CBS president William S Paley was apparently a fan both of detective fiction and the frontier tales of Louis L’Amour, so it’s not surprising he would be interested in a radio show which combined both genres. What does strike me as a little mystifying is that after producing two unaired pilots in 1949, with Rye Billsbury and Howard Culver both trying out for the role of gritty US marshal Matt Dillon, it took CBS another three years to finally hand the badge to William Conrad. Read More »The Sound of Gunsmoke (1952-61)