Death Valley Days

''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. From 1952 to 1970, it became a syndicated television series, with reruns (updated with new narrations) continuing through August 1, 1975. The radio and television versions combined to make the show "one of the longest-running Western programs in broadcast history."French, Jack & Siegel, David S. (eds.) (2014). ''Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929–1967''. McFarland & Company, Inc. , p. 43–49.

The series was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company ( 20 Mule Team Borax, Boraxo) and hosted by Stanley Andrews ("The Old Ranger") (1952–1964), Ronald Reagan (1964–1965), Rosemary DeCamp (1965), Robert Taylor (1966–1969), and Dale Robertson (1969–1970). With the death of Dale Robertson in 2013, all former ''Death Valley Days'' hosts are now deceased. Hosting the series was Reagan's final work as an actor; he left the series to run in 1966 for Governor of California.

The television series was conceived by Pacific Coast Borax Company's advertising agency McCann-Erickson through company executive Dorothy McCann and Mitchell J. Hamilburg, who represented Gene Autry's Flying A Productions.

Hosts

Each of the 452 television episodes was introduced by a host. The longest-running was "The Old Ranger," a character played by veteran actor Stanley Andrews for 296 episodes.

Following the departure of Andrews, all subsequent hosts appeared under their own names. The first was Ronald Reagan, the former host of CBS's ''General Electric Theater'' and future governor and U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. Reagan acted in twenty-one episodes of ''Death Valley Days'', including the 1965 segment "A City Is Born." In that one, he played mining developer Charles Poston, the "Father of Arizona". In 1965, Rosemary DeCamp subbed for Ronald Reagan as host on Death Valley Days. FCC rules of the time compelled the removal of Reagan's scenes when the show was telecast in California, where he was running for governor.

Then the ''Death Valley Days'' hosting position went to Reagan's friend and fellow Hollywood actor, Robert Taylor. Like Reagan, Taylor appeared as a character in some of the shows, including "The Day All Marriages Were Cancelled" (1966), also based on the career of Charles Poston. He portrayed Horace Bell in another 1967 episode, "Major Horace Bell." That same year in the episode "Shanghai Kelly's Birthday Party," Taylor played James Kelly of San Francisco. After playing Porter Stockton in another 1967 episode "Halo for a Badman", he would portray Texas John Slaughter, a role most associated with Tom Tryon, in the 1968 ''Death Valley Days'' episode "A Short Cut through Tombstone."

Taylor became gravely ill in 1969, and after 69 episodes was succeeded by Dale Robertson, former star of two other western series, ''Tales of Wells Fargo'' and '' Iron Horse''. Robertson would serve as host and occasional actor for 23 episodes until production of new episodes ceased in 1970. In 1975, the show briefly returned in reruns, with singer Merle Haggard providing narration for some previously made episodes.

Production

Parts of the series were filmed in Kanab, Utah. Most episodes, though, were filmed in Los Angeles, California.

As the series continued on the air, episodes began to focus on nearly any portion of the American West, not just the Death Valley country. Most episodes portrayed events in the late 19th century, the heyday of the "Old West". Some, however, were set in much earlier times, especially the Spanish colonial era, and a few recounted stories from the early 20th century.

While the series followed the anthology format, with all new stories and characters in each episode, the series would utilize many character actors over its 18-year run; some of whom (such as Don Haggerty, John Pickard, Gregg Barton, Michael Vallon, James Seay, Guy Wilkerson and Roy Engel) would reappear over the entire run of the series.

For its first two years, the series was produced by Autry's Flying A Productions; then from 1954 to 1959, it was handled by McGowan Productions, also known for the '' Sky King'' series. Filmaster Productions Inc., which produced the first several seasons of ''Gunsmoke'' for CBS Television, took over production of the series after 1959. Madison Productions began to produce the series in 1965.

Although Rio Tinto, successor-in-interest to the series' original sponsor, U.S. Borax, still has a financial stake in this show because copyrights are still held by the United States Borax and Chemical Corporation, the major rights are now held by Element 5 Media, LLC for the broadcast rights and home video rights.

''Death Valley Days'' is by far the most successful syndicated television western series, the most successful television western ever in the half-hour format, and one of the longest-running and most successful of all scripted syndicated series. The end of the series in 1970, coupled with the end of ''Bonanza'' in 1973 and ''Gunsmoke'' in 1975, marked the demise of the traditional Western era in American television; by the mid-1970s, although western elements were still fairly common in modern series, such as '' Little House on the Prairie,'' pure western series were a thing of the past.

Borax

Under the ''Death Valley Days'' title, the program was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which during the program's run changed its name to U.S. Borax Company following a merger. Advertisements for the company's best-known products, 20 Mule Team Borax, a laundry additive, Borateem, a laundry detergent, and Boraxo, a powdered hand soap, were often done by the program's host. Death Valley was the scene of much of the company's borax mining operations. The "20-Mule Team Borax" consumer products division of U.S. Borax was eventually bought out by the Dial Corporation, which as of 2014, as a division of the German consumer products concern Henkel, still manufactures and markets them. Rio Tinto Group absorbed the U.S. Borax mining operations in 1968 and now owns the TV series.

Restoration

Paul Korver's company Cinelicious in Hollywood was part of the restoration of the TV series ''Death Valley Days'', restoring 458 half-hour film episodes. Cinelicious worked with U.S. Borax Film Archives and Rio Tinto Group in preserving the TV series. The 16mm, and 35 mm film of ''Death Valley Days'' was scanned at 4K resolution for film preservation on a Scanity starting in 2013.

Broadcast

During the latter years of the series, some new episodes were still being made while older episodes were already in syndication. In some markets, new episodes could even be running in competition with older ones. To make it easier for viewers to distinguish between old and new, some blocks of syndicated ''Death Valley Days'' episodes were shown under other series names and with different hosts. This was common practice at the time among syndicated series because it was easy to reshoot the hosting portions of an episode without affecting the main content. Alternate series titles and their respective hosts included ''Frontier Adventure'' (Dale Robertson), ''The Pioneers'' ( Will Rogers, Jr.), ''Trails West'' (Ray Milland), ''Western Star Theater'' (Rory Calhoun), and ''Call of the West'' ( John Payne). The last title was also often applied to the series' memorable, haunting theme music.

Rebroadcasts

Some episodes of the series were re-run with different sponsorship under the title ''The Pioneers''.

The restored TV series is currently broadcast on GRIT in the United States, with 2-4 episodes regularly airing on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Two episodes of ''Death Valley Days'' are shown weekdays beginning at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on the Encore Westerns Channel.

Home media

Shout! Factory (on behalf of Element 5 Media LLC and Rio Tinto), has released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1. Both seasons were released as Walmart exclusives. The third season was released on March 21, 2017 The thirteenth season was released on July 31, 2017, as a Walmart exclusive. Then, on Tuesday, October 3, 2017, the title "went wide" with a general retail release. The fourteenth season was released on January 2, 2018.

Awards and nominations

See also

* Born in East L.A. (song), for which the show is a plot point.

Episodes

Summary

Season 1 (1952-53)

Season 2 (1953-54)

Season 3 (1954-55)

Season 4 (1955-56)

Season 5 (1956-57)

Season 6 (1957-58)

Season 7 (1958-59)

Season 8 (1959-60)

Season 9 (1960-61)

Season 10 (1961-62)

Season 11 (1962-63)

Season 11 has 3 episodes produced in color, episodes 7, 8 and 9.

Season 12 (1963-64)

Season 12 has 10 episodes produced in color, episodes 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 20.

Season 13 (1964-65)

All episodes in color.

Season 14 (1965-66)

Season 15 (1966-67)

Season 16 (1967-68)

Season 17 (1968-69)

Season 18 (1969-70)

References

* Tim Brooks & Earle Marsh, '' The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows''

External links

''Death Valley Days'' Official Website
*

''Death Valley Days''
free downloads at the Internet Archive

''Death Valley Days'' at CVTA
{{Ronald Reagan

Death Valley
First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
1950s American anthology television series
1960s American anthology television series
1970s American anthology television series
1952 American television series debuts
1975 American television series endings
1950s Western (genre) television series
Black-and-white American television shows
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in Utah
Television shows filmed in Los Angeles
1960s Western (genre) television series
1970s Western (genre) television series
Ronald Reagan