Miss Kitty, from Gunsmoke! She is outspoken, classy, and has a steely glare that quailed drunken cowhands and injured marshalls, alike. The show ran so long that she aged naturally within the series.
Notable items: - Miss Kitty is a single woman who operates her own business. This was comonplace in the American West, but rare in radio & television in the 1950s-1970s. (The show aired in 55 and ran 20 years on TV. However, it was a popular radio show from 1952-1961. Yes, it aired for 6 years on CBS radio at the same time new episodes were airing on CBS TV.)
- While most (but not all) saloons of the period were also brothels, she maintained a "decesnt establishment," and woe to him that laid an unwelcome hand on one of her girls.
- Her mildly flirtatious, openly caring, relationship with Marshall Dillon. Although it was touted as a deep friendship, the under-current of do-they-or-don't-they (at a time when TV censors didn't allow married couples to be seen in the same bed unless one prson had a foot was on the floor) should have been scandalous. Instead, Miss Kitty was probably the only saloon-keeper in television that was held up as a role-model.
MIss Kitty on Gunsmoke!
Notable items:
- Miss Kitty is a single woman who operates her own business. This was comonplace in the American West, but rare in radio & television in the 1950s-1970s. (The show aired in 55 and ran 20 years on TV. However, it was a popular radio show from 1952-1961. Yes, it aired for 6 years on CBS radio at the same time new episodes were airing on CBS TV.)
- While most (but not all) saloons of the period were also brothels, she maintained a "decesnt establishment," and woe to him that laid an unwelcome hand on one of her girls.
- Her mildly flirtatious, openly caring, relationship with Marshall Dillon. Although it was touted as a deep friendship, the under-current of do-they-or-don't-they (at a time when TV censors didn't allow married couples to be seen in the same bed unless one prson had a foot was on the floor) should have been scandalous. Instead, Miss Kitty was probably the only saloon-keeper in television that was held up as a role-model.