Archive Gems - Have Gun, Will Travel
 
 


Here we look back at some of the shows you may or may not remember.
In this issue we look at one series which was a cut above a lot of the American Westerns.
The hero's motto was the show's title: Have Gun, Will Travel
  In the America of the Fifties, the Western was the genre. One of the many series, which lasted longer than most, debuted on September 14th, 1957; Have Gun, Will Travel. The basic premise of the series ran so; a loner, dressed all in black - at this time, the good guys always wore white - righted wrongs, whatever they may be, but for a price. He packed a six-shooter and holster which were emblazoned with the image of a white chess knight, and handed out business cards to potential clients bearing the same motif and a legend; "Have Gun, Will Travel, Wire Paladin, San Francisco".

Three dimensional hero

He was no two-dimensional hero through. Going just by the name of Paladin, he was a cultured, well-educated West Point student, a mysterious charmer with the ladies who enjoyed haute cuisine and fine wines served from fine bone china and crystalware. His education showed prominently, with him being seen to quote poets and authors such as Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare, and even read newspapers printed in Chinese. Paladin also had a fine moral sense; although he may have been a hired gun, private detective, courier or bodyguard for whoever employed him, Paladin would never just do the job if that said employer turned out to be the week's real bad guy.

Although his business cards never gave an address other than San Francisco, he informed those likely to require his services that he could be contacted at the Hotel Carlton, a truly high-class establishment perfectly in tune with Paladin's taste for the good life. The wires, when they came, were brought by no ordinary bellboy either; like Paladin's newspapers, the bellboy was Chinese and answered to the name of 'Hey Boy'.

The competition

When Have Gun, Will Travel hit the screens in 1957, it had competition from sources including Maverick and Gunsmoke, which was on on the same night. It, like all the others, had to fight for its share of the ratings. Although the other series mentioned, and more besides, all did well, as was the genre's popularity at the time, Have Gun, Will Travel faired consistently well over the course of its six seasons, even when other genres, such as the detective shows, started to overtake the Westerns.

Richard Boone

The main drawing point of the show, apart from the mysterious nature of Paladin, was the actor who played him, Richard Boone. 6'2" tall, and with features more readily associated with villains than heros, Boone himself could claim Western roots, being a seventh-generation nephew of frontiersman Daniel Boone. Born June 18th, 1917 in Los Angeles, he attended Stanford University and Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio. In the late 1940's, he acted in stage plays, on live TV in New York, and appeared in some feature films by the early 50's. He had previously become know to American tv audiences as Dr. Konrad Styner in the NBC series Medic, but the two characters of Styner and Paladin were as different as chalk and cheese.

Critics and co-stars

Initially, although the series wowed audiences who liked Paladin, critics were baffled and confused. Some labelled it as simplistic and just 'an actioner', which considering the complex personality traits of Paladin, and his own modus operandi it is difficult to see how they could really mistake it as anything other than a very adult series.

Boone only had one regular co-star; Kam Tong who played bellboy Hey Boy. During the fourth season, Tong had other work on Mr. Garlund, so Paladin's messages were brought to him by Lisa Lu instead, her character imaginatively named...Hey Girl!

The write stuff

The scripts on Have Gun, Will Travel also helped it to rise above the other Western series during its run. Principal writers included some of the best talent in the business, many of whom would go on to make names for themselves directing, such as Sam Peckinpah, or creating other hit series. These included Sam Rolfe with The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Bruce Geller with Mission: Impossible, and the creator of first The Lieutenant, and then Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry.

Aspirations of a star

It was also while on the series that Boone himself started to direct, something he was very keen on. The series also gave the chance to actress Ida Lupino to make her move into directing, where she honed her skills on many episodes of the series before moving on to other projects.Unusually for those days where long contracts were the norm, Boone had signed only a five year contract, long by today's standards, and felt by the end of his fifth season that the show had gone on too long. "Every time you go to the well, it's a little further down," he said, refering to the effort needed to give a good performance. What he wanted to do was to move on to direct bigger things; by this point, he had already directed 26 episodes of the show and his aspirations lay in that direction.CBS, who made the show, were able to persuade him to do a sixth and final season before Paladin hung up his holster for the last time after 156 episodes.

It's a steal!

Have Gun, Will Travel had more than television as its claim to fame though. In 1962, Duane Eddy recorded an instrumental version of the show's theme song. "The Ballad Of Paladin" was written by Johnny Western, with lyrics by co-creator Sam Rolfe and Richard Boone himself. Eddy's version reached number 33 in the Billboard charts, but managed a Top Ten position in the UK that same year.

The show's second, and financially damaging, claim to fame was that in 1974, a Portuguese cowboy from Rhode Island named Victor De Costa won a federal judgment against CBS for infringement of copyright, successfully asserting that in the late 1940's he had created the Paladin character and the ideas used in Have Gun, Will Travel. He claimed he had billed himself as Paladin after an Italian stood up at a horse show and called him a "paladino" and had adopted the phrase "Have Gun, Will Travel" after someone shouted it at him while he was on a bucking bronco. At his appearances he always dressed in black, handed out hundreds of similar business cards, and even carried a concealed derringer. The physical resemblance between Mr. De Costa and Richard Boone was also nothing less than striking.

Although damages were not immediately awarded, De Costa stood to gain a substantial sum, as court testimony indicated that the show had made more than $14 million for CBS, not including fees from product licensing. A year later, a court of appeals overturned the lower court, ruling that the plaintiff had failed to prove that the public had been deceived. However, De Costa kept pursuing the case, and in 1991 a settlement was reached over 30 years after the lawsuit was originally filed and he received $3 million.

After image

After Have Gun Will Travel, Richard Boone continued his television career. His commanding presence was always evident, whether on film or televison, while he continued to direct various film and television productions. He hosted and appeared in a personal project, The Richard Boone Show, an anthology featuring the same actors in different plays every week. Unfortunately, the show quickly proved too sophisticated for its intended audience, and was cancelled in mid-season. He then moved on to roles in various TV movies and feature films, before embarking on another Western series in the early 70's, where he played the eponymous Hec Ramsey. He once said, tongue-in-cheek that "Hec Ramsey is Paladin, only fatter." The two characters were vastly different, and of the two, Paladin was by far the more popular. Richard Boone died in 1981 at the age of 63.

A cut above

In summing up Have Gun, Will Travel, it has to be said that it contributed more to the genre than most of its contemporaries, and a lot of its descendants, Hec Ramsey included. This it did by having a central character who bucked the hero cliches, both in dress, action and thoughts. There was still plenty of action in there, but in Have Gun... there was more thought behind the shootouts than just 'let's shoot this week's bad guy and ride off into the sunset.' Given the calibre of Boone's performance, and the writing and directing talent that was honed on the series, this was always going to be the case.

Whether the proposed feature film, currently into its third draft script and without any firm casting will be made and carry the torch for this original series, or snuff out that torch by treating it like other recent Hollywood 'remakes' which bear no resemblance to the series that inspired them - remember Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible travesty? - remains to be seen.

article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 1999