Frontier Circus (1962)

 

The failure of Frontier Circus to last beyond a single season of 26 episodes certainly was not due to the efforts of the Revue Productions publicity department. Besides a December 16, 1961 TV Guide photo feature showing how they filmed the hot-air balloon shots for "The Balloon Girl" episode, which aired on January 11, 1962, the series scored two more TV Guide features in 1962--a 2-page photo spread of the three male stars and a menagerie of animals in the February 3, 1962 issue, and a biographical feature on leading man Chill Wills in the April 28, 1962 issue. But while the publicity department did its part and the casting crew lined up such A-list guest stars as Sammy Davis, Jr. in "Coals of Fire" (January 4, 1962), Mickey Rooney in "Calamity Circus" (March 8, 1962), and Red Buttons in "Never Won Fair Lady" (April 12, 1962), the script department failed to come up with much in the way of new stories, instead recycling such shop-worn plots as the shotgun wedding (used twice, in "The Courtship" [February 19, 1962] and "The Clan MacDuff" [April 26, 1962]), the Romeo and Juliet family feud (also in "The Clan MacDuff"), the ugly duckling tomboy ("Stopover in Paradise" [February 22, 1962]), the con-man takeover ("Quick Shuffle" [February 1, 1962]), the impractical pacifist ("The Good Fight" [April 19, 1962]), the jealous husband ("The Daring Durandos" [May 17, 1962]), and the quarantine story ("Incident at Pawnee Gun" [September 6, 1962]). And for a show dubbed "Wagon Train with animals" (see our post on the 1961 episodes as well as the aforementioned TV Guide photo feature), the animals rarely figure prominently in the plots, other than a six-gun-shooting chimpanzee in the final episode, which was aired 3½ months after the penultimate show obviously as a placeholder before the new season got started. Despite all the money spent on the animal acts and special effects for gimmicks like a runaway hot-air balloon, the series itself couldn't deliver on the most fundamental aspect of quality TV--a good story.

In fact, some of the stories are downright awful, beginning with the previously cited Sammy Davis, Jr. guest spot "Coals of Fire" in which Davis plays ex-slave Cato Richards who is bent on revenging the Union Army officer who shot his master. In this Confederate-friendly fantasy, Richards' master was a "good" slave owner who treated his slaves like family, while the Union officer who killed him is a sadist, so evil that it drives Richards to join the Confederate army in a support role so that he can learn how to handle firearms and gather intelligence to help him track down his target. Both Richards and Frontier Circus regular Tony Gentry tell each other that they didn't fight in the Confederate cause in support of slavery, but regardless what they may tell themselves or each other, the Civil War was fought to protect the institution of slavery. Plenty of westerns from the era attempted to whitewash the Confederacy and those who fought for it (see The Rebel, for example), but few stoop to the levels of this episode of Frontier Circus. It does, however, bestow on Wills' Casey Thompson character perhaps the best line uttered in the series when he mutters to himself that man is the only animal who will kill his own kind for reasons other than hunger. The Old South is treated as a quixotic curiosity in "The Courtship" when Gentry rides into the isolated community of New Atlanta hoping to arrange for the circus to perform there only to learn that they don't allow such entertainment in their genteel reconstruction of the Old South out on the frontier (the uncouth subject of slavery is never mentioned). And in "The Good Fight" Ben Travis rediscovers an old flame who has had her family plantation reconstructed in the Nevada valleys, again as if this is some whimsical trifle. Of course, white audiences and TV producers were completely unaware of the power of these antebellum symbols in the pre-Civil Rights Act era.

But white male superiority isn't only promoted by reminders of the Old South: "The Inheritance" (March 15, 1962) has Casey Thompson "inherit" the guardianship of a son and daughter of an old Japanese performing friend of his, but the real purpose of the episode is to denigrate the treatment of women in traditional Japanese culture. The son, Yuki, spends the first half of the episode repressing his sister Hideko--she has to sit at another table when he eats and is not allowed to speak for herself. One of the white male circus performers, Rolando, voices his approval of this arrangement before being put in his place by the "more liberated" American female circus women. When the American women help Hideko dress up in western wear, Yuki feels his heritage is disgraced but holds Ben Travis responsible and has to fight it out with him to try to restore honor, a fight he is bound to lose despite whipping much bigger men earlier in the episode. The episode ends not with a resolution to Hideko's subjugated position in relation to her brother but with Ben and Yuki fighting off the bigger ruffians and then shaking hands, the implication being that once the males have settled their differences everything else will fall into place.

The irony of this episode is that it suggests that American women have it better than their Asian counterparts when, as we covered at length in our post on the 1961 episodes, the women  on Frontier Circus are hardly liberated--they are most often damsels in distress. But in the 1962 episodes women become more devious and dangerous. In "The Courtship" southern belle Amelia Curtis attempts to lure Casey into marrying her because he bears a striking resemblance to her late father who established and ran the resurrected Old South community of New Atlanta. But she, being a woman, does not have the skill to maintain the town's economic prosperity, so she is looking for a man to take over. When he declines her offer, she threatens to seize his circus. He is only able to escape her clutches by persuading her town marshal, who has always loved her but never had the backbone to stand up to her, to put her in her place by repeatedly telling her to shut up. So much for the liberated American woman. As alluded to above, "Stopover in Paradise" recycles the worn-out tale of a tomboy who has to be shown by a man, in this case Ben Travis, how to be a woman. Saloon performer Naomi Champagne in her eponymous episode needs Ben to defend her against snooty easterners who try to convince her that historically women like Joan of Arc and Cleopatra always sacrificed themselves so that men could survive and prosper after a Mexican bandito captures Naomi and the easterners and threatens to kill them unless she becomes his paramour. While Naomi has the courage to kill the outlaw during a private dinner, she and the others need Ben's swashbuckling rescue to escape the outlaw's henchmen. In "Mighty Like Rogues" (April 5, 1962) we see bank robber's widow Ma Jukes forcing her children into a life of crime to eke out an existence after they are left destitute. In "The Good Fight" Ben's former lover Hannah Cabot is a greedy land-grabber who pushes her father in trying to drive out a sect of pacifists who own land she covets. And in "The Daring Durandos" younger sister Tina Durando manipulates Ben to sow discord between her older sister and her husband to try to break up their trapeze act so that she can reform a better version and restore the family name to the luster it enjoyed when their father was still alive. By contrast, white male manipulator Will Grady, who has made a living romancing and then fleecing a series of single women, is portrayed as a devilish old rascal in "Mr. Grady Regrets" (January 25, 1962) who is redeemed when his long-lost daughter decides to disregard his perfidious past and reconcile with him. To be fair, the aforementioned Ma Jukes is also rehabilitated by episode's end when Ben and Casey hire her as a kind of store detective to spot pickpockets circulating amongst their circus customers, but she does so only upon threat of being sent to jail and therefore separated from her children.

The one female who manages to hold her own against the male stars of Frontier Circus is Stella Stevens' balloon entrepreneur Katy Cogswell in "The Balloon Girl." Initially she comes off as another damsel in distress when her hot-air balloon crashes into a hotel in the town where the circus is playing, and she has no money to pay for repairs. Ben and Tony, both finding her attractive and wanting to woo her, offer to have their circus hands repair her balloon if she agrees to join them as a performing act. She agrees, but has no intention of sticking around once the repairs are made (thus casting herself from damsel in distress to manipulative female), but when she takes off she does not realize that Ben has rigged her balloon to only go so far, forcing her to land in the wilderness, where he is easily able to find her and tries to convince her that it is no place for a lady because of the many dangers, in other words, returning her to the role of damsel in distress. However, he overreaches when he recruits a trio of faux Indians, who have been performing with the circus but then walk out in a pay dispute, to scare her into thinking it is best to return to the safety of the circus. When she sees the same "Indians" sneak back into camp, she recognizes that Ben has played her, and once again she takes off in her balloon, though this time Ben does not see it coming, and she leaves behind a note for him saying that she was as honest with him as he was with her. Casey tries to make lemonade out of the episode by pointing out that the name of their circus is plastered on the side of her balloon, meaning they will receive advertising wherever she goes, but it is clear that for once Ben has been outmaneuvered at his own game. Perhaps had the series used a little more of that humility it may have found more success.

 

The Actors

For the biographies of Chill Wills, John Derek, Richard Jaeckel, and J. Pat O'Malley, see the 1961 post on Frontier Circus.

 

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 11, "Coals of Fire": Sammy Davis, Jr. (shown on the left, "The Greatest Living Entertainer," starred in Porgy and Bess, Ocean's 11, Robin and the 7 Hoods, A Man Called Adam, Sweet Charity, Salt and Pepper, The Cannonball Run, and Cannonball Run II and played Chip Warren on One Life to Live and Eddie Phillips on General Hospital) plays former slave Cato Richards. R.G. Armstrong (Police Capt. McAllister on T.H.E. Cat and Lewis Vendredi on Friday the 13th) plays former Union Army Capt. Uriah Foster. Chief Yowlachie (aka, Daniel Simmons, starred in Tonio, Son of the Sierras, With Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre, The Paleface, Ma and Pa Kettle, and The Pathfinder) plays an Indian chief. Larry J. Blake (the unnamed jailer on Yancy Derringer and Tom Parnell on Saints and Sinners) plays the circus band leader. 

Season 1, Episode 12, "The Balloon Girl": Stella Stevens (shown on the right, starred in Girls! Girls! Girls!, The Nutty Professor, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Silencers, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows, and The Poseidon Adventure and played Lute-Mae Sanders on Flamingo Road, Phyllis Blake on Santa Barbara, Jake on General Hospital, and Doreen Krudup on Strip Mall) plays balloon entrepreneur Katy Cogswell. Chick Chandler (Toubo Smith on Soldiers of Fortune and Barney Hogan on One Happy Family) plays her ground man Luke Turlock. Claude Akins (Sonny Pruett on Movin' On and Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo on B.J and the Bear and on Lobo) plays Indian actor Powcheek. Hal Needham (Hollywood's highest-paid stuntman who invented numerous stunt devices, was a double for Richard Boone and Burt Reynolds, and directed Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Cannonball Run) plays his performing partner Ralph Wexler.

Season 1, Episode 13, "Mr. Grady Regrets": Charles Ruggles (shown on the left, starred in Charley's Aunt, The Girl Habit, If I Had a Million, Alice in Wonderland, Ruggles of Red Gap, Bringing Up Baby, and Son of Flubber, voiced Aesop on The Bullwinkle Show, and played Lowell Redlings Farquhar on The Beverly Hillbillies) plays ex-con Will Grady. Anne Helm (starred in Follow That Dream, The Interns, and Honeymoon Hotel and played Molly Pierce on Run for Your Life and Mary Briggs on General Hospital) plays his daughter Rosa Blanchard. Lillian Bronson (Mrs. Drake on Date With the Angels) plays the woman who sent him to prison Dorothy Barker. Crahan Denton (appeared in The Parent Trap, Birdman of Alcatraz, and To Kill a Mockingbird) plays lawman Marshal Beckett. Michael Forest (starred in Ski Troop Attack, Atlas, and The Glory Guys and was the voice of Capt. Dorai on Street Fighter II: V and Olympus on Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue) plays Grady's former cellmate Roy Clatter. Dorothy Neumann (Miss Mittleman on Hank) plays Dorothy's neighbor Mrs. Hoskins. Tim Graham (Homer Ede on National Velvet) plays farmer Williams. S. John Launer (Marshall Houts on The Court of Last Resort and the judge 33 times on Perry Mason) plays prison Warden Martine.

Season 1, Episode 14, "Quick Shuffle": Gilbert Roland (shown on the right, starred in Men of the North, She Done Him Wrong, The Sea Hawk, The Gay Cavalier, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Around the World in 80 Days) plays card hustler Luke Santos. Patricia Barry (Kate Harris on Harris Against the World, Lydia McGuire on Dr. Kildare, Adelaide Horton Williams on Days of Our Lives, Peg English on All My Children, and Sally Gleason on Guiding Light) plays saloon girl Amy. Carl Benton Reid (starred in The Little Foxes, In a Lonely Place, Lorna Doone, and The Left Hand of God and played The Man on Burke's Law) plays circuit Judge Salem. George Mitchell (Cal Bristol on Stoney Burke) plays a New Mexico sheriff. Myron Healey (Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays a card player. Richard Reeves (Mr. Murphy on Date With the Angels) plays card player Gruber.

Season 1, Episode 15, "The Courtship": Jo Van Fleet (shown on the left, Oscar winner starred in East of Eden, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Cool Hand Luke, and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas) plays southern belle Amelia Curtis. Jeannette Nolan (starred in Macbeth (1948), The Big Heat, Tribute to a Bad Man, and The Reluctant Astronaut, did voicework for Psycho, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound, and played Annette Devereaux on Hotel de Paree and Holly Grainger on The Virginian) plays her sister Amanda. Henry Jones (Dean Fred Baker on Channing, Owen Metcalf on The Girl With Something Extra, Judge Jonathan Dexter on Phyllis, Josh Alden on Mrs. Columbo, Homer McCoy on Gun Shy, B. Riley Wicker on Falcon Crest, and Hughes Whitney Lennox on I Married Dora) plays New Atlanta Marshal Harry Longstreet. Willard Waterman (see the biography section for the 1961 post on Dennis the Menace) plays New Atlanta leading citizen Parker. Sheila Bromley (Janet Tobin on I Married Joan and Ethel Weiss on Hank) plays his wife. Lloyd Corrigan (starred in A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob, Hitler's Children, Captive Wild Woman, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, and Son of Paleface and played Papa Dodger on Willy, Wally Dipple on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Ned Buntline on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Uncle Charlie on Happy, and Professor McKillup on Hank) plays New Atlanta citizen Willis.

Season 1, Episode 16, "Stopover in Paradise": Carolyn Jones (shown on the right, appeared in House of Wax, The Big Heat, The Seven Year Itch, The Tender Trap, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and How the West Was Won and played Morticia Addams on The Addams Family, Marsha, Queen of Diamonds on Batman, and Myrna Clegg on Capitol) plays cattle rancher Amy Tyson. Robert F. Simon (Dave Tabak on Saints and Sinners, Gen. Alfred Terry on Custer, Frank Stephens on Bewitched, Uncle Everett McPherson on Nancy, Capt. Rudy Olsen on The Streets of San Francisco, and J. Jonah Jameson on The Amazing Spiderman) plays her foreman Jess Bailey. Adam Kennedy (Dion Patrick on The Californians and Brock Hayden on The Doctors) plays her ranch hand Sam Hagen. Jackie Russell (Peggy Connolly on The Joey Bishop Show) plays contortionist Janet Olsen. 

Season 1, Episode 17, "Calamity Circus": Mickey Rooney (shown on the left, starred in Captains Courageous, Boys Town, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Words and Music, Babyface Nelson, and Breakfast at Tiffany's as well as numerous Andy Hardy movies and played Mickey Mulligan on The Mickey Rooney Show, Mickey Grady on Mickey, Oliver Nugent on One of the Boys, Henry Dailey on The New Adventures of the Black Stallion, and Talbut on Kleo the Misfit Unicorn) plays circus clown Arthur. Howard McNear (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Andy Griffith Show) plays small-town Judge Stuart. Parley Baer (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays the town sheriff. Dennis Rush (Howie Pruitt on The Andy Griffith Show) plays a boy who wants to see the circus. 

Season 1, Episode 18, "The Inheritance": Alan Hale, Jr. (shown on the middle right, played Biff Baker on Biff Baker U.S.A., Casey Jones on Casey Jones, and The Skipper on Gilligan's Island) plays ruffian Lait. Donald "Red" Barry (shown on the near right, played Red Ryder in the movie serial The Adventures of Red Ryder, and played Lt. Snedigar on Surfside 6, The Grand Vizier and Tarantula on Batman, Capt. Red Barnes on Police Woman, and Jud Larabee on Little House on the Prairie) plays his partner Martin. Wally Brown (shown on the far right, appeared in Notorious, The Left Handed Gun, and The Absent-Minded Professor and played Jed Fame on Cimarron City and Chauncey Kowalski on The Roaring '20's) plays Primrose Sheriff Tom Bender. Sid Tomack (Jim Gillis on The Life of Riley) plays saloon owner Toby. Peter Leeds (Tenner Smith on Trackdown and George Colton on Pete and Gladys) plays circus knife-thrower Rolando. 

Season 1, Episode 19, "Naomi Champagne": Constance Ford (starred in A Summer Place, Home From the Hill, All Fall Down, and The Caretakers and played Ada Lucas Davis Downs McGowan Hobson on Another World) plays saloon performer Naomi Champagne. Richard Conte (shown on the left, appeared in A Walk in the Sun, 13 Rue Madeleine, Call Northside 777, Ocean's 11, and Lady in Cement and played Jeff Ryder on The Four Just Men) plays outlaw Don Diego Montoya. Alex Montoya (Miguel Morales on The High Chaparral) plays his henchman Juan. Roberto Contreras (Pedro on The High Chaparral) plays his henchman Pablo. Robert H. Harris (Jake Goldberg on Molly and Raymond Schindler on The Court of Last Resort) plays stove company owner John Haskill. Marguerite Chapman (starred in Spy Smasher, Parachute Nurse, Pardon My Past, Man Bait, and The Seven Year Itch) plays his wife Theresa. Neil Hamilton (starred in The Great Gatsby (1926), Why Be Good?, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), and Brewster's Millions, was the host of Hollywood Screen Test, and played Commissioner Gordon on Batman) plays their friend Jason Glass.

Season 1, Episode 20, "Mighty Like Rogues": Glenda Farrell (shown on the right, starred in Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Johnny Eager, The Talk of the Town, and Kissin' Cousins and played Torchy Blane in 7 feature films) plays pickpocket ring leader Ma Jukes. Joby Baker (David Lewis on Good Morning, World and Col. Harvey Mann on The Six O'Clock Follies) plays her elder son George Washington Jukes. Jena Engstrom (daughter of actress Jean Engstrom) plays her daughter Betsy Ross Jukes. Roger Mobley (Homer "Packy" Lambert on Fury) plays her younger son Andrew Jackson Jukes. 

Season 1, Episode 21, "Never Won Fair Lady": Red Buttons (shown on the left, starred in Sayonara, Hatari!, The Longest Day, Stagecoach, and The Posiedon Adventure and played Henry Wadsworth Phyfe on The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Al Baker on Knots Landing, and Jules Rubadoux on ER) plays Casey's former commanding officer's son Earl Youngblood. Paul Newlan (Police Capt. Grey on M Squad and Lt. Gen. Pritchard on 12 O'Clock High) plays his father Gen. "Iron Pants" Youngblood. Gloria Talbott (starred in The Cyclops, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll,  and I Married a Monster From Outer Space and played Moneta on Zorro) plays lion tamer Pamela. Richard Reeves (see "Quick Shuffle" above) plays a dissatisfied lemonade customer. 

Season 1, Episode 22, "The Good Fight": George Macready (Martin Peyton on Peyton Place) plays pacifist preacher John Duncan. Kenneth MacDonald (played the judge 32 times on Perry Mason, played Col. Parker on Colt .45, and appeared in several Three Stooges shorts) plays one of his followers Canfield. Jason Evers (shown on the right, starred in The Brain That Wouldn't Die, House of Women, The Green Berets, and Escape From the Planet of the Apes and played Pitcairn on Wrangler, Prof. Joseph Howe on Channing, and Jim Sonnett on The Guns of Will Sonnett) plays ranch foreman Judd Halleck. Kenneth Tobey (starred in The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and It Came From Beneath the Sea and played Chuck Martin on Whirlybirds and Russ Conway on I Spy) plays Rockville Marshal Sam Walden. William Fawcett (Clayton on Duffy's Tavern, Marshal George Higgins on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Pete Wilkey on Fury) plays the Rockville postmaster. Gordon Jones (appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays circus roustabout Jase.

Season 1, Episode 23, "The Clan MacDuff": James Barton (shown on the left, appeared in The Shepherd of the Hills, Here Comes the Groom, Golden Girl, and The Misfits) plays Scottish patriarch Angus MacDuff. Jackie Russell (see "Stopover in Paradise" above) plays his daughter Patricia. John Considine (brother of Tim Considine, played Grant Capwell on Santa Barbara) plays member of feuding clan Robin MacNeil. 

Season 1, Episode 24, "The Race": Edward Andrews (shown on the right, appeared in The Harder They Fall, Elmer Gantry, The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Advise and Consent, and The Glass Bottom Boat and played Cmdr. Rogers Adrian on Broadside and Col. Fairburn on The Doris Day Show) plays collector of men Duke Felix Otway. Skip Homeier (appeared in Arthur Takes Over, The Gunfighter, Sailor Beware, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played Lt. Dan Raven on Dan Raven and Dr. Hugh Jacoby on The Interns) plays his Prussian "pawn" Col. Rastatt. Harry Carey, Jr. (starred in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays horse race competitor Anderson. Jim McMullan (Officer Don Burdick on Chopper One, John Moore on Beyond Westworld, and Sen. Andrew Dowling on Dallas) plays horse race competitor Charlie. Don Haggerty (Jeffrey Jones on The Files of Jeffrey Jones, Eddie Drake on The Cases of Eddie Drake, Sheriff Dan Elder on State Trooper, and Marsh Murdock on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Broken Bowl Marshal Walworth. 

Season 1, Episode 25, "The Daring Durandos": Nehemiah Persoff (starred in The Wrong Man, Al Capone and Some Like It Hot) plays trapeze aerialist Paco Durango. Margarita Cordova (shown on the left, played Rosa Andrade on Santa Barbara and Carmen Torres on Sunset Beach) plays his wife Maria. Anita Sands (later became astrologer to the stars and a self-help guru) plays her younger sister Tina. David White (Larry Tate on Bewitched) plays legendary circus owner F.X. Farnum. Jackie Searl (began as a child actor, appearing in Tom Sawyer (1930), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Alice in Wonderland (1933), Great Expectations(1934), and Little Lord Fauntleroy) plays revenge-minded cowboy Cal Soper. 

Season 1, Episode 26, "Incident at Pawnee Gun": Joe Maross (Fred Russell on Peyton Place, Capt. Mike Benton on Code Red, and Dr. Blakely on Dallas) plays saloon owner Al Buchanan. Kathie Browne (shown on the right, played Angie Dow on Hondo and was Darren McGavin's second wife) plays his employee Mauvereen. Paul Carr (Bill Horton on Days of Our Lives, Casey Clark on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Dr. Paul Summers on The Doctors, Ted Prince on Dallas, and Martin Gentry on The Young and the Restless) plays an aspiring hit man. Kenneth Tobey (see "The Good Fight" above) plays rival saloon owner Frank Mitchell. Walter Sande (appeared in To Have and Have Not, A Place in the Sun, and Bad Day at Black Rock and played Capt. Horatio Bullwinkle on The Adventures of Tugboat Annie and Papa Holstrum on The Farmer's Daughter) plays rancher Shanghai. Robert Foulk (Ed Davis on Father Knows Best, Sheriff Miller on Lassie, Joe Kingston on Wichita Town, Mr. Wheeler on Green Acres, and Phillip Toomey on The Rifleman) plays blacksmith Logan. Robert Lowery (starred in Criminal Investigator, Revenge of the Zombies, The Navy Way, The Mummy's Ghost, and They Made Me a Killer and played Big Tim Champion on Circus Boy and Buss Courtney on Pistols 'n' Petticoats) plays New Orleans Marshal Taggart. John Pickard (Capt. Shank Adams on Boots and Saddles and Sgt. Maj. Murdock on Gunslinger) plays his deputy Murdoch. John Hart (appeared in The Buccaneer, Jack Armstrong, and The Ten Commandments and played Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler on Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans,  was Clayton Moore's replacement on The Lone Ranger from 1950-53 when Moore was in the midst of a contract dispute, and played Narbo on Rawhide) plays his deputy Fred. William Phipps (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays a cowboy manning a line shack.

Frontier Circus (1961)

During the 1960-61 television season, the western was still riding high, with 4 of the top 6 programs being of the western persuasion. One of the most popular was Wagon Train, produced by Revue Studios, finishing #2 for 1960-61 before ascending to the top spot for 1961-62. While the western was still immensely popular, the sheer number of westerns on the air had pretty much tapped the well dry in terms of new concepts. There were already historically based series such as Bat Masterson and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, wandering gunfighters such as Cheyenne and Bronco, town marshals on Gunsmoke and Lawman, cattle drivers on Rawhide, single parents on The Rifleman and Bonanza, a bounty hunter on Wanted:Dead or Alive, a gun for hire on Have Gun -- Will Travel, an aspiring lawyer on Sugarfoot, card-playing brothers on Maverick, a shotgun-toting detective on Shotgun Slade, and a reluctant deputy on The Deputy. What the western didn't have was animals. So established western novelist Samuel A. Peeples, who the season before  had created The Tall Man based on the legendary but historically questionable relationship between Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, came up with the idea of Frontier Circus, which TV Guide in its Fall 1961 Preview issue sarcastically called "Wagon Train with animals."

And, yes, like Wagon Train, the program focuses on a caravan traveling across the west and encountering all sorts of adventures along the way. And many of the plots are driven by characters the circus regulars encounter along the way, rather than telling the story of the regular characters themselves, in this case ringmaster Colonel Casey Thompson, straw boss Ben Travis, and scout and advance man Tony Gentry, with animal handler Duffy added once the season started rolling. For example, we aren't told in the first 10 episodes that aired in 1961 where Thompson's "Colonel" title came from; we only know he has always had a dream of leading a circus across the country. And Ben Travis' backstory is a mystery. Tony Gentry, on the other hand, is a former Confederate soldier from Texas who could have gone astray after the war, as men like Jess Evans in "The Hunter and the Hunted" (November 2, 1961) have done, but was taken in by Thompson. But unlike Wagon Train, the series does not have an umbrella structure that defines each season or an overall premise to unify the disparate, individual episodes. In Wagon Train, each season constitutes one trip across the country from Missouri to California, bringing settlers west to populate an increasingly white western United States. Though there is not a rigid geographical structure for the sequence of episodes, they generally progress across plains, deserts, and mountains before reaching the west coast. Frontier Circus has no such progression. The one episode that alludes to these geographical reference points is "Winter Quarters" (November 23, 1961), which finds the Thompson & Travis Circus at the end of their performing season in Nevada. Usually they would pack up and head back to Missouri to hole up during the winter, repairing damaged equipment and developing new acts for the next season.  But Thompson persuades his partners that they should instead press on over the Sierra Mountains to California, which he paints as all sunshine and gold. However, the next week they are near Purgatory, Colorado ("Patriarch of Purgatory," November 30-1961), and the week after that they are near Hamilton, North Dakota ("The Shaggy Kings," December 7, 1961), so there is little rhyme or reason to their peregrinations. And as far as an overall purpose, Thompson essentially admits that his program is piggy-backing on the wagon trains depicted in "that other series" in "The Shaggy Kings" when he explains to Travis that they provide entertainment for all the struggling settlers who are striving to carve out a new nation in the west.

While other westerns of the era made at least a half-hearted attempt to depict other races and genders as worthy of respect, Frontier Circus sticks to a white patriarchal model as the ideal in the mythical west. The few Native Americans we see in the first 10 episodes are either bigamists or duplicitous. In "Dr. Sam" (October 26, 1961) Chief Red Cloud is immediately smitten by Dr. Samantha Applewhite when his braves commandeer her wagon and bring her and her nurse into his camp, offering to make her his ninth wife before she is rescued by the smooth-talking Thompson. And in "The Shaggy Kings" half-breed Michael Smith sets up Travis and Gentry for an ambush by leading them on a buffalo hunt and then persuading Comanche Chief Shining Knife to attack them for desecrating their sacred animal. Nor do Mexicans come in for much better treatment. In "Winter Quarters" Thompson generously takes in the horseless horse thief Nino Sanchez, who sells him a story about working with his brothers to cut timber for the mining companies nearby, then steals one of his horses and has his brothers redirect the caravan to a dead end where they lose the rest of their stock. Though he eventually regrets double-crossing Thompson who saves him from a lynch-minded rancher, he confesses that he and his brothers have decided to enter into the more profitable enterprise of cattle rustling.

White women, however, are given the most extended treatment in a more varied complex of issues but rarely are they shown as men's equals. In the aforementioned "Dr. Sam," Thompson feels that it isn't natural for a woman to be a doctor and he feels betrayed that Applewhite did not tell him she was female in their correspondence before showing up to work for him. His sexism is treated as being humorous and he is eventually outvoted by the other circus workers to allow Applewhite to stay, or more correctly to be brought back when she leaves in a huff, and after she successfully performs a brain operation on a fallen highwire performer, Thompson comes to accept her in her role. But we also hear her nurse say that she is being held to a higher standard than a man would--should she have failed to save the highwire performer, everyone would have wondered whether a man could have succeeded. And when she rides off with her nurse after her initial insulting exchange with Thompson, she is immediately captured by Indians and must be rescued by Thompson, showing that a woman is unable to fend for herself in the wild west. By episode's end she is offered a residency at a New York hospital that she decides to accept because she will be able to figuratively blaze trails for medicine-minded females who come after her, but it's clear that this path is a safer one than the one she leaves behind with the circus.

Thompson doesn't have a problem with his female sharp-shooter, an Annie Oakley-like performer named Bonnie Stevens, in "The Smallest Target" (October 12, 1961). She is even depicted as a better marksman than her estranged husband. But like the 1960 My Three Sons episode "Lady Engineer" and the 1960 episode "The Career Woman" from The Donna Reed Show, a successful career woman can never be fulfilled unless she has a home and a family. Stevens' backstory is that she abandoned her husband and newborn son to pursue a career full of adventure, but when she meets her now 10-year-old son during one of the circus' stops, her motherly instincts well up inside her and she can no longer remain separated from her boy. At the show's conclusion, she and her husband have reconciled and she decides to leave the circus and attend to the needs of her family, leaving her prize rifle with Thompson as a memento. The message is clear: a woman might be able to do all the things a man can do, but it won't make her happy unless she sticks to her traditional subservient role.

Thelma Ritter plays another career woman in "Journey From Hannibal" (November 9, 1961) but one forced into running her husband's livery stable after he dies. Despite her independent nature and her refusal to fall for Thompson's sales pitch to pay her later for boarding an elephant he bought 4 months ago, she finally has to go along with his proposal to take her with him back to Bismarck, where the circus will earn enough to settle his account with her, because her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri is drying up and she is headed for bankruptcy if she stays where she is. In other words, she is a damsel in distress and Thompson is her knight in shining armor. Once she has made the long journey with him to Bismarck and is repaid, she says she will probably settle down somewhere and open another livery stable, which is perfectly acceptable within the patronizing framework of Frontier Circus because she is past child-bearing age.

Another damsel in distress is dance hall singer Karina Andrews in the episode "Karina" (November 9, 1961), who has the temerity to shoot her abusive husband after he beats her for refusing to take the stage at his tawdry dance hall. Fearing that she will be hanged for murder, she flees the scene and winds up hiding in the circus prop tent, where she is discovered by Gentry, who immediately falls in love with her and puts her on a pedestal as an angel though he knows nothing about her. However, though Karina has the strength to shoot her own husband, she doesn't have enough to finish the job: Her husband is not dead, and eventually he and his brother catch up with the circus and attempt to spirit her back home. But Travis, Thompson, and Gentry, with an assist from elephant keeper Duffy, successfully rescue her, during which the husband is crushed between two wagons by the elephant. Though she is tempted to remain with the circus and its idyllic family atmosphere, she ultimately decides she must return to "reality" to clear her name, leaving Gentry and Travis with only their idealized memories of who she is.

Other damsels in need of rescue include blind horse trainer Maureen McBride in "Lippizan" (October 19, 1961) whose prize stallion is killed when Travis mounts it to chase a robber who then shoots the horse during his escape. Travis must then find and train a suitable replacement to prevent McBride from being left destitute and heart-broken. In "Depths of Fear" (October 5, 1961) Millie Carno must be rescued from her abusive lion-taming husband by his former boss. And in "Patriarch of Purgatory" (November 30, 1961) Susannah Hedges must be rescued from her slave-owning miner father, who makes the mistake of kidnapping Travis and Gentry but is no match for their daring escape plan. And yet none of these rescued women ever wind up staying with the circus. As Dr. Christopher Sharrett has observed in his treatise on The Rifleman, in the fantasy world of the western the female is generally made unattainable, at least by the main characters, to preserve the freedom of their boys club.

In any case, the knight-in-shining armor theme did not make Frontier Circus a winner. It lasted a mere 26 episodes, ending its brief run in September 1962. Scriptwriter Dorothy Fontana has suggested that one factor in the series' cancellation was the high production costs required by the use of trained animals. Perhaps more consequential is that despite the show's circus razzle dazzle, it had little new to offer to a genre already a bit overworked.

The theme music and individual scores for several episodes of Frontier Circus were composed by David Buttolph, who was profiled in the 1960 post on Maverick.

The complete series has been released on DVD by Timeless Media Group.

The Actors

Chill Wills

Hailing from small Seagoville in Dallas County, Texas, Chill Theodore Wills was given his unusual first name by his parents as an ironic twist on the fact that he was born on one of the hottest days of the year in 1903. Wills began his entertainment career as a singer, performing from age 12 in tent shows and vaudeville before forming the vocal group Chill Wills and His Avalon Boys in the 1930s. Spotted by an RKO talent scout during a Hollywood performance, they soon began appearing in low-budget westerns beginning with Bar 20 Rides Again in 1935, though Wills appeared as an uncredited campfire singer in W.C. Fields' classic comedy It's a Gift the year before. After 5 more Avalon Boys appearances, the group appeared in the Laurel & Hardy western farce Way Out West in 1937, in which Wills doubled as Stan Laurel's singing voice. After the success of this film, Wills left the vocal group and struck out on a solo career as an actor, landing background and supporting roles throughout the rest of the 1930s and 1940s in feature films such as Lawless Valley, Boom Town, Tarzan's New York Adventure, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, and The Yearling. In 1950 he was cast as the uncredited speaking voice of Francis the Talking Mule, and appeared in 6 such features over the next 5 years. He had a memorable turn as Uncle Bawley in 1956's Giant, starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the character Beekeeper in John Wayne's 1960 epic The Alamo. However, his over-the-top campaigning for the award turned off many of his Hollywood colleagues, including Wayne. After he ran a series of ads that read, "Win, lose, or draw, you're all my cousins and I love you," Groucho Marx countered with an ad of his own that read, "Dear Mr. Chill Wills, I am delighted to be your cousin but I voted for Sal Mineo." Wills started doing guest appearances on television in 1958, with an episode each of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Wagon Train and amassed only a half-dozen such credits before being cast as circus co-owner Col. Casey Thompson on Frontier Circus in the fall of 1961.

After the series' brief run was over, he returned to feature films, appearing in McLintock!, The Wheeler Dealers, and The Cardinal all in 1963. Appearances in a pair of two-part episodes on Route 66 and Rawhide and a single episode of Burke's Law were his only credits in 1964, but the following year he played Jim Ed Love in the Glenn Ford & Henry Fonda feature The Rounders and was cast in the same role when the movie was adapted into a TV series in 1966. Like Frontier Circus, this series last only a single season, after which it was back to sporadic guest appearances and fewer film roles, such as in Fireball 500 and Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, which included the film debut of Bob Dylan. During this time Wills was also active politically for arch conservative candidates like Barry Goldwater in his 1964 run for U.S. President, and he served as M.C. during the California campaign appearances by segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1968. Wills' last appearance on screen  was in the TV movie Stubby Pringle's Christmas in 1978. He died that same year from cancer at the age of 76 on December 15th.

 

John Derek

Derek Delevan Harris was born in Hollywood, the son of silent-era film director Lawson Harris and minor actress Dolores Johnson. As a youth, his good looks drew the attention of movie mogul David O. Selznick and name-giving agent Henry Willson, who dubbed him Dare Harris. After appearing in minor roles in two 1944 films, Since You Went Away and I'll Be Seeing You, he was drafted into the army and served in the Philippines at the end of the war. When he returned stateside, he sought out Humphrey Bogart, who gave him the name John Derek and had him cast as young criminal Nick Romano in Knock on Any Door, which appeared in 1949. The same year he won praise playing Broderick Crawford's step-son in the Oscar-winning All the King's Men, but his acting career thereafter failed to capitalize on these early successes. Instead of starring in Nicolas Ray's production of In a Lonely Place, which Bogart's production company had initially acquired specifically for Derek, the story was rewritten to star Bogart, and Derek wound up signing with Columbia and appearing in swash-buckling B movies like Rogues of Sherwood Forest, Mask of the Avenger, Prince of Pirates, and The Adventures of Hajji Baba. His studio wanted him cast in the lead for From Here to Eternity, but director Fred Zinnemann threatened to quit unless Montgomery Clift got the part. Though he had a few well-received roles in the latter 1950s, playing Joshua in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments and Taha in Otto Premminger's Exodus, most of his material was second rate.

During this period Derek would also begin a pattern for which he would be most remembered--marrying starlets and micro-managing their careers. He married French actress Patti Behrs in 1948 and divorced her 8 years later, after which he married the Swiss actress Ursula Andress, who at the time, according to Derek, spoke little English. He also later remarked that he didn't like her hair or eyebrows and that she needed to lose weight, and he prevailed upon her to change to meet his expectations, a controlling characteristic that would later have him called a Svengali. His casting as circus co-owner Ben Travis on Frontier Circus would be his last major role on film, other than co-starring with Andress in the 1966 World War II feature Once Before I Die, which would ironically be set in the Philippines and co-star his Frontier Circus friend Richard Jaeckel.

Once Frontier Circus was canceled, Derek instead turned to photography and directing, in addition to managing the careers of his next three wives. When Andress was called on to do a nude scene in the 1964 feature Nightmare in the Sun, Derek at first agreed but then changed his mind and refused to let her do it, though he would later photograph her nude for a Playboy magazine pictorial for which he was paid $15,000. He divorced Andress in 1965 after she had an affair with French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, though the two remained good friends thereafter. His next wife was actress Linda Evans, whom he married in 1968 (despite the fact that he initially didn't like the way she dressed) and directed in the little-seen Childish Things from 1969. In 1972 while directing a feature film that would eventually be released in 1981 as Fantasies, he fell in love with 16-year-old actress Mary Cathleen Collins, who was then billed as Bo Shane. When Bo's agent threatened to file a morals charge against Derek, he and Bo moved to Germany for two years. Once she turned 18, he divorced Evans and married Bo. Though Derek would later say in a People magazine interview that Evans was very understanding about the whole affair, she later said that she wanted to die and was angry, and yet, like Andress, she remained good friends with him and Andress and Bo through the rest of his life. Bo Derek's career didn't go anywhere for 6 years, until she was cast as the object of Dudley Moore's desire in Blake Edwards' 10. John Derek's career also went nowhere during this period, his only work being a 1979 pornographic feature he co-produced with Bo called Love You! Bo Derek's appearance in 10, which made her an overnight sensation, was only brought about because of Karen Callan, who had met the Dereks at a Hugh Hefner party and recommended Bo to Edwards when he told her he was having trouble finding the right actress for the role. According to Edwards, Bo told him at their first meeting that Callan was acting as her agent, but John Derek cut her out of any compensation from the movie and made unsubstantiated claims that Callan had campaigned for a role in the movie in place of Julie Andrews, Edwards' wife, which Edwards denies. Derek's clashes with directors and anyone else connected with his wife's career eventually led him to reject the entire film industry and vow that from then on, he and Bo would make their own films. The results were disastrous--Tarzan, the Ape Man, Bolero, and Ghosts Can't Do It, all directed by Derek, were widely ridiculed and torpedoed Bo's career, as Edwards had predicted in the February 1980 People profile of the Dereks. Nevertheless, Bo stood by her man until his death at age 71 from heart failure on December 22, 1998.

 

Richard Jaeckel

Born in Long Beach, New York, Richard Hanley Jaeckel's family moved to California when he was a teenager. After graduating from Hollywood High School, he went to work in the mail room at 20th Century Fox, where he was spotted in 1943 by a casting director who wanted him to play a young Marine in Guadalcanal Diary. At first Jaeckel said he wasn't interested and eventually agreed to play the role only on the condition that he could then return to work in the mail room. But he next appeared in the Navy flyer drama Wing and a Prayer before serving in the real Navy from 1944-48. After his service he returned to acting in a pair of John Wayne war features The Sands of Iwo Jima and Battleground. He would be gunned down by Gregory Peck in the opening scene of The Gunfighter and play a lusty young boarder after Terry Moore in Come Back, Little Sheba in 1952. Two years later he would make his television debut playing Billy the Kid in an episode of Stories of the Century, the first of many appearances on drama anthologies throughout the 1950s. Nor did his feature film work diminish throughout the decade, appearing in such top-flight films as Attack, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Naked and the Dead. Being cast as scout Tony Gentry on Frontier Circus in 1961 was the first of many recurring TV roles.

After the series' 26-episode run, he continued to find occasional TV guest spots on shows such as Wagon Train, Combat!, and The Virginian, but it was his feature film work that won him the most accolades, appearing in Town Without Pity, 4 for Texas, and most notably in The Dirty Dozen as tough Sgt. Bowman, followed by the similarly themed The Devil's Brigade the following year. He received his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor playing Paul Newman's brother in 1970's Sometimes a Great Notion. Newman picked him for the role after observing Jaeckel interacting with his family at Malibu Beach and felt he was just the right actor to play his on-screen brother. In 1972 he was cast as Lt. Pete McNeil in the detective series Banyon and after appearing in the 1973 TV movie Firehouse as Hank Meyers, he was kept on in the same role when the premise was moved to TV in 1974. Other than Clint Eastwood's The Drowning Pool in 1975, the quality of his feature films declined in the 1970s to such fare as Walking Tall II and Mako: The Jaws of Death, but his television work was steady, including another recurring role as Jack Klinger in Andy Griffith's 1979 series Salvage 1. He played Major Hawkins in the 1983 series At Ease and then found steady work for 3 years playing Lt. Martin Quirk on Spenser: For Hire. His last regular role and acting credits were playing rescue operation leader Captain Ben Edwards on Baywatch from 1989-94. In 1994 he was forced to file for bankruptcy and lost his home and most of his possessions. He was also diagnosed with melanoma and moved into the Motion Picture and Television Retirement Center in Woodland Hills, California, where he stayed until his death at age 70 on June 14, 1997.

 

J. Pat O'Malley

James Patrick Francis O'Malley was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England and was first known as a singer who recorded over 400 songs singing with Jack Hylton and his orchestra as well as a solo performer. Hylton and O'Malley came to the United States in 1935 to record with American musicians, and O'Malley wound up staying and shifting into acting and animation voicework. His first feature film appearance came in the 1940 Victor Mature romance Captain Caution, followed by Paris Calling in 1941, and Thumbs Up and Lassie Come Home, both in 1943. In 1949 he began working for Disney in animated roles requiring a British accent, beginning with voicing Cyril Proudbottom in the short The Wind in the Willows and the feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. He would go on to provide multiple voices for Disney animated features Alice in Wonderland, 101 Dalmations, Mary Poppins, and The Jungle Book as well as playing the character Perkins in the Disney serial and related feature film The Adventures of Spin and Marty. His television career began with an episode of the drama anthology Stage 13 in 1950, and he amassed a steady stream of credits throughout the 1950s in more drama anthologies and scripted series such as The Danny Thomas Show and Maverick. He appeared 7 times as Judge Caleb Marsh in the western series Black Saddle in 1959-60 and played the character Sgt.O'Reilly in the 7-part Disney serial The Swamp Fox in 1960-61 before being cast as animal handler Duffy on Frontier Circus in the fall of 1961.

 After the series ended his workload continued to be heavy on scores of TV series and occasional feature film roles. He played Dick Van Dyke's father Sam in two episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show and would later play Carol Brady's father on the first episode of The Brady Bunch. In 1963-64 he had a recurring role as Harry Burns on My Favorite Martian, followed by the role of Mr. Bundy on George Burns' Wendy and Me in 1964-65. Despite multiple appearances on everything from Gunsmoke to Batman to Ironside, he didn't find his next regular role until he was cast as Herbert Morrison on Touch of Grace in 1973, then appeared 9 times as Bert Beasley on Maude between 1975-77. As the 1970s turned over to the 1980s, he continued to find work on series such as The Dukes of Hazzard, Barney Miller, and Fantasy Island, with his last credits coming in a pair of Taxi episodes in 1982. He died from heart disease at the age of 80 on February 27, 1985.

Notable Guest Stars

Season 1, Episode 1, "Depths of Fear": Aldo Ray (shown on the left, starred in Pat and Mike, We're No Angels, The Naked and the Dead, God's Little Acre, and The Green Berets) plays alcoholic former big-cat tamer Toby Mills. James Gregory (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Lawless Years) plays sadistic lion tamer Jacob Carno. Bethel Leslie (appeared in 15 episodes of The Richard Boone Show and played Claudia Conner on All My Children and Ethel Crawford on One Life to Live) plays his wife Millie. Vito Scotti (Jose on The Deputy, Capt. Gaspar Fomento on The Flying Nun, Gino on To Rome With Love, and Mr. Velasquez on Barefoot in the Park) plays circus clown Jaybo. Frank Ferguson (Gus Broeberg on My Friend Flicka, Eli Carson on Peyton Place, and Dr. Barton Stuart on Petticoat Junction)plays circus wagon driver Fred. Bern Hoffman (Sam the bartender on Bonanza) plays bully Bannister. Clegg Hoyt (Mac on Dr. Kildare) plays a mountain man.

Season 1, Episode 2, "The Smallest Target": Barbara Rush (starred in When Worlds Collide, It Came From Outer Space, Magnificent Obsession, and Robin and the 7 Hoods and played Lizzie Hogan on Saints and Sinners, Marsha Russell on Peyton Place, Eudora Weldon on Flamingo Road, and Ruth Camden on 7th Heaven) plays sharp-shooter Bonnie Stevens. Brian Keith (shown on the right, starred in The Parent Trap, The Pleasure Seekers, With Six You Get Eggroll, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and played Matt Anders on The Crusader, Dave Blassingame on The Westerner, Uncle Bill Davis on Family Affair, Steven Halliday on The Zoo Gang, Lew Archer on Archer, Milton C. Hardcastle on Hardcastle and McCormick, Professor Roland G. Duncan on Pursuit of Happiness, B.L. McCutcheon on Heartland, and Walter Collins on Walter & Emily) plays her abandoned husband Dan Osborne. Roy Barcroft (Col. Logan on The Adventures of Spin and Marty and Roy on Gunsmoke) plays his ranch-hand Pete Andrews.

Season 1, Episode 3, "Lippizan": Vera Miles (shown on the left, starred in Wichita, The Searchers, The Wrong Man, The FBI Story, and Psycho) plays blind horse-trainer Maureen McBride. Gordon Jones (appeared in The Green Hornet, Flying Tigers, My Sister Eileen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and McLintock! and played Mike Kelley on The Abbott and Costello Show, Pete Thompson on The Ray Milland Show, Hubie Dodd on So This Is Hollywood, and Butch Barton on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) plays roustabout Rousty. H.M. Wynant (Frosty on Batman and Ed Chapman on Dallas) plays bandit Talby. Kay E. Kuter (Newt Kiley on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres) plays train agent Will Cutler. Otto Kruger (appeared in Treasure Island, Dracula's Daughter, Saboteur, Murder, My Sweet, and High Noon) plays former Austrian horse soldier Gen. Frederic Jellich. Joan Staley (Playboy Playmate who appeared in Cape Fear, Roustabout, Valley of the Dragons, Johnny Cool, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and played Hannah on 77 Sunset Strip and Roberta Love on Broadside) plays circus girl Anna-Marie. Dick Wessel (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Riverboat) plays a blacksmith named Smith.

Season 1, Episode 4, "Dr. Sam": Irene Dunne (shown on the right, five-time Oscar nominee for starring in Cimarron, Theodora Goes Wild, The Awful Truth, Love Affair, and I Remember Mama) plays physician Dr. Samantha Applewhite. Ellen Corby (Henrietta Porter on Trackdown and Esther Walton on The Waltons) plays her nurse Abby. Norman Leavitt (Ralph on Trackdown) plays bear transporter Mr. Willoughby. Sue England (Mildred Price on Bracken's World) plays circus performer Mary. Jay Silverheels (appeared in Key Largo, The Pathfinder, Drums Across the River, The Black Dakotas, and Walk the Proud Land and played Tonto on The Lone Ranger and in 4 Lone Ranger feature films) plays Chief Red Cloud. Jon Locke (Officer Garvey on Highway Patrol and Sleestack Leader on Land of the Lost) plays trapeze artist Jerry.

Season 1, Episode 5, "The Hunter and the Hunted": Eddie Albert (shown on the left, starred in Roman Holiday, Oklahoma!, The Teahouse of the August Moon, The Sun Also Rises, The Longest Day, and The Longest Yard and played Larry Tucker on Leave It to Larry, Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, and Frank MacBride on Switch) plays small-town physician Dr. Payton Jordan. Jocelyn Brando (Marlon Brando's older sister) plays his wife Phyllis. Rip Torn (starred in King of Kings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tropic of Cancer, and The Cincinnati Kid and played Arthur on The Larry Sanders Show and Don Geiss on 30 Rock) plays former Confederate renegade Jess Evans. John Anderson (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays saloon owner Carl. Cloris Leachman (starred in The Last Picture Show, Charley and the Angel, Dillinger, and Young Frankenstein and played Ruth Martin on Lassie, Rhoda Kirsh on Dr. Kildare, and Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis) plays his wife Anna.

Season 1, Episode 6, "Karina": Elizabeth Montgomery (shown on the right, played Samantha Stephens on Bewitched) plays runaway dance-hall singer Karina Andrews. Tod Andrews (Maj. John Singleton Mosby on The Gray Ghost) plays her husband Jeff. Nora Marlowe (Martha Commager on Law of the Plainsman, Sara Andrews on The Governor and J.J., and Mrs. Flossie Brimmer on The Waltons) plays fortune teller Madame Sonya. Barbara Stuart (Bessie on The Great Gildersleeve, Alice on Pete and Gladys, Bunny on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Peggy Ferguson on The McLean Stevenson Show, Marianne Danzig on Our Family Honor, and Alice on Huff) plays knife-thrower's assistant Melda.

Season 1, Episode 7, "Journey From Hannibal": Thelma Ritter (starred in All About Eve, Pickup on South Street, Rear Window, Pillow Talk, The Misfits, Birdman of Alcatraz, and How the West Was Won) plays stable owner Bertha Beecher. Arte Johnson (a regular performer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In who played Bascomb Bleacher, Jr. on Sally, Cpl. Lefkowitz on Don't Call Me Charlie, Clive Richlin on Glitter) plays train agent Charles Gippner. Clem Bevans (appeared in Sergeant York, Saboteur, The Yearling, Mourning Becomes Electra, and Harvey) plays train agent McPhee. James Flavin (Lt. Donovan on Man With a Camera and Robert Howard on The Roaring 20's) plays train conductor Boyle. Bill Zuckert (Arthur Bradwell on Mr. Novak and Chief Segal on Captain Nice) plays small-town Sheriff Barrett.

Season 1, Episode 8, "Winter Quarters": Robert J. Wilke (appeared in Best of the Badmen, High Noon, The Far Country, and Night Passage and played Capt. Mendoza on Zorro) plays disgruntled wagon driver Jack Gance. Alex Cord (Jack Kiley on W.E.B., Mike Holland on Cassie & Co., and Michael Coldsmith Briggs III on Airwolf) plays horse thief Nino Sanchez. Walter Sande (appeared in To Have and Have Not, A Place in the Sun, and Bad Day at Black Rock and played Capt. Horatio Bullwinkle on The Adventures of Tugboat Annie and Papa Holstrum on The Farmer's Daughter) plays roustabout Jake. Roy Barcroft (see "The Smallest Target" above) plays rancher Gore.  

Season 1, Episode 9, "Patriarch of Purgatory": Royal Dano (appeared in The Far Country, Moby Dick, and The Outlaw Josey Wales) plays mine owner Jethro Hedges. Robert Sampson (Sgt. Walsh on Steve Canyon, Father Mike Fitzgerald on Bridget Love Bernie, and Sheriff Turk Tobias on Falcon Crest) plays his son Mark.

Season 1, Episode 10, "The Shaggy Kings": Dan Duryea (shown on the left, starred in The Little Foxes, The Pride of the Yankees, Scarlet Street, and Winchester '73 and played China Smith on China Smith and The New Adventures of China Smith and Eddie Jacks on Peyton Place) plays mountain man Tobias Tiber. Dick York (Tom Colwell on Going My Way and Darrin Stephens on Bewitched) plays former gunfighter Jeb Randall. Michael Pate (starred in Face to Face, Julius Caesar, Hondo, and Tower of London and played Chief Vittoro on Hondo and Det. Sgt. Vic Maddern on Matlock) plays duplicitous Comanche Michael Smith. Frank DeKova (Chief Wild Eagle on F Troop and Louis Campagna on The Untouchables) plays sharp-shooter Karl Maynard. Jack Lambert (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Riverboat) plays gunman Hark Baker. Paul Newlan (Police Capt. Grey on M Squad and Lt. Gen. Pritchard on 12 O'Clock High) plays circus physician Doc Turner. Alan Carney (Mike Strager in a series of RKO comedies in the 1940s and appeared in The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Herbie Rides Again) plays the circus cook. Dennis Cross (see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Blue Angels) plays Comanche Chief Shining Knife.