The Silent Men
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The run
- Network
- Mutual
- Years active
- 1951–1952
- Surviving broadcasts
- 497
- Genre
- western
Wild Bill Hickok aired from 1 April 1951 until 31 December 1954 over the Mutual Broadcasting System on radio and then made the move to television from 1955 to 1958. The show was sponsored by Kellogg Cereals and aimed at the younger generation.
1954 · 11953 · 51952 · 41951 · 2
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 34 of 44Rough but complete · 10 of 44
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: OTRR_Wild_Bill_Hickock_Singles
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 4 years on the air. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1951
1952
1953
1954
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1951, in original transmission order.
- 1. First Show · 1 Apr 1951
- 2. The Voice of Echo Canyon · 11 Nov 1951
- 3. WBHickock ep052 The River Boat Killer · 13 Feb 1952
- 01
First Show
1 Apr 1951 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 1 April 1951. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 02
The Voice of Echo Canyon
11 Nov 1951 · 24 min
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 11 November 1951. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 03
WBHickock ep052 The River Boat Killer
13 Feb 1952 · 24 min
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
WBHickock ep069 Thunder and Lightning
11 Apr 1952 · 24 min
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 05
Wild Bill Hickok 52-09-10 (086) The Daring of Digby Dean
10 Sep 1952 · 25 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Wild_Bill_Hickock_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 06
WBHickock ep102 Madman of Moon Mountain
5 Nov 1952 · 24 min
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 07
WBHickock ep120 Two Gun Justice
7 Jan 1953 · 20 min
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
Wild Bill Hickok 53-02-23 (133) Timothy Dolan's Last Stand
23 Feb 1953 · 21 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Wild_Bill_Hickock_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
Same night on the air
11 Nov 1951
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 11 Nov 1951.
Also on Mutual
Mutual in 1951–1952
Other series the network carried while The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok was on the air.
Same seasons
western on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The adult western
Gunsmoke was sold as the first adult western: moral ambiguity, weather, silence. Serialised folk horror and long-form fiction inherited its patience.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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