Heavy set, scratchy voice Andy Devine is not the first person that comes to mind when you think of a serial hero but he did make one serial appearance in the early thirties. A college football star, he began his film career in the late twenties as a regular in the popular Collegians two real comedies. With the coming of sound Devine thought his acting career was over due to his voice, which was the result of a childhood accident. One story has it that he was so depressed over feeling that he couldn’t act any more that he tried to kill himself by sticking his head in his oven only to discover his landlord had turn off his gas.
True or not, Devine did make the transition to talkies where he had a long career as a comedic character actor and westen sidekick. But before that Devine made his only serial playing hero Kenneth Harlan’s first mate/ sidekick, helping the heroine keep an African radium mine out of the hands of a group of unscrupulous claim jumpers in Universal’s Danger Island (1931). Other early thirties films include the first version of Destry Rides Again (1932) starring Tom Mix, W. C. Fields’ The Gift of Gab (1934) and Universal’s Chinatown Squad (1935), a standard crime drama that was included in the studio’s Shock Theater package of horror films syndicated to TV in the fifities.
Devine would go on to appear in such popular films as the original version of A Star Is Born (1938), John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1943). In the late forties Devine would become a regular in Roy Rogers films like Song of the Sierras (1946), Bells of San Angelo (1947) and Under California Stars (1948). The fifties were a big transition for the portly actor. He would become a TV star as Jingle Jones, sidekick on the popular show Wild Bill Hickcock and he also took over the hosting duties of Smilin’ Ed’s Gang for original host Ed McConnell, which became Andy’s Gang, which became one of the most popular kids shows of the fifties.
Devine continued into the sixties with work in such films as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), as well as a semi-regular role on the TV show Flipper. His most interesting TV appearance for me from this time was an unbilled cameo as the real Santa Claus popping out of a sky scraper window to chat for a minute with Adam West and Burt Ward on Batman. In the seventies his career shifted again as he became a popular voice actor in the animated films Robin Hood (1973) and The Mouse and His Child (1977). Not a bad way cap a career for a man who thought his voice wasn’t good enough for film.
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