Gun smoke brought to you by L and M filters. This is it. L and M is best. Stands out from
all the rest.
Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there's just one way to handle the
killers and the spoilers and that's with the US Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun smoke starring William Conrad, the French grud story of the violence that moved West
with young America and the story of a man who moved with it. I'm that man, Matt Dillon,
United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's
a chancey job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
And I sure do hope things have been good with you like they have been with me. Take care
of yourself. Maybe I will come up to see you one day soon, your loving brother Magnus.
And then down at the bottom he says, your uncle Will got trumped on by a cow last week. Well,
now ain't that nice, Mr. Dillon.
What do you mean about Uncle Will?
No, I mean getting this letter from Magnus. It's real thought of him.
That's the first one I remember you getting.
It's the first one he's wrote. To me at least. Sure, it's funny though, I never knew that
boy could write a lick.
Well, maybe he's learned since you saw him last.
No, I don't think so because Magnus don't hold with schooling.
Uh-huh.
No sir, none of my kinfolk does. What my ma says all about he needs to know is how to cook,
care for your own and get to the church.
She must have made your pa a very good wife.
I don't know if he ever said it. He ran off when I was only four.
Him and ma never talked to each other much and what I...
You're the Marshal, Mr.
Why, yes ma'am, that's right.
I'm Nancy Creed.
Well, come in please. This chest a proud foot, Miss Creed.
I do, Miss Creed.
Marshal, I come to see you because my pa's gonna shoot somebody dead.
What?
I want you should stop him.
Well, who's your pa gonna shoot?
A fella that worked for him a spell, name of Ben Tolliver.
And why is your pa after him?
Ben run off last night and took one of pa's studs.
Pa says he was just about the best stud pa ever saw.
Where do you and your pa live, Nancy?
About 20 miles from here, out along the Arkansas.
And you think this man, this Ben Tolliver, came into Dodge?
I don't just think it, Marshal, I know it.
So does pa. Ben always said he was coming here.
I see.
So I sneaked away this morning after pa went down the corrals to come tell you.
I figure you be the fella to see, being Marshal and all.
Nancy, look, if this man stole one of your pa's horses,
why doesn't your pa come in here and tell me about it?
He could swear on a warrant for Tolliver and then I could arrest him.
Pa don't want to.
He says he'll take care of his own troubles.
You think you can stop pa from shooting Ben?
Hell, I can sure try.
Tell me, what does your pa look like?
Look like?
Uh-huh.
Well, I don't know your pa, Nancy, but if I knew what he looked like,
then I could watch for him, you see.
I never thought about pa's looking like anything, except just pa.
Well, for instance, how old is he?
I don't know. He never said.
Well, what would you guess?
He's kind of gray.
But then he's always looked like that.
Anything else?
He's got a bad leg from where a horse kicked him and his jaws busted some.
Well, that don't sound like he should be hard to find.
Not with a limp and lopsided face, for my gracious, even I can find a man with a limp.
Okay, Chester, all right.
Nancy, I'll watch for your pa, and if he does come into Dodge, I'll have a talk with him.
You do that now, surely?
Thank you, Marshall.
Bye.
Goodbye.
Say, Marshall.
Yes?
If it helps any, I know where that bandit Oliver is.
Hmm, for him.
You do?
Right there at the Long Branch Saloon having a beer.
You know where I mean.
Yes.
I seen his horse tied outside, so I went up and looked through the window,
and he's there right now.
Well, why didn't you tell me this before, Nancy?
Never thought of it.
Well, you'll do something about pa now, won't you, Marshall?
I declare she don't know get up and hold us, Mr. Dillon.
She's kindly pretty, but my gracious...
Come on, Chester, let's go have a talk with Ben Tolliver and find out what this is all about.
This is it, L&M filters.
It stands out from all the rest.
Miracle tip, much more flavor.
L&M's got everything.
It's the best.
Yes, L&M's got everything.
Superior filtration, superior taste, superior filtration because of L&M's superior filter.
White, all white, pure white.
The purest tip that ever touched your lips.
Superior taste because of L&M's superior tobaccos.
Tasty, full of flavor, light and mild.
No doubt about it.
L&M is America's best filter tip cigarette.
This is it, L&M filters.
L&M's got everything.
It's the best.
Man, Nancy sure didn't have no hankering to come with us.
I think she was afraid we might run into her paw.
She sure lit out for home fast enough.
She just ain't very bright issue, Mr. Dillon.
She seems to know right from wrong, Justin.
That's more than some people.
Yes, sir.
You want me to come in with you?
Yeah, but stay by the door while I talk to Toliver.
How are you going to know which one's him?
Well, there won't be more than three or four people in there this time of day.
You reckon that's him sitting at the table over there?
Yeah, it could be.
Is your name Ben Toliver?
That's right.
My name's Dillon.
I'm a marshal here in Dodge.
Do you mind if I sit on?
Please yourself.
Yeah, thank you.
A girl named Nancy Creed came into my office a little while ago.
What'd she want?
She says that her paw's looking for you.
Oh?
Says he's going to shoot you.
Shoot me?
Yeah, he claims that you stole one of his horses.
Is that right?
He owed me four months wages and he wouldn't pay me.
So I took a stud horse that broke it.
Was that your horse?
I figured I had something coming.
You can't take a horse that belongs to somebody else no matter what you figure.
Look, mister, I caught that stud horse when he was running wild out on the range.
I brought him into old Creed's place and broke him myself.
I put three months work into that stud and on my own time of an evening.
Creed says it was his horse and you stole him.
No such thing.
Besides, he said he'd pay me $30 a month and he threw me out without a penny.
Yeah, the girl didn't tell me anything about paid being due you.
Nancy wouldn't know about it anyway.
Her paw don't tell her nothing.
She just keeps the place read it up and cooks for him and the like.
Well, come on, Ben.
Come on where?
I'm going to take you to jail.
Jail?
What are you putting me in jail for?
And if what Nancy says is true, Creed's coming in to look for you.
Putting you in jail is the best way I know of to stop a fight.
But I ain't done nothing wrong, Marshal.
Not the way I see it.
You'll only be in jail.
I get this straightened out.
Later this afternoon, I'm going to ride out and have a talk with Creed
before he decides to come into town.
It sure is hot out here, ain't it?
Ain't a speck of shade for miles around.
Well, if he's breaking wild horses out here, he doesn't have time to worry about the heat.
I wonder if that fellow, Ben Tolliver, was telling the truth.
Yeah, there's no way of knowing until we talk to the old man.
No, sir, I guess ain't.
Say, he's got some pretty good looking stock down in pens, ain't he?
Yeah, there's good stock running wild on the prairie.
If a man knows how to catch him, he can make out fine.
We better leave our horses here, Chester.
All right, sir.
Don't be banging on the door.
I seen you coming.
You, Jack Creed?
That's right.
Well, I want to talk to you, Creed.
Who are you, mister?
Marshal Dillon from Dodge.
Let's cool her off there, then in the house I'll come out.
What is it you want?
I want to know about Ben Tolliver.
That fool Nancy ran to Dodge and told you, huh?
Yeah, that's right.
Well, since you did, I won't try to fool you.
That boy stole a horse of mine.
I figure in a couple of days I'll go after him.
Go after him?
Find him and shoot him.
Now look, Creed, you just can't shoot a man down.
Why not?
He's a horse thief.
If you want to swear out a complaint, I'll hold him for trial.
I ain't got time for all that foolishness.
He stole a horse, so I got cause to shoot him.
Now, you listen to me, Creed.
I don't have to listen to nobody.
If you're gonna marshal, you're all filled up with laws.
I ain't got time to mess with that.
Now, I'll just shoot him.
Creed, either you come into Dodge and swear out a complaint against Tolliver,
or you forget about the whole thing.
I got better than 40 range horses out here, only half broke.
I can't be wasting time fooling around with no trial.
Did you owe that boy money?
Of course not.
Everything he did, I had to show him how.
The way I see it, he should have paid me.
He worked out here for you for four months.
Right?
You could say that.
Well, he told me that that stud horse was his.
Well, since he caught him and broke him, I guess he'd figure it that way.
But Ben was working on my place and taking my food.
That stud's mine.
Now, the law might not agree with you, Creed.
I know that, marshal.
That's just why I'm gonna handle my own trouble.
And not mess around with the law.
Look, I've tried to tell you, Creed, and I'm gonna tell you once more real plain.
You shoot that boy and you'll hang for it.
I don't care what you think the right of it is.
All right, come on, Chester.
Maybe I won't shoot him.
Maybe I'll fix that boy good some other way.
Hey, man, that stud horse, he's so proud of.
Miserable old buffalo, he's as mean as an acre of snakes, ain't he?
Yeah.
What are you gonna do, Mr. Dillon?
Well, I can't keep Ben Tolliver in jail forever if Creed won't swear out a complaint.
No, sir.
I'll just have to turn him loose in the morning.
Then I hope they don't run into each other.
Maybe you could run Tolliver out of town.
I wouldn't do any good.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Now, let's move along.
We got a lot of ground to cover.
Come on.
Well, you're free now, Ben.
Thanks, Marshal.
Being in jail overnight makes a fellow kind of ouchy.
Well, I'm sorry about that.
I did it to save trouble.
I know, Marshal, I don't blame you none.
What you gonna do now, Ben?
Well, Chester, I thought maybe I could find myself a job or work somewhere.
What kind of work?
All I know is horses.
There ought to be some spread near here that could use a hand.
I don't know if there's anybody looking for a hired hand,
Sam, down at the long branch.
You'd know about it.
He's a bartender there.
I'll tell you what, I'll walk down with you if you like, Ben.
Oh, thanks, Marshal.
Mr. Dillon?
Uh, yeah, yeah, what is it, Chester?
You could just have a beer while you're down there talking.
Yeah, okay, Chester, you can come along, too.
Come on.
Thank you.
Say, Mr. Dillon, that was a good idea.
I'm glad you thought of it.
Well, thank you, Chester.
Hey, where you from, Ben?
California.
California?
What are you doing in Kansas?
This is the cow country, Marshal.
California just don't have a spread.
Yeah, but all that gold out there.
The gold rush was 20 years ago, Chester.
Well, I know that, but there might just be a little left laying around.
I sure didn't find any, Chester.
Or maybe you didn't know where to look.
All I want is to have my own piece of land, raise good stock, maybe get me a wife.
I might even go on up to Wyoming sometime.
I hear that's good cattle country, too.
Well, I don't see Sam no worse.
No.
But here comes Miss Kitty.
Hello, Marshal.
Chester.
Hello, Kitty.
Kitty, this is Ben Tolliver.
Hello, Ben.
We came down to talk to Sam.
And have some beer.
Well, I can get you the beer, Chester, but Sam's down at the depot with a wagon.
Shipment of rye whiskey is coming in on the Santa Fe this morning.
Oh, I see.
You're up kind of early, aren't you?
Sam asked me to take care of things till I got back.
I can sleep this afternoon.
Come over to the bar.
I'll get you some beer.
Okay.
My, you make a pretty fancy bartender, Miss Kitty.
Well, a girl's got to have an ace up her sleeve, Chester.
Yeah, but what?
Never mind, Chester.
What are you doing in the saloon this early?
Well, we come down to ask Sam if he'd heard about anybody needing a hand.
Yeah, you see, Ben here is looking for a job.
Oh, what sort of job, Ben?
On a ranch somewhere, Miss Kitty.
You work around stock much?
All my life.
Just about.
Yeah, you say he was working for Jake Creed up until yesterday.
Jake Creed?
Yeah.
You know him?
I know about him.
Only a few months back some cowboy was giving me a half a dozen reasons why you had to
kill him.
He must have been a fellow Jake threw out just before I come along.
You probably stayed with him about three, four months, is that right?
Yes.
Then he started some argument.
You had a fight and he threw you out?
That's about the right of it.
No pay into the bargain.
Honestly, Matt, I don't know how Creed gets away with it.
Well, I guess there's always somebody new drifting by who doesn't know his reputation.
What did you argue about, Ben?
Oh, a little bit of everything, Miss Kitty, but mostly on how to rope.
How to rope?
Yeah.
He says when you're working stock the only way is to tie hard and fast and not dally.
Well, I sure couldn't argue that.
No, Kitty, you see, hard and fast means that you tie the end of your rope to the saddle horn, you see.
And when you dally, you just hold the end of the rope in your hand and twist it around the horn a couple of times.
That's right.
That way if the rope gets tangled up in your mouselegs or yours, you let go and you're free.
There ain't a way to get dragged if you dally.
You mean old Creed don't believe in dallying?
No, ma'am.
Most of the fellas don't think of the mouselegs too much, but they do some in California.
Well, they sure don't in Texas.
Creed says that nobody who knows anything about working stock could ever rope anyway except hard and fast.
I'm glad I make a living in here.
It sounds complicated, I guess, Miss Kitty, but it ain't a horseman.
Well, no matter what the argument was about, he should have paid you, Ben.
Oh, Ben, you got any money at all?
No, sir.
Here, I'll give you five dollars and you can pay me back when you make it.
Thanks, Marshal.
Well, as long as you're paying, don't forget the beer, Marshal.
Yeah, sure.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Yeah, Sam won't have to worry about his bar, not with you behind it, Kitty.
This bar pays a good part of my salary.
Marshal, I think maybe I'd better go down and have a look at my horse.
Make sure he's been watered this morning.
Oh, Marshal, take good care of Ben.
Well, I think maybe I'll just walk down there anyway.
Can I go with you?
I'd like to see your horse.
Sure.
Ben, you come back later this afternoon.
Sam will be here then.
We can talk about a job for you.
Thank you, Miss Kitty.
He seems like a nice young fellow, Matt.
Yeah.
What's the matter?
I was thinking about Jake Creed, Kitty.
What about him?
He's got something on his mind.
He'll try to get to Ben Tolliver's some way.
To you, to the thousands of smokers who are changing to Ellendam every day, to the millions
who now smoke Ellendam, here is your assurance.
Ellendam gives superior filtration because of its superior filter, superior taste because
of Ellendam's superior tobaccos.
Yes, Ellendam tobaccos are tasty, full of flavor, yet light and mild.
And Ellendam's superior filter is the purest tip that ever touched your lips.
It's white, all white.
Truly the miracle tip because when it's added to Ellendam's superior tobacco, it actually
tones up the taste, actually improves your enjoyment of this great cigarette.
Yes, Ellendam's got everything.
Superior taste, superior tobacco, superior filter.
That's why it's America's best filter tip cigarette.
Try Ellendam today.
In the next three or four days, there was no sign of Jake Creed around town.
And I began to breathe easier.
Ben came in one morning and said that he'd found a job out at the Walker Place and that
he was going to start the next day.
And I was glad for him.
But then trouble came.
Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what is it, Chester?
Mr. Dillon, he's gone.
Well, who's gone?
Ben Tolliver.
He took a horse from Moss Grimmins and he's headed out for the Creed Place.
He says he's going to kill him.
Oh, what for?
What's it all about?
Well, this morning I walked down to this table with Ben to kindly say goodbye like, and that's
when we saw it.
Oh, dog, gone at that poor old stud.
Saw what, Chester?
Moss told us he'd seen old man Creed out and back by the crowd, but he didn't think too
much of it.
Chester, what happened?
That mean old devil hamstrung Ben's stud, Mr. Dillon.
Hamstrung him?
He cut both hind legs, for that horse couldn't budge an inch out of his tracks.
Ben just stood there, real stony-like, looking at the stud, and then he shot him.
He didn't say a word.
He just turned and walked away with a funny kind of a look on his face.
All right, come on, Chester.
We'll ride out to the Creed place before Ben does something he'll be sorry for.
I'm coming.
Oh, hello, Marshal.
Is your pa here, Nancy?
No, he's down the catch pens.
It ain't time to eat, so he's working.
Uh-huh, Nancy, have you seen Ben Tolliver?
Sure did.
He rode up here a few minutes ago, wanted to see pa.
I told him pa was down the corrals.
He just went down there.
Come on, Chester.
Well, if you're going down to talk to pa, I'll go with you.
He goes down to the corrals for sunup and don't come back till time for dinner.
What you want pa for, Marshal?
To keep him from getting killed.
Who'd kill pa?
You don't.
That came from the corrals.
Come on, let's go.
Mr. Dunn, look.
Out there in the middle of that catch pen.
All right, Tolliver.
Hold it right there.
I ain't moving.
All right, give me your gun.
What for?
You're under arrest and this time you'll stay in jail.
Ben, why'd you shoot my pa?
I didn't, Nancy.
Well, then who did shoot him?
Nobody shot him, Marshal.
I'm trying to tell you.
Jake was already dead when I got here.
It was the horse I shot.
What?
See for yourself.
Looks to me like Jake's horse got tangled up in the rope while he was working the Mustang.
The horse got thrown and Jake was trapped under him.
And the Mustang drug them both.
It killed Jake.
His horse had two legs broke so I shot him.
That's what you heard.
Well, looks like you're telling the truth, Ben.
I am, Marshal.
Poor old pa.
I always told Jake he shouldn't work wild horses alone.
He ought to have somebody snubbed for him.
Pa always did have a mind of his own.
He sure did, that old devil.
You should be glad he's dead, Ben.
It saved you from hanging.
And now our star, William Conrad.
Thank you, George.
You know what I like about L&M's is they're mild and mighty easy on the draw.
When you get right down to it, no filter stacks up with L&M's pure white miracle tip for quality or effectiveness.
Darn good smoke.
See for yourself.
L&M stands out from all the rest.
Gun Smoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The special music for Gun Smoke was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Sam Edwards, Eleanor Tannen, and James Nusser.
Harley Bear is Chester, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
Put a smile in your smoking.
Next time you buy cigarettes, stop.
Remember.
Only Chesterfield is made the modern way with Accu-Ray.
This amazing quality detective electronically checks and controls the making of your Chesterfield,
giving a uniformity and smoking quality never possible before.
For the first time, you get a perfect smoke column from end to end.
From the first puff to the last puff, Chesterfield smokes smoother.
Chesterfield smokes cooler.
Chesterfield is best for you.
Next time you buy cigarettes, stop.
Remember.
Chesterfield is made the modern way with Accu-Ray.
Put a smile in your smoking.
Just give them a try.
Light up a Chesterfield.
They satisfy.
Remember, listen again next week for another transcribed story of the Western Frontier
when Matt Dillon, Chester Plodfoot, Doc, and Kitty, together with all the other hard living citizens of Dodge,
will be with you once more.
It's America growing west in the 1870s.
It's Gunsmoke, brought to you by L&M Filters.
Thanks for watching!