Smiley Burnette

Lester Alvin 'Smiley' Burnette was born in Summum, Illinois, and his parents were ministers. In high school, he became interested in music, and after graduation from Astoria (Illinois) High School, Burnette went to work for a local radio station in/near Tuscola, Illinois where he quickly became a 'jack-of-all-trades'. The story goes that Gene Autry was in the Champaign, Illinois area doing a performance, and he was short a musician. Burnette auditioned for the job, and was hired.

Burnette became a member of the National Barn Dance radio show, and went with Gene Autry to Hollywood, and that twosome made over 50 films together ... remember him as 'Frog Millhouse'? When Autry left for World War II service, Smiley did sidekick duties with Eddie Dew, Sunset Carson and Bob Livingston, and he even appeared in about a half dozen films with Roy Rogers. It was during these later years at Republic that Burnette also became the 'star' of his own series --- these were the initial oaters featuring newcomer Sunset Carson, but Smiley got top billing.

Burnette was under a Term Players Contract at Republic Pictures from July 1, 1936 through June 30, 1944, and his credits at Republic number about 75 films and most are B westerns. After leaving Republic, Smiley became the sidekick to Charles 'Durango Kid' Starrett at Columbia, and that pairing resulted in 50+ films.

In a bit of irony, he and Gene Autry wound up closing out their cinema careers together at Columbia. Autry's sidekick at the time was Pat Buttram, but he had been injured during the filming of one of the Autry TV shows. Burnette came in as a substitute in WHIRLWIND (Columbia, 1951). A year or so later, after the Starrett series was over, Smiley teamed with Autry for his final six films, all of which were 1953 Columbia releases.

Burnette was a prolific music author, with some guesstimates as high as 300-400 songs. In later years, he was one of the railroaders on PETTICOAT JUNCTION, and was working on that TV show when he passed away from leukemia on February 16, 1967.

Smiley Burnette was a native of Illinois. In fact, he had never been west of the Illinois borders until he and Gene Autry came out to California to find out what Movies might have to offer two musicians/songwriters/singers. Smiley's talents were extremely diverse. He was a “Handyman, did most everything”! Yet with all his talents, Smiley’s best creation was the character known as “FROG MILLHOUSE”. Smiley endeared “Frog Millhouse” or just “Frog” to fans across the United States and Europe. “Old Frog” donned a checkered shirt, a tattered black Stetson cowboy hat with turned up brim, and a white horse with a black ringed eye. Outfitting himself with the checkered shirt and baggy pants gave him a whimsical, outrageous, yet lovable character look Smiley wanted. He knew from working in radio and stage that the checkered shirt and baggy pants was a look of the comic. The black hat with turned up brim, first came about through necessity. While filming chase scenes, his black Stetson would blow off. Smiley began pushing the brim up, and found that the wind did not catch the brim. So, he tacked the brim up in the front. To his amazement and pleasure, he found the look fit perfectly into the “Frog” persona. Smiley’s horse also became famous first as “Black Eyed Nellie”, then “Ring Eyed Nellie”, and finally shortened to just “Nellie” It should be noted, in real life, Smiley Burnette never owned a horse.

There is a lot more on Smiley at:

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