Frontier Circus (1962)

 

The failure of Frontier Circus to last beyond a single season of 26 episodes certainly was not due to the efforts of the Revue Productions publicity department. Besides a December 16, 1961 TV Guide photo feature showing how they filmed the hot-air balloon shots for "The Balloon Girl" episode, which aired on January 11, 1962, the series scored two more TV Guide features in 1962--a 2-page photo spread of the three male stars and a menagerie of animals in the February 3, 1962 issue, and a biographical feature on leading man Chill Wills in the April 28, 1962 issue. But while the publicity department did its part and the casting crew lined up such A-list guest stars as Sammy Davis, Jr. in "Coals of Fire" (January 4, 1962), Mickey Rooney in "Calamity Circus" (March 8, 1962), and Red Buttons in "Never Won Fair Lady" (April 12, 1962), the script department failed to come up with much in the way of new stories, instead recycling such shop-worn plots as the shotgun wedding (used twice, in "The Courtship" [February 19, 1962] and "The Clan MacDuff" [April 26, 1962]), the Romeo and Juliet family feud (also in "The Clan MacDuff"), the ugly duckling tomboy ("Stopover in Paradise" [February 22, 1962]), the con-man takeover ("Quick Shuffle" [February 1, 1962]), the impractical pacifist ("The Good Fight" [April 19, 1962]), the jealous husband ("The Daring Durandos" [May 17, 1962]), and the quarantine story ("Incident at Pawnee Gun" [September 6, 1962]). And for a show dubbed "Wagon Train with animals" (see our post on the 1961 episodes as well as the aforementioned TV Guide photo feature), the animals rarely figure prominently in the plots, other than a six-gun-shooting chimpanzee in the final episode, which was aired 3½ months after the penultimate show obviously as a placeholder before the new season got started. Despite all the money spent on the animal acts and special effects for gimmicks like a runaway hot-air balloon, the series itself couldn't deliver on the most fundamental aspect of quality TV--a good story.

In fact, some of the stories are downright awful, beginning with the previously cited Sammy Davis, Jr. guest spot "Coals of Fire" in which Davis plays ex-slave Cato Richards who is bent on revenging the Union Army officer who shot his master. In this Confederate-friendly fantasy, Richards' master was a "good" slave owner who treated his slaves like family, while the Union officer who killed him is a sadist, so evil that it drives Richards to join the Confederate army in a support role so that he can learn how to handle firearms and gather intelligence to help him track down his target. Both Richards and Frontier Circus regular Tony Gentry tell each other that they didn't fight in the Confederate cause in support of slavery, but regardless what they may tell themselves or each other, the Civil War was fought to protect the institution of slavery. Plenty of westerns from the era attempted to whitewash the Confederacy and those who fought for it (see The Rebel, for example), but few stoop to the levels of this episode of Frontier Circus. It does, however, bestow on Wills' Casey Thompson character perhaps the best line uttered in the series when he mutters to himself that man is the only animal who will kill his own kind for reasons other than hunger. The Old South is treated as a quixotic curiosity in "The Courtship" when Gentry rides into the isolated community of New Atlanta hoping to arrange for the circus to perform there only to learn that they don't allow such entertainment in their genteel reconstruction of the Old South out on the frontier (the uncouth subject of slavery is never mentioned). And in "The Good Fight" Ben Travis rediscovers an old flame who has had her family plantation reconstructed in the Nevada valleys, again as if this is some whimsical trifle. Of course, white audiences and TV producers were completely unaware of the power of these antebellum symbols in the pre-Civil Rights Act era.

But white male superiority isn't only promoted by reminders of the Old South: "The Inheritance" (March 15, 1962) has Casey Thompson "inherit" the guardianship of a son and daughter of an old Japanese performing friend of his, but the real purpose of the episode is to denigrate the treatment of women in traditional Japanese culture. The son, Yuki, spends the first half of the episode repressing his sister Hideko--she has to sit at another table when he eats and is not allowed to speak for herself. One of the white male circus performers, Rolando, voices his approval of this arrangement before being put in his place by the "more liberated" American female circus women. When the American women help Hideko dress up in western wear, Yuki feels his heritage is disgraced but holds Ben Travis responsible and has to fight it out with him to try to restore honor, a fight he is bound to lose despite whipping much bigger men earlier in the episode. The episode ends not with a resolution to Hideko's subjugated position in relation to her brother but with Ben and Yuki fighting off the bigger ruffians and then shaking hands, the implication being that once the males have settled their differences everything else will fall into place.

The irony of this episode is that it suggests that American women have it better than their Asian counterparts when, as we covered at length in our post on the 1961 episodes, the women  on Frontier Circus are hardly liberated--they are most often damsels in distress. But in the 1962 episodes women become more devious and dangerous. In "The Courtship" southern belle Amelia Curtis attempts to lure Casey into marrying her because he bears a striking resemblance to her late father who established and ran the resurrected Old South community of New Atlanta. But she, being a woman, does not have the skill to maintain the town's economic prosperity, so she is looking for a man to take over. When he declines her offer, she threatens to seize his circus. He is only able to escape her clutches by persuading her town marshal, who has always loved her but never had the backbone to stand up to her, to put her in her place by repeatedly telling her to shut up. So much for the liberated American woman. As alluded to above, "Stopover in Paradise" recycles the worn-out tale of a tomboy who has to be shown by a man, in this case Ben Travis, how to be a woman. Saloon performer Naomi Champagne in her eponymous episode needs Ben to defend her against snooty easterners who try to convince her that historically women like Joan of Arc and Cleopatra always sacrificed themselves so that men could survive and prosper after a Mexican bandito captures Naomi and the easterners and threatens to kill them unless she becomes his paramour. While Naomi has the courage to kill the outlaw during a private dinner, she and the others need Ben's swashbuckling rescue to escape the outlaw's henchmen. In "Mighty Like Rogues" (April 5, 1962) we see bank robber's widow Ma Jukes forcing her children into a life of crime to eke out an existence after they are left destitute. In "The Good Fight" Ben's former lover Hannah Cabot is a greedy land-grabber who pushes her father in trying to drive out a sect of pacifists who own land she covets. And in "The Daring Durandos" younger sister Tina Durando manipulates Ben to sow discord between her older sister and her husband to try to break up their trapeze act so that she can reform a better version and restore the family name to the luster it enjoyed when their father was still alive. By contrast, white male manipulator Will Grady, who has made a living romancing and then fleecing a series of single women, is portrayed as a devilish old rascal in "Mr. Grady Regrets" (January 25, 1962) who is redeemed when his long-lost daughter decides to disregard his perfidious past and reconcile with him. To be fair, the aforementioned Ma Jukes is also rehabilitated by episode's end when Ben and Casey hire her as a kind of store detective to spot pickpockets circulating amongst their circus customers, but she does so only upon threat of being sent to jail and therefore separated from her children.

The one female who manages to hold her own against the male stars of Frontier Circus is Stella Stevens' balloon entrepreneur Katy Cogswell in "The Balloon Girl." Initially she comes off as another damsel in distress when her hot-air balloon crashes into a hotel in the town where the circus is playing, and she has no money to pay for repairs. Ben and Tony, both finding her attractive and wanting to woo her, offer to have their circus hands repair her balloon if she agrees to join them as a performing act. She agrees, but has no intention of sticking around once the repairs are made (thus casting herself from damsel in distress to manipulative female), but when she takes off she does not realize that Ben has rigged her balloon to only go so far, forcing her to land in the wilderness, where he is easily able to find her and tries to convince her that it is no place for a lady because of the many dangers, in other words, returning her to the role of damsel in distress. However, he overreaches when he recruits a trio of faux Indians, who have been performing with the circus but then walk out in a pay dispute, to scare her into thinking it is best to return to the safety of the circus. When she sees the same "Indians" sneak back into camp, she recognizes that Ben has played her, and once again she takes off in her balloon, though this time Ben does not see it coming, and she leaves behind a note for him saying that she was as honest with him as he was with her. Casey tries to make lemonade out of the episode by pointing out that the name of their circus is plastered on the side of her balloon, meaning they will receive advertising wherever she goes, but it is clear that for once Ben has been outmaneuvered at his own game. Perhaps had the series used a little more of that humility it may have found more success.

 

The Actors

For the biographies of Chill Wills, John Derek, Richard Jaeckel, and J. Pat O'Malley, see the 1961 post on Frontier Circus.

 

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 11, "Coals of Fire": Sammy Davis, Jr. (shown on the left, "The Greatest Living Entertainer," starred in Porgy and Bess, Ocean's 11, Robin and the 7 Hoods, A Man Called Adam, Sweet Charity, Salt and Pepper, The Cannonball Run, and Cannonball Run II and played Chip Warren on One Life to Live and Eddie Phillips on General Hospital) plays former slave Cato Richards. R.G. Armstrong (Police Capt. McAllister on T.H.E. Cat and Lewis Vendredi on Friday the 13th) plays former Union Army Capt. Uriah Foster. Chief Yowlachie (aka, Daniel Simmons, starred in Tonio, Son of the Sierras, With Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre, The Paleface, Ma and Pa Kettle, and The Pathfinder) plays an Indian chief. Larry J. Blake (the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays the circus band leader. 

Season 1, Episode 12, "The Balloon Girl": Stella Stevens (shown on the right, starred in Girls! Girls! Girls!, The Nutty Professor, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Silencers, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows, and The Poseidon Adventure and played Lute-Mae Sanders on Flamingo Road, Phyllis Blake on Santa Barbara, Jake on General Hospital, and Doreen Krudup on Strip Mall) plays balloon entrepreneur Katy Cogswell. Chick Chandler (Toubo Smith on Soldiers of Fortune and Barney Hogan on One Happy Family) plays her ground man Luke Turlock. Claude Akins (Sonny Pruett on Movin' On and Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo on B.J and the Bear and on Lobo) plays Indian actor Powcheek. 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 his performing partner Ralph Wexler.

Season 1, Episode 13, "Mr. Grady Regrets": Charles Ruggles (shown on the left, starred in Charley's Aunt, The Girl Habit, If I Had a Million, Alice in Wonderland, Ruggles of Red Gap, Bringing Up Baby, and Son of Flubber, voiced Aesop on The Bullwinkle Show, and played Lowell Redlings Farquhar on The Beverly Hillbillies) plays ex-con Will Grady. Anne Helm (starred in Follow That Dream, The Interns, and Honeymoon Hotel and played Molly Pierce on Run for Your Life and Mary Briggs on General Hospital) plays his daughter Rosa Blanchard. Lillian Bronson (Mrs. Drake on Date With the Angels) plays the woman who sent him to prison Dorothy Barker. Crahan Denton (appeared in The Parent Trap, Birdman of Alcatraz, and To Kill a Mockingbird) plays lawman Marshal Beckett. Michael Forest (starred in Ski Troop Attack, Atlas, and The Glory Guys and was the voice of Capt. Dorai on Street Fighter II: V and Olympus on Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue) plays Grady's former cellmate Roy Clatter. Dorothy Neumann (Miss Mittleman on Hank) plays Dorothy's neighbor Mrs. Hoskins. Tim Graham (Homer Ede on National Velvet) plays farmer Williams. S. John Launer (Marshall Houts on The Court of Last Resort and the judge 33 times on Perry Mason) plays prison Warden Martine.

Season 1, Episode 14, "Quick Shuffle": Gilbert Roland (shown on the right, starred in Men of the North, She Done Him Wrong, The Sea Hawk, The Gay Cavalier, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Around the World in 80 Days) plays card hustler Luke Santos. Patricia Barry (Kate Harris on Harris Against the World, Lydia McGuire on Dr. Kildare, Adelaide Horton Williams on Days of Our Lives, Peg English on All My Children, and Sally Gleason on Guiding Light) plays saloon girl Amy. Carl Benton Reid (starred in The Little Foxes, In a Lonely Place, Lorna Doone, and The Left Hand of God and played The Man on Burke's Law) plays circuit Judge Salem. George Mitchell (Cal Bristol on Stoney Burke) plays a New Mexico sheriff. Myron Healey (Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays a card player. Richard Reeves (Mr. Murphy on Date With the Angels) plays card player Gruber.

Season 1, Episode 15, "The Courtship": Jo Van Fleet (shown on the left, Oscar winner starred in East of Eden, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Cool Hand Luke, and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas) plays southern belle Amelia Curtis. Jeannette Nolan (starred in Macbeth (1948), The Big Heat, Tribute to a Bad Man, and The Reluctant Astronaut, did voicework for Psycho, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound, and played Annette Devereaux on Hotel de Paree and Holly Grainger on The Virginian) plays her sister Amanda. Henry Jones (Dean Fred Baker on Channing, Owen Metcalf on The Girl With Something Extra, Judge Jonathan Dexter on Phyllis, Josh Alden on Mrs. Columbo, Homer McCoy on Gun Shy, B. Riley Wicker on Falcon Crest, and Hughes Whitney Lennox on I Married Dora) plays New Atlanta Marshal Harry Longstreet. Willard Waterman (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays New Atlanta leading citizen Parker. Sheila Bromley (Janet Tobin on I Married Joan and Ethel Weiss on Hank) plays his wife. Lloyd Corrigan (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, Ned Buntline on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Uncle Charlie on Happy, and Professor McKillup on Hank) plays New Atlanta citizen Willis.

Season 1, Episode 16, "Stopover in Paradise": Carolyn Jones (shown on the right, appeared in House of Wax, The Big Heat, The Seven Year Itch, The Tender Trap, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and How the West Was Won and played Morticia Addams on The Addams Family, Marsha, Queen of Diamonds on Batman, and Myrna Clegg on Capitol) plays cattle rancher Amy Tyson. 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 her foreman Jess Bailey. Adam Kennedy (Dion Patrick on The Californians and Brock Hayden on The Doctors) plays her ranch hand Sam Hagen. Jackie Russell (Peggy Connolly on The Joey Bishop Show) plays contortionist Janet Olsen. 

Season 1, Episode 17, "Calamity Circus": Mickey Rooney (shown on the left, starred in Captains Courageous, Boys Town, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Words and Music, Babyface Nelson, and Breakfast at Tiffany's as well as numerous Andy Hardy movies and played Mickey Mulligan on The Mickey Rooney Show, Mickey Grady on Mickey, Oliver Nugent on One of the Boys, Henry Dailey on The New Adventures of the Black Stallion, and Talbut on Kleo the Misfit Unicorn) plays circus clown Arthur. Howard McNear (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Andy Griffith Show) plays small-town Judge Stuart. Parley Baer (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays the town sheriff. Dennis Rush (Howie Pruitt on The Andy Griffith Show) plays a boy who wants to see the circus. 

Season 1, Episode 18, "The Inheritance": Alan Hale, Jr. (shown on the middle right, played Biff Baker on Biff Baker U.S.A., Casey Jones on Casey Jones, and The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) plays ruffian Lait. Donald "Red" Barry (shown on the near right, played Red Ryder in the movie serial The Adventures of Red Ryder, and played Lt. Snedigar on Surfside 6, The Grand Vizier and Tarantula on Batman, Capt. Red Barnes on Police Woman, and Jud Larabee on Little House on the Prairie) plays his partner Martin. Wally Brown (shown on the far right, appeared in Notorious, The Left Handed Gun, and The Absent-Minded Professor and played Jed Fame on Cimarron City and Chauncey Kowalski on The Roaring '20's) plays Primrose Sheriff Tom Bender. Sid Tomack (Jim Gillis on The Life of Riley) plays saloon owner Toby. Peter Leeds (Tenner Smith on Trackdown and George Colton on Pete and Gladys) plays circus knife-thrower Rolando. 

Season 1, Episode 19, "Naomi Champagne": Constance Ford (starred in A Summer Place, Home From the Hill, All Fall Down, and The Caretakers and played Ada Lucas Davis Downs McGowan Hobson on Another World) plays saloon performer Naomi Champagne. Richard Conte (shown on the left, appeared in A Walk in the Sun, 13 Rue Madeleine, Call Northside 777, Ocean's 11, and Lady in Cement and played Jeff Ryder on The Four Just Men) plays outlaw Don Diego Montoya. Alex Montoya (Miguel Morales on The High Chaparral) plays his henchman Juan. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on The High Chaparral) plays his henchman Pablo. Robert H. Harris (Jake Goldberg on Molly and Raymond Schindler on The Court of Last Resort) plays stove company owner John Haskill. Marguerite Chapman (starred in Spy Smasher, Parachute Nurse, Pardon My Past, Man Bait, and The Seven Year Itch) plays his wife Theresa. Neil Hamilton (starred in The Great Gatsby (1926), Why Be Good?, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), and Brewster's Millions, was the host of Hollywood Screen Test, and played Commissioner Gordon on Batman) plays their friend Jason Glass.

Season 1, Episode 20, "Mighty Like Rogues": Glenda Farrell (shown on the right, starred in Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Johnny Eager, The Talk of the Town, and Kissin' Cousins and played Torchy Blane in 7 feature films) plays pickpocket ring leader Ma Jukes. Joby Baker (David Lewis on Good Morning, World and Col. Harvey Mann on The Six O'Clock Follies) plays her elder son George Washington Jukes. Jena Engstrom (daughter of actress Jean Engstrom) plays her daughter Betsy Ross Jukes. Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert on Fury) plays her younger son Andrew Jackson Jukes. 

Season 1, Episode 21, "Never Won Fair Lady": Red Buttons (shown on the left, starred in Sayonara, Hatari!, The Longest Day, Stagecoach, and The Posiedon Adventure and played Henry Wadsworth Phyfe on The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Al Baker on Knots Landing, and Jules Rubadoux on ER) plays Casey's former commanding officer's son Earl Youngblood. Paul Newlan (Police Capt. Grey on M Squad and Lt. Gen. Pritchard on 12 O'Clock High) plays his father Gen. "Iron Pants" Youngblood. Gloria Talbott (starred in The Cyclops, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll,  and I Married a Monster From Outer Space and played Moneta on Zorro) plays lion tamer Pamela. Richard Reeves (see "Quick Shuffle" above) plays a dissatisfied lemonade customer. 

Season 1, Episode 22, "The Good Fight": George Macready (Martin Peyton on Peyton Place) plays pacifist preacher John Duncan. Kenneth MacDonald (played the judge 32 times on Perry Mason, played Col. Parker on Colt .45, and appeared in several Three Stooges shorts) plays one of his followers Canfield. Jason Evers (shown on the right, starred in The Brain That Wouldn't Die, House of Women, The Green Berets, and Escape From the Planet of the Apes and played Pitcairn on Wrangler, Prof. Joseph Howe on Channing, and Jim Sonnett on The Guns of Will Sonnett) plays ranch foreman Judd Halleck. Kenneth Tobey (starred in The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and It Came From Beneath the Sea and played Chuck Martin on Whirlybirds and Russ Conway on I Spy) plays Rockville Marshal Sam Walden. William Fawcett (Clayton on Duffy's Tavern, Marshal George Higgins on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Pete Wilkey on Fury) plays the Rockville postmaster. Gordon Jones (appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays circus roustabout Jase.

Season 1, Episode 23, "The Clan MacDuff": James Barton (shown on the left, appeared in The Shepherd of the Hills, Here Comes the Groom, Golden Girl, and The Misfits) plays Scottish patriarch Angus MacDuff. Jackie Russell (see "Stopover in Paradise" above) plays his daughter Patricia. John Considine (brother of Tim Considine, played Grant Capwell on Santa Barbara) plays member of feuding clan Robin MacNeil. 

Season 1, Episode 24, "The Race": Edward Andrews (shown on the right, appeared in The Harder They Fall, Elmer Gantry, The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Advise and Consent, and The Glass Bottom Boat and played Cmdr. Rogers Adrian on Broadside and Col. Fairburn on The Doris Day Show) plays collector of men Duke Felix Otway. Skip Homeier (appeared in Arthur Takes Over, The Gunfighter, Sailor Beware, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played Lt. Dan Raven on Dan Raven and Dr. Hugh Jacoby on The Interns) plays his Prussian "pawn" Col. Rastatt. Harry Carey, Jr. (starred in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays horse race competitor Anderson. Jim McMullan (Officer Don Burdick on Chopper One, John Moore on Beyond Westworld, and Sen. Andrew Dowling on Dallas) plays horse race competitor Charlie. 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 Broken Bowl Marshal Walworth. 

Season 1, Episode 25, "The Daring Durandos": Nehemiah Persoff (starred in The Wrong Man, Al Capone and Some Like It Hot) plays trapeze aerialist Paco Durango. Margarita Cordova (shown on the left, played Rosa Andrade on Santa Barbara and Carmen Torres on Sunset Beach) plays his wife Maria. Anita Sands (later became astrologer to the stars and a self-help guru) plays her younger sister Tina. David White (Larry Tate on Bewitched) plays legendary circus owner F.X. Farnum. Jackie Searl (began as a child actor, appearing in Tom Sawyer (1930), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Alice in Wonderland (1933), Great Expectations(1934), and Little Lord Fauntleroy) plays revenge-minded cowboy Cal Soper. 

Season 1, Episode 26, "Incident at Pawnee Gun": Joe Maross (Fred Russell on Peyton Place, Capt. Mike Benton on Code Red, and Dr. Blakely on Dallas) plays saloon owner Al Buchanan. Kathie Browne (shown on the right, played Angie Dow on Hondo and was Darren McGavin's second wife) plays his employee Mauvereen. Paul Carr (Bill Horton on Days of Our Lives, Casey Clark on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Dr. Paul Summers on The Doctors, Ted Prince on Dallas, and Martin Gentry on The Young and the Restless) plays an aspiring hit man. Kenneth Tobey (see "The Good Fight" above) plays rival saloon owner Frank Mitchell. 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 rancher Shanghai. 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 blacksmith Logan. Robert Lowery (starred in Criminal Investigator, Revenge of the Zombies, The Navy Way, The Mummy's Ghost, and They Made Me a Killer and played Big Tim Champion on Circus Boy and Buss Courtney on Pistols 'n' Petticoats) plays New Orleans Marshal Taggart. John Pickard (Capt. Shank Adams on Boots and Saddles and Sgt. Maj. Murdock on Gunslinger) plays his deputy Murdoch. John Hart (appeared in The Buccaneer, Jack Armstrong, and The Ten Commandments and played Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler on Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,  was Clayton Moore's replacement on The Lone Ranger from 1950-53 when Moore was in the midst of a contract dispute, and played Narbo on Rawhide) plays his deputy Fred. William Phipps (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays a cowboy manning a line shack.

Death Valley Days (1960)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.