We idolized our western heroes from B Westerns to the big screen and on to the little screen in the 50’s and 60’s. They came to us mounted on co-star quality horses with looks, smarts and tack fit for a parade. Many of them came along with a sidekick, a partner playing a comic counter point to the dashing, daring good looks of our hero. So who were these supporting characters who made our heroes look good? A little prowling along our back trail shed some light on the answer to that question.

Sidekicks came in all shapes, sizes and shticks. From Slim Pickens to Jingles Jones you set the bar pound for pound. Little Beaver took the prize for kid kicker while looking up to Tonto. Take your comedic choice between Smiley Burnette and Pancho. Festus come along after Chester limped off. Surprised he found his way to the set. We forget Buddy Ebsen got his start side-kicking. So did Walter Brennan, carving out a crotchety niche along with the quintessential kick George “Gabby” Hayes. There are a few more lesser-knowns we’ll try to track down.

Sidekicks came mounted one way or another. Usually their horses didn’t have the star quality of their hero’s. Generally they were a pretty non-descript lot, though there were exceptions – Tonto’s Scout, Dale Evans’ Buttermilk, Pancho’s Loco. Pat Buttram showed up in a Jeep named Nelle Belle – how else you going to keep up with Trigger?

All things considered they’re a colorful cast of characters, which I suppose is the point of side-kicking. They followed our heroes through thick and thin, usually out of step or a step slow. They might get there in the nick of time to help our hero save the day; or just as well take a prat fall for a laugh that said everything’s gonna be OK. Let’s relive some of those laughs in coming weeks with this series. How better to start next week than with . . .

Next Week: Gabby Hayes
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Ride easy,
Paul