For the Birds: Have Gun, Will Travel (August 28, 1960)

“For the Birds” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 28, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin is approached by Mr. Higbee, a businessman hired to deliver two rare peacocks from Ceylon to a wealthy New York collector named Solomon Fisk Bibber. After initially refusing the job, Paladin agrees to escort the birds from the docks to the train station. During loading, the cage breaks open and the peacocks attack a dock worker, but Paladin manages to capture them safely.

San Francisco in 1875, the Carlton Hotel and the waterfront docks; later a train compartment bound for New York

Characters: Paladin, Hey Boy, Mr. Higbee, Solomon Fisk Bibber, Dock hand

Listen for: The distinctive cry of the peacocks, discussions of their rarity and value, and the chaos when the birds escape their cage at the docks

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.