John Dunkel (1915 February 21- 2001, February 22) was a radio and television writer, most prolific in the television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. This collection of scripts and other papers spans from 1945-1988 and includes completed scripts, stories, drafts, notes, correspondence, proposals, and plaques documenting Dunkel's television script writing career.

John Dunkel was born February 21, 1915 in Springfield, Ohio and attended Wittenberg University in Springfield. Dunkel came to Southern California in the 1930s and worked as a play reader at the Pasadena Playhouse. In the 1940s, CBS Radio hired Dunkel as a story editor. From 1946 to 1949 Dunkel was the head writer at CBS Radio, in charge of all West Coast radio programming. During this time, many of the writers, directors, producers, and actors worked together on the same productions, which resulted in a sort stock company. Dunkel met Gunsmoke creator Norman Macdonnell through this working group. Macdonnell asked Dunkel to start writing for Gunsmoke, which was already a great success. Dunkel declared that he did not have the requisite knowledge to write for a Western, but he took the job anyway in 1955 and wrote twelve episodes from seasons three through seven.

23.9 Linear Feet 43 boxes, 1 rolled poster, 1 flat file folder.

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