1911 - 1967

(From Old Corral collection)

"Smiley dropped out of school due to financial needs and never finished the 9th grade. To help support his family, he tried his hand at a number of occupations including waiter, truck driver, taxi driver, carnival roustabout, drug store delivery-boy (making delivery on a side car motorcycle), blacksmith, electrician, and photographer. Smiley finally seemed to find his calling at a small local radio station WDZ (100 watts) Tuscola, Illinois in 1929. Smiley opened WDZ at 6 a.m. and ran all aspects of the radio station until 6 p.m., seven days a week. WDZ's airtime was Dawn to Dusk and was originally set up to announce the grain prices."

The story goes that Gene Autry was in the Champaign, Illinois area doing a performance circa 1933. Short a musician, Gene offered Smiley a bigger paycheck than he was receiving at the radio station. Burnette jumped at the chance and joined Autry. He became a member of the National Barn Dance radio show, and went with Gene to Hollywood, and the twosome made over 50 films together ... remember him as "Frog Millhouse"? When Autry left for World War II service, Smiley did sidekick duties at Republic Pictures 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(s) 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.

Smiley had his own transcribed radio program which he created under his RadiOzark Enterprises.

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.

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and check the California Death Records database.  You should find a record for: Lester A. Burnette, born 3/18/1911 in Illinois, passed away on 2/16/1967, and his Mother's maiden name was Heslip.

Received an e-mail from Californian Paul Patton in July, 2000, and he writes: "Smiley had an A-frame drive-in called 'Checkered Shirt'. It was back in the 1960s in Escondido, California, north of San Diego. It may have been before Burger King and I did stop there a time or two. There was a large neon sign laying in tall grass after it closed. I wish now that I had scooped it up for a souvenir."

The Motion Picture Herald and Boxoffice polls were conducted from about the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s.  With a few exceptions, the annual results would list the 'Top Ten' (or 'Top Five') cowboy film stars.  In most cases, the winners were what you would expect --- Autry, Rogers, Holt, Starrett, Hoppy, etc.

How important was Burnette to Republic, Columbia, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett, the western film ... and ticket sales?  The following poll results may help answer that question.  George 'Gabby' Hayes and Burnette were the two B western sidekicks that consistently placed in these polls, though Hayes' rankings were generally a tad higher than Smiley.  Smiley first appeared in the polls in 1939 and was ranked in one or both for fourteen consecutive years, 1939-1952. Hayes' rankings consisted of thirteen years --- from 1941-1952 and 1954.