A weekly feature in which my five-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His “random” picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat down on the star of actress Celeste Holm and refused to budge. We later learned that the Oscar-winning actress had died only hours earlier. There are five categories on the Walk of Fame: motion pictures, television, radio, music and theater but Charlie tends to favor the movies.
Charlie and I paid our weekly homage to the Hollywood Walk of Fame just before starting our Father’s Day festivities. I was kind of hoping he’d pick someone that would reflect his feelings about his Dear Old Dad. But…Smiley Burnette? Yours truly is a bona fide city slicker and about as far from a cowboy as you can get. Truth be told, my main knowledge of Burnette was not from his more than 100 westerns, but from his recurring role on the 1960s sitcom Petticoat Junction where he played Charley Pratt, the engineer on the steam-driven Cannonball, operating between Hooterville and Pixley.
Lester Alvin Burnett (the final “e” came later) was born on March 18, 1911 in a small town in central Illinois. He grew up in Missouri and began performing as a child, singing and playing several instruments even though he never learned to read or write music. He worked in vaudeville and got his first radio show in 1929. It was there he got his nickname, taken from a character in a Mark Twain story he read on the air, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
Smiley’s big break in the movies came because of his longtime association with Gene Autry. The two had been working together on a radio show called National Barn Dance in the early 1930s and in 1934 they were hired to be in a bluegrass band in the movie In Old Santa Fe. Also a prolific songwriter, two of Burnette’s original songs were featured in the film.
As Autry’s star began to rise, he gave Burnette a big part in his 12-part western serial, The Phantom Empire. Autry and Burnette went on to make over 60 musical westerns for Republic Pictures, with the floppy-hatted Burnette playing Gene’s funny sidekick. He became hugely popular with fans, especially children, and also made movies with stars such as Roy Rogers and Bob Livingston. Smiley sang many of his original songs in his movies with titles such as “Ridin’ Down the Canyon (To Watch the Sun Go Down),” “On the Strings of My Lonesome Guitar,” and “Fetch Me Down My Trusty .45.” Smiley Burnette was also an inventor. He worked on everything from crazy instruments to an early home audiovisual system called “Cinevision Talkies” that synchronized 78 rpm records with 35mm slides.
When interest in westerns began to fade, Burnette returned to radio and started making guest shots on TV shows which led to his four-year gig on Petticoat Junction with some crossover appearances on the equally cornpone but fun Green Acres. He also opened a chain of drive-in restaurants called The Checkered Shirt. Sadly, Smiley Burnette developed leukemia in his 50s and died on February 16, 1967 just two weeks before his 56th birthday. Come to think of it, maybe he was the perfect choice for Father’s Day. Smiley Burnette stayed married to the same woman from 1940 until his death and they had four children who still honor their father’s legacy today.