Tombstone

[boykinlp]

Was listening to a local radio show today and the movie "Tombstone" came up as a subject. What was said was very confusing to me. They said that in the famous scene with Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), that he said to Johnny Ringo "I'm your hucklebearer!" and not "I'm your huckleberry!" A hucklebearer is a pall bearer. This is referenced a few times online.

He actually says it on two occasions. Once before killing Ringo and earlier in the movie, when Ringo's friends kept him from being killed.

I have listened to it repeatedly on youtube. He may say "bearer". What do you think?

 

[29aholic]

It would make more sense as in I am going to be carrying your dead body.

 

[MOONDAWG]

It would make more sense as in I am going to be carrying your dead body.

I'll drink to that...

 

[GKC]

IMDB lists the quote as, "I'm your huckleberry" but according to Val Kilmer, he said "I'm your hucklebearer."

A "huckleberry" is in 19th century slang a phrase meaning "I'm your man" or "I'll play your game." A huckle is a handle on a coffin, and hucklebearers are those who carry a coffin by the handles. Doc Holliday was supposedly saying "I'm your hucklebearer" to mean, "I'll be carrying you to your grave" as in, I am going to kill you.

Either way, it makes sense...but if Val Kilmer says he said "hucklebearer" then he should know.

 

[Arik]

Always sounded like "berry"

 

[zzzippper]

IMDB lists the quote as, "I'm your huckleberry" but according to Val Kilmer, he said "I'm your hucklebearer."

A "huckleberry" is in 19th century slang a phrase meaning "I'm your man" or "I'll play your game." A huckle is a handle on a coffin, and hucklebearers are those who carry a coffin by the handles. Doc Holliday was supposedly saying "I'm your hucklebearer" to mean, "I'll be carrying you to your grave" as in, I am going to kill you.

Either way, it makes sense...but if Val Kilmer says he said "hucklebearer" then he should know.

I've always heard it as huckleberry, which I have found online as meaning dance partner. In context it makes perfect sense to me.

 

[feralmerril]

I thought he said huckleberry but now hucklebearer makes more sense. I wonder what if anything was said as I dont know if any witness`s wrote about it. Hey, its a movie!
For years I wondered if my gr grandpa witnessed the gun fight and testified as his name was "wesley fuller" and the same age. My uncle claimed that his grandpa wes and his dad were copper miners somewhere. Once I got on some site and asked about it and was told the wes fuller that testified died in a insane asylum. My gr grandpa didnt so that killed that fantasy.

 

[walkin jack]

While I admit that with my hearing problems I may not be the one to call it but it SEEMS like he is saying ......berry. But what do I know?

 

[Wyatt Burp]

I'll drink to that...

"In vino Veritas"

 

[cobra44]

I actually pulled the audio from two different sources several years ago as I wondered myself.
I ran it through digital equipment and came up with "berry".
That is what I got.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Whichever it actually was, I like "I'm your huckleberry". It was a novel expression to me, playful, yet carrying an implied warning.

 

[loknload]

One of my favorite westerns and I liked Kilmers portrayal of Doc Holiday.
The whole cast was great !

 

[vonn]

You learn something new every day! Good movie, huckleberry or hucklebearer.

 

[Alpo]

huckleberry is 1800s slang for "the best for the job".

You need a safe cracked? Willie Sutton is your huckleberry. Need a train robbed? Butch Cassidy is your huckleberry.

Need to prove yourself in a gunfight? Doc Holliday is your huckleberry.

hucklebearer is a term that someone dreamed up, after the movie, to explain what they THOUGHT Doc said during the movie. Nonsense word. Does not exist.

Like irregardless.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

huckleberry is 1800s slang for "the best for the job".

You need a safe cracked? Willie Sutton is your huckleberry. Need a train robbed? Butch Cassidy is your huckleberry.

Need to prove yourself in a gunfight? Doc Holliday is your huckleberry.

hucklebearer is a term that someone dreamed up, after the movie, to explain what they THOUGHT Doc said during the movie. Nonsense word. Does not exist.

Like irregardless.

That would explain why I have heard huckleberry but never hucklebearer!

 

[Hellraiser]

huckleberry is 1800s slang for "the best for the job".

You need a safe cracked? Willie Sutton is your huckleberry. Need a train robbed? Butch Cassidy is your huckleberry.

Need to prove yourself in a gunfight? Doc Holliday is your huckleberry.

hucklebearer is a term that someone dreamed up, after the movie, to explain what they THOUGHT Doc said during the movie. Nonsense word. Does not exist.

Like irregardless.

I'm with you Chow... never heard it called anything but... "huckleberry"...

May run this new word by Steve Shaw... (SASS name "Ellsworth T. Kincaid), a fine historian and a fella who organizes historic old western horse rides. He has studied the movie... and the town of Tombstone, more'n anybody I know.

 

[rwsmith]

Hucklebearer?

"Hucklebearer Hound"?????

 

[MOONDAWG]

"In vino Veritas"

Nabisco, Nabisco, Domino...Sugarrrrr

 

[GKC]

One of my favorite westerns and I liked Kilmers portrayal of Doc Holiday.

I liked him much better in that role than Dennis Quaid.

 

[Hodgin]

I always thought it was huckleberry but I'd never heard of a hucklebearer and with Kilmer's accent it would be very easy to confuse.

Hucklebearer makes more sense. I'd never heard of someone referred to as a huckleberry but I assume it was someone a little light in his loafers (boots in this case). Strange thing for Doc Holliday to say.