Every Western hero has to have a sidekick.
Some are serious, such as Tonto with the Lone Ranger. Others are the comic relief such as Smiley Burnette or Gabby Hayes.
One local resident found his niche as a movie sidekick after years building a persona working tent shows. Lloyd “Slim” Andrews, better known locally as “The ’49er,” was a lesser known movie sidekick who took his ’49er persona to become an unforgettable character on local television.
Lloyd Andrews was born to George and Norma Andrews in 1906 in rural Benton County, Arkansas, about 7 miles from Gravette. Lloyd was the seventh of the couple’s sons. George and sons grew strawberries.
The family was always interested in music. George and sons performed as a family band for social gatherings such as pie suppers, picnics or literaries (end-of-school programs). Lloyd’s debut was at age 3 playing the triangle at a schoolhouse literary.
Young Lloyd had nine lessons on the pump organ when he was seven, but no more formal musical training than that. He never did learn to read music. Still, he learned to play guitar and fiddle from his parents.
He taught himself to play piano, eventually learning over 500 songs. He did learn music offered wider horizons when traveling tent shows came through Gravette.
Tent show performer
Lloyd gained the nickname “Slim” as he hit his 20s, since he was 6 feet, 8 inches tall. He had saved his money from strawberries to buy a 1923 Model T. He souped up the engine, then added eleven lights and ten horns to the car. He arranged the horns to play the popular tune “Pretty, Little Blue-eyed Sally.”
Opportunity came his way in 1924 when Watso the Musical Wizard came to nearby Decatur. Watso couldn’t help but notice the crowd examining Slim’s car. Watso had no car. So, he regaled Slim with the opportunities that awaited if they joined forces. Slim was almost 18 and needed his parents’ permission for such an adventure. He was willing, “I’d like to get into anything to get away from that farm with those rocks and strawberries.” His parents relented and off they went through the South. Slim earned $35 a week.
From Watso, he learned to play a variety of homemade instruments. They advertised by driving through town playing the horns and shouting, “Big show tonight.” He learned how to work a crowd. His speaking roles involved hillbilly humor in the Ozarks, cowboy humor in the South and lumberjack humor in the North. The show was what is referred to as a Toby show, Toby being a rural bumpkin dressed in overalls, a red wig and blackened teeth who was the foil for Watso’s jokes.
While their humor and music sound trite today, they did very well financially. They played to standing room only crowds for nine weeks in New Orleans. After two years on the road with Watso, Lloyd left to strike out on his own.
He moved to Topeka, Kansas, where his brother lived. He had a circuit in the area that proved profitable. After a year alone, the Nebraskan Chick Boyes Players approached him. They offered him $50 a week. He accepted and worked with them for six years until 1933. The company did tent shows in the summer, then performed in schoolhouses in the winter. Six days in a town, then on the road to the next town on Sunday.
Slim didn’t enjoy all the travel. He left the company in 1929 when he married Lucille Kinsey, of Calico Rock, Arkansas. He tried his hand at farming once more but with disastrous results due to a drought.
He went back to tent shows, first with Happy Oaker. Oaker sold a patent medicine named Satanic. It was colored water and Epsom salts. Pay was $1.50 a day. Slim and Lucille quickly returned to Chick Boyes. During the 1930s, the couple worked in nine tent shows.
A Western sidekick
In 1939, while playing Monticello, Arkansas, Andrews’ had a chance meeting that changed his career. He was performing at the same time as singing cowboy Tex Ritter. Ritter’s attendance was sparse due to Andrews’ Toby comedy show.
When he learned Andrews was a comedian, he sent a teen to ask Andrews to talk with him. After the show, the teen relayed the message. Slim replied, “Who in the hell is Tex Ritter?” In all this time, he had never been to a movie. He worked at the same time cowboy movies were shown — on Saturday.
Their conversation went well and Ritter offered to find a role for him. Andrews didn’t think much of it at first. But later in the year in snowy Iowa, it looked more promising. So he and Lucille left for Los Angeles. They were late. Ritter had already placed a comedian.
He took a job in a theater in Long Beach where he performed his one-man-band act. It was well received with multiple encores. Ritter followed up by visiting the show with a Monogram producer. It was a six-encore night. The producer first raved, then said it was “too hillbilly.” Ritter countered with a threat to leave Monogram if Andrews wasn’t given a contract. Andrews received a seven-year contract. He and Ritter were on the road to becoming fast friends.
Andrews first role was his one-man-band routine that earned him $25. His second movie, “Pals of the Silver Sage,” earned him $50 as he was Ritter’s sidekick, Cactus. He worked with Ritter for 10 films as “Arkansas Slim.” One drawback was his inability to ride a horse. As a child he had been thrown from a horse and broken his leg.
What sidekick couldn’t ride a horse? He solved the problem by riding an old mule, as it was easier to control. Red, an ancient mule, was chosen though it became Josephine in the movies. He also coined his own catch phrase, “Great gobs of goose grease.”
While Slim’s humor had its critics, it found its audience. And, it earned him enmity from a rival. Smiley Burnette, Gene Autry’s sidekick, thought Andrews was stealing scenes in “Cowboy Serenade.” He made it clear who was the comedian and that Andrews wouldn’t be appearing in Autry films.
When Ritter left Monogram, Andrews was paired with Tom Keene and Don “Red” Barry in 1942. Both men were much shorter than Andrews. Barry was very self-conscious of that, thought him a clown and wouldn’t speak to him off the set. Further, he made it a condition that in any shared scene, Barry would be seated not standing.
A TV host
Meanwhile, Andrews was a regular member of Tex Ritter’s road show for 10 years. Ritter was a frequent guest of the Andrews family. In 1950, he tried a different job hosting a children’s TV program on Channel 5 in Los Angeles. That lasted three years. Next, he decided to try a tour of England. The tour bombed.
Upon his return, he found work in Fresno, California, hosting another TV show as The ’49er.
He and Lucille moved back to Gravette in 1963. He learned KOAM in Pittsburg was seeking a host for a children’s program. He got the job for “The Fun Club” and commuted the 150-mile round trip each week for the next 21 years. He played his home-made instruments, showed cartoons and had mule puppet named for his movie mule Josephine.
In the 1975 he attended his first western film convention. He thought he would be a no-name attendee and was pleasantly surprised to receive the red carpet treatment. Once more, he performed his one-man-band routines to admiring audiences.
Slim died at his home in Gravette on April 3, 1992, at age 85. “Arkansas Slim” may not have been the most famous cowboy sidekick, but his unique style honed by his family’s band, medicine and tent shows and movies created a thoroughly unforgettable character for thousands of viewers.