TV Westerns - Wagon Train Episode Pictures 10

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The Major Adams Story
Part 1 – (ep. #1.30)
4/23/1958
Part 2 – (ep. #1.31)
4/30/1958

Written by Frank W. Marshall
Directed by Mark Stevens

Executive Producer – Richard Lewis
Produced by Howard Christie

Virginia Grey as Ranie Webster
Douglas Kennedy as Col. Hillary
Irene Windust as Mrs. Hawks
Bob Bryant, Craig Duncan, Renny McEvoy, Ben Morris, Kay Stewart

This episode is important for it tells the story of how the Major and Bill (both from the same hometown) met Charlie. And it introduces Ranie Webster who is referenced in Beth Pearson, Ward Bond’s final episode.

When new passengers step off the stagecoach, Major Adams is astonished to find his former sweetheart, Ranie Webster among them. Also along is Colonel Hillary, a nasty piece of business who immediately shoots a man when it was unnecessary.

Ranie and the Major are excited to have found each other again. In flashback, the Major tells the story of their love affair and the War that seperated them. Ranie wouldn’t marry Seth Adams because he insisted on serving in the War and she feared he would be killed.

But off he went to War nonetheless. While in the Army, his old friend Sgt. Bill Hawks has taken a scruffy new recruit under his wing. One Pvt. Charles Wooster. Inasmuch as this new guy can’t shoot straight, the Major attempts to find what the soldier might do of use. Turns out, he can cook. Which is how Charlie became a cook for the Major.

The Major is wounded during the War and it is only his stubborn refusal that stops the doctors from amputating his legs. But as he is worried he might not walk, he doesn’t return any of Ranie’s letters. She assumes he is dead and marries another. After Charlie and Bill help the Major to recover, he learns Ranie is lost to him and heads West as a wagonmaster.

Part Two starts with a worried Major Adams. Colonel Hillary has vowed to try and take Ranie from the Major, by any means. And Ranie is oddly cool to a marriage proposal. However, unbeknowst to the Major, she is gravely ill.