Martin Grams | Les Rayburn
1 A long-overdue definitive source!
I was overjoyed to see this contain an endless wealth of rare
information about the series and the extreme detail it goes into,
much unlike other books dealing with vintage TV shows. The author
really worked with great sacrifice and difficulty at accomplishing what should be deemed a great rarity these days...a truely perfect companion to a classic television series. The explicit details stating the sponsors of a particular episode is a tediously unique approach presented by the author. The photos also add sparkle to the literary findings therein.
It very hardly disappoints!!!!!!!
2 The Bad Outweighs the Good...
What a disaster! First, the good things: there is a complete and accurate log of the CBS radio broadcasts of HAVE GUN, starring the late, great John Dehner; and, there is a complete and accurate log of the CBS TV programs, starring the late, great Richard Boone. These are the only really usable logs in print anywhere.
Now for the bad news. At least one of the authors is so totally, completely illiterate that he cannot even transcribe proper names correctly. Virtually every sentence contains a garbled word or phrase. In many cases it is nearly completely impossible to decipher what is being talked about. Even the many fragmentary interviews have this problem, since the interviewer clearly did not recognize the words being used by the person interviewed, and puts in either a ludicrous phonetic spelling, or substitutes an entirely different word with no connection to the one spoken by the interviewee.
Where a coherent narrative (i.e., sentence 2 having some connection to sentence 1, sentence 3 having some connection to sentence 2, etc.) is required, the book falls down even further. Consider the several pages devoted to a complex set of lawsuits brought against CBS by an obscure children's birthday party performer who claimed the whole idea for the TV show had been stolen from his birthday party persona. To say that this discussion is completely, totally and utterly incoherent is to put it mildly. There is not a single sentence in the several pages where I had the vaguest concept of what the author was trying to say.
In short, this is a fan book, with all the defects that such books (which used to be mimeographed or xeroxed from an original manuscript, crudely stapled, and sold for $5 apiece at nostalgia conventions) always have. It is tragic that no one cared enough about the material to have someone who could read, write and speak english work over the text. Since the radio and TV broadcast logs are relatively free of typos (apart from some names that are spelled differently every time they appear, even in the same paragraph), it is clear someone did care enough about these to give them a once-over with a blue pencil.
What the luckless performers and crewmembers interviewed here, who now see their words minced into gibberish when they finally see print, might think of this pathetic book, I'd like to hear.
Worth buying for the logs, which take up about half the text, but don't expect anything else and you won't be disappointed.
3 HAVE FUN--WILL BABBLE...........
This is an excellant,if flawed work. The strong points include the invaluable ( and definitive )episode guide,which corrects many a past mistake;the radio show coverage--which would seem to be untouched material until this book;and the overall scope of the contents. There are no wasted pages here. The weaker aspects are chiefly in the areas of the editing/proofreading--which is in many instances abysmal (names are mis-spelled,simple terms are totally out of context..example: the use of the word Calvary =Christ on the Cross, where the proper term would be Cavalry = as in Custer and the Troops ...Someone is relying far too much on a Spell-Checker Function and not enough on their own intelligence. Very sloppy proofreading/editing.)The book also has far too much of a re-hash of prior-published material on Richard Boone`s background--which was gone over just 6 months ago in another book. Other than that,the chief flaws in the execution involve the numerous photos that were touted to be included. They are there--problem is,many of them are reduced to the size of a postage stamp and are so dark--in their black-n-white "glory"--that you can barely make out what the photo is. This is particularly annoying to myself,for I contributed to this book. I spent 3 hours late one night at Kinko`s scanning and emailing beautiful,Full-Color Vintage Comic Book covers--with excellant COLOR photos of Richard Boone--only to see them converted in this book to small,dark,indistinct postage stamps. Further along the lines of my own experience is the treatment of Alfonso and Omar Pineda,of "Alfonso`s Of Hollywood",who contributed to the making of the Original Paladin Gunbelt. I pointed the authors to Omar Pineda for an interview....which IS in the book...under the name "Pindea". How hard would it have been to get the man`s last name correctly spelled? Omar`s father--who has passed away--must be rolling in his grave. His First AND Last name are mispelled thru-out. "Alfonso Pineda" becomes "Alfonzo Pindea"...a small difference,possibly--but it demonstrates a certain lack of concern on Somebody`s part. To sum up, this book IS a valuable reference, and a better work than has yet been done on this Classic Western--but it`s just sad that more attention was not given in the execution of such a good idea.
4 Have Book, Be Happy
The Have Gun - Will Travel Companion is a terrific book. I bought it this weekend and have not been able to put it down since. If you love Paladin, Richard Boone, or even Johnny Western, then this is the book for you. The book has it all -- a wealth of photos, information and anecdotes. Get it!
5 Sure to please even Paladin himself
I received my copy of HGWT Companion this weekend and having spent the past few days reading over the chapters, I am satisfied. I learned more about the Have Gun series than I thought I could ever learn. The stories ancedotes from participants were funny and insightful. I particularly loved when Peggy Rea told how they saved a young boy from muteness when the cast of Have Gun performed a stage production in front of hospitalized children. The episode guide is huge, taking up half of the book. The radio broadcasts even include the dates and times when the episodes were recorded, which gives me the impression that both authors spent considerable time and money to write this book. As they first state in their intoduction, it is not meant to be the definitive book on Have Gun. But I think they came close. I could nit-pick small odd bits here and there but I can also do the same for every book on my shelf. I also have David Rothel's book on Richard Boone, but they are both so different, I have to recommend both. If I had to pick only one, I would route for this, because it deals with Have Gun, not Richard Boone. Amazon statistics are wrong. This books is 500 pages, not 480. The only thing I can say bad is there is no index, but I can overlook that. If you love Have Gun, Will Travel, you should get this book. Judge for yourself.
6 Not what it seems...
The title is a little misleading. Good coverage of the making of Have Gun Will Travel however not much coverage regarding the Paladin character. Seemed more a rehash of Richard Boone: A Knight Without Armor in a Savage Land. I did enjoy the book, however I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they had brought out more information regarding the character. The Paladin character was what made Have Gun Will Travel the popular show that it was. Companion books are suppose to give you better insight into the show and the characters.
