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December 27, 2011
The Librarian - an episode of Frontier Gentleman (with John Dehner)
Not too long ago, Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82) on Sirius/XM featured actor John Dehner, who was born on November 23, 1915 and was an actor on many radio programs. The one program that they featured twice during that celebration was Frontier Gentleman, a program that I honestly did not listen too all that often. I am developing a taste for westerns and am trying out Gunsmoke and Dehner's Have Gun, Will Travel. From the program's Internet Archive site, You can see that it was a weekly radio western heard on CBS in 1958 - but it had a twist. The program was presented through the eyes of an outsider, Englishman J. B. Kendall (played by Dehner) who was a correspondent for the London Times. His role was to find the true spirit and flavor of the west and share it with the readers back in England.
And while the programs are excellent - with really strong production values - one episode really caught my eye. From October 5, 1958, the episode was called "The Librarian". As you know from previous posts about Crime Club, that not only am I am librarian, but I am interested in their portrayal in popular culture.
In this episode (which I have not been able to play except for downloading the MP3 file), a widower from out east tries to scare off a settler who is trying to take over her land claim. She was a librarian out east and moved west with her husband. After being swindled by a shady land developer, they found themselves on this plot that they had to develop - or lose. But in working the land, her husband died of exhaustion. The settler trying to take over the lot actually ended up being help by the widower. So it goes to show that librarians are amazingly helpful, even to those who want to take over their plot.
Here is the link to all the episodes of Frontier Gentleman.
Posted by cseeman at December 27, 2011 03:04 PM