In 1957 a new TV series debuted on CBS television, and it was called “Trackdown” and starred Robert Culp. It ended up airing for only two seasons, from October 4th of 1957 through September 23rd of 1959.
In total there were 71 different episodes. Of those 71 episodes, one in particular has garnered a lot of attention over the past decade. It was the 30th episode of the first season, and it aired on May 9th of 1958.
The episode concerned a conman named Walter Trump, who attempted to scam a town out of their hard-earned cash by saying that a meteor storm would destroy the town that evening, and only he could save them. He would do this by building a wall. The name of the episode was “The End of the World.”
If you haven’t seen that episode before, I am now going to play it in-full, but I also added the subtitles so that you can not only understand what’s being said, but get the full impact of all the references to Trump.
It is truly amazing when we see and hear the comparisons to Walter Trump from 1958, and the Donald Trump of today. Here’s that episode right now.
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
[DRUM BANGING]
Dear friends!
Come forward, friends.
Step forward.
I bring you a message.
A message few of you will be able to believe.
A message of great importance.
A message I alone was able to read
in the fires of the universe.
But be not afraid, my friends. I also bring you the means with which to save yourselves.
Save us from what?
From the end of the world, friend.
Which I don’t expect you to believe.
But the rest of you, those who want to be alive tomorrow morning, I will tell you tonight.
Remember that. Bring your friends here.
I’ll tell you tonight so that you will be able to prepare.
What are you selling mister, snake oil?
The world will come to a flaming end at midnight tonight.
Without my help and knowledge every one of you will be dead.
He’s gone.
[MUSIC]
Trackdown!
Starring Robert Culp
You oughta keep riding, mister.
Why?
Just oughta, that’s all.
Comes midnight tonight this whole town is going to be dust. Nothing but rocks and dust.
Go ahead and laugh. Everybody else is. Everybody.
Good morning.
Cup of coffee, please.
Right away.
There you are. Anything else?
No, thank you.
Staying long?
Well, no, I just a riding through.
Mm-hmm … law?
Yeah.
Uh, so tell me something … um, What’s going on in this town anyway?
Did your mayor die or what?
World’s coming to an end.
How’s that?
Midnight tonight the whole caboodle is going to burn up.
Oh.
Where did you get that?
Fella back there.
What, the one with the hat on?
Mm-mm, other one.
He says the world is going to come to an end?
Midnight tonight.
Where is he from?
Drove in this morning, wagon out front.
Mm-hm.
He’s got a name?
Trump.
I bet it fits. Anybody in town know him?
Mm-mm.
But they’re all willing to believe what he said?
They’re not going to stop up their ears.
He’s supposed to give us the whole story tonight.
Well, I don’t believe I’ll wait till then, excuse me.
The folks back there think differently.
Well, do they know what’s going to happen?
Oh, some of them. They’ve been told.
Yes sir, good morning.
Good morning.
Well, we got a Ranger with us. How are you?
I’m Sheriff Farrow.
Hoby Gilman.
Something special bring you down here?
No, I’m on my way back to Porter.
Oh, I heard they sent for somebody.
Too bad about the sheriff down there.
Oh, something happen to him?
He died.
Well, would you care to join us, Mr uh … Gilman?
Yes, that’s right.
You planning to remain in town for long?
Well, I understand I have until midnight.
Then you heard?
Yeah, I heard … ah, your name is Trump?
Dr Walter Trump, D.U., M.C., S.S.R.
Well, that’s a whole bunch of letters.
Just a few of the degrees that have been conferred on me.
Would you mind, ah … to run them through again for me?
DU is Doctor of the Universe. MC, Master of Cometry.
SSR, Student of Stellar Reactions.
Well, how do you figure that the world is going to end?
Well, that’s really quite simple.
According to my calculations, tonight November 14th, the Earth will either collide with or come into close proximity to a comet.
In any event, the outcome will be disaster.
A cosmic explosion will end all.
But the end may come by other means.
How do you see it?
By means of this.
Uncounted millions of these.
This is a meteorite. Iron ore from outer space.
They will rain on the earth like pepper on an egg.
Each one red hot, traveling at speeds in excess
of millions of miles an hour.
Molded by their passage into unstoppable bullets.
But you can stop them, huh?
I can, sir, and I will.
You see, they are drawn to the earth by a
force that we call gravity.
I have discovered how to repel that force.
By doing that I can save this town.
Well, how?
By means of a force repeller.
You sell these force repellers?
You have a very suspicious mind, sir.
[SLAMS ROCK ON TABLE]
Alright, sheriff, how long you going to put up with this?
What do you mean?
How long you gonna let this conman walk around town?
Be careful, son, I can sue you.
How about it, Sheriff?
When are you going to put the lid on?
What for?
Well, stealing is stealing, whether you do it with a gun or a mouth full of mealy words.
I don’t intend to sit here and be insulted, Sheriff.
If your people don’t want my help I can go elsewhere.
Wait a minute, Mr Trump, he don’t talk for the rest of us.
Can you prove he’s wrong?
Well, no not right now, but if you give me some time …
Well, that’s something we don’t have very much of.
According to him!
Yeah, well, let me tell you something, right now it’s a lot safer to go his way than it is yours.
Oh, how did you get to be Sheriff?
Look, this is not a suggestion, it’s an order. Move on.
[NARRATOR] Hoby didn’t know what Trump’s pitch was going to be.
He was sure of one thing: It was going to cost the people of Talpa.
Since the sheriff wouldn’t stop Trump,
Hoby had to find somebody who would.
Sheriff Chet Farrow was the gun law in Talpa
and Judge Clement was the book law.
It was to the judge that Ranger Gilman now turned.
[KNOCKING]
Yes, sir?
Judge Clement?
That’s right.
My name is Hoby Gilman. I’d like to talk to you.
Oh. Come on in.
Sit down.
Can I get you anything?
No, thank you, sir.
You here about Trump?
Yes sir. What are you going to do about him?
What do you want me to do?
Stop him.
From what?
From taking the town.
Can you prove that that’s what he has in mind?
Well, it’s obvious.
But can you prove it?
In order to arrest him the sheriff has to have a charge,
and Trump hasn’t given him a thing to go on.
What side are you on?
The law.
Oh, I know how you feel, maybe I agree with you, but the law is the law it’s got to be kept.
What if I take him?
On what charge?
Fraud.
Don’t you see, he’s not exactly guilty of fraud.
Well, what about the meteors and the comet and all what not?
You might not like it Mr Gilman, but he’s right.
There could be a meteor rain tonight. The Leonids are due.
The what?
The Leonids. It’s a shower of meteors.
There’s a book about it around you someplace if you want to look at it.
No. thank you, sir. I’ll take your word for it but…
Look here, son. I live here. I know these people pretty well.
And right now there’s nothing in the world could change their minds,
and anybody who tries to could end up getting hurt.
They’re not going to listen.
Well, what if he starts a panic? It could happen.
Well, sure … you might as well try to spit out a forest fire.
Well, there’s got to be some way to stop him.
Well, if there is I don’t know it.
Ah, it’s a funny thing.
Sir?
When we were kids we were all afraid of the dark, and we grew up and we weren’t afraid anymore, but …
it’s funny how a big lie can make us all kids again.
[NARRATOR] Hoby had checked the town, the people were ready to believe.
Like sheep, they ran toward the slaughterhouse,
and waiting for them was the high priest of fraud.
I am the only one. Just me!
I can build a wall around your homes that nothing will penetrate.
What do we do? How do we save ourselves?
You ask how do you build that wall? You ask and I’m here to tell you.
This is your saving. This is your wall!
You mean that thing is going to save a whole town?
Don’t laugh, friend. Please don’t laugh.
It’s the markings.
It’s the magnetic force that is called up by these markings that will care for your loved ones.
How about a cattle, you got something for them?
They have not been forgotten.
This is a very rare metal, friends.
Mined by ancient Indian women in the heights of the Andes Mountains.
It’s in Peru, South America.
Then it’s taken to the secret smelters of old Montezuma, where it’s refined and compounded until it becomes magnetium, the embryonic source of the universe.
The force repeller is for you and this little disc by its mere presence we’ll care for your animals.
How can we get one of those?
I understand your anxiety, my friend. The thought of death falling from above is not a pleasant one.
You’re a liar, Trump!
There’s not going to be any rain of fire.
Can you deny the meteorites will come?
Can you deny the comet?
Well, it’s not going to happen the way you say it is.
If it were not for my magnetium, friends,
those meteorites would be bombarding us this very instant!
Look!
Look up there! You can see ’em!
By the billions you can see ’em!
There, I saw one!
There’s another one! They’re all over the place!
The man is a fake.
There’s nothing up there. You’re seeing what you want to see!
There’s nothing up there!
One moment.
I hoped to convince you without this. That man now has made it impossible.
This is no longer under my protection!
It was my plan to give you the force repellers free,
but now that one of you has doubted me, there will be a charge.
uh, how much, Mr Trump?
$50 a piece!
He ain’t one of us. We don’t even know him. Please!
It’s a lot of money, Trump.
It’ll go up with every word.
Well, where are your meteors?
They will come.
Oh, maybe you’re right, but we could uh …
we could die old age standing around waiting for ’em.
$75!
Why don’t you keep your mouth shut, mister?
Nothing is going to happen.
The man is a fake, a phony. Can’t you see that?
He hasn’t got any control of meteorites or anything else!
[EXPLOSION]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
I don’t have very many, folks, and they’re $75 each.
I haven’t got $75.
Don’t, don’t waste your money. It’s a fake, can’t you see that?
Haven’t you said enough already, mister?
Now get out of here before somebody kills ya!
Here give me one of those!
[NARRATOR] The price was high.
For many of the people of the town it was out of all reason,
and so they tried to find another way.
Pieces of silver and furniture carried from homes in the east were uncovered.
Vessels of family pride were polished to be offered in exchange for the force repellers.
Take it easy, folks.
Mister, I ain’t got the money. Will you take this? It’s worth more than 75.
No, no just hard cash, that junk’s no good to me. There you go.
Please, mister, please!
No sir, you get the Hard Cash you get the force repeller.
Get out of the way, would you sir?
There you go.
The bank! There’s money in the bank!
[NARRATOR] Sheriff Farrow had seen mob panic before
and always he’d been able to stay out of its way.
He didn’t intend this time to be any different. He stood quietly and watched the mob grind along the street.
He couldn’t help but think that Trump had been right.
Talpa wouldn’t be standing in the morning.
Sheriff!
You still here?
They’re breaking into the bank!
What do you want me to do about it?
Well, I don’t know but you can try something.
Look, mister … maybe you’re a hero. I’m not.
All right, Farrow, take off the badge.
Are you telling me what to do?
No, not me, the state of Texas.
[GUNSHOT]
Now I’m going to give you 10 seconds to clear this
room or I’m going to start shooting.
We need the money in there!
You’re not going to get it.
We got our families to think about.
Tomorrow morning they won’t even look at you,
they’ll be too ashamed.
Get the banker, he can open the safe!
We can gain a lot of time this way
if he can get it open before he gets here.
[MUSIC]
[CROWD NOISE]
Here we go.
Told you to stay out of it.
Yeah, I couldn’t shoot at him and they wouldn’t buy the bluff.
I just got careless.
Trump’s sure having his way.
Most the people in town have got those umbrellas
and he’s still got 20 minutes till midnight.
And when the town doesn’t burn down, who’s going to get the credit?
[NARRATOR] They had no way of knowing it,
but Trump didn’t want the credit.
He had what he did want: the town’s money and a fresh horse.
Hoby had been ready to give up.
If Talpa didn’t want his help he wasn’t going to stand against it.
But with the judge’s words pushing at him, the ranger decided
to have one more try at stopping the entire affair.
In order to do it, he had to find the conman before he left town.
Aren’t you going to stay for the fireworks?
Huh?
Looks like you’re going to go before everything’s done.
I’ve done all I can for Talpa. Figure it’s time for me to be moving on.
Well, I think you ought to wait.
Well, you and I disagree.
You’re under arrest, Trump.
What charge?
Well, you write at anyway you like. Grand theft, fraud,
I think a jury will find it stealing.
How you expect to prove it?
You and I are going to be right here after midnight.
Ranger …
there must be a couple few things that you don’t have
because maybe they’re a little too expensive.
I suppose I was to give you … say a quarter of this …
… be just about $1,250.
Huh?
I’ll go up to half! 2,500.
A man could live almighty good on $2,500 anywhere in the country.
2500 … just for getting here say 15 minutes too late.
Help yourself.
I’ll take it all, Trump.
Too bad.
You and me pulling opposite sides of that rope.
We could’ve worked good together.
You’re going to go back and tell ’em, Trump.
What?
You’re going to go back and tell ’em it’s a fake.
That those parasols wouldn’t keep them dry in a heavy dew.
Oh, not me.
You did a good job working them up into this mood,
now let’s see you talk your way out of it.
Give me a break, Ranger.
Like the one you gave the town?
Move.
Stand right there, Ranger.
Farrow! I knew you’d get me out of this.
Sure, that’s why you were leaving without telling me.
Well, you don’t believe that.
I was on my way when the ranger stopped me.
Oh, you were, huh?
You don’t think I’d lie, do you?
You don’t want an answer to that.
No, I don’t need you now.
Every minute you’re alive my neck’s in trouble.
Hand over the saddlebag.
I’ll take it.
[GUNSHOT]
Hold on, Ranger! Now it’s just you and me, but
we’ll tell them we couldn’t find the money! I know where it is!
I know you and Trump were in it together!
But you can’t prove a thing.
Come on.
Where are you taking me?
Back to Trump’s wagon. You’re going to tell the truth!
They’ll kill me.
Sure, won’t make much difference, will it?
Huh?
Well. the world’s going to come to an end in 5 minutes.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[NARRATOR] Hoby took the sheriff back to the mob.
He confessed his part in the fraud. There was no way he could deny it.
Hoby explained how Trump had set fire to the wagon.
A piece of phosphorus that ignited in the temperature of the air.
They wanted to believe Gilman, but they still weren’t over the hump.
He had to find one crack In their fear.
One place to start breaking through.
Until the crowd knew that everything Trump had said
was a lie, there was no hope for Talpa.
The confidence man would always get the credit for saving the town.
As long as the parasols were up Trump was still believed.
It’s after 12! Look at that!
Well, you did it, Hoby. I didn’t think you would.
It’s still standing.
You know … watching you talk, looking at them,
it was just one thing that bothered me. If you’d have been wrong, I didn’t have a parasol!
[CLOSING MUSIC]