Gunsmoke (TV Series)
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television. When aired in the United Kingdom, the television series was initially titled ''Gun Law'', later reverting to ''Gunsmoke''. The radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among radio drama enthusiasts, "''Gunsmoke'' is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." The television series ran for 20 seasons from 1955 to 1975, and lasted for 635 episodes. At the end of its run in 1975, ''Los Angeles Times'' columnist Cecil Smith wrote: "''Gunsmoke'' was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west. Our own ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', created from standard elements of the dime novel and the pulp Wes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Western (genre)
The Western is a genre Setting (narrative), set in the American frontier and commonly associated with Americana (culture), folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other Stock character, stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. History The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Edison's Black Maria, Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured vet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television. When aired in the United Kingdom, the television series was initially titled ''Gun Law'', later reverting to ''Gunsmoke''. The radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among radio drama enthusiasts, "''Gunsmoke'' is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." The television series ran for 20 seasons from 1955 to 1975, and lasted for 635 episodes. At the end of its run in 1975, ''Los Angeles Times'' columnist Cecil Smith wrote: "''Gunsmoke'' was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west. Our own ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', created from standard elements of the dime novel and the pulp West ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr (June 11, 1914 – November 9, 1968) was an American radio, film, and television character actor and frequent leading man, who appeared in more than 500 radio plays, 73 films, and over 100 television shows. Early years Mohr was born in Manhattan to Henrietta (née Neustadt), a singer, and Sigmond Mohr. He was educated in Dwight Preparatory School in Manhattan, where he learned to speak French and German and also learned to ride horses and play the piano. At Columbia University, where he was on a course to become a doctor, Mohr was struck with appendicitis and was recovering in a hospital when another patient, a radio broadcaster, realised Mohr's pleasant baritone voice would be ideal for radio. Mohr was hired by the radio station and became a junior reporter. Stage In the mid-1930s, Orson Welles invited him to join his formative Mercury Theatre. During his time with Welles, Mohr gained theatrical experience on Broadway in ''The Petrified Forest'' and starred ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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June Foray
June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American voice actress. She was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Lucifer from Disney's ''Cinderella'', Cindy Lou Who, Jokey Smurf, Granny from the Warner Bros. cartoons directed by Friz Freleng, Grammi Gummi from ''Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears'' series, and Magica De Spell, among many others. Her career encompassed radio, theatrical shorts, feature films, television, records (particularly with Stan Freberg), video games, talking toys, and other media. Foray was also one of the early members of ASIFA-Hollywood, the society devoted to promoting and encouraging animation. She is credited with the establishment of the Annie Awards, as well as being instrumental in the creation of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring her voice work in television. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Howard Culver
Howard Culver (June 4, 1918 – August 4, 1984) was an American radio and television actor, best known as hotel clerk Howie Uzzell during the entire run of TV's ''Gunsmoke''. On radio he starred in the title role of the Western adventure series ''Straight Arrow'', which aired on Mutual from May 6, 1948 to June 21, 1951. Biography Culver grew up in Los Angeles, and he was first heard as an actor on CBS while he was a teenager. He served in the Navy for three years during World War II, returning to continue on many San Francisco and Hollywood-based radio shows. In 1948, he was the last actor to portray Ellery Queen on radio's ''The Adventures of Ellery Queen''.Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''. Oxford University Press. . pp. 8–9. After ''Straight Arrow'', he co-starred with Mercedes McCambridge as reporter Jud Barnes on ABC's '' Defense Attorney'' (1951–52). Jack French recalled Culver in his 1996 essay on ''Straight Arrow'': :McCann Erick ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Straight Arrow
The ''Straight Arrow'' radio program was a western adventure series for juveniles which was broadcast, mostly twice weekly in the United States from 1948 or 1949 through 1951.Anderson, Roland. A total of 292 episodes were aired. Although first broadcast only in California, in early 1949 it was broadcast nationally on the Mutual Broadcasting Network. All the programs were written by Sheldon Stark. The protagonist, rancher Steve Adams, became the Comanche Indian, the Straight Arrow, when bad people or other dangers threatened. In fact, Adams was a Comanche orphan who had been adopted by the Adams ranching family and later inherited the ranch. His dual identity was known to only one friend, Packy McCloud, Steve Adams's sidekick. Internal evidence places the ranch in the vicinity of the Colorado Rockies in the 1870s. Howard Culver played both Adams and Straight Arrow. The program was sponsored by Nabisco Shredded Wheat cereal. Comic book and comic strip Like many other child ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Rye
Michael Rye (born John Michael Riorden Billsbury; March 2, 1918 – September 20, 2012) was an American actor. His decades-long career spanned radio, television, animated cartoons and video games. Aside from his voice over work, Rye also acted in on-screen television roles as well, including parts in '' Dr. Kildare'' and ''77 Sunset Strip''. He is also credited in TL Osborn's gospel documentaries as the narrator. Early life Rye was born John Michael Riorden Billsbury in Chicago, Illinois. Radio career He began his career during the Golden Age of Radio when radio programming was at the height of its popularity. Rye, who broadcast from Chicago, participated in an average of forty network radio shows per week. He was cast in numerous lead roles for radio shows, including Gary Curtis for the NBC soap opera, ''Ma Perkins''; Tim Lawrence on ''Guiding Light''; Jack Armstrong on the radio adventure series, ''Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy''; and Pembroke in the soap opera, ''Back ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Shayne
Michael "Mike" Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday, a pseudonym of Davis Dresser. The character appeared in a series of seven films starring Lloyd Nolan for Twentieth Century Fox, five films from the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation with Hugh Beaumont, a radio series under a variety of titles between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960–1961 in a 32-episode NBC television series starring Richard Denning in the title role. Character biography Shayne debuted in the novel ''Dividend on Death'' first published in 1939, written by Dresser as Halliday. Fifty Shayne novels were published in hardcover written by Dresser (until 1958) and a variety of ghost-writers. Twenty-seven more were published as paperback originals for a total of seventy-seven. There are also 300 short story, short stories (although many of these are condensed from, or were expanded into, published novels), a dozen films, radio programs and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Friedkin
David Friedkin (March 8, 1912 – October 15, 1976) was an American writer and director of radio shows, film, and television shows. Early life and education Friedkin was born on March 8, 1912 in Kansas City, Missouri to Russian Jewish immigrants. His father wanted him to become a doctor. When Friedkin graduated from high school at 15, he attended the Juilliard School on a violin scholarship. At 17, Friedkin decided to become a stage actor. According to his son Anthony Friedkin, he was in the running for the lead role in the film adaptation of ''Golden Boy''. He then focused on writing and directing. He served in the Signal Corps during World War II. Career Early in his writing career, Friedkin teamed with Morton Fine; the two would frequently collaborate for radio, television, and film for the rest of Friedkin's working life. Friedkin and Fine worked on Elliott Lewis' shows ''Broadway Is My Beat'', ''Crime Classics'', ''The Line-Up,'' and ''On Stage''. The two also wrote ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Morton Fine
Morton Fine (December 24, 1916 – March 7, 1991) was an American screenwriter. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Fine worked in an advertising agency, a bookstore, and an aircraft factory before joining the Army Air Force in 1942. A graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Fine returned to school after his military service ended in 1944 and earned a master's degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh. After an unprofitable stint writing for magazines, he moved to California and turned to writing for radio programs. It was then that he met David Friedkin and began a long writing partnership. Fine wrote several nationally broadcast radio shows in collaboration with David Friedkin, including ''Broadway Is My Beat'' and ''Crime Classics''. The writing duo then moved on to film and television where their credits include ''The Pawnbroker'' (for which he won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama in 1965), ''The Nativity'', ''The Greek Tycoon'', ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WAMU
WAMU (88.5 FM) is a public news/talk station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary National Public Radio member station for Washington since 2007. History WAMU began as an AM carrier-current student radio station, signing on July 28, 1951 on , before shifting to in March 1952 and in November 1952. Although carrier-current stations are not granted a license or call sign by the FCC, it used "WAMU" as a familiar form of identification. The station aired a wide range of student-produced programming including music, news, sports, radio dramas, and debates. The station was heralded as a rebirth of the university's prior radio station, WAMC, which operated on for about two years starting on January 15, 1947, broadcasting with a 50-watt transmitter as part of a plan to offer a full range of radio and television courses at American U ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harry Ackerman
Harry Stephen Ackerman (November 17, 1912 – February 3, 1991) was an American television producer, credited with creating or co-creating twenty-one series, seven of which were at one time being broadcast simultaneously. Some of the sitcoms in which he was involved in production during the 1950s and 1960s are also among the most popular American shows in the early history of the “small screen”, such as ''Father Knows Best'', '' Dennis the Menace'', '' Leave It to Beaver'', '' The Farmer's Daughter'', ''Hazel'', ''Bewitched'', ''The Flying Nun'', and ''Gidget''. Ackerman was known in the entertainment industry as the “dean of television comedy”, although he was instrumental too in developing many dramatic classics and documentaries, such as ''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'', ''The Day Lincoln Was Shot'', and '' The 20th Century''. Early life and education Harry Ackerman was born in Albany, New York and attended Dartmouth College as a theater arts major. Career Ackerman ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |