Mister Ed is probably best remembered as the titular equine character in the television situation comedy of the same name, which was screened on CBS between 1961 and 1966. However, he first appeared in ‘The Talking Horse’, a short story written by Walter R. Brooks and published in ‘Liberty’, a weekly, general interest magazine, in 1937.
In the television series, Mister Ed was played by Bamboo Harvester, a palomino, half American Saddlebred., half Arabian gelding and voiced, in deep, rolling style, by Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane, formerly best known as the star of Western B-movies. Interestingly, both were uncredited, with Mister Ed played by “Himself”, according to the closing credits, and Lane simply cited as “an actor who prefers to remain nameless”.
Much of the comedy in the show derives from the fact that, while Mister Ed can talk, he only talks to the main human protagonist, Wilbur Post, played by Alan Young. Young was apparently recruited for the part at the behest of comedian George Burns, whose production company, McCadden Corporation, produced the show. Burns reportedly said, “Get Alan Young. He looks like the kind of guy a horse would talk to.”
Young was often asked how Mister Ed could be made to appear to be holding a conversation. Rather than reveal mundane production secrets, he made up a fanciful story about feeding the horse peanut butter and, to his credit, maitained his little white lie until decades later. In fact, producer-director Arthur Lubin initially used a piece of nylon thread to manipulate the horse’s lips, as he had in his earlier ‘Francis the Talking Mule’ series of films. Later, the horse learned to move his lips when touched on the hoof by his trainer, Les Hilton, and soon after to do as soon as Young stopped talking during a scene.