About Face: Have Gun, Will Travel (December 27, 1959)

“About Face” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 27, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin discovers that Hey Boy is betrothed to a girl in China whom he has never met, arranged in a marriage contract made when he was nine years old. Now a go-between has arrived in San Francisco to finalize the arrangement, but Hey Boy has fallen for Miss Wong. Paladin must navigate the dangerous world of San Francisco's Chinatown and the powerful Gee-san-yap Tong, whose leader is the notorious hatchet man Bloody Pete, to resolve this impossible situation.

San Francisco, 1875; the Carlsen Hotel and Chinatown

Characters: Paladin, Hey Boy, Miss Wong, Nei Chen (go-between), Gikung (the girl's father), Bloody Pete (Gee Come Ho)

Listen for: Paladin's struggle with the clash between Chinese tradition and modern American life; the reveal that Hey Boy's betrothed family controls the most powerful tong in Chinatown; Miss Wong's surprising reaction to learning of the engagement.

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.