DATELINE: SWEETWATER

One of the four shows I watched today at the Museum of Television & Radio was from 'Have Gun, Will Travel'. For all I know, I had it on my boxed set of the first season, but when I saw it listed while looking at the credits for Richard Boone available for viewing, I decided to choose it.

The episode was "Marshal of Sweetwater", written by the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry. And it dealt with Paladin's eventual clash with an old friend from his Army days, Tom Carey, who was now the town marshal in Sweetwater. For the sake of a theoretical crossover, I'm going to assume this Sweetwater was situated in Arizona.

(Oddly, Carey called him by the name of Paladin, which the character didn't assume until after he took up his mantle of "knight without armor in a savage land". However, we never did learn Paladin's real name - his origin story only had him as a gambler before he assumed the name of Paladin.)

Having the story situated in Sweetwater provides an additional link to the 'Maverick' mythos. The two shows were already connected within the TV movie "Gambler 4: Luck Of The Draw" when Bart Maverick played a champeen poker game at the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco with the late Paladin's own deck of cards.

In this case, Sweetwater was the town in which 'Bret Maverick' decided to settle down to play poker at the Red Ox Saloon and run a few cons on the side. After the death of Marshal Carey, apparently Tom Guthrie was then brought in to be the Sheriff. Guthrie would hold that position until he was defeated in an election by Mitch Dowd.

The saloon in "Marshal of Sweetwater" was the Gold Lily and it was run by Marie Ellis. It's probably not the same establishment under a new name and management as the Red Ox Saloon, which was run by Mandy Packer.

Sweetwater, Arizona, should not be confused with the Sweetwater location of 'The Young Riders'. Much as I would like to combine them all, 'The Young Riders' was located in Sweetwater, Wyoming.

BCnU!
Toby OB