
customer Milt Baxter.
Sam Reese (Dr. Dan Shanks on
Dr. Kildare) plays cowboy Ab Garza.
Season 9, Episode 22, "Dead Man's Tale":
Russell
Johnson (shown on the right, starred in
It Came From Outer
Space,
This Island Earth, and
Johnny Dark and played Marshal Gib Scott
on
Black Saddle, Professor Roy
Hinkley on
Gilligan's Island, and
Assistant D.A. Brenton Grant on
Owen
Marshall: Counselor at Law) plays general store owner Grant Noble.
Richard
Franchot (directed 312 episodes of
Bright
Promise) plays his assistant Ed Robbins.
Valerie Starrett (Diana Maynard
Taylor on
General Hospital) plays Ed's
sister Bella.
Peter Hansen (Lt. Col. Van Pelt on
Gomer Pyle: USMC, Major Drake on
How the West Was Won, and Lee Baldwin on
Port Charles and
General
Hospital) plays physician Dr. Allen Camden.
John Milford (see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays former Custer officer Lt. H.M. Harrington.
Dennis Moore (Deputy Lee on
Tombstone Territory) plays the town sheriff.
Season 9, Episode 23, "Who's Fer Divide?":
Peter
Whitney (shown on the left, played Sergeant Buck Sinclair on
The
Rough Riders and Lafe Crick on
The
Beverly Hillbillies) plays mountain man Joe Meek.
Dabbs Greer (see the
biography section for the 1960 post on
Gunsmoke)
plays his friend Doc Newell.
Dick Wilson (Dino Barone on
McHale's Navy and George Whipple in Charmin toilet paper
commercials) plays French Canadian settler Matthew.
Frank Wilcox (see the
biography section for the 1961 post on
The Untouchables) plays British territorial governor John Benjamin Kittredge.
George Wallace (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays
his local representative Jack Ivey.
Patric Knowles (starred in
The Adventures of Robin Hood,
How Green Was My Valley, and
The Wolf Man) plays the British election
chairman.
Season 9, Episode 24, "Dangerous Crossing":
William
Lundigan (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Men Into Space) plays former sailor Nathaniel Norgate.
Milton Frome
(starred in
Pardners,
The Delicate Delinquent, and
The Swinger and played Lawrence Chapman
on
The Beverly Hillbillies) plays religious
sect leader Simon Meeker.
Norman Leavitt (see "The Salt War" above)
plays sect member Brother Walter.
Ric Marlow (wrote the lyrics to "A Taste
of Honey") plays extortionist Link Frets.
Season 9, Episode 25, "Death Ride": Marion Ross (shown on the left, played Nora
on Life With Father, Susan Green on The Gertrude Berg Show, Miss Bromfield
on Mr. Novak, Mary Morgan on Paradise Bay, Marion Cunningham on Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, Emily Heywod/Hayward on The Love Boat, Sophie Berger on Brooklyn
Bridge, Beulah Carey on The Drew Carey Show, and the voice of
Mrs. Lopart on Handy Manny) plays barber's
wife Martha Sayles. Robert Rockwell (Phillip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks, Sam Logan on The
Man From Blackhawk, Tom Bishop on Diff'rent
Strokes, and Wally Overmier on Growing
Pains) plays traveling lawyer William Thorne. Eddie Quillan (see
"Gamble With Death" above) plays hotel owner Clem Rees. Thayer
Roberts (Thomas on The Living Bible)
plays Solita Flats physician Dr. Saul Mitchell. Victor Rodman (Dr. Sam Rinehart
on Noah's Ark) plays undertaker/coroner
Wendell Hewitt.
Season 9, Episode 26, "Loophole":
Arthur Shields (appeared
in
Drums Along the Mohawk,
How Green Was My Valley,
National Velvet, and
The Quiet Man and played Boles on
The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate
Treasure) plays old prospector Jebal McSween.
Alexander Davion (appeared in
Paranoiac,
The Plague of the Zombies, and
Valley
of the Dolls and played Phoebus de Chateaupers on
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Det. Chief Insp. David Keen on
Gideon C.I.D.) plays his future
son-in-law and lawyer Mitchell Hobart.
Bruce Gordon (shown on the right, see the biography section
for the 1961 post on
The Untouchables)
plays developer Henry Claypool.
Season 9, Episode 27, "The Red Petticoat": H.M.
Wynant (Lt. Bauer on The Young Marrieds,
Frosty on Batman, and Ed Chapman on Dallas)
plays U.S. Army Lt. Phillip Sheridan. Barry Cahill (Capt. Curt Douglas on 12 O'Clock High) plays his underling Sgt.
Judd Barton. Hal Needham (Hollywood's highest-paid stuntman who invented
numerous stunt devices, was a double for Richard Boone and Burt Reynolds, and
directed Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Cannonball Run) plays insubordinate Pvt. Snavely.
Season 9, Episode 28, "The Stolen City":
Gregory
Morton (Mr. Wainwright on
Peyton Place and
Walter Williams on
Ben Casey) plays former
gun-runner Jose Yves Limontour.
Darren McGavin (shown on the left, see the biography section for
the 1960 post on
Riverboat) plays apothecary
Zacharias Gurney.
Emory Parnell (Hawkins on
The
Life of Riley and Hank the bartender on
Lawman)
plays land commissioner F.X. Cleland.
Harlan Warde (John Hamilton on
The Rifleman and Sheriff John Brannan on
The Virginian) plays U.S. attorney
Edwin M. Stanton.
Season 9, Episode 29, "General Without a Cause": Jack
Elam (shown on the right, played Deputy J.D. Smith on The Dakotas,
George Taggart on Temple Houston,
Zack Wheeler on The Texas Wheelers,
and Uncle Alvin Stevenson on Easy Street)
plays bandit king "General" Juan Cortino. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on
The High Chapparal) plays his
henchman Indio. Robert Darnell (Doug Russell on The Bold and the Beautiful) plays henchman Linker. William Boyett (see
"Deadline at Austin" above) plays Union Army agent Miles Owen. Lisa
Gaye (Gwen Kirby on How to Marry a
Millionaire) plays Mexican soldier Dolores.
Season 10, Episode 1, "Queen of Spades": Gloria
Talbott (shown on the left, starred in The Cyclops, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, and I
Married a Monster From Outer Space and played Moneta on Zorro) plays thrill-seeking wife Mary
Kileen. John McLiam (appeared in Cool
Hand Luke, In Cold Blood, Sleeper, The Missouri Breaks, and First
Blood) plays her husband Frank. L.Q. Jones (Beldon on The Virginian, Sheriff Lew Wallace on The Yellow Rose, and Nathan Wayne on Renegade) plays her old flame Billy Madsen. Tom Drake (starred in Meet Me in St. Louis, Words and Music, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, and The Sandpiper)
plays blackjack dealer Billy Leslie. Doodles Weaver (narrated Spike Jones'
horse-racing songs and hosted A Day With
Doodles) plays a card player.
Season 10, Episode 2, "The Hold-Up Proof Safe": Regis
Toomey (starred in Alibi, Other Men's Women, The Finger Points, His Girl
Friday, and The Big Sleep and
played Joe Mulligan on The Mickey Rooney
Show, Lt. Manny Waldo on Four Star
Playhouse, Lt. McGough on Richard
Diamond, Private Detective, Det. Les Hart on Burke's Law, and Dr. Barton Stuart on Petticoat Junction and Green
Acres) plays store owner Gus Lammerson. John Ashley (shown on the right, appeared in Dragstrip Girl, Frankenstein's Daughter, and Beach
Blanket Bingo, played Clipper Hamilton on Straightaway, was the narrator on The A-Team, and produced multiple episodes of The A-Team, Werewolf, and
Walker, Texas Ranger) plays former
wild-west show performer Sandy MacDonald. Judson Pratt (Billy Kinkaid on Union Pacific) plays Sedalia, CO sheriff
Griswold.
Season 10, Episode 3, "Lieutenant Bungle": Edward
Mallory (shown on the left, played Bill Riley on Morning Star
and Bill Horton on Days of Our Lives)
plays recent West Point graduate Lt. Edward Ross. Philip Ober (appeared in From Here to Eternity, North by Northwest, and Elmer Gantry) plays seasoned army
commander Maj. Ernest Galloway. Rance Howard (father of Ron Howard and Clint
Howard, played Henry Boomhauer on Gentle
Ben and Dr. McIvers on The Waltons)
plays one of his men Mace. Jody Fair (appeared in High School Confidential, Hot
Rod Gang, The Brain Eaters, and Sex Kittens Go to College) plays
Galloway's daughter Janice.
Season 10, Episode 4, "The Third Passenger":
Tyler
McVey (Maj. Norgrath on
Men Into Space)
plays teamster Lew Sayres.
Mark Allen (Matt Kissel on
The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and Sam Evans on
Dark Shadows) plays stable owner Otto
Roop.
Season 10, Episode 5, "Trial by Fear":
Eddie
Quillan (shown on the right, see "Gamble With Death" above) plays hotel owner Hill
Beachy.
Phil Chambers (Jason the hotel clerk on
The Andy Griffith Show) plays drummer Lloyd Magruder.
Ed Peck
(Officer Clark on
The Super, Coach
Cooper on
Semi-Tough, Police Capt.
Dennis McDermott on
Benson, and
Police Officer Kirk on
Happy Days)
plays cut-throat Chris Lowry.
David Tyrell (Charlie Burr on
Mister Peepers) plays Magruder's friend
Tom Farrell.
Season 10, Episode 6, "Alias James Stuart":
Robert
Culp (shown on the left, starred in
Sunday in New York,
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,
and
Breaking Point and played Hoby
Gilman on
Trackdown, Kelly Robinson
on
I Spy, Bill Maxwell on
The Greatest American Hero, and Warren
on
Everybody Loves Raymond) plays outlaw
James Stuart and Australian visitor Thomas Burdue.
John Zaremba (Special Agent
Jerry Dressler on
I Led 3 Lives, Dr.
Harold Jensen on
Ben Casey, Admiral
Hardesy on
McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond
Swain on
The Time Tunnel, and Dr. Harlem
Danvers on
Dallas) plays trial Judge
Parsons.
Booth Colman (Prof. Hector Jerrold on
General Hospital and Dr. Felix Burke on
The Young and the Restless) plays Burdue's defense attorney.
Charles
Seel (Otis the Bartender on
Tombstone Territory, Mr. Krinkie on
Dennis the Menace, and Tom Pride on
The Road
West) plays store owner Jansen.
William Woodson (the narrator on
Dick Tracy,
The Invaders, and
Centurions,
voiced J. Jonah Jameson on
Spider-Man
and
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,
and played Sgt. Ed Blankey on
This Man Dawson) plays a trial witness.
Season 10, Episode 7, "Storm Over Truckee":
Jena
Engstrom (daughter of actress Jean Engstrom) plays prospector's daughter Maggie
Woolf.
Corey Allen (went on to direct multiple episodes of
Dr. Kildare,
Police Woman,
Dallas,
Hunter, and
Star Trek: The
Next Generation) plays bank robber Hal Parsons.
House Peters, Jr. (Dave
Bennett on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Jim Billings on
Lassie)
plays posse leader Deputy Walters.
Season 10, Episode 8, "The Treasure of Elk Creek Canyon":
Alan Hale, Jr. (shown on the right, played Biff Baker on
Biff Baker
U.S.A., Casey Jones on
Casey Jones,
and The Skipper on
Gilligan's Island)
plays stage driver Abe Williamson.
Dennis Cross (see the biography section for
the 1960 post on
The Blue Angels)
plays outlaw Jim Reynolds.
John Considine (brother of Tim Considine, played
Grant Capwell on
Santa Barbara) plays
his brother John.
Warren J. Kemmerling (Judge Rense on
How the West Was Won) plays a Colorado sheriff.
Jon Cedar (appeared
in
The Quick and the Dead,
Foxy Brown, and
The Manitou and played Cpl. Langenscheidt on
Hogan's Heroes) plays rancher's son Billy Burton.
King Calder (Lt.
Gray on
Martin Kane) plays waystation
owner Frank Somers.
Season 10, Episode 9, "A Bullet for the D.A.":
Carole
Mathews (shown on the left, starred in
The Monster and the
Ape,
The Man With My Face,
Port of Hell, and
Swamp Women and played Wilma Fansler on
The Californians) plays former outlaw Belle Starr.
Don Haggerty (Jeffrey
Jones on
The Files of Jeffrey Jones,
Eddie Drake on
The Cases of Eddie Drake,
Sheriff Dan Elder on
State Trooper,
and Marsh Murdock on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Fort Smith, AR D.A. Frank Clayton.
Bobby Buntrock (see
the biography section for the 1961 post on
Hazel)
plays his son Frankie.
Miriam Nelson (Emmy-nominated choreographer on
The Lucy Show and
The Red Skelton Hour) plays his wife. Jimmy Cross (Jessie Flouge on
How to Marry a Millionaire) plays a
carnival barker.
Season 10, Episode 10, "The Watch":
Dorothy Malone
(shown on the right, starred in
Scared Stiff,
Pushover,
Young at Heart,
Artists and
Models,
Written on the Wind,
Man of a Thousand Faces,
Too Much, Too Soon, and
Basic Instinct and played Constance
Mackenzie Carson on
Peyton Place)
plays school teacher Mary Parker.
Bing Russell (father of Kurt Russell, played
Deputy Clem Foster on
Bonanza) plays mine
foreman Jack Short.
Michael Hinn (Luke Cummings on
Boots and Saddles and George Haig on
Johnny Ringo) plays miner Bicker.
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 Martha.
Jeannie Russell (see the biography
section for the 1960 post on
Dennis the Menace) plays frightened school girl Peggy.
Season 10, Episode 11, "Miracle at Boot Hill":
John
Carradine (shown on the left, starred in
Stagecoach,
The Grapes of Wrath,
House of Frankenstein,
House of Dracula,
The Ten Commandments, and
Sex
Kittens Go to College and played Gen. Joshua McCord on
Branded) plays an unnamed Stranger claiming he can raise the dead.
Chris
Warfield (Rev. Dr. Frank Thornton on
Going
My Way) plays store owner Herb Driscoll.
Penny Edwards (starred in
That Hagen Girl,
Tucson,
Missing Women, and
Million Dollar Pursuit, filled in for
a pregnant Dale Evans in several early 1950s Roy Rogers features, and modeled
in ads for Lux, Palmolive, and Tiparillos) plays mine owner's widow Ella Woods.
Byron Morrow (Capt. Keith Gregory on
The
New Breed and Pearce Newberry on
Executive
Suite) plays mine owner John B. Woods.
Peter Hansen (see "Dead Man's
Tale" above) plays his foreman Bill Groat.
Howard Caine (Schaab on
The Californians and Maj. Wolfgang
Hochstetter on
Hogan's Heroes) plays
hotel owner Mel Bowan.
Eddie Quillan (see "Gamble With Death" above)
plays remarried widower Mayberry.
Joe Higgins (see the biography section for
the 1961 post on
The Rifleman) plays
stableman Chris Hanson.
Season 1, Episode 19, "Murder by Proxy: Earl Klegg":
Charles McGraw (appeared in The Killers,
Blood on the Moon, The Narrow Margin, and Spartacus and played Mike Waring on The Adventures of Falcon) plays convicted
felon Earl Klegg. Leonard Nimoy (shown on the right, played Mr. Spock on Star Trek, Paris on Mission:
Impossible, and Dr. William Bell on Fringe)
plays his hit-man Ralph Tomek. Lee Farr (Lt. Jim Conway on The Detectives and was married to actor Felicia Farr) plays state
investigator Harvey Dakes. Noah Keen (Det. Lt. Carl Bone on Arrest and Trial) plays state prosecutor
John Bernard. Fay Spain (starred in Dragstrip
Girl, Al Capone, and The Gentle Rain) plays murder victim's
fiance Enid Laslo. Gerald Hiken (cousin of Nat Hiken, appeared in Uncle Vanya, The Goddess, Invitation to a
Gunfighter, and Reds, and played
Katz the Butcher on Car 54 Where Are You?)
plays trade association bookkeeper Vic Fell. Juanita Moore (starred in Ransom!, The Girl Can't Help It, Imitation
of Life, and The Singing Nun)
plays cleaning woman Beatrice George. Regis Toomey (starred in Alibi, Other Men's Women, The Finger
Points, His Girl Friday, and The Big Sleep and played Joe Mulligan on
The Mickey Rooney Show, Lt. Manny
Waldo on Four Star Playhouse, Lt.
McGough on Richard Diamond, Private
Detective, Bill Cochran on Shannon,
Det. Les Hart on Burke's Law, and Dr.
Barton Stuart on Petticoat Junction
and Green Acres) plays district Judge
Thomas Otto. John Zaremba (Special Agent Jerry Dressler on I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold Jensen on Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy on McHale's
Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain on The Time
Tunnel, and Dr, Harlem Danvers on Dallas)
plays a prison warden.
Season 1, Episode 22, "The New Order: Peter Long":
Simon Oakland (shown on the right, starred in Psycho, West
Side Story, and Follow That Dream
and played Tony Vincenzo on Kolchak: The
Night Stalker, Brig. Gen. Thomas Moore on Black Sheep Squadron, and Sgt. Abrams on David Cassidy - Man Undercover) plays ex-con muscle man Walter
Hayes. Chris Robinson (Sgt. Sandy Komansky on 12 O'Clock High, Rick Webber on General
Hospital, and Jack Hamilton on The
Bold and the Beautiful) plays his son Jack. Jesse White (appeared in Harvey, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Bad
Seed, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad,Mad World,
and The Reluctant Astronaut and
played Mickey Calhoun on Private
Secretary, Jesse Leeds on Make Room
for Daddy, and Oscar Pudney on The
Ann Sothern Show) plays Walter's loan-shark partner Rudy. Lin McCarthy (starred
in Yellowneck, The D.I., and Face of a
Fugitive and played Bill Talbot on Modern
Romances) plays Walter's replacement Peter Long. Jack Ging (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Tales of Wells Fargo)
plays federal agent Steve Strohm. Norman Grabowski (appeared in Girls Town, College Confidential, Sex
Kittens Go to College, Roustabout,
The Monkey's Uncle, and The Towering Inferno and played Padowski
on Hank) plays Jack's friend Milt
Gray. Harry Swoger (Harry the bartender on The
Big Valley) plays Walter's debtor Vulner. Anne Helm (Molly Pierce on Run for Your Life) plays his daughter
Rita. Stephen Pearlman (Murray Zuckerman on Husbands,
Wives & Lovers) plays bartender Eddy.
Season 1, Episode 26, "Inside Track": Kent Smith (starred
in Cat People, This Land Is Mine, Hitler's
Children, Curse of the Cat People,
Nora Prentiss, The Spiral Staircase, and The
Fountainhead and played Dr. Robert Morton on Peyton Place and Edgar Scoville on The Invaders) plays race horse breeder Charles Dennis. Lloyd
Bochner (Chief Inspector Neil Campbell on Hong
Kong and Cecil Colby on Dynasty)
plays his lobbyist William Hillier. Bernard Fein (Pvt Gomez on The Phil Silvers Show) plays rival race
track owner Ben Kilrea. David Janssen (shown on the right, starred in To Hell and Back, Hell to
Eternity, King of the Roaring '20's,
The Green Berets, and The Shoes of the Fisherman and played
Richard Diamond on Richard Diamond,
Private Detective, Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive, Jim O'Hara on O'Hara,
U.S. Treasury, and Harry Orwell on Harry
O) plays Kilrea lobbyist Dan Mullin. Bethel Leslie (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 state representative Frances Olney. Robert F. Simon (Dave Tabak on Saints and Sinners, Gen. Alfred Terry on
Custer, Frank Stephens on Bewitched, Uncle Everett McPherson on Nancy, Capt. Rudy Olsen on The Streets of San Francisco, and J.
Jonah Jameson on The Amazing Spiderman)
plays committee chairman Leonard Yates. George Kane (Link Morrison on Love of Life) plays committee member
George Crawford. S. John Launer (Marshall Houts on The Court of Last Resort and the judge 33 times on Perry Mason) plays speaker of the house
Goode.
