"Wagon Train" was a one-hour television series which ran on the NBC and ABC television networks from 1957 to 1965. It was set in the period 1870 to 1890 and was about a wagon train going from Missouri to California and wandering all over the American West during its eight year run. This episode is titled "The Silver Lady" and was first broadcast on April 25, 1965. It was filmed as a pilot episode for an unsold series about Tombstone, Arizona and its famous 1880's lawmen the Earp brothers Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan along with gambler and gunman Doc Holliday. The program had a prologue inserted and was broadcast as a "Wagon Train" episode.

A woman's body is found encased in melted silver dollars and she is buried in this "casket." How she got into this situation is a mystery solved by the Earp brothers. Silver dollars appear as part of the "coffin".

Two regular members of the "Wagon Train" party, Cooper Smith and Bill Hawks, stop to rest their horses.

Bill points an old wagon wheel.

Cooper proceeds to tell the story of a stagecoach robbery which occured on that spot and it's unusual consequences. A stagecoach is carrying one woman passenger and $20,000 in silver dollars being sent from the Bank of Tucson to a mine office in Tombstone, Arizona.

The coins are in bags and boxes. Two men begin chasing the stagecoach on horseback in a robbery attempt, the driver is killed, and the assistant, Morgan Earp, jumps off. The coach then rolls down a cliff with the woman trapped inside. As the coach is rolling the bags of coins begin spilling their contents. The coach kerosine lamp ignites and burns up the coach. The coach stops rolling and comes to a rest. A woman's hand is shown in a pile of dollars.

The coins are imitation or prop coins. Morgan Earp manages to get to Tombstone and informs his brothers Wyatt and Virgil, the sheriff, about the robbery. A cart brings in the woman's body encased in melted silver dollars.

A closer look at the melted silver.

The woman is believed to be Anne Reed, a popular singer and celebrity, who was coming to Tombstone to give a special performance paid for by Charlie Loughlin, a wealthy mine owner and fan of Miss Reed. Anne Reed is buried in the local church yard.

The theater has an advertising poster showing Anne Reed.

The very much alive Anne Reed then arrives on the next stagecoach.

She tells the Earps that a young girl asked for her ticket because she had a job in Tombstone. The manager of the saloon explains that the girl was going to work at the saloon. It is implied that she would also be selling her services.

Doc Holliday, the infamous gunfighter, gambler, and dentist, is at the table on the left. Doc removes his bet coin.

Piles of silver dollars showing the Morgan design reverse appear. The Morgan silver dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921. No one interferes with this breach of gambling ethics. Doc holds up his silver dollar showing the Morgan design obverse.

The coin is well used and circulated.

Silver, 38 mm, 26.73 gm
Morgan silver dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921.
They are named after their designer, George T. Morgan.

Anne Reed is able to give her performance.

The Earps and the villainous Clantons are both in attendance. The Earps wonder about the stagecoach robbery and whether the target was the money or Anne Reed. One of the robbers is arrested and later in the jail, someone enters and kills him. The next day the Earps discover that Ed Prentiss, one of the Clanton gang members, may have been the other robber.

They ride out to the Clanton ranch to find Ed Prentiss.

Both sides are expecting a gun battle but Old Man Clanton, the leader of the Clantons, orders Ed to go with the Earps as the Clantons don't believe in killing women.

Ed confesses that he set up the robbery to kill Anne Reed who was his wife and had deserted him two years ago. The "Silver Lady" is moved from the respectable church cemetery to the lower class "Boot Hill" cemetery.

Robert Fuller as Cooper Smith
Terry Wilson as Bill Hawks
Vera Miles as Anne Reed
Arthur O'Connell as Charlie Loughlin
Don Collier as Wyatt Earp
Don Galloway as Virgil Earp
Michael Burns as Morgan Earp
Henry Silva as Doc Holliday
Denver Pyle as Old Man Clanton
Harry Carey Jr. as Walt Thompson
Kevin Hagen as Ed Prentiss
Monica Lewis as Kate
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Writers: Dick Nelson