The Hollywood movie “Trail Street”, set in Liberal, Kansas, will air on Monday 3/31 at 6pm on the Outlaw Channel (Channel 6.4 broadcast eastern Seward, Liberalites check Channel guide).

The movie was filmed in the late 1940’s, and featured legendary actors Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Ann Jeffries, and Gabby Hayes.

The movie surrounded Legendary lawman Bat Masterson (Randolph Scott) who is called to rural Kansas to defend farmers from ruthless cattlemen. Joining Masterson in his efforts to clean up a lawless town are a couple of locals: Masterson’s old chum Billy Burn and landowner Allen Harper (Robert Ryan). But ranch owner Logan Maury proves to be a more than formidable opponent. He’ll stop at nothing, including murder, to turn the farmers’ fields into grazing grounds for his cattle.

In 1947, RKO Radio Pictures surprised Liberalites and Seward County residents by producing the movie Trail Street. The story line was about struggling farmers and evil trail drovers being at odds over a failing spring wheat crop. Liberal, with a marshal, was losing all its farmers but Batt Masterson (Randolph Scott) arrived to restore peace. None of the movie was filmed in Liberal however it premiered in Liberal on March 26, 1947.
An estimated 30,000 people participated in celebrations in Liberal in connection with the world premier of Trail Street. Visitors came from all over Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and a large delegation came from Hollywood. A two-mile long parade, movie stars, and a barbecue highlighted the day.
In the long parade were 378 horses, either as mounts or pulling early-day vehicles. The movie stars in the parade were Madge Meredith, Nan Leslie, Bill House, Bill Williams, and Ray Whitley, with the ladies riding horses and the men riding in open cars.
Bands in the parade were from Garden City, Ensign, Plains, Hugoton, Satanta, Guymon, Hooker, Dalhart and Liberal. Floats, in the western theme, consisted of chuck wagons, pioneer mothers, the first printing press in Kansas (Panhandle A & M College entry), stage coaches, and even a prospector who followed up the parade.
In the modern float section were 36 new automobiles, tractors and a combine. Hugoton’s entry was a section of the latest oil well drilling equipment. Garden City and Guymon entered booster sections for their celebrations the following month, and Dalhart entered as the XIT city. Other cities also entered floats.
Probably the outstanding unit in the parade was the Will Rogers Range Riders from Amarillo, Texas. Eighty strong, they carried the flags of the United Nations in the parade. The Liberal Rotary Club served fourteen thousand sandwiches at the barbecue before they ran out of beef. Twenty truck loads of wood were used as fuel in roasting the eight head of beef used. Many of the restaurants ran out of food and closed early in the afternoon.
The Hollywood stars left by charted bus the next morning to make an extensive tour of Kansas to promote the movie Trail Street. The name of the street that runs parallel with the Rock Island Railroad, west from Kansas Avenue to Pershing Avenue, was changed from Railroad Street to Trail Street at the time of the celebration.