What happens
In 1850s California, Buck Wyatt, a hard-drinking guide, agrees to lead a wagon train of women from Chicago to Whitman's Valley, where Roy Whitman is building a settlement and needs wives for the men who funded it. Buck resists the job at first, but a generous fee brings him around, and he sets out to recruit the women. In Chicago, the applicants crowd the hall, and Buck sizes them up with a stern, suspicious eye. Among those signing on are Rose Myers, a schoolteacher, and Sherry and Laurie, who hope to start new lives. Buck makes clear he expects discipline on the trail, and the journey west begins with hard work and rough conditions. This is the Lux Radio Theatre production of Westward the Women, broadcast on December 29, 1952, starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel.
Chicago and then the overland trail west from Missouri toward California, around 1850.
Characters: Buck Wyatt, Roy Whitman, Rose Myers, Sherry, Laurie, Patience, Sidney Cutter, Riley
Listen for: Buck Wyatt's gruff insistence that the women work hard and obey him on the trail, and the first signs of tension among the travelers.
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.