Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there's 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.
Matt, you here?
Yeah, I'm here, Doc. Come on in.
Oh, how come you're in bed so early?
I'm not in bed, Doc. I'm just resting.
Oh, I bet that. Oh, I see the cost of governments going up again.
Oh, what makes you say that?
The soles of your boots. They're worn almost through.
I don't care.
What's the matter? Aren't you feeling good?
Sure, I feel fine, Doc. I always lie in bed till noon.
Well, it just doesn't look right for you to be lying down like this.
There you go.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
What's the matter now?
It's cold. The coffee's cold and the rattlesnake's belly.
Don't drink it, sir.
It's no better hot here. No man, like I was saying, a man in your position should have more to do than just lie around.
Maybe I'm just tired, Doc.
Oh, now don't try to tell me it was brought on by upholding law and order all night, because I don't want to hear about it.
I had a bad night myself.
Well, then sit on and rest.
Yes, here you go.
Aren't you going to ask me what I was doing?
No.
You're not? Well, I spent the whole night working for four dollar fees.
Oh, it must have been somebody who didn't know you.
They knew it was Jeb Dorn. His wife had a baby girl.
Jeb, huh? He was hoping for a boy, as I recall it.
And that's what worries me.
Oh, why?
He refused to pay me.
No wonder you're tired.
What's this thing here? Oh, well, who's this poster on?
It says right there, doesn't it?
Yes, it does.
Wanted, dead or alive, Jack Pargo, for the torture and subsequent murder of...
This man is noted for armed holdup and is believed heading in the general direction of Missouri, Kansas, or Nebraska.
He's a mean looking devil, isn't he?
Well, I can see that he'll certainly find his comeuppance if he sticks his head in Dodge City.
Well, I'll tell you, Doc, I'll worry about that if he comes here.
Oh, that gives me a nice safe feeling.
Marshall, here is Ray.
Yeah, I'm the Marshall.
I say Marshall Proudfoot, hereabouts you see.
Marshall Proudfoot?
Huh?
Yeah, no, neither one of you. I say neither one of you, ain't the Marshall, I can tell.
I'm his pa, I know him anywheres.
Uh, Doc, go find Chester, will ya?
Sure, man.
No, no, no, need to get up. Just come see my boy, Marshall Chester Proudfoot.
Made good, somehow he did.
Chester never was one of my brightest boys.
Eleven boys I had, I remember.
Say, I ain't your hand here yet.
What's your name, sonny?
Dillon, Matt Dillon.
Dillon? Funny name for a man.
I knew a man one time had the name of Hargrove.
Hargrove. I thought that was the funniest stuff till now.
Uh, Doc, you better go get Chester.
Who's that fella?
Well, that's Doc Adams.
Nice to tell you, sir.
Saying something is a...
I said it's nice to meet you.
My name is Wesley Proudfoot.
Sired a marshal, turns out.
Yes, sir. Eleven boys I had.
Chester was nowhere near the brightest.
No, sir, he'd rate about number nine.
That's very interesting, Mr. Proudfoot.
Chester bordered on being ignorant, I'd think.
Oh, no, no, I can't imagine.
I can't imagine how you ever got to be a marshal.
Chester Wesley Proudfoot.
Marshal of down city of Proudfoot.
Look, uh, Mr. Proudfoot...
He named all them boys with the middle name of Wesley.
After me, he did.
Hoped at least one of them would mount something like me.
What's your name, wise?
It's Adams.
Dr. Adams.
Doctor, horse, or people?
What?
What's the matter with you?
I say, do you doctor horses or people?
People.
Ah, well, it's too bad for you.
I wouldn't ever let a people doctor work on me,
and I got a great many things wrong with me, too.
Hey, where's Chester?
He's out getting the mail for me.
Ah, good for him.
Got spunk.
Probably running down some of them bad men he always writes about.
Used to have an assistant named Dylan working for him.
Whatever become of him.
Dylan, that's me, Mr. Proudfoot.
Matt Dylan, that's me.
Oh, yeah, well, you do a fair job, Gordon Chester.
Says he can usually depend on you.
Well, that's very nice of him.
Look, Mr. Proudfoot, maybe you should know something.
Hello, Doc.
Chester, there wasn't none too much mail, Mr. Dylan.
Forget it, Chester.
What?
Chester, you've got company.
Who's the fat fella?
That's Chester.
That's the Marshal Proudfoot.
Paul.
You know, Mr. Dylan, I...
Paul, I...
That you, Chester?
Yeah, that's him, Mr. Proudfoot.
Ah, you've fatted up. Good deal, Chester.
Your assistant here looks better than you do.
I'd like an explanation.
Matter of fact, so would I, Chester.
Mr. Dylan, I...
Doc, I...
Oh, Paul.
Now, some folks, I guess, think that the stamps are just for the
licking, and some go in for that philately stuff, you know,
looking for misprints and hard to get ones.
But me, well, I just collect them for fun.
But I learned a lot that way, and maybe you can, too.
Now, that's because our United States stamps all got the stamp of
history on them.
If you've got a minute, I'll open my album here and I'll show you
what I mean.
Let me see here.
Ah, now, here.
Here's a four-cent one the post office put out in 1962 for the
75th anniversary of the Association of State Universities and
Land Grant Colleges.
I ain't had any of that higher education myself, but I know it's
mighty important to make in your way these days, and you're never
too old to learn.
No, even from stamps.
Found out from this one that Abe Lincoln signed the Land Grant Act
into law during the Civil War.
Now, that act still gives the money from sale and use of public
lands to help make 68 colleges and universities some of the
biggest and finest we've got.
And seeing as how they've turned out 25 of our 42 live and Nobel
prize winners, I guess you could just say it's paid off real good.
Well, what are you going to do about that?
Do about what, Doc?
Chester, telling his father that he's the Marshal.
What can I do?
Right.
Not going to let him get by with it, are you?
I don't know, Doc.
Wait a minute, Mac.
No, no, no.
Let me by.
No.
And a system doesn't make too much, you know.
Easy, Doc.
Hello, Doc.
Mac.
Hi, Kitty.
Doc, you're looking pretty strange today.
How come?
Tell her, Mac.
You tell her, Doc.
You're the one looking strange.
Well, come on, somebody tell me.
Sit down.
Thank you.
Have you seen Chester, Kitty?
No.
Why?
We may never see him again.
What?
What happened?
Not much, really, but I'm sure he wishes he was dead right now.
Oh, what's this all about?
Chester's father came to town today.
Well, it's terrible about that.
It's a tip.
He thinks Chester is the Marshal here.
What?
Yeah, that's right, Kitty.
Chester wrote to his father, and he probably stretched the truth a little bit, like we
all do sometimes.
Oh, no.
Well, where are they now?
Over at the Dodge house.
He's getting the old man a room there.
I never saw Chester look so scared in my life, Kitty.
You should have seen him.
He grabbed his paw, and he lit out of the office like his coat was on fire.
Don't be hard on him, Maths.
I'm not going to be hard on him.
Well, his father must be pretty old.
Oh, he's older, I guess.
He can't hear good, and he can hardly see.
But he's a bright old fellow.
Well, you can't let the old man be disappointed, Maths.
Well, why would you suggest that, too, Kitty?
I don't know.
Just don't hurt him, that's all.
I'm not going to hurt him, Kitty.
I don't care if the old man thinks Chester's a marshal.
Maths, we should think of something to make Chester look good while his father's in town.
Yeah.
I heard the old man tell Chester that he was only going to stay for a few days.
Oh, see, Maths, now maybe you could lie low for a while.
I wouldn't mind that.
I need a rest.
Hey, I got it.
Why don't you get somebody to pretend to hold up, and then let Chester play marshal and take him in?
You can turn him loose when his father leaves.
Oh, now, Kitty, I couldn't do a thing like that.
Well, something's got to be done, then.
Yes, did you?
I could put you to bed, Maths.
What are you talking about, Doc?
Yeah, you get sick, and I'll examine you, and say that you've got a, oh, a rare blood disease,
and you have to go to bed for a few days.
Get to my work, Maths.
Oh, you can't let that old man go away thinking Chester's been lying to him all this time.
No.
We'll get Mars Grimmett to stage a fake holdup, you see.
Then we'll come and get Chester, and right in front of his father, he'll capture the bandage.
You're the one with a rare disease, Doc, and it's not in your blood, it's in your brain.
Do it, Maths, you've got to.
No, I don't got to.
I don't want any part of a fake holdup.
You just get that out of your head.
Oh, Maths.
Well, I'm going back to the office.
Oh, sure, go ahead.
Yeah, go ahead.
Ruin an old man in his last days.
Uh, what do you think, Doc?
Yeah, I...oh, Matt will come around all right, kiddie.
He always does.
I'll go talk to Mars Grimmett and have it all set.
Anybody here?
I say, anybody in here?
Oh, there you are, Dylan.
Well, took you to your bed kind of early, didn't you?
Ain't but four o'clock.
Hello, Mr. Broadfund.
Where's Chester?
Yes.
Well, I guess you got such a dead little town on your hand, you can do that, you and Chester.
I say, where is Chester?
Saying something?
I said, where's Chester?
Don't yell like that.
Hurts me earpans when you bell her out like that.
Got a pretty big voice on you there, Dylan.
What's the matter with you?
Ah, feeling poorly, are you?
I say, feeling poorly, are you?
I feel terrible.
Ah, too bad.
Chester ain't feeling too good, neither.
Oh, man, lolling around on my bed over at the Ruben House all day.
Good thing you boys got this dead town on your hands.
Yeah.
Ah, people be up the creek with both the marshal and his sister in bed.
Oot over there.
I say, oot over there.
Let me take a look at you.
Let me look at your eyes.
Tell everything about how a man feels by looking to his...
Look at me, Dylan.
I can't help looking at you.
That's it.
That's coming, yes, sir.
You've got bad eyes there, Dylan.
That one in particular.
You've got a good voice, but bad eyes.
And mine reminds me of Chester's Uncle Hector.
Last time he looked all slack-jawed like that, he died the next day.
Ah? What say?
Nothing. I didn't say anything.
Oh, I thought you talked.
That's, sir, Hector was Chester's fighting uncle.
I reckon that's where Chester gets all his get up and go.
Ah, well, something different, though.
Hector fought again the law, Hector did.
Ever seen a man stirred up again the law all the time?
Like old Hector was.
Have you had your dinner yet, Mr. Pryl?
Oh, indeed, he was a winner.
You're right there, won all his battles.
Killed two marshals, Hector did.
Killed them dead.
Good thing Chester's on side of the law.
Man, that's a peril I got out of me on side of the law.
Hey, Matt, you here?
Yes, sir, I ought to be.
Hello, Mr. Patsit.
You what?
Oh, you're here.
Look here, you got a sick memory here, Adams.
Better go get a horse doctor and get him straightened out.
Ah, hey.
What are you doing in bed, Matt?
I'm in bed because I'm sick, Doc.
Did you ever hear of anything like that?
You're sick?
Uh-huh.
You are, man?
Oh, say, that's fine.
Yeah, well, I figured you'd think so.
Doc, would you do me a favor and take Mr. Proudfoot out to dinner?
Anything, just get him out of here.
Yeah, sure, Matt, you betcha.
Oh, see, your eyes look kind of beady.
Yeah, well, we've been through all that.
Well, I didn't know that.
I'd say that you had a fever.
Adams, I say you got a sick boy there, Adams.
Doc, would you go right now?
Yeah, okay, oh, sure.
Mr. Proudfoot, you come with me.
Come with me, Mr. Proudfoot.
I'll take you to dinner.
Yeah, dinner?
No, no, too early for dinner.
Take a little glass of duck water with you, though,
but don't let on Chester with you.
Yeah, yeah, Chester.
I'll see you later, Matt, and I'll let Kitty know you're with us.
Oh, fine, Doc, good.
You let Kitty know I'm with you.
You just go.
Yes, sir, Adams.
That boy there is sicker than a pig.
Let Kitty know I'm with you.
Doc!
Doc, you come back here!
Hometowns in America have a lot in common,
and yet they're each one of a kind.
Take, for example, Chicago, Illinois.
The land of the Spiegel catalog in the Playboy Bunny Beacon is a totland town.
And at the summer music festivals in Grand Park, the price is right.
But standing at Marshall Field on State and Randolph,
you're on the windiest corner in the world as your body graces for the blast.
The colorful neighborhoods of the west side are gone to urban development,
but the University of Illinois is getting a new campus there.
In theater, there's the Second City on the near north side,
or the Theater on the Lake in Lincoln Park.
Shopping in the suburbs offers Old Orchard in Skokie,
Randhurst in Mount Prospect, and Oakbrook near Hinsdale.
Chicago can't win them all, though.
In 1948, the Tribune said Dewey defeats Truman,
and in the fall of 66, the convention center burned.
But if your hometown is Chicago, you already know this.
We only wanted to remind you, it's still there.
Hey, Kitty.
Where's Doc?
I don't know, Matt. He was here a little while ago. Why?
I've wasted a half hour looking at all the Eden houses for him.
He's got Chester's father with him. I've got to stop him.
Stop him from what?
From that fool idea that you and he had.
What do you mean fool idea? Doc came by and said it was on,
that you were playing sick in bed.
Kitty, I was in bed because I really was sick, and I still am sick.
Have you and Doc lost your senses?
Well, we're just trying to help Chester, that's all.
Now look, what if somebody else sees that holdup Moss Grimmick is staging?
How do they know that he's just playing games?
Doc and I aren't going to let anybody get hurt, Matt.
And you know Chester, he'll play along all the way.
That's exactly what I'm afraid of.
Oh, Kitty. All set, Kitty.
Oh, hello, Matt. Oh, you're on your feet for the fun.
You call this thing off right now, Doc.
Oh, no, no, no, it's too late, Matt.
Chester and his father up at the Dodge house in exactly three minutes from now,
Moss Grimmick is going to rush up there and say there's a holdup at the delivery table.
And I'm putting a stop to it before somebody gets...
What's that?
I don't know.
It's not time yet.
Oh, come on, Doc, you can watch the fun you started.
Yes, Doc, come on.
You know something, I'll knock your head off.
Now, Matt, now take it easy, Matt.
Marshall Dillon.
What?
You better hurry. Chester just shot a man at the Dodge house.
Good Lord.
Come on, let me through here, will you please?
Move aside. Let me through.
Stand back, Matt. Matt, wait.
Chester's sitting on somebody.
Chester, what are you doing? Get off of that man.
Doc, check that one line over there.
I will.
Stand back.
He shot and wounded one fellow and we subdued the other one.
All right, Mr. Pargo, fine.
Ain't a bad night's work, is it?
No, Chester, will you get up?
Mr. Dillon, he tried to kill me and Paul.
Get up, I said. He's unconscious.
Oh, Matt, wait a minute. Look here.
What is it, Doc?
Look at this man. It's Jack Pargo.
What?
You know the man on that wanted poster?
Yeah, that is Pargo, all right.
What's the matter, Dillon?
That fellow friend of yours, is he?
He tried to hold up the hotel office here.
No, Mr. Proudfoot, it's not a friend of mine.
What say? Anybody catch that car, man?
Chester! Chester!
Hurry up, Chester. There's a hold up at the livery stable.
Moss, go home.
Yeah, but Doc told me to go home.
Just go back to your livery stable and call off the hold up, huh?
Forget it, Moss. Forget it.
We've had the real thing, right?
Well, goodbye, Moss.
Well, yeah, sure. Sure, goodbye.
Goodbye.
Not quite what I told you.
Notar's something here, did you, Dillon?
Chester was right on the spot.
He was. That's the reason he took my bed for so long.
Uh-huh.
He's got an instinct for these things.
Chester has put him right here on the spot for this hold up.
There's a reason for everything, I always say.
Yeah, well, there's a reason, all right.
What say, Dillon?
Mr. Dillon, I can explain all this.
No, Chester, you and your father take care of things here.
I'm sick and I'm going to bed.
Don't count on me taking care of things, Dillon.
I'm leaving on the morning stage.
Now I saw my boy in action.
Yeah, well, all right, Mr. Proudfoot.
Goodbye and good luck to you.
You wait right here a minute, Paul.
Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what?
Mr. Dillon, I... Mr. Dillon, I can explain.
You don't have to, Chester.
But yes, sir, I do have to explain.
I swear I've never been so humiliated in all my whole life.
I've been thinking about it all day, Mr. Dillon.
I never wrote but two letters to Paul and...
Well, maybe I did stretch a couple things that Paul, he...
Well, Paul, he put it all together and made me out more important than what I am.
But I'll set him straight, Mr. Dillon.
I'll tell him the truth and I'll do it right now.
Chester.
You do and you're fired.
Now you go on back and help your father take care of things.
Yes, sir, Mr. Dillon.
When I want an example of how a term or phrase is used,
I generally find a colorful example in some speech of that old political character Elijah Cuddlestone.
For instance, now I admit, I say of course I'm a grassroots candidate.
I work from the bottom up.
That is, I get down to the basics of a matter, down to the grassroots.
Now I want to know how I...I mean, you're my people and I insist on knowing how you might be affected.
That is why you elected me because I am one of you and it's like I say I am elected by you and working for you.
Well, getting down the grassroots seems to be what politicians and office seekers report themselves as doing most anytime,
but more especially preceding an election.
It's a folksy American phrase that simply means getting down to the underlying principles or basic facts of a matter
and may be used at any time by anyone.
The actual origin of the phrase is unknown, but its reported usage predates 1885.
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 Gun Smoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
The United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.