Visiting the Old West with Death Valley Days

by Guy Belleranti


Death Valley Days was one of the longest running programs in television history. However, before the Old West anthology series’ TV run it was a radio program.

It all began when Ruth Cornwall Woodman was hired by the Pacific Coast Borax Company to write the first script in 1930. An easterner, she traveled west and did research, focusing especially on California’s Mojave Desert and Death Valley. She ended up staying on, returning to the west over and over and writing all of the radio programs during the 1930’s and 1940’s.

In 1952 the show moved to television, and here it remained for over 20 years. Like the radio version, the program featured a host who introduced each episode. There had been five different hosts during the radio years, each bearing the title the “Old Ranger”. When the TV series began Stanley Andrews became the “Old Ranger”, a position he held through 1963. Andrews had been an actor for years, first on stage and then in many films.

Later, Death Valley Days was hosted by several others. In order the hosts were:

- Ronald Reagan, who also acted in some of the episodes - his last acting stints before   becoming California governor and U. S. President.
- Robert Taylor
- Dale Robertson
- And, in 1975, country singer Merle Haggard

The program was also rerun in syndication under other titles featuring other hosts at the beginning and end of each episode. Among these were: The Pioneers (hosted by Will Rogers, Jr., 1960), Trails West (hosted by Ray Milland, 1962), Western Star Theatre (hosted by Rory Calhoun, 1963), Frontier Adventure (hosted by Dale Robertson, 1968) and Call of the West (hosted by John Payne, 1969).

Other things about the program of special note are:

- The “Bugle Theme” music that began each program. Composed by Josef Bonime, it was definitely haunting and distinctive. This bugle introduction was also used on the radio version.

- The 20 Mule Team. Mining borate (a compound used to make the borax in some laundry soaps, hand cleaners and other products) began in the latter 1800’s in the arid deserts of California’s Death Valley. The borate was hauled out in wagons pulled by teams of 20 mules. This image of the mules hauling wagons across hot desert became a symbol of the Pacific Coast Borax Company (later U. S. Borax Company and now owned by Dial Corporation), the program’s sponsor. It also became a memorable image of the American West.

- The stories themselves. Based on actual western events and western legends, many of the episodes were quite good. A number of well-known actors and actresses appeared on Death Valley Days, among them Clint Eastwood, Fess Parker, June Lockhart, Tom Skerritt and James Caan. With much of the filming being done in and around Death Valley this anthology series often did a very good job of capturing that old west feel.

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