SMILEY BURNETTE
March 18th, 1911 -- February 16th, 1967

Above: Smiley Burnette as Frog Millhouse in one of his many films with Gene Autry.

Along with George "Gabby" Hayes, the chubby, pleasantly vacant-looking Smiley Burnette was the only B-western sidekick to regularly rank in the Top Ten Western Box Office Attractions poll. And, since Gabby didn't do any sidekick roles in serials while Smiley did, there's no question as to who should kick off the Serial Sidekick section. Burnette was hugely popular in his day, especially with rural audiences, and still maintains many fans among the serial and B-western fraternity. Some cliffhanger fans tend to debunk the rotund comic as "lowbrow" and "unfunny" but I've always felt that these folks needed to loosen up and learn to enjoy good old fashioned slapstick comedy--a brand of comedy at which there was no more skilled hand than Lester Alvin "Smiley" Burnette.

Born in Summum, Illinois, the son of a minister, Smiley started learning to be a musician in his spare time while in high school, and by the time of his graduation, landed a job at a local radio station where he performed everything from animal imitations to solos to one-man-band routines, all of which would find their way into many of his later comic musical pieces in his Westerns with Gene Autry. Speaking of Autry, it was through him that Smiley entered movies: Gene, at the time a radio performer himself, was giving a show in Summum, "discovered" Burnette, and signed him as one of his group, which was the start of a lifetime friendship between the two men. When Nat Levine, head of Mascot Pictures' serial and B-western department, decided to capitalize on Autry's radio fame and sign him to do movies. Gene brought Smiley with him to Hollywood, and the two made their screen debut in IN OLD SANTA FE in 1934, a Ken Maynard B-western, in which they each were allowed to perform some musical interludes. They appeared again with Maynard the same year in MYSTERY MOUNTAIN, a twelve chapter Western cliffhanger in which Smiley played a small role as an unnamed wagon driver. The next year, Autry and Burnette had their first full-fledged teaming as hero and sidekick in the wildly imaginative sci-fi/Western serial PHANTOM EMPIRE. The serial was written expressly for Autry; he was cast as a rancher and radio singer who discovered Murania, a lost underground civilization beneath his ranch. Gene found his hands full trying to prevent the Muranians from conquering the surface world, rounding up rustlers above ground, and still trying to maintain his radio contract by making a daily broadcast regardless of his predicament. Smiley was Oscar, Gene's loyal if not always efficient pal, who, despite his bumbling propensities, even ventured into Murania at one point to rescue Gene and his young friends Frankie and Betsy Baxter (Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross, Mascot's popular child stars). PHANTOM EMPIRE gave Smiley a chance to develop his trademark comic character, and, though he would never play anyone named Oscar again, his basic persona from PHANTOM EMPIRE had a great influence on the rest of Burnette's career.

Above: Smiley Burnette (left) and Peter Potter tackle a Muranian senty in PHANTOM EMPIRE (Mascot, 1935).

Levine was pleased with PHANTOM EMPIRE, and began to develop further vehicles for Autry. In the meanwhile, Levine put Smiley into another serial the same year. THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY took Smiley from the West to the East, as Jensen, the stablekeeper and buddy of polo playing hero Kane Richmond. In the serial, Richmond and Burnette journeyed to the island of Sujan to restore the sacred god-horse (Rex, King of the Wild Horses) of the Sujanese tribe. Veteran villain Harry Woods made things tough for Richmond and Smiley on their quest, but with the help Rin Tin Tin Jr., they managed to return Rex to his home island.

Above: A poster for ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (Mascot, 1935). The round photo inserts show, from top to bottom, Kane Richmond, Norma Taylor, Smiley Burnette, and Wheeler Oakman.

Before Nat Levine could launch a B-western series with Smiley and Gene Autry, Mascot was amalgamated with several other studios to form Republic Pictures. Smiley's first film for the new outfit was the Autry western TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS; in his second film, MELODY TRAIL, he acquired the character name of Frog Milhouse, which would stay with him for the rest of his Republic films--with two exceptions: his two Republic serials. The first of these was UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Republic, 1936), in which he played a sailor named Briny Deep who accompanied a submarine expedition headed by Ray Corrigan (another new star at the fledgling Republic) to discover the lost continent of Atlantis, which still existed on the ocean floor under a great glass dome. Oddly, Smiley got no chance to interact with any of the major characters in the serial; along with another sailor named Salty (Frankie Marvin, a friend of Smiley's from his days on Autry's radio show), Smiley was captured by the Atlantean bad guys know as "Black Robes" in the first chapter and spent the rest of the serial engineering comic but unsuccessful escape attempts, finally getting out of Atlantis with the rest of the good guys in the last chapter. The most likely probability was that Republic added Smiley's scenes to the serial in postproduction in order to take advantage of his already large box-office popularity. At any rate, he provided an amusing running gag to punctuate the more serious and frenetic goings-on in the rest of the serial.

Above: Frankie Marvin (left) and Smiley Burnette are doin' time on an Atlantean rockpile in UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Republic, 1936).

Smiley's final serial was DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937), in which he played the ever helpful but ever awkward sidekick to Tracy (Ralph Byrd) as he battled the evil mystery villain known as the Spider. It was originally intended for Smiley to play his Frog Millhouse character in DICK TRACY, but instead he wound up going by the character name of Mike McGurk. Byrd and Burnette formed a perfect contrast as hero and sidekick, with Smiley's talkative, bumbling persona setting off Byrd's no-nonsense, efficient attitude. Whenever he managed to keep his foot out of a mop bucket, Smiley's Mike proved a helpful aide to Tracy, frequently holding his own in and even winning some of the serial's many fistfights. Both endearing and clumsy, Smiley's role in his last serial was a perfect example of his unique appeal as a sidekick.

Above: Mike McGurk (Smiley Burnette, far left) crouches down to help G-man Steve Lockwood (Fred Hamilton, light suit) who has just had an altercation with some bad guys. Ralph Byrd, as Dick Tracy, looks after the fleeing villains, while dark-haired Kay Hughes (as Tracy's secretary Gwen) and blonde Ann Ainslee (as Betty Clayton, daughter of an aircraft scientist) look on. This scene is from DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937).

Above: Poor old Smiley has just got his hand stuck in a flower vase (Hey! It can happen to anyone!). The amused spectators, from left to right, are Carol Hughes, Richard Beach, Ralph Byrd, and Fred Hamilton.

Smiley's career at Republic continued till 1946. Gene Autry had gone into the Air Force in 1942, and, after several films with Roy Rogers and Sunset Carson, Smiley left Republic for Columbia Pictures, where he became sidekick to cowboy hero Charles Starrett for over fifty movies. After the Starrett series concluded, Smiley appropriately finished his B-western career with Gene Autry, who by now was making films at Columbia; their last film together (and the last B-western for both men) was fittingly called LAST OF THE PONY RIDERS (Columbia, 1953). Smiley left the world of film for a while, resurfacing in the early sixties as Charlie Pratt, the engineer of the Hooterville Cannonball on TV's popular PETTICOAT JUNCTION. He was still appearing on the show when he passed away in 1967.

Smiley Burnette endeared himself to countless millions in his movie heyday, and, while there may be considerably fewer fans of the loveable sidekick today, I will never lessen in my enjoyment of his work. His record speaks for itself; in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, it would have been hard for American filmgoers (and serialgoers) to find a better living embodiment of the classic "sidekick" than Lester Alvin "Smiley" Burnette. He was, as his fellow Western great Dennis Weaver once said, a true comic genius.

Above: Smiley strikes a pose with his horse Ringeyed Nellie.

Extra: for more information (more than I ever could supply) on the life and work of Smiley Burnette, check out the site run by his family by clicking HERE. The site is a magnificent, loving tribute to Smiley and well worth visiting.