This is a comprehensive encyclopedia to the more than 100 radio programs portraying the American West, in fact and fiction, heard by generations of listeners from the Great Depression through the Cold War era. The book includes both the popular and lesser known series, as well as would-be offerings that never made it past the audition stage. Each entry describes the series, the extent to which it was based on actual facts, the audience it was written for, and its broadcast history. The descriptions also examine how the programs reflected society's changing social and cultural attitudes towards racial and ethnic minorities and the role of women. The availability of surviving audio copies and original scripts is noted. An extensive bibliography and several appendices provide additional sources of information about Western programming during the Golden Age of Radio.

In June 1949, Hopalong Cassidy. Then Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Davy Crockett, the Cisco Kid, Matt Dillon, Bat Masterson, the Cartwrights, Hec Ramsey, Paladin ("Have Gun Will Travel")--no television genre has generated as many enduring characters as the Western. Gunsmoke, Death Valley Days, Bonanza, Maverick, and Wagon Train are just a few of the small-screen oaters that became instant classics. Then shows such as Lonesome Dove and The Young Riders updated and redefined the genre. The shows tended to fall into categories, such as "juvenile" Westerns, marshals and sheriffs, wagon trains and cattle drives, ranchers, antiheroes (bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns), memorable pairs, Indians, single parent families (e.g., The Big Valley, The Rifleman and Bonanza), women, blacks, Asians and even spoofs. There are 85 television Westerns analyzed here--the characters, the stories and why the shows succeeded or failed. Many photographs, a bibliography and index complete the book.

"[These volumes] are endlessly absorbing as an excursion into cultural history and national memory."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Issues for 1912-16, 1919- accompanied by an appendix: The Dramatic books and plays (in English) (title varies slightly) This bibliography was incorporated into the main list in 1917-18.

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