February 2007                                               The Megaphone                                                       Page 8

Jingles

 by Estel Harney 

I will start by saying this article came about due to a comment I read in the Hall Clock. It stated Doc's wife, Julie, did a great Buster Brown imitation if you will.

Now, that statement made me think of an old TV & movie star I loved to watch and listen to. I remember him as Jingles, some of you might also. He did a TV show called Andy’s Gang and the sponsor was Kellogg’s Sugar Pops and Buster Brown Shoes, thus the remembrance. I have some history of that man I would like to share with you. You see, I guess I was too involved with all the Saturday morning westerns on TV. I never missed an episode of Wild Bill Hickok. It was only one of many westerns I watched as I sat in front of my family TV from early morning until after lunchtime on Saturday. I later graduated to a more advanced Saturday shows, like Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, The Three Stooges, and Soupy Sales. OK, so I was into more happy times then, I had a secluded childhood but an enjoyable one.

Back to Jingles -- he was born in Flagstaff, AZ, as Andrew Vabre Devine, a rough and tumble kid who was always into something. As a tribute to Andy Devine, the main street of Flagstaff has been renamed Andy Devine Boulevard. I loved to listen to his unique voice, which I later learned was acquired, if you will, by an early childhood accident. Some say he was running with a stick in his mouth and fell on it. His mother stated it was an old curtain rod. Nevertheless, it punctured his throat and roof of his mouth, but lucky to be alive he did recover. It was over a year before he could even speak again. With the patient tutoring of his mother, he came to speak with a raspy two-tone voice sometimes high and sometimes low. Later in his movie days, someone asked him if he had bad nodes on his vocal cords, and he stated, "No, I have the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune."

Andy had a TV show started in 1955, as a take over from an earlier radio show of the mid forties by the name of Smilin’ Ed’s Gang. On this show, there was a grandfather clock and a rascal of a frog that would appear when called on by Andy. If you remember, the saying was, "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy." Now I am sure most are wondering what a twanger is, and I would not even venture to say, but that is what was said even by the old show on the radio. I should have asked my high school science teacher what a frog has that is a twanger. That would have gone over big, but not grade wise. Anyway, after saying the magic words, a cloud of smoke would go up in front of the clock and Froggy would appear saying, "Hiya, kids, hiya, hiya!!"

Andy was also pitching ads for Buster Brown Shoes, "That’s my dog, Tige, he lives in a shoe; I’m Buster Brown, look for me in there, too." Thus, this is how Julie brought back an old TV friend by her statement. Andy was noted for his roles as the cowboy sidekick of Wild Bill Hickok as Jingles, and Cookie to Roy Rogers (replacing Gabby Hayes), and even on the radio to Jack Benny. Yes, even Jack Benny had a cowboy show called Buck Benny Rides Again. Andy’s big line on Benny’s show was, "Hiya Buck." What a start, but look where it got him. He did a couple of silent movies before the talkies came out and then thought his career was over because of his voice. Needless to say, he went on to do over 400 movies including the first ones made by John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Henry Fonda. He also made appearances in too many TV and stage plays to count. It was even stated he went to Ball State University, but that is only a rumor as he went to various colleges just to play football. He even played semi-pro football under an alias name so he could still play when he attended college.

He appeared in a lot of movies, like Stagecoach with John Wayne, a long time friend. The only movie he ever had the lead in and was a hero was Island in the Sky in the early fifties. He also was the cheerful soldier in Red Badge of Courage. After his death in 1971 from a heart attack and a long siege with leukemia, he was still remembered in song by Jimmy Buffett in 1974.

So thanks to Julie's Buster Brown and the cereal shot from guns (Kellogg’s Sugar Pops), I still think of my old TV friends I watched on Saturday mornings.

Estel Harney, '56 in the Ol' West of Mesa, Arizona