Wagon Train/The C.L. Harding Story

The C.L. Harding Story
Season 3, Episode 3
Airdate	October 14, 1959
Teleplay by	Jean Holloway
Story by	Howard Christie and Jean Holloway
Directed by	Herschel Daugherty
Produced by	Howard Christie
Stream
← 3x02 The Greenhorn Story	3x04 → The Estaban Zamora Story
Wagon Train — Season Three

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

The C.L. Harding Story is the third episode of the third season of Wagon Train, and the eightieth episode overall.

Starring: Ward Bond (Major Seth Adams), Robert Horton (Flint McCullough) (credit only)

Guest Star: Claire Trevor (C.L. Harding)

with Frank McGrath (Charlie Wooster), Terry Wilson (Bill Hawks), Johnny Cash (Hoag), Amzie Strickland (Arletta), Theodore Newton (Buzz), John Holland (Ellington)

Plot Overview

Major Adams agrees to take a reporter, C.L. Harding, with the wagon train to Fort Laramie. When the reporter arrives, Adams is surprised and unhappy to learn the reporter is a woman, Celia Lucinda Harding. He tries to back out but her editor has no part of Adams' reluctance to take Harding along, leaving Adams with no choice but to take along Harding and her secretary Arletta. Harding is a new independent woman whose position usually riles the Major but they develop a love/hate, with the love mostly hidden. From the start, Harding causes trouble for the wagon train to Major Adams' chagrin and nearly jeopardizes the train's safety, as well as her own, when her curiosity about the customs of an Indian tribe she observes attracts the tribe's attention and Major Adams is forced to point out certain realities about traveling on a wagon train to Harding, who stubbornly refuses to listen.

When a new judge has to be elected on the train, Harding demands that Major Adams allow the women to vote as well, which he vehemently opposes on the basis of the Constitution (which did not grant the vote to women at the time). She begins making trouble on the wagon train as she organizes the women plus Wooster into a strike. No cooking, mending, or affection for the men until the women are allowed to vote. Things become so bad for the men that they plead with Major Adams to allow the women to vote. After a women's demonstration stampedes the horses and they are found, Harding and the Major try to mend their differences. As they do so, Arletta asks the Major if they are in Wyoming. After Adams confirms they are in Wyoming, Arletta informs him and Harding that Wyoming has passed women's suffrage so the women can vote. After enduring a hard journey and following an Indian attack on the wagon train later on, Harding comes to realize that Major Adams was right about what he said about traveling on a wagon train. As the train reaches Fort Laramie, Harding and Major Adams finally make peace and acknowledge their love.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Elements of this episode, including Harding's antagonistic role and the point where she leads the women of the wagon train on a strike until they are allowed to vote on a new judge for the wagon train, are taken from the classic Greek play Lysistrata

Music

• "Songs of the Trail" - sung by Johnny Cash