Butch Minds the Baby

6/27/2025

If you’re familiar with the Pete Smith “specialities” from the late 1940s then you’ll appreciate that most of the value here comes from the narration. From the perspective of it’s author Damon Runyon, that guides us through half an hour of daft antics as “Harry the Horse” tries to get his pal, former safecracker “Butch” to come out of retirement and help him steal a small fortune from an office. “Butch” has become fed up with his stays at Leavenworth and is also now the proud possessor of an infant son “John Ignatius Jnr” and so isn’t so keen, but eventually agrees to team up with his pal and a few others to do the job. Now silence is quite important if they are to succeed and this hungry, curious and noisy infant isn’t up for playing ball so they have to juggle entry to a much more sophis