Pat Buttram Explained

Emmett Maxwell "Pat" Buttram (June 19, 1915 – January 8, 1994) was an American actor, famous for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty. It has been described as sounding like a handful of gravel thrown in a Mix-Master."

Biography

Buttram was born in Addison, Alabama. In Gene Autry movies, Pat Buttram played a variety of sidekicks with different names. His first film with Autry was Strawberry Roan in 1948. In the 1940s, Buttram joined Autry on his very successful radio show, Melody Ranch and then on television with The Gene Autry Show. During the first TV season, Pat went by the name "Pat" or "Patrick" with a variety of last names. By the second season, he was using his own name, Pat Buttram.

Buttram is also widely-known for his role as the peddler "Mr. Haney" in the 1965 - 1971 television comedy Green Acres. He also did voice work for a number of Disney animated features such as the wolf Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Napoleon (hound dog) in The Aristocats, Luke (swamp inhabitant) in The Rescuers, Chief (hunting dog) in The Fox and the Hound, and one of the Toon bullets in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans may recognize him as the car salesman in the film Angels Revenge. One of his last roles was a cameo in Back to the Future Part III. His final voice-over role was in A Goofy Movie, released over a year after his death. He also had a recurring role as the voice of Cactus Jake on Garfield and Friends. Another role was in one of the most famous Alfred Hitchcock shorts called "The Jar" where he plays a farmer named Charlie Hill who buys a jar from a sideshow, the contents of which scare his wife and mesmerize his friends.

Buttram died of kidney failure on January 8, 1994 in Los Angeles, California. He was buried in Haleyville, Alabama's Maxwell Chapel cemetery.

Popular culture

• Pat Buttram's distinctive voice made him the target of several impressionists, particularly cartoon voice actors.
• The Animaniacs cartoon The Warners and the Beanstalk, a parody of the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, featured a caricature of Mr. Haney as the "Used Cow Salesman".
• Pat Buttram is Credited as being one of the writers on the Hee Haw Show in early years.

Green Acres

Some quotes from Mr. Haney

• You look as sad as a pelican with a mouth full of porcupines
• You look prettier than a pee wee in a peckerwood tree (to Mrs. Douglas)
• You look prettier than a catfish with his nose up against a dam (to Mrs. Douglas)
• To perform the ceremony, you have the choice of a ship's captain, a judge that was turned down for the Supreme Court, and a Dalai Lama (to the Douglas' who were organizing a wedding)
• This is a genuine sheepskin worn by Lassie in her picture Lassie flees from the Gestapo (trying to sell Mr. Douglas a disguise for Arnold the pig after Arnold witnesses a robbery of the Bank of Pixley)
• The motor is tuned to such a high pitch that it can only be heard by dogs (to the Douglas' when they told Mr. Haney that they had not heard him pull up)

Further reading

• Pat Buttram, the Rocking Chair Humorist, by Sandra Grabman. BearManor Media, Boalsburg, 2006. ISBN 1-59393-067-4.

External links

• • • • Roy Rogers, Gene Autry & Pat Buttram Golden Boots Award for 9th Cavalry
• http://www.wcgs.ala.nu/patbuttram.htm
• http://www.sandragrabman.com/buttram.html