Helping Hand: Gunsmoke (September 27, 1954)

“Helping Hand” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 27, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Marshal Dillon discovers Bill Pence attempting to lynch a young drifter named Steve Elsa, claiming the boy was stealing cattle. Dillon stops the hanging and brings Steve to jail to investigate the true story of what happened out on the range.

Dodge City, Kansas and the surrounding range

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Bill Pence, Steve Elsa, Emmett Bowers

Listen for: The confrontation between Marshal Dillon and Bill Pence over frontier justice, and Dillon's interrogation of the accused cattle thief.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.