The Return of Doctor Thackeray: Have Gun, Will Travel (February 15, 1959)

“The Return of Doctor Thackeray” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 15, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin receives an urgent telegram from Dr. Phyllis Thackeray, a courageous physician he once knew, asking him to come to the Barton Ranch. He arrives to find her isolated and treating a smallpox patient, and she asks him to use his gun to keep the ranch hands from leaving until she can control the outbreak that could spread deadly disease across the territory.

The Barton Ranch near Stockton, California, 1875

Characters: Paladin, Dr. Phyllis Thackeray, Tom Barton, Mr. Barton, Fred, Nate

Listen for: Paladin's reunion with Dr. Thackeray and the escalating tension as the ranch hands return early, threatening to expose the smallpox outbreak and scatter across the region

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.