From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Have Gun — Will Travel was a popular American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was the #4 show in the Nielsen ratings in its first year and #3 for the next three years.^{[citation needed]} It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958.

This calling card was the identifying graphic of the Have Gun - Will Travel series. An 11"x21" ceramic tile replica of the card was displayed in the Paladin Room of the Hotel Superstition Ho in Apache Junction, Arizona. The tile was created by famed American ceramic designer Sasha Brastoff.

Have Gun was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes.^[1]

The show followed the adventures of Paladin, a gentleman-turned-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 Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, where he dressed in semi-formal wear, ate gourmet food, and attended opera. In fact, many who initially met him mistook him for a dandy from the East. When working, he dressed in black, used calling cards and wore a holster which carried characteristic chess knight emblems, and carried a derringer under his belt.

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 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 — 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 hinted in his death scene that he was not a criminal gunfighter, but a protector of the helpless and unenfranchised. Paladin adopted Smoke's black costume and killed the man who had hired 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. With this kind of money, he was well-equipped; his custom-made Colt Single Action Army revolver (his main weapon) was perfectly balanced and of excellent craftsmanship. It had a two-ounce trigger pull. The lever action Winchester strapped to his horse's saddle was rarely used, but the horsehead insignia embossed on that rifle's stock suggests that this weapon was as meticulously crafted as the six-shooter. The derringer that Paladin hid under his belt saved his life countless times. Ever a man of refinement, Paladin even carried a few expensive cigars in his boot when out on adventure.

Another of his peculiarities was to decide early in the show whether he would kill, or merely wound, his opponent. He made this decision as a judge imposes sentence, based on the opponent's crimes and character rather than convenience.

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. Ramsey at one point says in his younger days as a gunfighter he worked under the name Paladin.

Richard Boone as Paladin

Paladin's great advantage over his adversaries was not his impressive equipment, or even 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. Like a chess master, he sought control of the board through superior position, and only killed as a last resort.

The one other major semi-regular character in the show was the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel, known as Hey Boy. Hey Boy was 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 Chang. 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".

Hey Girl was seen in 1960-61 when actress Lisa Lu temporarily replaced actor Kam Tong who had moved to another series.^[1]

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 played Paladin and Ben Wright usually (but not always) played Hey Boy. Virginia Gregg played the role of Miss Wong, before the television series began featuring the character of Hey Girl. Many of the episodes were adapted from television programs broadcast earlier, but some were original to radio.

There were three novels based on the TV show, all with the same title as the TV show. The first was a hardback written for children, published by Whitman in 1959 as part of a series of novelizations of TV 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, written by Frank Robertson and published in 1963 by Collier-Macmillan in both hardback and paperback, is based on the TV origin 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 TV series.

In 2001, a trade paperback book entitled 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 1974, a Portuguese cowboy from Rhode Island named Victor De Costa won a federal court judgment in his second suit against CBS for trademark infringement, successfully litigating his assertion that he had created the Paladin character and the ideas used in the show -- which were stolen by HGWT's producers. (Possibly dubious since HGWT's original concept was that of a modern day globe-trotting detective.) He claimed he began billing himself as Paladin after an Italian man stood up at a horse show and called him a "paladino." He claimed he'd 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, he handed out hundreds of HGWT business cards, and he even carried a concealed derringer. The physical resemblance between Mr. De Costa and Richard Boone was nothing less than striking. De Costa maintained that he had been appearing in rodeos dressed in black, calling himself Paladin, and handing out "Have Gun - Will Travel" cards for years when the series debuted, and Boone looked so much like him that his own sister called him after the show's first broadcast wanting to know why he hadn't told her that he was going to be on TV that night, which is how he initially found out about the television show.

Although monetary damages were not immediately awarded, De Costa stood to gain a tidy sum, as court testimony indicated that HGWT had made more than $14 million for CBS (a titanic amount in the 1950's-60's), plus millions more in 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 -- i.e., there had been no likelihood of confusion in the minds of the public -- a necessary requirement for a suit over trademark infringement. However, De Costa kept pursuing his legal options, and in 1991 -- more than 30 years after his first lawsuit was originally filed -- he was awarded over 3 million dollars after quietly trademarking the Paladin character and business card in the late 70's. Unfortunately, Mr. De Costa passed away at the age of 83 before he could receive a single penny; the money went to his heirs.

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. Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode which aired in 1958.

All of the episodes were released on VHS by Columbia House. As of June 2007, only the first three seasons were available on DVD. Note: In the second season DVD, two of the episodes are mislabeled. On disk three, the episode titled "Treasure Trail" is actually "Hunt the Man Down", and on disk four, "Hunt the Man Down" is "Treasure Trail"; the "Wire Paladin" in each case refers to the other episode.

• The Have Gun — Will Travel Companion by Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn. OTR Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-9703310-0-2

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The program's closing theme song, "Ballad of Paladin", was written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe, and was performed by Western. The program's opening theme song was composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
• In a scene in Stand By Me, the main characters sing the show's closing theme song.
• According to an essay by Dennis E. Power entitled "Wold Wold West" on his website The Wold Newton Universe: A Secret History[1], Paladin was born as Lancelot Silver, the great grandson of Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. According to this family tree Lancelot Silver is also the cousin of Jim Silver of Max Brand's Silvertip series and Yancy Derringer from the television series Yancy Derringer.
• The Bob Hope book Have Tux, Will Travel is often parodied in cartoons and films, and those parodies are often mistaken as spoofs of the television and radio series.
• The Three Stooges first feature film was titled Have Rocket, Will Travel though the working title of the film was Rocket and Roll It
• In the TV show, Will Traveler, the main characters stop at a bookstore called Have Book — Will Travel due to the name having similarities with their friend.
• A 1959 album by jazz trumpeteer Dizzy Gillespie is entitled "Have Trumpet, Will Excite".
• "Have Gun Will Travel" is one of many westerns mentioned in the Olympics' 1958 hit song "Western Movies".
• Robert A. Heinlein wrote a 1958 science fiction novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel.
• An episode of Sanford and Son was called Have Gun-Will Sell.
• In an episode of The Richard Boone Show (1963) Richard Boone played a modern-type Paladin.

• Have Gun - Will Travel' radio shows (5 episodes)
• Have Gun - Will Travel theme song — (sample) written and performed by Johnny Western

1. ^ ^{a b} The Museum of Broadcast Communications (Encyclopedia of Television) - Have Gun Will Travel

• Have Gun — Will Travel at the Internet Movie Database
• Have Gun — Will Travel Tribute Site
• Web-site for the HaveGun-Will Travel paperback book
• Have Gun-Will Travel: The Radio Series by author Martin Grams, Jr.