Frontier Gentleman (1-3)

With the discovery of the wonderful archive.org, I finally get to listen to long-gone radio serials that I’ve so far only read about in books about Old Time Radio.  One of the Westerns that appealed to me (and which I will continue to listen to) was Frontier Gentleman, one of the last gasp of radio Westerns in 1958.  It only lasted about a year, but the premise intrigued, and some fairly decent writing sold me.  Frontier Gentleman is about J.B. Kendall, a correspondent for the Times (out of London) who has gone to the West to write about life there.  The situation is fraught with humor, but Kendall is a man of hidden talents:  an 1870s Renaissance man, and not, as it turns out, a ponce.  Like all radio cowboys, he deplores violence and uses it only as a last resort; his wits, charm, and ingenuity count for a lot, especially considering, like the Second Doctor, his adversaries tend to underestimate him.  The first episode saw Kendall arrive in a Montana town that had banned guns.  He eventually realized this was because the town’s sheriff was actually a baddie and that the whole place was under the thumb of the Shelton Brothers.  Kendall was amusing to listen to as he bumbled (politely) through the saloon, and everyone assumed he couldn’t use a gun.  However, as later episodes are hinting, he’s been in the British Army, so he’s not at all helpless.  Unfortunately, the end of the first episode saw Kendall waiting for his advance money so he could continue onward.  Like most of his chivalrous counterparts, he has a soft (and entirely chaste) spot for women in trouble.  

Episode three, broadcast on Feb. 9^th, 1958, opened, as they all do, with a trumpet theme from the young Jerry Goldsmith, and I was impressed with the cinematic quality of the music in Frontier Gentleman.  The narrator informs us that, though he came to this country as a reporter, “as a man with a gun, [Kendall] becomes part of the West.”   This episode concerns the town of Rosebud and problems with Indians not staying on their reservations.  I was surprised at how even-handedly this episode handled the Apaches (“those Indians don’t trust white men no more”), for they are actually kept out of the action proper—therefore, no war dances, no scalping, no terrible dialogue (as this is post-Broken Arrow, I guess it’s to be expected).  At Rosebud, Kendall makes the acquaintance of a kindly matron—“it’s always nice to meet a gentleman”—and a fellow journalist, who are given a scoop when a half-Apache scout offers to take Kendall and his friend to the reservation for an exclusive.  The other journalist is apprehensive.  “Suppose he wants to take your scalp?”  “Well, that would be awkward.”  

Eventually they agree to go out into the hills.  When the other journalist offers Kendall a drink, the English gentlemen says, “Sleep for me” (like all good radio cowboys).  It’s also in this story that Kendall says he was a captain in a cavalry regiment in India.  “The tribesmen do much worse [than scalp] in India.”   Unfortunately, the other journalist’s suspicions are correct regarding the double-cross, and even Kendall’s two guns in a shoulder holster are not adequate.  The nefarious scout, however, has an amusing sense of humor, making him more than a dime-a-dozen villain. 

Kendall is played with great verve by John Dehner, and the serial is written and directed by Antony Ellis.  I’ll definitely listen to some more.