I just watched Deliverance, which I have on DVD, because someone at work made a crack about a "perty mouth". That line is always mis-quoted. It's one hillbilly talking to the other and he says "He got a real perty mouth, ain't he?" So there. Now you can quote correctly.

I can clear up a couple other things in case you don't follow your celebrities. Ned Beatty is the one who squeals like a pig. John Voight has a perty mouth. Burt Reynolds is the one who shoots the hillbilly with an arrow after he's done fucking Ned. Ronny Cox is the one who is found dead in the river with his arm dislocated because he didn't wear his life vest. So let that be a lesson to you about water safety. Cox also played that asshole senator on Stargate SG-1 and is also playing the guitar part of Duelling Banjos.

The Banjo Boy creeps me out but fascinates me too. I got a wild hair to see what ever happened to him. So I hit Google. I did a search on Hoyt Pollard because I thought he was "boy at gas station".

Hoyt Pollard is toward the bottom of the credits as "boy at gas station" but a lot of the hits I found on Google say that's not him and the Banjo Boy was played by Billy Redden. Billy Redden is credited as the character Lonnie. I went back and watched that scene again and none of the hillbillies speaks to the boy or calls him Lonnie. But he's right up there near the top of the credits. There is, however, if you watch the background during the bajo scene, a boy sneaking up the hill behind the porch to watch.

So why does a character get a name if the name is never used? I'm thinking Hoyt is the boy in the background, since he's near the bottom of the credits and he is, in fact, at the gas station. Maybe there was a deleted scene where Lonnie is called Lonnie. There's another name in the credits listed as "Ed's Boy" played by Charlie Boorman. Who knows who that might be? I found no pages that claim he's the Banjo Boy so forget about Charlie. I don't know who Ed is either. I don't know why I even brought it up.

So anyway... Hoyt Pollard later appeared in Blastfighter (1984) where I gather he plays a retarded banjo player. How prophetic for him to be in Deliverance when he was a boy. Ah, but Blastfighter must suck. I've never even heard of it. I might try to find it just so I can get a better look, but I won't spend much. Maybe it sucked so much that it's not on DVD, but I'll try.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/11/17/031117ta_talk_friend

The link above references a story in The New Yorker from 2003, so we finally have some real journalism AND Tim Burton as reliable sources about the identy of the Bajo Boy. It's Billy Redden. This link also tells us that Billy Redden works as a cook and dishwasher at the Cookie Jar Cafe in Dillard (Georgia?). He can be seen in Tim Burton's film Big Fish. I wish I could do some screen grabs. My next computer will have a DVD drive. But here, finally, is a picture of Billy all grown up... my quest had a successful conclusion.

Deliverance always leaves me with the same buring question: Who would want to fuck Ned Beatty? I guess Hillbillies have to take what they can get.

Alrighty, there you go. It's 1 a.m. and that's all I have to say about the Banjo Boy.

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