“This is the landscape of Rawhide– desert, forest, mountain and plains. It is intense heat, bitter cold, torrential rain, blinding dust; men risking their lives, earning small reward – a life of challenge – Rawhide.”
“It is men like trail scout Pete Nolan, the cantankerous Wishbone, Ramrod Rowdy Yates, good-natured Mushy, and trail boss Gil Favor – these men are Rawhide!”
The time was the 1860s. Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates – played by a very young Clint Eastwood (pictured at right) – moved cattle across the country, with episodes depicting the struggles and hardships they faced on their cattle drive from San Antonio, Texas, to Sedalia, Missouri.
Gil was the trail boss, the supervisor of the entire cattle-drive operation. Rowdy was his right-hand man and 2IC. Other regulars were the cooks (like Wishbone), drovers – notably Simon Blake and Hey Soos (Jesus) – and scouts who helped the cattle drive stay together.
Based on material from drover George Dutfield’s 1866 diary, the series was developed for TV by Charles Marquis Warren (who also worked on The Virginian) under the original title of Cattle Drive.
The Rawhide theme – made famous again in 1980 courtesy of the Blues Brothers movie (1980) – was sung by Frankie Laine and was a UK hit in 1959.
Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’
Though the streams are swollen
Keep them doggies rollin’ Rawhide
Through rain and wind and weather
Hell bent for leather
Wishing my gal was by my side
All those things I’m missing
good loving and kissin’
are waiting at the end of my ride
TRIVIA Sheb Wooley, who played Pete Nolan, was also a comedian/country singer who had already broken into the UK Top 20 in 1958 with The Purple People Eater(which was also a Number One record in the USA).
Gil Favor
Eric Fleming
Rowdy Yates
Clint Eastwood
Pete Nolan
Sheb Wooley
Wishbone
Paul Brinegar
Harkness ‘Mushy’ Mushgrove
James Murdock
Clay Forrester
Charles Gray
Joe Scarlet
Rock Shahan
Jim Quince
Steve Raines
Hey Soos Patines
Robert Cabal
Solomon King
Raymond St. Jaques
Ian Cabot
David Watson
Jed Colby
John Ireland
Gil Favor 
