"The Six Shooter" (December 20, 1953) - Part 3

A few words about the cast of "The Six Shooter" episode "Britt Ponset's Christmas Carol" and some other things...

The series ran on NBC for one season of 39 episodes from 1953-1954 and it came along at kind of an interesting time.

Television had been making serious inroads by this point and the biggest effect was that if people were watching TV, they were no longer listening to the radio.

So, one thing that radio tried was having stars such as James Stewart headline shows. He was a big movie star at the time, so it's not like he needed the work.

Another trend was for shows to be transcribed, i.e. recorded in advance, which allowed the stars to work on the shows on their own schedule, as opposed to needing to block out a set time for a live broadcast.

Also, by 1953 Jimmy Stewart had become comfortable in the western movie genre. He was a non-traditional hero in his first western, "Destry Rides Again" (1939), but established a rugged new persona with his next western, "Winchester '73" (1950).

So, add it all up and we have Jimmy Stewart in a transcribed western radio show!

As expected, he does a great job on the show with his unmistakable voice and deceptively folksy demeanor.

The announcer on "The Six Shooter" was Hal Gibney, and if his name wasn't familiar, a lot of people knew his voice as the announcer for the radio and TV versions of "Dragnet." You know, "...Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent..."

For this particular episode, announcer Gibney tells us that Scrooge was played by Howard McNear. He was a busy radio actor, appearing as Doc on "Gunsmoke" at this time, but was later best-known for his role as Floyd, the nosy Mayberry barber on "The Andy Griffith Show" TV series.

No one else is credited, but the voice of the Johnny character is easily recognizable as that of Dick Beals, who was 26 years old at the time, but did a great kid voice for a really long time, not unlike Walter Tetley. 

When I hear that voice, I immediately think of Davey from "Davey and Goliath," whose voice Dick provided up through 1965's "Christmas Lost and Found." He also had a long run voicing "Speedy Alka Seltzer" for TV commercials.

Dick Beals also popped up in 1953 as the window boy in Lionel Barrymore's 1953 broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" on the "Hallmark Hall of Fame." Have we listened to that yet?

We're fortunate that every episode of "The Six Shooter" survives and it's still great entertainment!