Hotel de Paree is a Western television series starring Earl Holliman that aired thirty-three episodes on the CBS Friday evening from October 2, 1959, until September 23, 1960, under the alternate sponsorship of the Liggett & Myers company (L&M cigarettes) and Kellogg's.

Format

Set in the 1870s, the show starred Holliman as Sundance, a gunfighter just released after 17 years in prison. In the first episode, he is in Georgetown, Colorado, where he kills the town villain and is then urged by the citizens to become the marshal. He accepts the job and also becomes a part owner of the Hotel de Paree, owned by two French women, Annette Deveraux, played by Jeanette Nolan, and her niece, Monique (Judi Meredith), relatives of the man whom he had earlier killed. Sundance wore a string of polished silver dollars in the band of his black Stetson, which often blinded his adversaries. During the run of the series, Sundance dealt with assorted antagonists and maintained flirtations with both of the Deveraux women. Sundance also befriended a local shopkeeper, Aaron Donoger, played by veteran Western performer Strother Martin. Guest stars included Warren Oates.

Related publications

Paperback novel

In 1959, Gold Medal Books published Sundance by Richard Telfair, an original novel based on the series. An article in The New York Times said, "The book is cobbled together in much the same lackadaisical fashion as other Telfair Westerns."

Comic book

A single issue featuring an original story written by Gaylord Du Bois appeared in Dell's Four Color series (#1126).

Episode list

Production

Milton Krims, Stanley Rubin, and Sam Rolfe were the producers. The program was filmed at CBS Studio Center. On the evening of the series debut broadcast, October 2, 1959, star Earl Holliman also appeared an hour later in the premiere episode of The Twilight Zone, "Where Is Everybody?", which also aired on CBS. Its competition included The Man from Blackhawk on ABC and The Bell Telephone Hour on NBC. The program was broadcast in black-and-white on Fridays from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time. It replaced Trackdown, and it was replaced by Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.