OLD TIME RADIO - 1 CD - 43 mp3 -
Total Playtime: 19:18:05
The
Six Shooter brought James Stewart to the NBC microphone
on September 20, 1953, in a fine series of folksy
Western adventures. Steward was never better on the air
than in this drama of Britt Ponset, Frontier drifter
created by Frank Burt. The epigraph set it up nicely:
"The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged: his
skin is sun dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray
steel and rainbow mother- of-pearl. People call them
both The Six Shooter." Ponset was a wanderer, an
easy-going gentleman and --- when he had to be ---a
gun-fighter. Stewart was right in character as the
slow-talking maverickwho usually blundered into other
people's troubles and sometimesshot his way out. His
experiences were broad, but The Six Shooter leaned more
to comedy than other shows of its kind.. Ponset took
time out to play Hamlet with a crude road company. He
ran for mayor and sheriff of the same town at the same
time. He became involved in a delighful Western version
of Cinderella, complete with grouchy stepmother, ugly
sisters, and a shoe that didn't fit. And at Christmas he
told a young runaway the story of A Christmas Carol,
Substituting the original Dickens characters with
Western heavies. Britt even had time to fall in love,
but it was the age-old story of people from different
worlds, and the romance was foredoomed despite their
valiant efforts to save it. So we got a
cowboy-into-the-sunset ending for this series, truly one
of the bright spots of radio. Unfortunately, it came too
late, and lasted only one season. It was a transcribed
show, sustained by NBC and directed by Jack Johnstone.
Basil Adlam provided the music And Frank Burt wrote the
scripts. Hal Gibney announced.