The U.S. Marshal badge in this auction looks like most worn by The Law in the 1880s; when the West was wild, a slab of metal almost like this one adorned the chests of men like Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson. And, of course, U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, the man who kept the peace in Dodge City, Kansas, during all of Gunsmoke’s 635 (!) episodes. In fact, this is the very badge James Arness wore in the show’s opening shot; it says so right there in the handwritten letter from series prop master Clem Widrig, from whom Comisar acquired the significant symbol – not just of law and order in the Wild West, but of TV’s longest-running series until Bart Simpson had a cow, man. So beloved was the show, which ran from 1955 until 1975, that Arness was made an honorary U.S. Marshal, with the service honoring him upon his death in 2011 with a post that said, in part, “We tip our hats to a gentleman who truly got behind law and order in real life.”
Intelligent Collector