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Real Locales in OTR

I’ve mentioned many times how I look at OTR as a window into the past. A chance to see how the creators of the past saw their world and what they chose to reflect of it in their work. I am always tickled by the writers using real life locations in their shows, rather than creating fictional locales. For me it grounds the story and connects us to the real people that existed there.  And in this episode of “Have Gun-Will Travel” there was certainly some fun in that!

Obviously San Francisco was a huge part of “Have Gun-Will Travel.” Our episode is simply bookended in the city, as it does in many episodes, but the writers definitely liked to embrace the 1875 version of San Francisco. While the character of “Hey Boy” is certainly questionable in a modern context, I understand that they thought they were being topical by featuring a Chinese character, since the city had a very robust Chinese populace. And there are episodes where Paladin helps Hey Boy or members of his family (and later a love interest, Miss Wong). And in a lot of these episodes, the colorful world of San Francisco is their backdrop.

In our episode of “The Road to Wickenburg,” there is, indeed, a city in Arizona called Wickenburg. And to this day it embraces its Old West roots.  Located about an hour’s drive northwest from Phoenix, the town was originally made part of the United States by the Treaty of 1848 following the end of the Mexican-American War. Check out their official city web page: Wickenburg, AZ

Now, the town of “Bluebell,” if it ever existed, is not on the map today. But considering how the Goodfellow family ran that town, perhaps a fictional location was a good choice. Blue Bells are a native desert flower found in Arizona, so a good pick for a name by the writer, I’d say.

With this being the 49th episode, there have definitely been other shows we’ve done which have utilized real locations. I enjoy all the Los Angeles based episodes since the shows were being made here, the writers used real street names or locations I know well. Which I expanded upon when Madison brought Dracula to Hollywood to stay at the Chateau Marmont.  Or in “War of the Worlds” when I decided to take Orson Welles’ East Coast centric script and present the West Coast version, utilizing the Griffith Park Observatory and La Brea Tar Pits. All of these locations having been around at the time of the OTR series. Another episode I loved for the locations was “Rocky Jordan.” The original writers used the army-issued guide given to soldiers deployed to Egypt in WWII so they could paint a more realistic landscape for Rocky’s adventures.

Other episodes of note: “Candy Matson: YUkon 2-8209” in San Francisco: going to her favorite place, the Sutro Baths along the coastline. Whitney Texas in “Tales of the Texas Rangers” and the long drive Jace Pearson had arriving from Wichita Falls. “X-Minus One” and our “The Embassy” episode featuring Greenwich Village.  “The Challenge of the Yukon” and the real Gold Rush boom towns of the frigid Canadian wilderness. Sherlock Holmes has been ripe with real locales. From the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare festival (which Basil Rathbone actually performed in long before he was known as the famous Sleuth) to the glamour of the 1900 French Riviera, to this year’s visit to Edinburgh and their famous castle and other real life spots.

Whenever I run across a name of a location in OTR, I take a moment to look it up. It’s an additional window into the past, because I can see images of it today, and if I’m lucky, from the time when the script was written. And sometimes it shapes my writing. The Palace Hotel, the restaurant/bar setting for “The Casebook of Gregory Hood” is still in operation. I looked it up on Google maps and realized the joke I wanted to make about Madison parking on a steep street didn’t work because the hotel isn’t on a hill!  I must say, I am lucky to have the internet as a resource to look up these locations. Kudos to the writers in the 30s-50s who had to use other, less convenient sources to get their settings correct. Another way to remind us that these were top writers in their profession.

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