Librarians on Old Time Radio: The Librarian from Frontier Gentleman (1958)

My Nancy Pearl Action Figure back in 2009 on my old office toy all.  
She is one heck of a librarian!

Here is my second entry in my new series - Librarians on Old Time Radio.  I am going to feature programs that have librarians and related information professionals in key roles in the story.  These might be fairly straight forward - or only tangentially related to librarianship.  Maybe there is a minor part of a librarian in the story.  Anyway, I should have a good number of episodes to feature over the upcoming months.  I hope to feature one entry a week - but this last week got past me - fingers crossed for catching up soon.  Hope you enjoy them.

In the late 1950s, there was one network that was producing great radio programming.  It was the same network that we featured last week with their landmark program, Suspense. While during the late 1950s, networks were focused on television, CBS produced a number of great programs for the medium of radio.  Some of these programs were relatively short lived, but thankfully, we still have them.  One of them was a vehicle for CBS Radio star John Dehner, who I featured a few years back on the centennial of his birth.  John Dehner was practically a regular guest star on Gunsmoke, appearing in over 200 episodes.  When you needed a bad villain, you called John.  When you needed a good villain, you called John.  Pretty much, you called John.  He would star in the radio program Have Gun, Will Travel (also on the CBS Network) and that would start only weeks after the show I am featuring today, Frontier Gentleman.  This was one of the adult western programs that CBS offered, but with an interesting twist.

From the Digital Deli entry (linked below), they described Frontier Gentleman thusly:

"The protagonist of the series is J.B. Kendall, a cashiered British Cavalry officer who spent most of his military career in the Punjab area of India. He takes a position with the London Times, on assignment to cover the developing frontier of the Montana and Wyoming Territories of America during the 1870s. His portfolio is to transmit first-person accounts of the roaring American frontier, offering insights into that tumultous time of exploration, colonization, warring Indian tribes, and the rampant anarchy still prevalent in most of the frontier towns of the era."

While there were only 41 episodes of this program, that ran from February to November, 1958, it is a fun way to see the American west through the eyes of an outsider.  John Dehner's J.B. Kendall uses the column that he would have written as a frame for his adventures, much like Johnny Dollar used the expense reports.  

On October 5th, 1958 (toward the end of its only season on the air), the episode broadcast was called "The Librarian".  In this episode, a widower by the name of Almira Danworthy from out east tries to scare off a settler who is trying to take over her land claim. She was a librarian out east and moved west with her husband. After being swindled by a shady land developer, they found themselves on this plot that they had to develop - or lose. But in working the land, her husband died of exhaustion. But in returning to their land, she discovered that someone else had taken over the property, a Confederate veteran.  So, its just another story of a librarian who has to share space with people who don't belong.  Alas, some things never change.  Joining John Dehner in the cast is Virginia Gregg as the librarian, Vic Perrin (billed as "Richard Perkins" - from the RadioGOLDINdex), Charles Seel, Eddie Firestone with Bud Sewell as the announcer.  The story was written by Tom Hanley and Antony Ellis was the producer and director.

The Librarian (Frontier Gentleman from October 5, 1958)

Here are some links to programs relating to Old Time Radio and Frontier Gentleman:

• Frontier Gentleman radio program episodes via the Internet Archive
• Frontier Gentleman radio program episodes via the Old Time Radio Researchers Group Library
• Frontier Gentleman on Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs
• Frontier Gentleman from the Digital Deli
• Frontier Gentleman episodes from the RadioGOLDINdex
• Frontier Gentleman scripts from Generic Radio Workshop

Librarians on Old Time Radio 

• Damaged Library Book from Suspense (1945)
• The Librarian from Frontier Gentleman (1958)
• Corey's Librarian Entries

Old Time Radio Links and Older Blog Posts

• All my OTR blog posts
• Corey's African Americans on Old Time Radio Entries
• Corey's American History Entries
• Corey's Baseball Entries
• Corey's Christmas Entries
• Corey's Food Entries
• Corey's Librarian Entries
• Corey's Lighthouse Entries
• Corey's Your World Adventure Awaits Entries - I want to get this going again in 2019
• Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148)
• Old Time Radio Drama (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• Old Time Radio Researchers Group Library
• Digital Deli Online
• Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Site