The Nancy Palmer Story (7 Mar. 1961)

A married couple use the wife's innocent face and winning way with children to gain the trust of their companions on the wagon train so that they won't be suspected when the husband pulls off a bank robbery nearby.

Director:

John English

Writers:

Theodore Ferro, Mathilda Ferro

Stars:

Ward Bond, Robert Horton, Audrey Meadows

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Ward Bond	...	Major Seth Adams (credit only)
Robert Horton	...	Flint McCullough
Audrey Meadows	...	Nancy Palmer
Jack Cassidy	...	Dan Palmer
Frank McGrath	...	Charlie Wooster
Terry Wilson	...	Bill Hawks
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Lem Salters (as Elisha Cook)
Med Flory	...	Sheriff Gile
Bern Hoffman	...	MacGregor
Harry Lauter	...	Will Davidson
Jeanne Bates	...	Mrs. MacGregor
Vivi Janiss	...	Madge Salters

Storyline

Nancy and Dan Palmer are a married couple from the south. While Dan is standoffish, Nancy is adored by the children on the train due to her story telling and love for them. Her stories include her own history of her brothers and fathers being lost in the war and her family life and estate destroyed. At a stop they volunteer to tend the children while the adults attend a dance in town. Dan sneaks off and robs the local bank of $20,000. A posse stops the train and searches it but Nancy hides the money within the wraps of a baby she is holding for a couple. When Hawks learns a child found a $100 bill in the Palmer wagon, there are mild suspicions. The Palmers decide to steal two horses and water and cross the desert while the train goes north to find water. Flint and another man track the Palmers finding her alive but Dan dead due to thirst. When they return, the adults scorn her but the children still see the same Nancy Palmer.

---

Plot Keywords:

character name in title

---

Genres:

Drama | Western

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1961 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Revue Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revue Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

The Story Woman

For those of you who only know Audrey Meadows as the long suffering wife of Jackie Gleason on the Honeymooners, this episode of Wagon Train will be something of an eye opener. Meadows plays the title role in The Nancy Palmer Story and she's a long suffering wife of a different sort.

Meadows is married to Jack Cassidy and both have seen much better days before the Civil War as Southerners. She was the daughter of a Confederate general killed at Shiloh and Cassidy was your typical southern dandy, at home in the drawing room of many plantations.

Meadows has made herself a beloved figure on the Wagon Train, always ready and eager for babysitting duties, she's most popular among the children on the train. Cassidy holds himself quite a bit above the rest of the rabble on the train. He nurses a bitterness about his come down in life and plans to do something about it.

This was one of those episodes which was clearly meant for Ward Bond in which Horton simply took his lines. There was a reference to Flint McCullough having been at Shiloh. Followers of the series know that Major Adams was the one at Shiloh and he sustained a serious wound there. But in another couple of episodes the Wagon Train got its new wagon master.

For a different Audrey Meadows, fans of her's should definitely check out The Nancy Palmer Story.