HAVE GUN — WILL TRAVEL

'''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. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted on November 23, 1958.

'Have Gun' was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes.^[1]

Contents

Characters

Paladin

Hey Boy

Hey Girl

Radio show

Books

The Real Paladin

Writers

Home video and DVD

Bibliography

Popular culture

Listen to

References/source

External links

Characters

Paladin

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 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 two-ounce trigger pull. 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.
In the final episode of the radio show, Paladin returns to the East to claim a family inheritance. In the 1972-1974 series ''Hec Ramsey'' set at the end of the 19th century Boone stars as an older former gunfighter turned early forensic criminologist. Ramsey at one point says in his younger days as a gunfighter he worked under the name Paladin.

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.

Hey Boy

The one other major semi-regular character in the show was the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel, known as Hey Boy. Hey Boy was played by Kam Tong. According to author and historian Martin Grams, Jr., the character of Hey Boy was featured in all but the fourth of the show's six seasons, with the character of Hey Girl, played by Lisa Lu, replacing Hey Boy for season four while Kam Tong pursued a career with another television series.
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".

Hey Girl

Hey Girl was seen in 1960-61 when actress Lisa Lu temporarily replaced actor Kam Tong who had moved to another series.

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. Virginia Gregg played the role of Miss Wong, before the television series began featuring the character of Hey Girl. Many of the episodes were adapted from television programs broadcast earlier, but some were original to radio.

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 1960 paperback original, written for adults by Noel Lomis. The last, written by Frank Robertson and published in 1963 by Collier-Macmillan in both hardback and paperback, is based on the TV origin episode, "Genesis," by Frank Rolfe. This novel is the only source where 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.
In 2001, a trade paperback book entitled ''The Have Gun-Will Travel Companion'' was published, documenting the history of the radio and television series. The 500-page book was authored by Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn.

The Real Paladin

Paladin was based on an actual 1950s performer in state fairs who dressed in the same all-black outfit, distributed business cards saying "Have Gun - Will Travel," and looked exactly like Richard Boone. When the television series debuted, the real Paladin received a phone call from his sister wanting to know why he hadn't told her he was going to be on television--the resemblance between Paladin and Richard Boone was so great that it had fooled Paladin's own sister. Paladin sued the studio that produced the series but initially lost in a Los Angeles court, although his heirs reopened and eventually won the case decades later, unfortunately after the real Paladin had died.

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 '', and Harry Julian Fink is one of the writers who created Dirty Harry. Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode which aired in 1958.

Home video and DVD

All of the episodes were released on VHS by Columbia House. As of June 2007, only 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.

Bibliography

★ ''The Have Gun — Will Travel Companion'' by Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn. OTR Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-9703310-0-2

Popular culture

★ The program's closing theme song, "Ballad of Paladin", was written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe, and was performed by Western. The program's opening theme song was composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.

★ In a scene in ''Stand By Me'', the main characters sing the show's closing 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 Stevenson's novel ''Treasure Island''.

★ The Bob Hope book ''Have Tux, Will Travel'' is often parodied in cartoons and films, and those parodies are often mistaken as spoofs of the television and radio series.

★ The Three Stooges first film was titled Have Rocket, Will Travel though the working title of the film was ''Rocket and Roll It''

★ In the TV show, Will Traveler, the main characters stop at a bookstore called ''Have Book — Will Travel'' due to the name having similarities with their friend.

★ Robert A. Heinlein wrote a 1958 science fiction novel ''Have Space Suit—Will Travel''.

★ An episode of Sanford and Son was called Have Gun-Will Sell.

★ In an episode of ''The Richard Boone Show'' (1963) Richard Boone played a modern-type Paladin.

Listen to

★ ''Have Gun - Will Travel' radio shows (5 episodes)

★ ''Have Gun - Will Travel'' theme song — (sample) written and performed by Johnny Western

References/source

1. Th Musuem of Broadcast Communications (Encyclopedia of Television) - ''Have Gun Will Travel''

External links

★

★ ''Have Gun — Will Travel'' Tribute Site

★ Web-site for the HaveGun-Will Travel paperback book

★ Have Gun-Will Travel: The Radio Series by author Martin Grams, Jr.