Customer Reviews

The Have Gun: Will Travel Companion

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

This is an excellent,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 excellent 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.

-----UPDATE (Sept.17,2006) :
I reviewed "The Have Gun -Will Travel Companion" back when it came out in October of 2000.

Now, regrettably; I must update that review with an extremely negative additional observation.

The cheap glue of the paperback binding is rapidly deteriorating.

My last few looks at the book have turned into irritating sessions with a bottle of Rubber Cement in hand and increasingly-strained patience as I try to put the pages BACK into the book as they fall out one by one.

Had I known I was merely RENTING this until it self-destructed, I would never have paid full price for the whole book....after all, it seems more intended to be viewed IN PIECES.

I would buy a new copy, but frankly I believe I wasted enough money the first time.

For those interested in the behind the scene issues
involving the production of the Have Gun Will Travel
TV Series (1957-1963) this book is a good resource.

The authors have conducted interviews with many
important individuals who were connected to this
classic western. It starts out with a biography
of Richard Boone (Paladin) that traces his life from
his birth in Los Angeles with sections on the TV shows
Medic, The Richard Boone Show, Hec Ramsey as well as Have
Gun with information on his feature films and theatrical
performances. It also has an extensive plot summary
section on each Have Gun episode, a section on the short
lived Have Gun Radio program and other material of interest.

The weaknesses of the book are these. There are numerous
spelling mistakes, wrong word choices, dangling/unfinished
sentences and other typographical errors. The numerous
photos are poorly scanned and/or lack proper halftones. A
good editor/proof reader was needed on this book. For
this reader these are irritating though not enough to
disquality the book entirely.

More important was the lack of critical evaluation of the content of the program itself. If you are looking for a book that provides an in depth analysis into the personality of the Paladin character you will need to look elsewhere. Richard Boone and the writers and producers of Have Gun Will Travel created a wonderfully complex hero in this "Knight without Armor in a Savage Land." (Plot summaries are not character analysis). This book only scratches the surface of that complexity.

If you saw this program as a child as I did and have fond memories of it this book is valuable to read in
conjunction with viewing the Video/DVD Have Gun Will Travel collections.

When I first read the reviewer who listed detail after detail that was wrong with the book, I thought he's just picayune. OH NO!!!! This is the sloppiest published work I have ever seen. Some typos (and there are typically 3 or more per page)are so bad you can't even guess at the meaning of the sentence.

The writers obviously know and love their subject--it's just too bad no one edited or proofread their work. Ironically, they tout their superior research as uncovering various inaccuracies--to what end, when it's published in this garbled format?

He's right about the photos, too. Why are they so indistinct and faint?

Finally, there is no rhyme or reason to the order in which the material is presented. While each bit might be interesting, chronological order or grouping by topic certainly would have lent more impact and avoided repetition. (It actually looked like sections were merely cut and pasted several times).

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.

Interesting reading, but writing was amateurish and editing was poor at best. Photos, while often ones that I had not seen before, were so badly presented as to be worthless. Not a good value, but there is so little available on Richard Boone one tends to take what one can get.

I am a big fan of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL! This book is full of typos, plot mistakes and character errors. Having said that, it does give the basic story of each episode, but there is a better book to be written about this ground breaking television series.

This book, which was written in 2000, examines the TV program and the life of the actor who brought Paladin to our small B&W screens. We baby-boomers fondly remember the days when Mom said, "If you get moving and take your Saturday night bath, you can watch "Have Gun-Will Travel." The authors reassure us that Richard Boone was no phony. Paladin's gruff, yet compassionate, personality was in reality that of Richard Boone.
The authors' research is impressive, and the bite-size stories make for interesting reading. There are summaries of each episode, trivia, numerous quotes, and many black-and-white pictures.
My only quibbles are that the book needs a page index for quick references and that some of the photographs have the washed-look of being run off on a copy machine.
With a little searching, you can still find a reasonably priced edition. It is a Must-Have for Have-Gun fans.

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.

Only true fans would send in $30 for this "book," and for those, it is worth it. If you have the itch to know more about Paladin, there is ample material here. So be happy for that, and watch your HGWT DVDs with added pleasure.

Several Amazon reviewers have, at length, taken this book to task for its shabby production values. It's not really a "written" book. It is a cut-and-paste collection of articles, interviews, and observations, very loosely organized. There is little, if any, writing or editing by professionals--or even talented amateurs. So keep a sense of humor and ignore oddities like "Calvary" for "cavalry," and "from the gecko" for "from the get go." There are many sentences you will never decipher or understand. The photographs are Xerox copies of originals, but that is better than nothing, right? So, it's all in fun. I've never seen such a collection of misspelling, broken grammar, and repetitition, and yet I learned a lot about Richard Boone and HGWT. I thoroughly enjoyed this "book."

Sometimes good things come in awkward packages. Enjoy HGWT!