Smiley Burnette

Subject: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 07:37 PM

When Smiley Burnett is singing in normal voice and switches to 'frogging', does he really switch like that..or is it a recording trick?

I listened to him closely (The Old Barn Dance) and couldn't hear a swallow/crack or anything between his voices so now I'm wondering.

Thanks,
M

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 07:41 PM

What's frogging?

R

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 07:46 PM

I listened to him as a kid, and that was all him.... He just had that 'voice'.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:04 PM

He also had a normal voice. In singing cowboy movies, when he's Autry's sidekick, he mostly uses the frog for the ends of phrases (and punchlines) and I never thought about how tricky it would be to switch between normal/frog until last night.

It's probably a made-up name for the sound, ZM. It sounds to me like if bullfrogs would sing cowboy songs in the same voice they say "brawp" around the pond.

When Clarence Henry sings "Ain't got no home" he frogs and does a little-girl falsetto..but the voices are in different verses. He has space between normal and frog.

It doesn't really matter a whole lot, I just thought maybe somebody here would know whether Smiley Burnett's songs were one take or two.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:09 PM

During the'big band era' there was a fellow named Candy Candido who did a lot of him/her duets with himself.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:22 PM

Who's Smiley Burnett?

oh--here--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_Burnette
he was on the t.v. shows Petticoat_Junction and Green Acres

oh did you know that these shows were all created by Paul Henning?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petticoat_Junction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Acres

He played accordion on the chicago show national barn dance, hired by Gene Autry.

along with writing 400 songs and learning
100 instruments he was also a master chef
http://www.smileyburnette.org/Smiley/cookbook/lead-in.html
his character was named Frog Millhouse...hence frogging...

have yet to see (or hear) anything about that..

does he do it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tblZxn_uIEw

more here: http://www.b-westerns.com/pals-sb.htm
what a guy I am surprised i did not know about him..

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:22 PM

Is he where the he/she costume (one side he, the other side she) and the bit with facing different directions for each gender came from?

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:29 PM

Thanks, OM!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:31 PM

He appeared as "Frog Millhouse" in at least some of the old westerns. Either Burnette or Pat Butram wrote some decent songs and turned them over to Gene Autry for 5 or 10 bucks.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 08:53 PM

Yes, OM, he frogs at the end of "Ten Gallon Hat"
fun song..thanks for finding it!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 09:33 PM

i think he does it a bit here in this cartoon too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJKn6OJpsLE&feature=related
Mamma don't allow...

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnett
From: Melissa
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 10:10 PM

He apparently wrote
"Ridin' Down the Canyon"
"It's my Lazy Day"

All I wanted was to know whether he could switch voices instantly..or whether the switch was made by double-recording. Now I'm interested enough that I'm looking at cds and wishing I had some of his songbooks!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 01:33 AM

http://smileyburnette.org/SBI/index.html

near the bottom of the page, there are clickies for mp3 of songs and children's songs.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: kendall
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 05:22 AM

He was in many Gene Autry movies in the 40's. I remember him well, and I don't believe what he did was a trick anymore than yodelling is.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 07:26 AM

I don't remember Smiley - but my older brother does. He could even remember the name of his horse: Ring Eye Nellie!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 08:24 AM

I listened to some more of his songs and I think you're right, Kendall. In one song, he yodels AND frogs..which is a combination I never thought of wanting to hear--but it sure was something.

I knew his horse was named Nellie..but didn't know she was Ring Eye. She didn't get very many lines in those movies and it's a shame!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 05:57 PM

Cowboy singer, Bob Atcher, who sang on the Barn Dance for quite a while through the 1950s, told me that Smiley Burnett and Gene Autry wrote "Riding Down The Canyon" together. They were in a car's back seat, and on their way to a gig in an Illinois town outside Chicago. Both were with the WLS Barn Dance program then.

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 09:55 PM

I sure would like to hear recordings of the Barn Dance program.

Thanks, Art. I was surprised to see Burnette had written so much and even more surprised to find some on the list that I sing. I thought 'Lazy Day' and 'Ridin down the Canyon' were both Autry's since he's the one I heard doing them.

I would have liked to catch a lot of early radio and some of those singing cowboy movies the first time around.
Thank goodness for reruns and computers...and online conversational mentions of unfamiliar (to me) names.

Thanks, everybody.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 10:49 PM

The other famous cowboy sidekick, Gabby Hayes, had his own tv show. I had to laugh when I saw that his shows are out on DVD now. Who's next? Trigger? I must say, I don't ever remember Gabby singing, though?

Jerry

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 10:55 PM

Melissa,

When I was quite young, in the late 1940s or early '50s, Gene Autry with the Wonder-horse, Champion, came to the Oriental Theater in downtown Chicago. They did a stage show after a great film, The Strawberry Roan, ended. I tell the story of what happened at that show on my recent CD that I called "Chicago Town And Points West." It was pretty hilarious, and Gene even recounted it in his biography I think.

The CD is on Folk Legacy Records.
www.folklegacy.com

Best regards,
Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: fumblefingers
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 10:59 PM

Yes, he could change his voice instantly. I know several other guys who can imitate him.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 11:12 PM

I don't remember Gabby singing..I guess I don't remember anybody besides Roy Rogers singing much in his movies?

Eck..a set of Trigger dvds doesn't sound like anything I'd be interested in seeing! If it was Champion, I'd have to think about it before opting out..but Trigger isn't my favorite.

Autry/Burnette are the combination I like best.

***
Bob Atcher and Loretta Young apparently had the first #1 recording of "You are my Sunshine" He also had "Why don't you haul off and love me"

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 11:45 PM

Was Champ funny, Art?

You sure are full of neat stories..bet you'd be neat to hang out with (unless you're a lot more surly than your posts make you seem)

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 12:28 AM

Melissa,
Gene rode Champ right out onto the stage and us kids went nuts. It was kind of like, maybe, Harry Potter being there in person.----Actually, Champ was hilarious. Gene got him to rise up on his back legs, got him to lie down and roll over, got him to pray--or so Gene said.

Then Gene walked over to the microphone---while Champion lay a huge pile of "stuff" on the stage. But Gene never noticed! He just grabbed the mike and said, "Well, now that Champ has done his show, I guess it's time for me to do mine!" ---- We all expected Mr. Autry to drop his pants and do what champ had done. The mothers were covering up the kid's eyes---and some guy came out with a shovel to remove the stuff. ------- Then Gene sang "Riding Down The Canyon" -- I can see it vividly in my mind. I couldn't've been more than ten or 12...

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 12:37 AM

Ha! I guess Champ saw his chance to steal the show and went for it. That must have been one of the few shows Champion was allowed to create his own script..

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:01 AM

Champion had his own show in the '50's produced by Gene Autry's Flying A Productions. It starred Jim Bannon (who was one of many movie Red Ryders) a Uncle Sandy and Barry North as Ricky.

The Theme song was sung by Frankie Laine..

"Like a streak of lightnin' flash across the sky,
Like the swiftest arrow whizzin' from a bow,
Like a mighty cannonball he seems to fly,
You'll hear about him everywhere you go...
The time will come when everyone
Will know the name of Champion....the Wonder Horse."

And Ol'Smiley was a very talented musican, singer, songwriter and comedian. His last singing cowboy to whom he was sidekick was Rex Allen.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:07 AM

I have a recording of Gabby Hayes singing with Roy Rogers; in fact I believe there's a Youtube video of Roy and the ol' Gaberoo singing in one of Roy's movies.
Boy I miss all the old sidekicks; the Andys - Clyde and Devine; the Fuzzys - Knight and St. John; the Pats - Buttram and Brady; Tonto, Pancho, Dick West, Little Beaver; Chill Wills, Slim Pickens and many more.
You shouldn't have got me started.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:17 AM

is it the song/dance with something about birds where one jumps in and one jumps out? A group singing and playing?
(dang hazy memory! I can't even think of how the song goes)

ah..but now that you're started, Seamus, it might be best to keep on going.
I'm picking up all kinds of stray tidbits as this thread rolls along.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:40 AM

Anyone remember the name of Pat Bertram's horse?

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:47 AM

was his jeep was named Nelly Belle..?

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 04:16 AM

And let's not forget Tex Ritter.

Tex

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 04:28 AM

Sorry to be off-topic, but I just caught this on YouTube and wondered if anyone might know the band playing at around 6':00" in...

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Gene
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 12:29 PM

Here is a link to hundreds of songs the fantastically talented Smiley Burnette wrote and didn't turn over to Gene Autry for 5 or 10 bucks...

Smiley Burnette's income from his movies with various top cowboy stars of the day and his song writing made him a very wealthy man.

http://www.smileyburnette.org/Smiley/songs.html

G

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 02:28 PM

Funny...I remember Smiley's work with Gene Autry of course, but what clicks in my mind is his time with Charles Starrett in "The Durango Kid" movies. Smiley used his own name in the series.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: RangerSteve
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 03:03 PM

In addition to his singing, Burnette also frogged while he was speaking in his films. The transition is too smooth to have been spliced in, and Autry's movies were pretty low budget - I doubt they would film two versions of a scene and splice in the frogging where they wanted it.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 03:06 PM

Seamus,

Yes, for sure certain, Butram and Burnette and Gabby were real fine psychics.

But I bet none of 'em ever foresaw Gene owning a baseball team! ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Gene
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 07:25 PM

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Gene
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 07:36 PM

OOPs! left off the links...

More about Smiley Burnette.

http://www.b-westerns.com/pals-sb.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/smiley-burnette

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 08:36 PM

I don't know who the guys six minutes into Will Fly's clicky are..but I like them!

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 12:30 AM

Perhaps you will like this video Melissa...

http://www.heylookanimals.com/2009/04/steve-martin-and-cowboy-monkeys.html

G

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 09:55 AM

Someone noted that Smiley Burnette did "Petticoat Junction" which is true but that showed had a spin-off.....the even more popular "Green Acres." Smiley did that one too (both shows as train engineman Charley Pratt). THere is a Gene Autry connection here because a co-star on Green Acres was Pat Buttram who played the ever "helpful" Mr. Haney.

I don't recall Pat Buttram's horse's name but let me clear something up.......Pat Buttram was an Autry sidekick.....Pat BRADY was Roy Roger's sidekick on the TV show. Roy was a founding member of the "Sons of the Pioneers" and Pat Brady (his real name) was a longtime bass player and singer in the group as well. Pat Brady's jeep was named Nellybelle which rumor has it was the name of the tank he drove with Patton's 3rd Army in WWII. Roy (Leonard Slye) and PAt were both from Ohio.

I find it continually amazing that any of us give a particular shit about this stuff............


Spaw

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Gene
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 11:11 AM

Well SPAW, maybe you hit the nail right on the head!

Like George Jones, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?"

...and Bill Anderson, "Where Have All Our Heroes Gone?"

G

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 02:56 PM

I figure I can either be interested in the things I can afford..or I can mope around, concerned with the things I can't.

Giving a shit about stuff like this falls quite easily within my budget and it's kind of fun to be enchanted by their hokey optimism.

When 'Outsider Cool' becomes trendy, we'll get the satisfaction of knowing we were ahead of the times and that's a Glory money can't buy.

Until better times, I can be content with a wealth of wandering trivia--and a day that begins with fluking into catching the Trigger song on tv..and ends with the video Gene linked..was probably a day worth living.

At the moment, I'm interested in Burnette/Autry.
I might wake up one day and decide I might be interested in some of the others..and this thread is giving me a head start in case that day ever happens.
It's all good.

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Gene
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 03:07 PM

ENJOY another bit of Hokum Melissa....by two country greats.

http://utube.smashits.com/video/H1EJ0KxKvW0/merle-haggard-marty-robbins-unusual-video.html

G

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: DougR
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 03:19 PM

Gene Autry owned half interest in the CBS Television station in Phoenix with Tom Chauncy and he was in town quite often. I was a great fan of his. I, too, saw Gene and Champion who appeared on state at a movie theater in Waco, Texas in the early 1940's. He owned a ranch (The Lightening C was the name as I recall) near Dublin, Texas, which is not far from where I grew up. I saw him perform at the Dublin Rodeo in about 1943 with the Cass County Boys, and he was in his Warrant Officer uniform when he performed in the arena.

Art: The story I heard about "Riding Down the Canyon" was Gene and Smiley were riding through Oak Creek Canyon, here in Arizona, and that Smiley wrote the song as they headed south to Phoenix. I don't know if Mudcatters are familiar with that area of Arizona, but many "B" Western movies were filmed there because of the unusual beauty of the red rocks that abound. When I heard the story, I never doubted it because the song so clearly describes that area. I have no reason to doubt your view of the story though.

DougR

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 05:13 PM

DougR,

I'm sure tales build, as we know, over time. The truth is somewhere in there I bet. ;-)

Also:
Bob Atcher was an early resident of a small town North of Chicago--Schaumburg, IL. After sort of retiring from music, he ran for mayor there. He won---and served in that position for the next twenty years.
In the early 1980s or late '70s I was playing a gig in Schaumburg and I stopped at his house---one of the oldest in that area. I wanted to give him a copy of my second LP which had just been released. Bob told me to wait at the door a minute; he had something to show me.

A few minutes later he came back and showed me a copy of the same album; he already had it. I was just amazed. Then Maggie, his wife, came to the door and invited me in for coffee. We had a fine talk that day.

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 05:17 PM

As a kid, the arguments raged about who we wanted to be when we played cowboys and native Americans. Roy Roger's Achille's Heel was Dale Evans. If you decided to be Roy, you risked the possibility that a neighborhood GURL would insist on being Dale Evans. Yuck!!!!

Jim you take the left side and I'll take the right
My guns are ready-loaded and I'm itchin' to fight
There'll be a few less hombres live to see tonight
When we get down to the Hitching Post
   Better load up you guns and take your holsters down
   Round up all the boys, we're heading in to town
   And the first man that moves we're going to cut him down
   When we get down to the Hitching Post

We'll meet Hoppalong Cassidy and Lash Larue
Roy and Gabby said that they would be there too
When we get together there's nothing we can't do
When we get down to the Hitching Post
   With our cap guns blazing it gets hard to hear
   But when the shooting's over and the smoke has cleared
   We'll have Jordan Almonds and a cold root beer
   When we get down to the Hitching Post

When we're back at the bunkhouse and the fighting is done
We'll all be swapping stories how the battle was won
And though the fighting gets tough, we've never lost a man
When we go down to the Hitching Post
   When the sun goes down and all the Mothers call
   You better hang your holster back up on the wall
   'Cause you never know when you're going to get the call
   To go down to the Hitching Post

            The Hitching Post - words and music by Jerry Rasmussen   

The Hitching Post was a run-down old movie theater in my home town that should double features of cowboy movies. It was low-ceilinged, and all us kids would bring our cap guns to the theater and help Roy or Gene out in the gunfights. The smoke would hang down from the ceiling, making the low balcony seem like it was in the clouds.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 05:18 PM

FOLKS,

Carol and I are sitting here laughing our butts off! I put the last message through the spell-check and got two suggestions for words to use instead of Schaumburg.

Get ready:


Scumbag and Schmuck

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 05:26 PM

Jerry,

For the life o' me, I don't think in all the many years we wrote long letters to each other, I do not think that you ever told me about that theater.

Pretty amazing!!

Art

Subject: RE: Smiley Burnette
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Jul 09 - 07:26 PM

Scumbag and Schmuck

Sounds like a cheap law firm.......

Spaw