Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun Smoke starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved west with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Hey, looky there, Sam. The big fella's about to start the show now.
Hello everybody. I heard you Dodge City folks were up and coming, ready to pay the price for a real thrilling spectacle.
Well, this is it. A feat of daring, a lack of which ain't been seen since a day's away in town.
Oh, he's a pretty funny talker, ain't he?
Now put your money in the hat or there won't be any show.
Come on, Sam.
Come on. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hey, hey, hey, is that your little boy, Mr. Tell?
What?
You want to find out Mr. Here, here now.
This is my partner, Mr. Little Murray. He may be small, but he ain't no boy as you just found out.
Now I'll advise you to put some money in that.
Well, sure, sure, I'll put you.
You gonna shoot that tin can off in the little fella's head?
I shoot one off in his head, he shoots one off in mine, if you put in your money.
Oh, well sure, he's mine.
Now gentlemen, stand back. Outta the way. That's it, that's it, thank you.
Now, I place this small can on my head. Please do nothing to distract my partner. This is a serious moment.
You ain't joking, mister.
Please, please, please. Now make no sound as he counts.
Yes, what?
One, two, three.
Alright, alright. Now, now he'll place the can on his head and...
Alright, hold it up a minute there.
What's the trouble, Marshal?
There's a law about firing guns in the straight here, mister. But, Marshal, this is an exhibition, a theatrical performance. You might say it's even educational.
I don't care what you call it, there's lead flying and it can kill somebody. One of you even.
Well, that's what makes a performance, Marshal.
That's what they pay to see.
You're risking a lot for that little hat full of money.
We trust each other's marksmanship, Marshal.
Nobody's that good, every time.
We're gamblers, Marshal.
I heard you won this time. Go ahead and split the pot.
But we haven't finished yet.
Alright, everybody, the show's over. Move along.
You won't let us go on?
No.
And suppose we move outside town? No laws then against little target practices, is there?
No. But this kind of target practice, if you miss, you'll face a murder charge.
I told you we're gamblers, Marshal. We're gonna set up a game here. Any objections?
Not if your game is honest. What's your name, anyway?
Grover, Cranston P. at your service. And this is my partner, Little Maury.
I hardly remember his last name, but I think it's Smith.
I'll bet, like yours, it's Grover.
Now, that ain't too friendly of you, Marshal.
I'm not paid to be friendly, mister.
Well, uh, well now, gentlemen, let's remove ourselves from the Marshal's jurisdiction and finish the performance.
Yes, sir.
Oh, my, that choke cherry pie is good.
Want another piece, Chester?
Well, I don't know, Miss Kitty. How about you, Mr. Jones?
No, not for me, Chester.
Doc? No, not me, but you go on. Oh, yes, Chester, you have another. It's just the thing for you.
No, I reckon I'm better not, Miss Kitty.
Oh, don't let him scare you, Chester. I'll go out to the kitchen and get it for you myself.
Sure, she'll get it for you, Chester. And I'll start figuring out what to charge to cure you.
Oh, no, Doc.
I mean it, Chester. Another inch around the middle and you're gonna have trouble, boy.
I noticed yesterday how short of breath you were, just walking out to the town limits.
Eh, eh? Oh, you mean, let the cat out of the bag?
Oh, oh, man, now you knew about those two putting on their William Tell act again yesterday, didn't you?
That's the first time in two weeks.
Yeah, sure, Doc. I just didn't know that you and Chester were there, that's all.
Mr. Jones, I figured maybe somebody ought to make sure that he's really over the line.
Uh-huh. I hope you had a good first row seat, Chester.
Yes, sir.
How about you, Doc? Were you able to see all right?
Well, uh, when I thought that there might be a chance of my professional services, that they might be needed.
Sure. That's exactly what brought a couple of hundred others out there. It's too bad they disappointed you.
Here you are, Chester.
Oh, thank you, Miss Kitty.
What I can't figure out is why they stay in that crummy boarding house where you steer them, Chester.
Oh, now, Doc, Miss Gans runs a real nice place.
What I mean is, well, it's real nice.
Yeah, what you mean is the boarding house is bad and the food is worse.
But the widow Gans is young and pretty.
Would you please go and show him that?
Marshal?
Yeah, Maury.
You was watching our poker game last night. Do you have to do that?
I keep an eye on every game in town.
You had any complaints about ours?
If I had, you'd be in jail.
We don't have to cheat.
I hear you made quite a pile in the last couple of weeks.
We done all right.
Yeah, but you're greedy. You put on your act again yesterday, didn't you?
And it was outside of town.
You know, you'll go on till one of you is dead.
I'll tell Groover what you said when I find him, Marshal.
I saw him about an hour ago over on Bridge Street with Effigans.
Effigans?
Yeah.
Thanks.
Did I say something wrong?
I don't know, Kitty.
You did seem a little sore about something.
You know, Grover was sweet talking Effigans.
She's a widow.
You figure those fellows might be pulling some game on her?
I doubt it, Kitty. She's not rich enough.
More likely to be the other way around, if you ask me.
Oh, now, Doc, she's real nice.
Oh, sure, and she's real pretty, too.
But so's a rattlesnake, if you want to look at it that way.
The shoveling started at the little town of Rome in New York State back in 1817.
And on July 4, 1967, the Post Office released a special Sesquicentennial stamp there in honor of the big ditch they dug,
which it says on the stamp in my album here was the Erie Canal.
Now, in case you don't know, that canal went all the way from Buffalo on Lake Erie to the Hudson River,
connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
The biggest waterway ever built in the United States at the time,
and it was done mostly by the Irish just over from the old country, who did their digging with spit and mussel.
Made lots of money for years on tolls, and the traffic and freight and people through the canal
was mainly responsible for building up the Midwest and keeping business in the East busy doing it.
Well, of course the Erie Canal ain't what she used to be, because the railroads do most of the job now.
But the big ditch is still there, and so is all the history that went through it.
Hey, Grover.
Oh, hello, Maury. I was just going down to open up the game. You coming?
I've been looking for you. Where you been all morning?
Why, around town.
Who with?
What do you mean, who with? Lots of people.
Everybody wants to see the act again. I think we ought to put it on this afternoon.
The crowd gets bigger every time.
You know why they keep coming back to see it?
Sure. I hope someday we'll miss.
And someday we will.
Grover, let's get out of this town.
Why, we're doing fine.
I don't like it. And we got enough now, more than we ever had before.
Let's go somewhere else and start a real business. What about it?
Well, we'll talk about it tonight. One more William Tell Act this afternoon, maybe we'll have enough.
Just one more, huh? See you down the place.
Yeah, I'll be long. I'm just going to wash up.
Okay.
Honey, I...
Grover's already gone, Miss Ganz.
Oh.
What are you staring at?
You, Miss Ganz.
You in love with Grover?
Why, why now? I never... whatever gave you that idea?
He did.
He didn't...
No. But I know him pretty well, Miss Ganz.
Well, you're wrong.
Now, I don't say I don't like him.
But then, I like you too, Maury.
You mean that, Miss Ganz?
Why, why sure.
Most women don't like little men like me, Mrs. Ganz.
Could you find it in yourself to... to love me?
What? I don't know.
If there wasn't no Grover, if there was only one of us, could you find it in yourself to leave here, go away and get married?
What? Now, where'd you get such an idea as that?
I don't know what you're talking about.
I don't like such talk.
You better like it, Miss Ganz.
You better.
Matt.
How afternoon, Doc.
Say, have you heard the talk?
There's gonna be another of those William Tell acts late this afternoon.
Well, I can't stop it, Doc.
Well, there's something else I heard, too.
Mr. Bodkin, down at the bank, says the widow Ganz is leaving town.
Sold her house for cash.
And she might have some more saved up somewhere.
What are you saying, Doc?
Those two might be fleecing here, Matt.
You said it'd be more like the other way around.
A rattled snake can be pretty if you see it that way.
Oh, no, no, Matt.
All right, if you want me to talk to her, Doc, ask her if she's being fleeced.
You think she'll thank me for it?
Yeah, more likely she'll slap your face.
Yeah, but I might find out something.
I think I'll try it.
Hello, Miss Ganz.
What do you want, Marshal?
I'll just talk to you for a minute.
Well, I'm listening.
I heard you sold your house.
They had lots of big mouths in this town.
I see you got your bag in there.
You wanted to leave town?
I don't see it's any of your business, Marshal.
Oh, I just thought it might be, Miss Ganz.
Why?
Well, you know how it is.
A widow with a little money is a fair game, especially if she's pretty.
What are you driving at, Marshal?
You've been seen around with this man, Grover.
I just might be planning to leave town with him.
Now, you listen to me, Marshal.
I'm a widow, yes, but I don't have to like it.
It don't have to mean my life is finished now, does it?
No, ma'am, of course not.
All right, then.
If a man loves me and wants me to love him, it's no business of yours.
Uh-uh.
I'm sorry, Miss Ganz.
All right.
Maybe you meant well, but I don't thank you.
What I do is my own business, even if I lose everything.
Now, you get out.
Music
Hometowns in America have a lot in common, and yet they're each one of a kind.
Take, for example, Palm Springs, California.
The chief industries of Palm Springs are fun and sun.
After that, there aren't anymore.
There are more privately owned swimming pools per capita in the village
than in any other city in the world.
But don't get the idea that it's all resort and nothing but
funing and sunning and swimming.
The school system in Palm Springs is one of the best,
with Nellie Kaufman Junior High, Palm Springs High,
and the new junior college out at Palm Desert.
The annual police benefit has moved indoors,
and the desert sun and KPAL still keep folks pretty well informed and entertained.
Meanwhile, things are still busy at the youth center on Billardo Road
across from O'Donnell Golf Course.
But if your hometown is Palm Springs, you already know this.
We only wanted to remind you, it's still there.
Music
Well, we're really out of the day.
Came to see William Tell after all, huh, Martin?
That's right, Grover.
Can you see good from there, Marshall?
Yeah, I can see. Go ahead.
Uh, all right.
All right, Maury, you let me go first today.
No, I'll go first.
What's the matter? You nervous because of the law?
I'm not nervous. Are you?
Of course not.
Don't worry. I'll put the bullet exactly where I want it.
Well, go ahead then.
Walk on out about ten paces, Maury.
Now, gentlemen, your attention.
Please remain quiet.
No movement, no loud noise while my partner counts.
Quiet, please.
One, two, three.
He hit him.
Yeah.
Did you see that?
Is he dead?
With a bullet through the forehead? Yeah, he's dead, Maury.
Oh, poor Grover.
Well, this is terrible. Terrible.
I'm arresting you for murder, Maury.
What? No, it was an accident.
Everybody here saw it was an accident.
You said yourself it could have happened any time.
I said if it did, you'd stand trial for murder.
Now, look, Marshal, do you really think any jury would convict me
with all these witnesses here to testify for me?
No. No, I don't.
Well, then, are you going to lock me up
or will you let me take the body of my partner and bury him?
All right, go ahead.
Mr. Dillon, I swear I don't understand.
Of course it was an accident. We all have seen it.
Chester, why do you think I wanted to be there this time?
Well, I don't know.
I expected there might be an accident.
You did? Yeah.
I didn't figure it this way.
Where are we going?
To the Woodagans.
I want to be there when little Moray shows up.
Place with dessert, except for that one light in the front room there.
Well, let's get a little closer.
That's her in the front room. Got a suitcase packed too.
Shh. There's somebody coming.
Little Moray.
Honey, is that you? Did it go all right?
Is he dead? It took so long. I was worried.
Well, come on in. Don't stand out there.
I got the money all here and...
Moray.
That's right, Miss Gans. It's me, Moray.
I had the first shot and I figured what you two was planning.
So I just changed the plan a little.
Oh, no.
Grover's dead all right.
But that don't matter. We'll go instead.
You and me with all that money.
And there's more here from the act this afternoon.
Oh, this one was a real killing.
No. Don't you touch me.
You said you might could love me. Well, you will. Now come on.
No. No.
All right. That's enough, Moray.
Marshal, you heard what he did.
I heard what you were planning to do too, Miss Gans.
It turned out to be my business after all, didn't it?
Oh, no. No. You wouldn't...
Yes, I would.
She's coming with me, Marshal.
No. No.
Let go of her, Moray.
You can't stop us, Marshal. You know how I can shoot. You've seen me.
Don't try me, Moray, even with a woman to shield you.
Why not? Chester.
Right here, Mr. Dillon. I can hit him easy.
Now you drop your gun, Moray.
You call that fair? This is no game, Mr. Now drop it!
All right. Come on.
Both of you.
Gun smoke. Produced and directed by Norman MacDonald.
Stars William Cotter and John Williams.
The
Gun Smoke. Produced and directed by Norman MacDonald.
Stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc,
and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on
the American Army.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
Thank you.