I'm trying to determine if the line " And that's the way it happened travelling west" was voiced-over at the end of each Wagon Train" episode.
Or did that line come from Death Valley Days? I know the line was used in some TV western but don't know which one? Does aonyone out there know?
That definetely was not the voiceover at the end of any Wagon Train episode. I have nearly all of the first five series and it isn't in any of them. There was no voice over, just the song Roll Along, Wagon Train which accompanied the credits.
shareI note your comment, "I have nearly all of the first five series..." and wonder if you can solve my query, please?
As a child of about 9 or 10 years, I can still vaguely recall seeing the first episode as shown on ATV Midlands television in the UK. I think I'm right in thinking it ended with the wagon train under attack (from the indians?), in desparate straits, then Ward Bond crying out, "It's McCullough, with..." (actually I don't think it was the cavalry, possibly local townspeople?).
I thought the programme was wonderful and turned to my father, saying, "Is it on next week, dad?".
With your knowledge of the series, can you possibly identify this episode for me, please? Was it the very first episode of Wagon Train?
I can still hear that stirring music...how we loved to see Seth, Flint and Wooster...happy days.
Keith Pare
Leicestershire, UK.
Yes, you are right. It did end with Flint McCullough riding to the rescue. The episode was The Willie Moran Story with Ernest Borgnine. Actually, it wasn't supposed to be the first episode, that should have been The Jean LeBec Story with Ricardo Montalban, which introduces Flint but for some reason they were switched around.
McCullough rides to the rescue with a band of men chasing off some mauraders, not Indians. Someone shouts, "It's Flint McCullough".
A little side note, Robert Horton said that the first horse they gave him was so slow the other riders were going to outrun him. Later on he had other horses that were much better and he finally bought and used the Apaloosa named Stormy that he rode in the rest of the series and in A Man Called Shenandoah. Although he wasn't previously known as a "Western" actor, he was certainly an excellent horseman, and probably the only one who did most of his own stunts. He was one of the very few who could actually do a Pony Express mount, getting on a horse as it is moving.
It would be great if we could get Universal or NBC to release the series in time for its 50th anniversary next year. There are not many shows nowadays as good as that one, and certainly none that the whole family could watch.
Toby
North Yorkshire, UK
"...he [Robert Horton] was certainly an excellent horseman, and probably the only one who did most of his own stunts. He was one of the very few who could actually do a Pony Express mount, getting on a horse as it is moving."
Oh contraire. Terry Wilson and Frank McGrath were ex-stuntmen. As much as I like Robert Horton, he couldn't hold a candle to Wilson and McGrath.
That line was actually from an earlier series called "Frontier". "Frontier" was an anthology series much like "Death Valley Days", taken from true stories about the settling of the West. It aired on NBC around 1955-56.
Walter Coy would deliver the line, "It happened that way...moving west" at the end of every episode.