Remember The Talking Horse?

Gosh, I have been having another bout with nostalia. As a kid I remember watching Mr. Ed, the talking horse, on television. Mr. Ed starred Alan Young. I thought the sitcoms were great even though I had no idea how much technology would improve the ability of animals to talk with the use of computer imaging (Example - the remake of Dr. Doolittle with Eddie Murphy). Mr. Ed was in black and white and was first aired in syndication on January 5, 1961 to July 2, 1961 and then on CBS from October 1, 1961 to February 6, 1966.

It is often said the crew was able to get Mister Ed to move his mouth by applying peanut butter to his gums in order for him to try to remove it by moving his lips. However, Alan Young admitted in 2004 that he had started that story himself, and explaining the actual method used. Alan Young, in an interview April 7 2007 again admitted that a loose piece of Nylon was inserted under Mr. Ed's lip which the horse attempted to remove on his trainers cue. Mr. Ed was so well trained that the insert would be ignored until the required cue.

Careful examination of Mister Ed footage shows indisputable evidence that the "marionette theory" (i.e., Ed's handler pulled strings to make him talk) was at work at least some of the time. Excerpts exist from a few episodes where the lighting and camera angle reveal a visible nylon "bit" being pulled for each word Ed spoke. Alan Young denied this occurred in the radio interview mentioned in the above paragraph. Some may claim a nylon bit was needed in order to have Ed turn his head or perform some other movement without his trainer having to be in the camera shot, but the evidence is clear that the bit was also used when Ed was standing still and merely had to talk. Young finally admitted during his interview for the Archive of American Television that a string was pulled to make Ed talk, noting that "this is for the Archive, right?" before explaining that he'd used the peanut butter fable for years in radio interviews instead of telling the truth.

For you old timers, do you remember another famous talking equine? I would go to the movies to see Francis The Talking Mule, starring Donald O'Connor.