September 14, 1957: "Have Gun -- Will Travel" Premieres

Despite this color promotional photo,

every episode of the series was in black & white.

September 14, 1957: Have Gun -- Will Travel premieres on CBS. TV viewers may have been expecting just another Western. Instead, it was unlike anything seen on TV before.

Richard Boone, 40 years old at the time the show began, plays a man known only as Paladin, a name derived from the 12 knights of the court of Charlemagne in France, circa AD 800. Hence, the knight chesspiece on his gun holster, and on his business card.

The wording on the card meant that he, with his gun, would travel to wherever his would-be hirer wanted. But it led a lot of people to believe that "Wire Paladin" was his full, if odd, name. In fact, in those pre-telephone days, "wire" meant "send a telegraph message to." His real name was never divulged on screen. A novelization of the episode "Genesis," which served as his origin story, gives his name as Clay (probably short for "Clayton") Alexander, but since this name was never used on the TV show, it remains speculation.

Most TV Westerns don't give exact dates, and are generally set between 1865, the end of the American Civil War, and 1900, a convenient date for "the closing of the American frontier." Yet 2 episodes -- oddly, airing within a few weeks of each other -- give dates of 1875 and 1879.

Paladin operates out of a luxury suite at the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, then the biggest and most sophisticated city in the American West. He is a rough and tough man, a deadly gunslinger, and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and thus, almost certainly, a Union officer in the American Civil War.

But he is also a very sophisticated man, wearing the finest suits available at the time when he's not on the job, capable of quoting Scripture, Shakespeare, ancient Greeks or Romans, well-known poets, or just about anybody else he wants before carrying a job out. This may be the result of a privileged and highly educated upbringing in Boston, as he mentions having spent time there, but that doesn't make Boston definitively his hometown.

Despite this refinement, he is a man of his time. He treats Native Americans and Chinese better than his contemporaries, but he still calls the only other regular character on the show, the Carlton's head bellhop, played by Kam Tong, "Hey Boy." He will defend a woman's life and her honor, but in one episode, he absolutely opposes women gaining the right to vote, which did not happen until 1920.

When he is on the job, Paladin dresses all in black, going against the stereotype: In Westerns, wearing black, especially a black hat, tended to indicate a villain. Paladin is unquestionably the hero of the series.

While he also carries a knife and a derringer pistol, his main weapon was a .45 caliber, 7½-inch barrel, Colt Single Action Army pistol, which he had customized with rifling for greater accuracy. In the show's first episode, he tells a would-be opponent, "I’d like you to take a look at this gun. The balance is excellent. This trigger responds to a pressure of one ounce. This gun was hand-crafted to my specifications, and I rarely draw it unless I intend to use it." In a later episode, he tells a prospective customer, "This gun is not always necessary, but it is indispensable."

It's not always necessary because, more often than not, Paladin tried to talk people into doing the right thing -- or, at least, out of doing the wrong thing. And if he could shoot without killing, he would. He didn't always have the option. He also frequently upbraided the people who put his targets into their position. He charged $1,000 a job -- with inflation, about $2,550 by 1957, and about $26,600 in 2022 -- but, if he thought the cause was just, he might do one for free.

The 1st 2 seasons began with a shot of him from the side, from the waist down, the white chess knight on the black holster. Without otherwise moving, he would draw the gun, point it at the camera, say a line that would be heard later in the show, and then re-holster it. The pilot episode began with the line mentioned above: "I'd like you to take a look at this gun... " From the 3rd season onward, he would be shown from the right side in full silhouette, then draw his gun, turn and crouch, but not fire, and then re-holster. This may have inspired the "gunbarrel sequence" that opens every James Bond film.

Have Gun -- Will Travel lasted 6 seasons, until 1963, and stood out from the programming of the time, which, while never crude like TV shows from the 1980s onward, tended not to go out of their way to appeal to the viewer's intellect.

Of the show's 225 episodes, 24 of them were written by Gene Roddenberry, who appreciated the thought that went into the Paladin character. He later pitched Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the Stars," and Paladin, while he did frequently get angry, and occasionally get wistful, was also something of a ladies' man, and can be seen as being an inspiration for Roddenberry to create both Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Richard Boone was typecast as a Western actor, and never seemed right in films set in the present day. From 1972 to 1974, he played a retired sheriff in the Jack Webb-produced Western Hec Ramsey. He died of throat cancer in 1981. Kam Tong died in 1969, age 63.

There have been announced attempts at a revival series: With John Travolta in 1997, Eminem in 2006, and playwright David Mamet as showrunner in 2012. All fell through.

There is a Carlton Hotel in operation in San Francisco today. Whether it's in the same location as it would have been in Paladin's time, I don't know.

*

September 14, 1957 was a Saturday. Baseball All-Star Tim Wallach was born on this day.

There were 4 college football games played that day, none of them involving what were then considered major teams. The NFL, NBA and NHL seasons were yet to begin. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Dick Donovan went the distance for the win. Tom Sturdivant held the South Siders to a 2-2 tie after 7 innings, but Bob Grim gave up a home run to Jim Rivera in the 8th. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Willie Mays hit a home run. Stan Musial did not play. The Giants had already announced their move to San Francisco for the next season.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Gil Hodges hit a home run in support of Carl Erskine. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4. The Dodgers had not yet announced their move to Los Angeles for the next season, but it was already publicly considered a fait accompli.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 13-10 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams did not play for the Red Sox. Vic Wertz hit 2 home runs for the Indians.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 3-1. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. The Detroit Tigers won the nightcap, 4-3. Robinson only appeared in this game as a defensive replacement. Over the 2 games, Tiger star Al Kaline, playing in his hometown, went 2-for 7 with a walk.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 3-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Roy Sievers led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a game-winning home run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 5-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Robin Roberts allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3.

* A doubleheader was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1st game, 3-1. Roberto Clemente didn't play, and Ernie Banks went 1-for-2 with 2 walks. The Cubs won the 2nd game, 7-3. Banks hit 3 home runs, while Clemente only pinch-hit, not reaching base.