What the Whiskey Drummer Heard: Gunsmoke (April 17, 1954)

“What the Whiskey Drummer Heard” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 17, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When a whiskey drummer warns Marshal Dillon that someone paid two men $300 to kill him, Dillon arranges to fake his own death. He shoots himself in the back to make it look real, then waits in Doc's office for the killer to make his move. As word spreads through Dodge City that the Marshal is dead, a mysterious gunman appears at the Texas Trail saloon, brazenly claiming credit for the killing.

Dodge City, Kansas - various locations including the Long Branch Saloon, Doc's office, and the Texas Trail saloon

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Mike the bartender, Wilbur Hawkins, Doc, Kitty

Listen for: The conversation between the whiskey drummer and Marshal Dillon at the Long Branch Saloon that sets the plot in motion; the gunshot in the alley that fakes Dillon's death; Kitty's report of the mysterious gunman at the Texas Trail.

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.