Have Gun Will Travel

Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons.

Set in the period of the Old West, the series follows the adventures of “Paladin,” played by John Dehner for radio, a gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a gunfighter for hire. Although Paladin charges steep fees to clients who can afford to hire him, typically $1,000 per job, he provides his services for free to poor people who need his help.

The Stars

John Dehner (1915–1992) starred as the lead character Paladin, a cultured and sophisticated gunfighter-for-hire who operated out of the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, when CBS adapted Have Gun - Will Travel for radio beginning in 1958, shortly after the TV show became a hit.

Dehner was already a prominent radio actor, known for series such as Gunsmoke and Frontier Gentleman, which helped him bring a more introspective, literate tone to Paladin on radio.

Ben Wright co-starred as Hey Boy, the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel who often assisted Paladin. Hey Boy was a recurring character throughout the series.

Key Dates

• Have Gun – Will Travel debuted on CBS on television on September 14, 1957, and ran for six seasons.
• The final episode aired on April 20, 1963.
• The series was one of the few shows in television history to spawn a successful radio version, which debuted on the CBS Radio Network on November 23, 1958, more than a year after the premiere of the television series.
• The radio series final episode was on November 27th, 1960.

Other Information

The opening theme of Have Gun – Will Travel was composed by Bernard Herrmann, who reused a short sequence he had previously composed for the 1951 film On Dangerous Ground. The show’s closing song, “The Ballad of Paladin,” was written by Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and program creator Sam Rolfe, and was performed by Western.

The title of the series is a variation on a cliche used in personal advertisements in newspapers, indicating that the advertiser (a job seeker) is equipped for a certain category of jobs and flexible about the location of the job. The phrase has been used this way from the early 20th century.

The TV series was nominated for three Emmy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series for Richard Boone (1959), Best Western Series (1959), and Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series (Lead or Support) for Richard Boone (1960).

In 2000, Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn self-published the 500-page trade paperback, The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion, documenting the history of the radio and television series.

The Have Gun – Will Travel theme and fragments of incidental music from the television series have been featured in other works, including a chase scene across snowy fields in the 1951 film On Dangerous Ground.

The US Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 105 (VFA-105), nicknamed “Gunslingers,” wears a unit insignia featuring a western-style revolver in a holster emblazoned with a gold knight chess piece, a reference to the Paladin character from Have Gun – Will Travel.