BW - EP135—002: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—Planning Luke Slaughter

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

William Robson attracted talented people into Slaughter’s creative process. The going rate in 1958 for a radio script was four-hundred fifty dollars. Lucian Davis would produce script writers like Allen Botzer, Don Clark, Robert Stanley, and Tom Hanley, who also provided editorial supervision. Hanley shared sound duties with Bill James. Gunsmoke director Norman MacDonnell remembered their work. Luke Slaughter would be set in the 1880s around Southwest Tombstone, Arizona. The title character was based on John Horton Slaughter, a Civil War cavalryman and Texas Ranger, noted as a trail-driver, gambler and cattleman. Slaughter also served as the sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, and inspired a series on ABC TV the same year. The supporting cast would be filled out by Hollywood radio’s most famous character actors, like Harry Bartell, Lilian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Jack Kruschen, Junius Matthews, Shirley Mitchell, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, and Sam Edwards. They were like a family. They looked out for each other, including those less fortunate, as Jack Kruschen and Shirley Mitchell remembered. Jerry Goldsmith, then a CBS staff musician, was tasked with creating the musical score. Picked to star was a twenty-six year old named Sam Buffington. Buffington appeared in at least thirty-nine TV shows and nine movies in less than four years. Luke Slaughter would be his only radio credit.