The West Old & New Vol. III Issue IV April 2014 | Page 6

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Matt Dillon is a fictional character featured on both the radio and television versions of Gunsmoke. He serves as the U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, who
works to preserve law and order in the western frontier of the 1870s.
The character was created by writer John Meston, who envisioned him as a man
"...whose hair is probably red, if he's got any left. He'd be handsomer than he is if
he had better manners but life and his enemies have left him looking a little beat
up, and I suppose having seen his mother (back about 1840) trying to take a bath
in a wooden washtub without fully undressing left his soul a little warped. Anyway, there'd have to be something wrong with him or he wouldn't have hired on
as a United States Marshal in the heyday of Dodge City, Kansas." Notwithstanding Meston's original vision, the character evolved considerably during Gunsmoke's nine-year run on CBS Radio and its 20-year run on CBS Television.
On the radio series (which ran from 1952 until 1961), Matt was portrayed by
William Conrad, whose deep and resonant voice helped to project a larger than
life presence. In the opening of most radio episodes, the announcer would describe the show as "...the story of the violence that moved west with young
America, and the story of a man who moved with it." Matt would take over, saying, "I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal -- the first man they look
for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful . . . and a little lonely." Matt provided bits of narration for many of the radio episodes, usually to help set the scene
for the listener or to provide observations that assisted with character development. In the radio series, Matt often struggled with the need to utilize violence in order to fulfill hi ́