by Charity Nicole Robertson

Created on: July 20, 2010

Many of you have seen and remember the old comedy films of Mr. Ed. He always kept everybody on the edge of their seats with his crazy antics. He loved to get Wilbur in trouble and then allow him to try to figure out a way to get out of the mess.

Mr. Ed's real name was Bamboo Harvester, and he was a half Standerbred and half Arabian, palomino gelding. In the beginning, he was used as a show horse, where he won many top awards. It wasn't until he was eleven that he became a TV star, although, in the movies he was said to be seven.

Mr. Ed fit in really well with his new job and enjoyed being the center of attention. He had a Quarter Horse double that was only used twice in the series because Mr. Ed was so jealous of him. If anybody paid attention to his double before him, he would close his upper stall door and pout. Another antic he would pull was to go out the back of his stall, into a paddock where not even carrots would brighten him up. No matter the circumstance Mr. Ed always wanted to be first, from anything like having his stall cleaned to getting new toys.

Les Hilton had the great privilege of being Mr. Ed's trainer, and taught Ed tricks the way he had learned from Will Rodgers. He quickly learned to respond to his show name, Mr. Ed and during his career he learned the meanings of around twenty-five words. Mr. Ed learned many tricks such as hitting a ball with a bat, which was the one he least liked, and the one that people especially liked was his surfing trick.

Mr. Ed's favorite trick though, was talking; the only problem was that he wouldn't stop talking unless his trainer walked away from him because he enjoyed it so much. Many believed that Les Hilton would put peanut butter under his lip to get him to talk, but that wasn’t so. Les taught him to talk on cue, but ran into a problem when he wouldn't stop talking and so he rigged a string to his halter that went under his lip. So, when it was time for him to talk, Les would gently pull back and forth on the string to get the wanted performance.

This incredible horse never got nervous during filming time and would maintain his constant attention on his trainer. Many times he would learn new tricks previous to being filmed, but as long as he was the center of attention that was fine with him. The one thing that amazed people about Mr. Ed was that he enjoyed performing so much. In many of his films, he stole the spotlight from others and placed it on himself. Mr. Ed is long gone now but he will be fondly remembered for all the good laughs he gave us.

Sources:

http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/Mr_Ed.htm

http://www.tv.com/bamboo-harvester/person/458867/sum mary.html

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/mr-ed.htm

http://dld.bz/mURc

http://dld.bz/mURz

http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/horse-horse-cour se-course

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