Have Gun Will Travel

1 9 5 7 – 1 9 6 3 (USA)
226 x 30 minute episodes

On 14 September 1957, a new western debuted on CBS. Richard Boone played Paladin – the man dressed all in black – in Have Gun Will Travel.

Paladin was a cultured, gunslinger who, after fighting as a Confederate cavalry officer in the Civil War, operated as a troubleshooting gun-for-hire out of San Francisco’s ritzy Hotel Carlton.

He would peruse many newspapers searching for potential clients in the turbulent stories of the times. Then he would send his calling card – which read “Have gun will travel. Wire Paladin, San Francisco” – and a clipping of the story, to the person-in-need. His standard fee was $1,000.

Occasionally, when he felt the situation warranted it, Paladin even brought to justice the very people who hired him.

Something of a dandy, Paladin wore fine clothes and enjoyed good food, the arts, and intelligent conversation.

The suave and educated gunslinger could quote Keats and Shakespeare as well as he could use his perfectly balanced Cavalry model 1873 Colt Single Action Revolver (he had been a West Point graduate).

The name ‘Paladin’ was derived from one of Charlemagne’s twelve legendary knights who were paragons of chivalry.

The half-hour show aired on Saturdays at 9:30 PM, just before another popular western, Gunsmoke, and ran for six successful seasons.

Richard Boone was brought into the series after cowboy icon Randolph Scott proved too busy to take it. But the producers couldn’t ask for better he-man pedigree than Boone’s.

A several-times-removed nephew of pioneer Daniel, the actor already knew how to ride a horse (though he didn’t much like them) and had experience as a boxer, an oil-field roughneck, a fishing boat crewman, a bartender and a torpedo squadron gunner before starring for two seasons as Dr Konrad Styner in NBC’s Medic.

Have Gun Will Travel was probably the most adult of the ‘adult western’ genre – Offbeat, moody and very successful. The show’s theme song, The Ballad of Paladin, became a top-selling recording in the early 1960s.

Among the small regular cast were Paladin’s servants, Hey Boy and Hey Girl. When the series was cancelled in 1963, Richard Boone starred in another series – The Richard Boone Show – which was on the air for only one season. He later starred in Hec Ramsey (1972 – 1974).

Paladin 
Richard Boone
Hey Boy 
Kam Tong
Hey Girl 
Lisa Lu