The Guitar: Gunsmoke (December 26, 1953)

“The Guitar” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 26, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Gunsmoke free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

A peculiar drifter named Pendle arrives in Dodge City with nothing but a mule and a guitar. When two troublemakers named Tyler and Short attempt to hang him out of revenge for his service in the Union Army during the war, Marshal Dillon intervenes and the men are forced to leave town.

Dodge City saloon and surrounding area

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Doc, Pendle, Tyler, Short, Sam

Listen for: The tense confrontation where Tyler and Short attempt to lynch Pendle to settle old Civil War grievances, and Dillon's swift intervention to stop them.

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.