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Along the Trail with Wagon Train and Rawhide
by Guy
Belleranti
The Western was king during television’s 1950’s and early 60’s,
and two of the more memorable and long-lived were Wagon Train and
Rawhide.
Both series shared a common trait: from one week to the next the
scene of the story changed. Wagon Train followed the journey of a wagon
train of post Civil War pioneers as they journeyed westward. Rawhide
followed a group of cowboys on a cattle drive from Texas north to
market.
Wagon Train ran from 1957 to 1965. 284 episodes were produced,
some in black and white, others in color. The program began on NBC then
switched to ABC in 1962.
For most of its run each Wagon Train episode was 60 minutes.
However, 32 episodes were 90 minutes during 1963-64 as the program
competed with the 90 minute long series The Virginian.
Veteran movie actor Ward Bond starred as Major Seth Adams, wagon
master/leader of the pioneers in the program’s earlier years. Handsome
hulk Robert Horton starred as Adam’s main scout. When Bond died in 1960
John McIntire took his place, becoming the new wagon master Christopher
Hale. And when Horton left the series in 1962 Robert Fuller (of the fine
TV western, Laramie, and of 1970’s Emergency), joined up as Cooper
“Coop” Smith.
Other regulars on the show were Frank McGrath as cook Charlie
Wooster, Terry Wilson as Bill Hawks and, later, Michael Burns as a 13
year old in search of his father.
The wagon train often met up with someone new along its travels,
and this new character was usually played by a big Hollywood name. James
Caan, Dan Duryea, Bette Davis, Lee Marvin, Rhonda Fleming, Ernest
Borgnine, Harry Carey Jr, Vera Miles and Dean Stockwell are just a few
of the luminaries who made guest appearances.
Rawhide is the program that kick-started Clint Eastwood’s acting
career. And while there’s no doubt the young Eastwood was a major part
of the program in his role as Rowdy Yates, the heart of the show was
still Eric Fleming as trail boss Gil Favor.
Other primary actors on Rawhide included Paul Brinegar as the
whiskered cook Wishbone, James Murdock as Mushy and Sheb Wooley as Pete
Nolan. Wooley was also a figure in country western music, and had the
1958 hit “The Purple People Eater”.
And speaking of music, one cannot discuss Rawhide without
mentioning its theme song. Sung by Frankie Laine, the song’s music and
lyrics (“Rollin, rollin’, rollin’”/”Move ‘em on, head ‘em up, Head ‘em
up, move ‘em on, Move ‘em on, head ‘em up, Rawhide ”) were as memorable
as any in television.
Rawhide ran from January 1959 to December 1965. Each episode was
black and white and 60 minutes in length.
Like Wagon Train, the main characters on Rawhide ran into all
sorts of old west characters and adventures along the trail. And again
like Wagon Train a number of famous Hollywood names guest starred. A few
of them included Dean Martin, Broderick Crawford, John Cassavetes, Peter
Lorre, Chill Wills, Dan Duryea and Robert Blake.
Fleming left the program before its final season, and the show
never recovered. And just a year later he died in a drowning accident.
Eastwood, meanwhile, became trail boss in Rawhide’s final year,
then moved into movie stardom, first in the spaghetti westerns of Sergio
Leone, then as Dirty Harry and later as both movie director and star.
Both Wagon Train and Rawhide presented interesting aspects of the
old west. They were definitely two of the genre’s best.
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