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"I like this Hec Ramsey. He's dead honest. He walks right through all the ridiculous standards of Victorian America. He's Paladin, from Have Gun--Will Travel, grown older. If Paladin had lived all those years, he would have run out of patience with the idiots and would've gotten as grumpy as Hec. He would have said to the dame, 'Lady, you're not in distress. You're just stupid.'"
- Richard Boone
While many television series are taken from radio shows, the radio show "Have Gun Will Travel" with John Dehner as Paladin appeared after the television show.
Have Gun–Will Travel
September 14, 1957
August 3, 1963
Have Gun — Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated either number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings during each year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958.
Have Gun — Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series (several were written by Gene Roddenberry), of which 101 were directed by Andrew McLaglen and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
The title was a catch phrase used in personal advertisements in newspapers like The Times, indicating that the advertiser was ready for anything. It was used in this way from the early 1900s. A form common in theatrical advertising was "Have tux, will travel," and this was the inspiration for the writer Herb Meadow. The TV show popularized the phrase in the sixties, and many variations of it were used as titles for other works such as Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert Heinlein.
Originally, each show opened with exactly the same 45-second visual. Over a slow four-note-repeat backbeat score, a tight shot of a white chess knight emblem centered in a black background is shown. The view widens to show that the knight is actually an emblem affixed onto the black pistol holster of a gunman, clad entirely in black, who is standing with right side to the camera, and his left hand in the pistol belt. Only his midsection, showing the full gun holster, is seen. Paladin's right hand then slowly draws the weapon, a long-barreled revolver, from the holster, leisurely cocks it, and then rotates it to point the barrel exactly at the viewer, for 10 seconds. During this time, Paladin delivers a pointed line of dialogue from the coming episode (since the speaker's face is never seen, this is possible to do with the same visual, in each episode). Then the pistol is again leisurely decocked, and reholstered with an angry brusqueness, which also serves as emphasis for the previous short speech. As soon as the weapon is reholstered, the view again tightens to show only the chess knight, and "RICHARD BOONE in HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL" appears. This leads into the show's theme music. In the actual episode that followed, the line delivered at gunpoint in the opening sequence is usually not delivered in this way. In Season 1's "No Visitors," the line does not occur in the story at all.
The first season's Christmas episode, "The Hanging Cross," is unique. Instead of drawing the revolver, Paladin unbuckles the belt and removes the entire rig, holding it out to the camera as he talks. The camera then tilts upward, revealing Richard Boone himself speaking to camera, then hanging the belt, holster, and gun on a wall peg and walking away as the theme picks up and the title graphics appear.
In a later version of the opening sequence, there is a longer range shot, with Paladin in a full-body profile silhouette, and he fast-draws the revolver, dropping into a slight crouch as he turns and points it directly at the camera. After the dubbed-over line, he straightens back up as he shoves the firearm back into his holster. This silhouette visual remained for the rest of the run of the series, but in later episodes, the spoken line would be dropped.
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The show followed the adventures of "Paladin" (no other name is ever given), a gentleman 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 Hotel Carlton in San Francisco, where he dressed in formal attire, ate gourmet food, and attended the opera. In fact, many who met him initially mistook him for a dandy from the East. When working, he dressed in black, carried a derringer under his belt, used calling cards with a chess knight emblem, and wore a stereotypical western-style black gunbelt with the same chess knight symbol attached to the holster.
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's routine switch from the expensive light-colored suit of his genteel urbane persona in San Francisco to his alter ego who wears all-black attire for quests into the lawless and barren Western frontier is also a chess reference.
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 was also a world traveler. His exploits included an 1857 visit to India, where he had won the respect of the natives as a hunter of man-eating tigers.
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 revealed in his death scene that he was not a criminal gunfighter, but protected the nearby town from the man who had sent Paladin. Paladin adopted Smoke's black costume and confronted the other man when he arrived. It was implied that Paladin killed 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. His primary weapon was a custom-made .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army revolver that was perfectly balanced and of excellent craftsmanship. It had a one-ounce trigger pull and a rifled barrel. The accuracy was "one inch to the right at fifty feet."
The lever-action Winchester rifle strapped to his horse's saddle was rarely used, but the horsehead insignia embossed on the rifle's stock suggests that this weapon was as meticulously crafted as the six-shooter. The derringer (a double-barrel Remington in most episodes, a single-barrel Colt in some) that Paladin hid under his belt had saved his life numerous times. It drew a primal comparison to an "extra" advantage weapon so typical of the arsenal of gadgets of which James Bond availed himself for an edge. Paladin's intuitive sense of chesslike strategy—often anticipating moves ahead of his adversary, and backing it up with formidable skills in all areas of personal combat—plus his epicurean tastes and implied lust for women (when relaxing in San Francisco) made him very much a "James Bond" of the old West. Ever a man of refinement, Paladin even carried a few expensive cigars in his boot when out on adventure.
Paladin's great advantage over adversaries was not his impressive equipment, or 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. Burying a rancher killed by Indians, he recited John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud" above the grave. A male role model who memorized poetry was unique in a 1950s television series. Like a chess master, he sought control of the board through superior position, and usually killed only as a last resort.
In the final episode of the radio show, Paladin returns to the East to claim a family inheritance. In the 1972–74 series Hec Ramsey, set at the end of the 19th century, Boone stars as an older former gunfighter turned early forensic criminologist. It is not true that Ramsey at one point says in his younger days as a gunfighter he had worked under the name Paladin. The origin of this myth is that Boone stated in an interview that "Hec Ramsey is Paladin — only fatter." Naturally, he merely meant that the characters had certain similarities: Ramsey was practically buffoonish compared to the erudite Paladin.
The one other major semiregular character in the show was the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel, known as Hey Boy, 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 Chan. (We also learn that Paladin can read Chinese in at least a rudimentary way.) 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."
The program's opening theme song was composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann. Its closing theme song, "Ballad of Paladin," was written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe, and was performed by Western.
Like many TV westerns, the television show was set during a nebulous period after the Civil War. Based on several episodes, Paladin had served in the cavalry during that war, about 12 years previously, and the episode "The Fifth Man" (May 30, 1959) was clearly set during 1875 (the introduction to episodes of the radio version explicitly states the year 1875 as well). The episode "Full Circle" (May 14, 1960) and "Blind Circle" in the fifth season are also set in 1875. The episode "Lazarus" in the fifth season takes place on March 6 and 7, 1875. On the other hand, the episode of May 16, 1959 ("Comanche") was set during 1876, as it ends with Paladin surveying the aftermath of Custer's Last Stand (Battle of the Little Big Horn). In "Out at the Old Ball Bark" in the fourth season, he speaks of having seen a baseball game in 1876. In "The Shooting of Jessie May" in the fourth season, the newspaper is dated October 7, 1876, and an event in the Civil war was "10 or 12 years ago." "The Cure" in the fourth season is set sometime after the 1876 death of Wild Bill Hickok. The episode of December 6, 1958 ("The Ballad of Oscar Wilde") takes place during Oscar Wilde's tour of America in 1882.
The television show was nominated for three Emmy Awards. These were for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series, for Richard Boone (1959); Best Western Series (1959); and Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series (Lead or Support), for Richard Boone (1960).
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 (the opening title and theme scene of the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force would feature the same Paladin-like sequence of a handgun slowly cocked, and then finally pointed toward the camera, with a line of dialogue). Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode, which aired in 1958. Both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible were produced by Desilu Productions and later, Paramount Television, which also now owns the rights to Have Gun — Will Travel through its successor company, CBS Television Distribution.
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 (a regular on the radio series version of Gunsmoke) played Paladin, and Ben Wright usually (but not always) played Hey Boy. Virginia Gregg played the role of Miss Wong, Hey Boy's girlfriend, before the television series began featuring the character of Hey Girl. Unlike the small-screen version, in this medium, there was usually a tag scene back at the Carlton at both the beginning and the end of the episode. Initially, the episodes were adaptations of the television program as broadcast earlier the same week, but eventually, original stories were produced, including a finale ("Goodbye, Paladin") in which Paladin left San Francisco, apparently forever, to claim an inheritance back East. The radio version of the show was written by producer/writer Roy Winsor.
There were three novels based on the television show, all with the same title as the show. The first was a hardback written for children, published by Whitman in 1959 as part of a series of novelizations of television 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 book, called A Man Called Paladin, written by Frank C. Robertson and published in 1963 by Collier-Macmillan in both hardback and paperback, is based on the television original 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 television series.
In 2001, a trade paperback book titled 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.
In 1997 it was announced that a movie version of the television series would be made. John Travolta was named as a possible star in the Warner Bros. production scripted by Larry Ferguson and to be directed by The Fugitive director Andrew Davis. However, the film was not made.
In 2006, there were reports of a possible Have Gun — Will Travel movie starring Eminem with a possible release date of 2008, although that was later changed to 2010. Paramount Pictures extended an 18-month option on the television series, and planned to transform the character of Paladin into a modern-day bounty hunter. Eminem was also expected to work on the soundtrack.
Paladin's horse was Rafter.
Although the series title had a hyphen, Paladin's business card did not.
Parts of the first season episode "The Colonel and the Lady" were filmed on sets used for the television show "Gunsmoke" (1955). The Long Branch Saloon is very minimally redecorated to stand in for a saloon Paladin visits in a Nevada mining town. Shots of people walking the streets of the town were also taken from Gunsmoke.
Filling out Paladin's back story in the early episodes, it is mentioned that he was a West Point graduate and former professional soldier before the Civil War. Paladin never mentions directly which side he was on during the war.
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