 Frontier Town, the saga of the Roaring West. Frontier Town, El Paso, Cheyenne, Calgary, Tombstone. Frontier Town, here is the adventurous story of the early West. The tamed and the untamed. From the Pekos to Powder River, Dodge City to Poker Flat. These are the towns they fought to live in and lived to fight for. Teaming crucibles of pioneer freedom. Frontier Town! Frontier Town, huh? Well, I come from a Frontier Town, and I don't want you to think that one Frontier Town is like another. You take it from me. Frontier Towns are different. And the difference is defined by how much worse one is than the next. Rough, tough, rowdy, and boisterous. Yes, they're all that. And most of them are good to you more. I happen to be a Frontier Town lawyer, Chad Remington by name, and I get to see the troubles folks good and bad get into for miles around my hometown of Dos Reyes. Only recently I handle a case which was, well, three cases in one, and they all revolved around Sy Bardwell's young son Phil. Sy is an old and valued citizen of Dos Reyes and runs the Dos Reyes Packing Company, all of which means that Sy Bardwell has money. Money that Phil Bardwell seems to feel is better off spent entertaining young... Well, let's let it go at young ladies. Now, it should go without saying that this can lead to plenty of trouble. And in Phil's case, it did lead to plenty of trouble. First, there was the row and the last chance to look. A week after the last chance, Fraker, someone else dared Phil to go for his gun. It took a little law book thumbing to get Phil out of the pokey on both these charges, and then only last week, trouble broke out anew. That doubly ex-medicine man, Cherokee O'Bannon, and I were walking from Cherokee's livery stable down Colorado Street, slowly passing Dos Reyes nine saloons minding our own business. Chad, would it be all right if I stepped into the next tavern we come to? You washed your hands just before we left the livery stable. Yes, I know. But I'll let you go in and tie a shoelace. You know, that's a great trick if you can do it. You're wearing boots. Ah, foiled again by this down in perspicacity of this young... Chad, look out! Billy Blue blazes Chad. Someone was heaved right through the doors of that saloon by the bouncer. Someone? Don't you see who it is? Phil Bardwell. Here, help me get him up and dust him off. What hit me? What's the matter, Phil? What happened inside? Well, I... Never mind what happened. Just tell us if she was a blonde, brunette, or a redhead. Phil, for pity's sake, you keep on getting mixed up in woman trouble and I'm gonna leave you in the calaboose. Now wait a minute, Chad. You talk as if I go out of my way to get into trouble. Well, you certainly go out of your way to pick on the wrong women. Well, how did I know she was married to the pharaoh dealer? She works there just like the rest of them. How do you know anything, Phil? But there's something you might as well learn right now. I'm through getting you out of trouble and I'm gonna tell your father that it's high time he washed his hands of you. Oh, now, dawg, gonna Chad, you do that and... Well, you know how pop is. Yes, I do know how pop is. And because I do, Cherokee and I are taking you down to his office at the packing house and making you tell him face to face just what happened. Oh, but Chad... When you got into that row at the last chance a few weeks ago, you promised your father then that you were through getting mixed up with women. When I bailed you out after that shooting scrape, you swore up and down that you were turning over a new leaf and leaving women alone. I know, but Chad... But Chad, nothing. Come on, young fella, you're going down to face the music right straight now. That's about the whole story, Pop. And a fine story it is indeed. We thought it would be better if Phil told you what happened himself. Of all the ungrateful, irresponsible, weak-kneed, trouble-making, clothing-stored dummies, I'm ashamed to say that my own son, my own flesh and blood sure takes a cake. But, Pop, if you'd only listened... Only listened, my pet heifer. Every time some new peroxide blonde lands in town, I can bank on you getting into some more trouble. But this time is the last time. What do you mean, Pop? The last time? I mean, I'm fed up. Up to here. And so helped me feel if you hadn't had the decency to come in and tell me about this yourself, you'd be out in the street without a nickel. I wouldn't be giving you one more chance. Well, you can thank Chad for that. He made me come in and face some music. Forget about it, Phil. Oh, if you don't think I'm butting in, Si, what is this final chance you say you're going to give Phil? Well, you know, Chad, as long as I've been running this packing house here in Dostoyeus, I've been buying cattle practically all over the city. Yes, as I remember, you bought cattle six, seven hundred miles away and had them driven up here. That's right. And driving them, as you know, runs off a lot of weight. So for the past few years, I've had a deal with a man down in Fort Wingate about 30 miles from here to receive the cattle when they get there, feed them and fatten them up again. Oh, you must mean Bill Tolliver. Yeah, Bill's the one. Bill Tolliver? Why that old rascal? He's been married and divorced more time than a guinea pig's had guinea piglets. He has a weakness, too. But let's get back to this last chance you're giving Phil, Si. Well, it's just this, Chad. There's been about a thousand head of cattle at Fort Wingate for about a month now, and for some reason or other, Bill Tolliver's holding them there. Unless I get those cattle, I'll be mighty soon out of business. What do you want me to do, Pop? I want you to saddle up and ride over to Fort Wingate, see Bill Tolliver, straighten out whatever it is, and then get those cattle up here before I'm blinking well bankrupt. Well, that shouldn't be too difficult, Phil. Shouldn't be difficult at all, unless the scatterbrained young pumpkin gets mixed up in some new mess and doesn't pay attention to business. Oh, I won't, Pop. You will better not, because next time, young man, I'm cutting you off without a cent. I suppose if I'd been a city lawyer, I would have let it go at that. But in a frontier town where you know everybody, things are a little more personal. So on behalf of my client, I talked Cherokee into getting two of his best horses out of the livery stable, and the O'Bannon and I started out for Fort Wingate a mile behind Phil Bartwell, just far enough back so he couldn't see us but where we could keep an eye on him. You know, counselor, I was just thinking, a man who chases around after women is bound to get into trouble. Just for the record, Cherokee, let's get it straight. It isn't just women. It's the kind of women and the kind of company Phil keeps frequenting saloon. Well, there's something backhanded about that that I don't like, Chad. There's nothing wrong with saloons. No, no there isn't. The buildings most saloons are in are all right. It's the fire water and the people like you who keep drinking them. On the ration, Cherokee. See what that is? Two high binders up in those rocks trying to dry goach Phil. Slap let them and use your gun. Either our shooting was better than we were entitled to expect or the blaggers who tried to ventilate Phil's back didn't have any salt. But they hid for the hills and within a few hundred yards or more we'd overtaken Phil and stopped. By the beard of top at the profit, Phil, how can you say we were spying on you? Why, Chad, and I just happen to have business of our own over at Ford Windgate. Oh, sure. I'll bet Pop sent you over to take care of me. Well, this is one time I'm taking care of myself. Yeah, it sure looks like it. Those two bushwhikers almost took care of you for good. I wonder what they wanted. Who knows? Money probably. After all, Phil's father is about the wealthiest man in the entire county. Believe me, Chad, I'm grateful for what you did. But this time I've had my eyes open to what a fool I've been and I want to show Pop I can make good on my own two feet. I'm all for that, Phil, and not only because of you but because if your dad doesn't get that thousand head of cattle from Bill Tolliver, well, I'm afraid he's going to be out of business. I know it, Chad. And that's another reason I'm in dead earnest. So, if you don't mind, I'll be climbing back in the saddle and finishing my trip to Bill Tolliver's office. If you'd only listened, Mr. Tolliver, I'd be able to tell you what's on my mind, and we could probably get our business settled in time for me to... Oh, business be hamstrung. What sort of a mind do you think I got for business when I just got through telling you that I am up to my years in trouble? Well, if you'll tell me what the trouble is, Mr. Tolliver, maybe I can help you out. Well, son, it's woman trouble. Dad blames if I don't think you can help me out. Woman trouble? Me? Oh, I've been a sucker for the women folks all my life, and this time I really got myself in trouble. Yeah, but look, Mr. Tolliver, if it's woman trouble, I'm afraid there's not much I can do. Well, your pappy wants them thousand-headed cattle, don't he? Why, sure. Only, well, he won't get them unless you get me out of this jam. You see, son, I opened my big mouth just once too often to a little black-haired singer over in one of our cafes. Got a feeling liberal. Now she sued me for breach of promise. Her lawyers filed an attachment on them thousand-headed cattle your dad wants. Oh, gosh, even though I'm sorry for you, what do you expect me to do about it, Mr. Tolliver? Oh, well, you're all right, good-looking young fella, and everybody in the state knows your father's worth a lot of money. So I reckon if you went over to the cafe and met the singer and kind of a soft-talker, I could have a photographer handy and when you had your arms around her making love to her, wham-o, we could snap a picture and her breach of promise suit would false plum two pieces. The little bandit. Oh, good grief, Mr. Tolliver, you don't know what you're asking of me. Okay, don't do it. You just go back to Dostrius and tell your father to close up his packing house because he is palm out of business. Mr. Tolliver, isn't there some other way out of this? Hey, sure, ain't. If you don't want to go home to a bankrupt father, you will hightail it over to the Wheel of Fortune Cafe and ask for a young lady by the name of Blossom. And if they ain't a picture in the newspaper of you making violent love to that little black-haired wildcat, then, son, your father's going to lose ever nickel he ever owned. We'll return to the second act of where men are men, our exciting Frontier Town adventure in just a few moments. The Frontier Town. Talk about trouble on the Frontier. The trouble Phil Bardwell found himself in because of Bill Tolliver and his own pass record was trouble any place. I've known men to be surrounded on two sides with their backs to the wall and end up dying with their boots on. But Phil Bardwell was surrounded on all four sides. His father, Bill Tolliver, his own reputation and the mysterious Brunette Singer at the Wheel of Fortune Cafe who answered to the name of Blossom. Blossom, he says. Probably no more of a Blossom than a Willard's gunk cabbie. Yeah, well, that's none of your affair. Pop sent me out with a job to do and by thunder I'm going to do it. Phil, have you gone completely out of your mind? Your father sent you over here on business. Yes, and it wasn't monkey business either. Look, Chad, I'm in no mood for a lecture and I've got no time to argue. Oh, thank you to let go of my arm. Now you look here, Phil. I got you out of trouble once this week and if you think that you're going... Chad, are you going to let go of my arm? No, by golly. You're going to ruin everything now, but... Maybe this will keep your big mouth shut. You'll take my advice from now on. You'll make it your business to steer clear of me. Why, you ungrateful little... That's enough, Cherokee. Let the blame fool go. Thanks, Chad. You're being smart. Chad. Chad, are you going to stand and let Phil slap you and get away with it? It appears that he has already. I don't know what he's up to now, but by George, I'm keeping an eye on that wheel of fortune café and finding out just what and thunder is going on. Excuse me, mister. Wonder if you could help me with something. Yeah? You looking for somebody? Mm-hmm. Is a girl work here by the name of Blossom? Maybe. What's it to you? Oh, I, uh... Well, I'd like to see her, that's all. You would, huh? Well, she's busy right now. But, um... I mean... Would you tell her I'd like to see her anyhow? Maybe she's not too busy to take a minute. Look, I just got through telling you she's busy. Now, why don't you run along and stop being a pest? But I want to see her just for a minute. If you just tell her that Phil Bardwell from Dos Rios... Phil Bardwell? Uh-huh. You related to Cy Bardwell, the gent that owns the packing house down there? Cy Bardwell's my father. Why? Well... Why didn't you say so in the first place? Here, sit down. I'll go tell Blossom. She'll be right out. Out in three shakes of a lamb's tail. Don't you get the idea, Blossom? That kid's playing right into our hands. No, Boots, I sure don't get the idea. First you have a couple of the boys throw shots at him when he's on his way up here from Dos Rios, and now suddenly you want me to go out and be nice to him. How did I know he was gonna walk in here just begging to be taken? Oh, this is better than I could even dream of. I know. But what's better about it? Why do you think he come over here and asked for you? That ain't hard. Gonna try to talk me out of the breach of promise to him against Tolliver so his old man can get his cattle released. Sure. Only he don't know that we know what he's after. So? So if we play our cards right, we can collect from Tolliver and Phil Bardwell's old man. And how do you figure that? All you gotta do is do just what you did with old man Tolliver. Only in the kid's case it's gonna be easier. He ain't old enough to know his way around yet. And once he starts talking gushy, we'll have that tin horn lawyer of our slap papers on him so fast his old man will be writing checks in your name for a week. You got a lot of confidence in that bum lawyer, Boots. Matter of fact, I don't think he was ever any closer to a lawyer book than seeing one in a bookstore window. Tell you the truth, he ain't a regular lawyer. They kicked him out back in Illinois. But there's one thing he does know, breach of promise. Plenty of angles. Ways to make him pay off at the bank. Phil, darling, how did you happen to come all the way down to Fort Wingate and out of this whole big town just asked to meet me? Oh, honey, a girl as beautiful as you are gets a reputation. And in this country the news of a beautiful woman travels twice as fast as a prairie fire. Oh, Phil, you're so sweet to say things like that. Even though I know they're not true. Oh, you men are such liars. Yeah, but I'm not. I meant every word I said about your reputation. I hope you're telling the truth. When a girl's had to earn her own way like me, she learns to mistrust men. The only thing that's gonna keep me going is the hope that someday I might find someone I could trust and take me away from all this. Oh, in that case, you just trust me, Blossom. The way I feel now, I expect to be able to take you away. To take you away real soon. Of course, being on the outside, hoping that we could find out what was going on inside, Cherokee and I knew none of this at the time it took place. But after watching the Wheel of Fortune Cafe for an hour or more and finding that Phil didn't come out, I decided to take the bull by the horns and pay a call on Bill Tolliver to see what particulars we could learn from him. Well, Tom, that there's what happened and that's what it is. Tolliver, is that the truth? You fell for that dance hall singer and now she's suing you for $25,000 for breach of promise. Oh, you never said a truer word in all your life, Tom. I told you, Chad, Bill Tolliver may be old enough to be an elephant, but he hasn't gotten over or tried to act like a wolf. Just the same. I think that little scheme I figured out using Phil Bardwell as bait to prove Blossom is just a fortune hunter is it going to work, don't you, Chad? No, I don't, Bill. You're trying to have Phil help you is like a drowning man grabbing another one who can't swim either. What you need is a good lawyer. A lawyer? And go into the court and have everybody in the county laughing at me? I didn't say for you to get a lawyer. I just said that you needed one. And with a little help from Cherokee and from Western Union, maybe we can work it out. Hey, hey, Chad, where do you think you're going? I'm going a few places first, but I'm going to end up mighty soon down at the Wheel of Fortune Cafe. Well, Phil, my boy, as much as I hate to lose Blossom, I'm sure you'll make her a good husband. And just to show you my heart's in the right place, we're going to celebrate with champagne on the house. Oh, now, wait a minute. I haven't said anything about that. But darling, Boots wants to buy us some champagne. We've got to be polite. Oh, Phil, you might as well drown your troubles in champagne. That is, if this gent can afford to buy enough. Because the champagne it would take to drown your troubles would be enough to float a battleship. Who is this man, Phil? Yeah, and what's he doing buttoning? To make it short and to the point, I think you get the idea. Why you? Just a minute, Blossom. I'll handle this. Look, mister, trouble's one thing I don't like in my place, so I'm telling you now, get up. I got a message for Phil, and I intend giving it to him. All you're doing is either walking out or my boys are going to have to carry you out feet first. But this message is important, and I promise that I'll... All right, I told you what had happened, and now... Who's got Boots? You knocked him out. Yeah, yeah. Now I'm gonna throw him out. Hey, Al, Murph, toss this body out into the street. Okay, boss, come on, Al. I guess that takes care of that. You see, Phil, what a friend you have in Boots. Yeah, I certainly do. Hey, what's that? That there on the floor looks like a telegram. You better get it, Boots. Must have fallen out of that fellow's pocket when you knocked him down. Yeah, maybe this is the important message you had for Phil. Phil, you'd better go back in my office. I'll have the champagne served in there. Yeah, but I wanted to... You want Al and Murph to escort you back? That's better, son. Get moving. Boots, what's in that telegram? Plenty. It's from the kid's father, Cy Bardwell. He says he suspects we're trying to run a badger game on Bill Tolliver. He's asked the governor to send on a special investigator. The guy arrives on the late afternoon stage. Good night. If the attorney's office gets into this, you know where we'll end up, Boots, in the penitentiary. Yeah, yeah, but there's still an if. If Mr. Investigator arrives. If he arrives. But he's on the stage, Coach, now, Boots. Oh, sure. Sure, he's on it. Well, that don't say that we ain't gonna stop that, Coach. Take the jet off and have one of our own boys take over his clothes and papers and come down here in white watches. Now, you get back in my office and keep the kid there, Blossom. Me and the boys, we got business. Here comes the coach. Remember, let me do the talking. All right, boys, and keep your guns out of sight. I want this thing to look like we were trying to help the poor devil. It's the U.S. Marshall's posse. Wait up. The Marshall got word his special investigators on his way to Fort Wingate from the state capital. Any of you men inside the man? Because we're supposed to take you to town through a back trail. Marshall suspects some trouble. Yes, I'm the special investigator. Well, come on on, get out. We got a horse here for you. I'll open the door, will you? All right, oh. There you are. Come on. Now, hold on a minute. A few men are Marshalls. Where are your badges? Look, brother, you just wasted time. Now, come on, get out. We'll show you our identification later. You'd better show it now, Boots, or you'll end up with some holes in your chest where your badges ought to be. Good boy, Chad. Boy, you troublemaker. What are you doing hiding in that coach? I've been ready to take you to jail for attempted kidnapping. Chad, look out. Belly blue blazes, Chad. Those buzzards may end up in jail tomorrow, but right now we'd better take them down to the doctors and get their hands banished up. Could have knocked me down with a feather when that blossom admitted she was married to Boots Larson. Well, as her lawyer, I... well, I advise her to make the admission so that she couldn't be forced to testify against her husband. Well, as they say, all's well that ends well. Except this hasn't ended yet. After running in and out of slews doing Chad's dirty work, I've yet to find someone to offer to buy me a drink. Cherokee, haven't you learned yet that drinking is a harmful habit? A man your age, Cherokee, certainly should have learned it by this time. Drinking affects your health. Why, I've even known men to go blind from drinking too much. Well, I'll tell you how I figure it, gentlemen. I've lived along an adventurous life. Yes? So if I do lose my sight, what of it? I've seen everything there is to see already. Frontier Town, starring Reed Hadley and featuring Wade Crosby, is a broadcaster's program syndicate production. Supervision of Direction by Paul Franklin. Music written and played by Ivan Ditmarz. Be sure to be with us again same time next week for another fine action-adventure story with your favorite young western star, Reed Hadley. And now this is Bill Foreman telling you that Frontier Town comes to you from Hollywood.