MovieChat Forums > Wagon Train (1957) Discussion > How many children died on Wagon Train? (...

How many children died on Wagon Train? (Spoilers).

posted 10 years ago by rbecker28
3 replies | jump to latest

Unlike most other shows, Wagon Train was not timid about occasionally featuring the death of children. I suppose this is due to the fact that it was a well known fact that in real life many people, and many children, did not survive the long trek West on the wagons, and glossing over this fact would have been too unrealistic.

Anyway, I count at least six episodes in which children died:

1. Johnny Crawford in The Sally Potter Story.

2. Jenny Hecht in The Mary Ellen Thomas Story.

3. Terry Burnham in The Martin Gatsby Story.

4. Diane Mountford in The Eli Bancroft Story.

5. Betsy Hale in The John Gillman Story.

6. Eileen Baral in Little Girl Lost (she was a ghost).

Am I missing any?

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MAGolding (1096) 5 years ago

I took the birthdates of the actors and the broadcast dates of the episodes from IMDB and rearranged them:

Jenny Hecht (July 30, 1943-March 25, 1974) as Sally Mayhew was 15 years, 4 months, and 24 days old when "The Mary Ellen Thomas Story" was broadcast on 24 December 1958, and younger when it was filmed.

Diane Mountford (born September 30, 1948) as Milly Dawson was 15 years, 1 month, and 12 days old when "The Eli Bancroft Story" was broadcast on 11 November 1963, and younger when it was filmed.

Terry Burnham (August 8, 1949-October 7, 2013) as Marie Lefton was 13 years, 2 months, and 2 days old when "The Martin Gatsby Story" was broadcast on 10 October 1962, and younger when it was filmed.

Betsy Hale (born August 10, 1952) as Abigail was 12 years, 1 month, and 24 days old when "The John Gilman Story" was broadcast on 4 October 1964, and younger when it was filmed.

Johnny Crawford (born March 26, 1946) as Jimmy Bennett was 12 years and 14 days old when "The Sally Potter Story" was broadcast on 9 April 1958, and younger when it was filmed.

Eileen Baral (born May 7, 1955) as Robin was 9 years, 7 months, and 6 days old when "Little Girl Lost" was broadcast on 13 December 1964, and younger when it was filmed.

rbecker28 listed them in broadcast order so he probably went through the lists of episodes in chronological order and listed everyone he recognized as having child characters die in it.

[–] liscarkat (16476) a year ago

Crawford's episode aired the spring before the fall season of 1958, when he began his run as Mark McCain on "The Rifleman".