Have Gun — Will Travel
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Have Gun — Will Travel was a popular American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was the #4 show in the Nielsen ratings in its first year, and #3 for the next three years.[citation needed] It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted on November 23, 1958.
The show followed the adventures of Paladin, a gentleman-turned-gunfighter (played by Richard Boone on television, and by John Dehner on radio), who preferred to settle problems without violence, yet, when forced to fight, excelled. Paladin lived in the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, where he dressed in semi-formal wear, ate gourmet food, and attended opera. In fact, many who initially met him mistook him for a dandy from the East. When working, he dressed in black, used calling cards and wore a holster which carried characteristic chess knight emblems, and carried a derringer under his belt. The knight symbol is of course in reference to his name — possibly a nickname or working name — and his occupation as a champion-for-hire (see paladin). The theme song of the series refers to him as "a knight without armor." In addition, Paladin drew a parallel between his methods and the chess piece's movement: "It's a chess piece, the most versatile on the board. It can move in eight different directions, over obstacles, and it's always unexpected."
Paladin was a former Army officer and a graduate of West Point. He was a polyglot, capable of speaking any foreign tongue required by the plot. He also had a thorough knowledge of ancient history and classical literature, and he exhibited a strong passion for legal principles and the rule of law.
Paladin — whose real name was never revealed — took on his role by happenstance, a backplot revealed in the first episode of the final season. To pay off a gambling IOU, he was forced to hunt down and kill a mysterious gunman named "Smoke", who was played by Boone himself without his moustache and with grey-white hair. Smoke gave the Paladin character his nickname, facetiously calling him "a noble paladin." The question turned out to be doubly ironic, as Smoke hinted in his death scene that he was not a criminal gunfighter, but a protector of the helpless and unenfranchised. Paladin adopted Smoke's black costume and killed the man who had hired him. The episode was unusually allegorical and mythical for a popular Western in 1962.
Paladin charged steep fees for his services — typically a thousand dollars a job. With this kind of money, he was well-equipped; his custom-made six-shooter (his main weapon) was perfectly balanced and of excellent craftsmanship. It had a one-ounce trigger pull and was rifled, unlike most of the sidearms of the day. The large rifle strapped to his horse's saddle was rarely used, but the horsehead insignia embossed on that rifle's stock suggests that this weapon was as meticulously crafted as the six-shooter. The derringer that Paladin hid under his belt saved his life countless times. Ever a man of refinement, Paladin even carried a few expensive cigars in his boot when out on adventure.
Another of his peculiarities was to decide early in the show whether he would kill, or merely wound, his opponent. He made this decision as a judge imposes sentence, based on the opponent's crimes and character rather than convenience.
Paladin's great advantage over his adversaries was not his impressive equipment, or even his ability as a marksman (superior as this was). Paladin's edge was his rich education; he had an infallible ability to relate ancient antecedents to his current situations. When the enemy was surrounding him, Paladin could usually make some insightful quip about General Marcellus and the siege of Syracuse or something similar, and then use this insight to his advantage. Like a chess master, he sought control of the board through superior position, and only killed as a last resort.
The one other major semi-regular character in the show was the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel, cheerfully known as Hey Boy. Even Paladin, clearly a cosmopolitan and culturally sensitive character (and a character in the hands of some clearly sensitive and sophisticated writers, at that), rarely uses Hey Boy's real name. Hey Boy was played by Kam Tong. Later episodes replaced him with the fetching Hey Girl, played by Lisa Lu. At the risk of confusing the issue, it should be noted that in the 1957 episode "Hey Boy's Revenge," Lu appears playing Hey Boy's sister, Kim Li. In that episode, the audience also learns that Hey Boy's name is Kim Chang. In another episode from the first season, "The Singer", Hey Boy responds to a stranger who addresses him with "Hey you!" by annoyedly responding that it is "Hey Boy" and not "Hey you".
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[edit] Radio show
The Have Gun — Will Travel radio show broadcast 106 episodes on CBS between November 23, 1958, and November 22, 1960. It was one of the last radio dramas featuring continuing characters. John Dehner played Paladin and Ben Wright usually (but not always) played Hey Boy. Many of the episodes were adapted from television programs broadcast earlier, but some were original to radio.
[edit] Books
There were three novels based on the TV show, all with the same title as the TV show. The first was a hardback written for children, published by Whitman in 1959 as part of a series of novelizations of TV shows. It was written by Barlow Meyers and illustrated by Nichols S. Firfires. The second was a paperback original written for adults by Noel Lomis, published in 1960. The last, written by Frank Robertson and published in 1963 by Collier-Macmillan in both hardback and paperback, is based on the origin story TV episode "Genesis" by Frank Rolfe. This novel is the only place that a name is given to the Paladin character, "Clay Alexander", but fans of the series do not consider this name canonical. Dell Comics published a number of comic books with original stories based on the TV series.
[edit] Writers
Many of the writers who worked on Have Gun — Will Travel went on to gain fame elsewhere. Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek, Bruce Geller created Mission: Impossible, and Harry Julian Fink is one of the writers who created Dirty Harry.
[edit] Motion Picture
On June 13, 2006, it was announced a feature adaptation of the CBS series would be made. The concept will be updated to contemporary times and see Eminem playing a bounty hunter. According to the June issue of 'InTouch Magazine', "Eminem has committed to play Paladin, an assassin for hire in a modern version of the old series." The setting could be Eminem's hometown of Detroit, but those details have yet to be worked out.
The vehicle will be revamped from the original, with some characters based loosely on ones from the series as well as nods to certain story points.
Eminem will also be involved in either the soundtrack or scoring.[1]
[edit] Home video
All of the episodes were released on VHS by Columbia House. As of January 2006, the first three seasons were available on DVD. Note: In the second season DVD, two of the episodes are mislabeled. On disk three, the episode titled "Treasure Trail" is actually "Hunt the Man Down", and on disk four, "Hunt the Man Down" is "Treasure Trail"; the "Wire Paladin" in each case refers to the other episode.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Have Gun — Will Travel Companion by Martin Grams, Jr. and Lee Rayburn
[edit] Trivia
- In a scene in Stand By Me, the main characters sing the show's theme song.
- According to Philip Jose Farmer on his Wold Newton Universe family tree, Paladin was born as Lancelot Silver, the son of Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stephenson's novel Treasure Island.
[edit] Listen to
[edit] External links
- Have Gun — Will Travel at the Internet Movie Database
- Entry at Encyclopedia of Television
- Have Gun — Will Travel Tribute Site
[edit] References
- ^ MSNBC news article accessed 2006-06-14
