"The Colter Craven Story" (spelled as The Coulter Craven Story in the episode but with the first name somehow winding up more commonly spelled as "Colter" in countless publications and references) is the November 23, 1960 black-and-white episode of the American television western series, Wagon Train, which had an eight-season run from 1957 to 1965. Presented as the 9th installment of the hour-long program's 4th season, it is the third of four episodes of various television series directed by filmmaker John Ford, the only four-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Director.
Cast with a collection of actors who repeatedly appeared in Ford's films and were known as the John Ford Stock Company, "The Colter Craven Story" was done as a favor to Wagon Train star Ward Bond, who played supporting roles in 24 Ford films (and in one TV episode, "Rookie of the Year"). Filmed in September 1960, it was broadcast 18 days after Bond's sudden death from a heart attack on November 5.
Production notes
Ford's previous TV episode, "Rookie of the Year", a December 1955 half-hour installment of the 1955–56 anthology series Screen Directors Playhouse, represents John Wayne's sole starring acting role on television, but Wayne made cameo appearances in "The Colter Craven Story" (as one of the key Union Army generals in the Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman) and, two years later, in Ford's final TV episode, "Flashing Spikes", an October 1962 hour-long entry from another anthology, Alcoa Premiere, which aired from 1961 to 1963. The name seen in last place among the actors listed in the end credits of both episodes is "Michael Morris", a variation upon Marion Michael Morrison, which is the most frequently indicated form of Wayne's birth name.
The central plotline of "Rookie of the Year" concerns a baseball player (portrayed by Ward Bond) who, decades earlier, was accused of throwing a game, which is also the key theme in "Flashing Spikes", in which the disgraced middle-aged former player is portrayed by James Stewart, with Wayne playing a cigar-chewing Marine sergeant umpiring a soldiers' baseball game on the sidelines of the Korean War, whose recognizable voice and figure, rather than his face (partially obscured by a baseball cap), provides the instant identification. The honorable sports reporter played by Wayne in "Rookie of the Year" decides against exposing Bond as the father of a talented young "rookie" player portrayed by Wayne's 16-year-old actor son, Pat Wayne who, seven years later (listed by his most frequent billing, Patrick Wayne), again portrays a similarly-positioned young player in "Flashing Spikes", where the snide, baseball-hating opportunist columnist at the opposite end of morality from John Wayne's character in "Rookie of the Year", is portrayed by "Colter Craven" himself, Carleton Young who, between 1958 and 1964, appeared in 5 John Ford films (The Last Hurrah, The Horse Soldiers, Sergeant Rutledge, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Cheyenne Autumn). All three TV episodes also feature another member of the Stock Company, Willis Bouchey, who was in 9 Ford theatrical features between 1955 and 1964.