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Its a good thing Buddy Ebsen, in real life, is as easygoing and soft-spoken as George Russel (the sidekick of Davy Crockett, "king of the wild frontier")—the role he plays in ABCs Disneyland. Otherwise, he might be the most disgruntled of all the disgruntled actors in Hollywood.

Ebsen came within a Fess Parker of landing the Davy Crockett role himself. To an actor, of course, that is something like being the nuclear physicist who missed Einsteins Theory by two decimal points. But Buddy is taking it in stride.

"Missin the part of Davy," he says in his Florida drawl, "is how I come to be George. The director and the producer were both pitchin me for . Davy, because I'd made a couple of Westerns at Republic with Rex Allen, so they knew I could act outdoors. I was even doin some pitchin myself. But Walt Disney—he couldnt make up his mind. Then he saw Fess doin a bit in a picture called ‘Them'.

"Somehow," Ebsen grins, "I feel Walt made the right choice."

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