Posted on 04/02/2025 5:02:09 PM PDT by Leaning Right
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. A great scene in a great movie.
One of the best scenes in the movie. His exchange with Johnny Ringo in the Saloon is also a good one.
Yea, this one hit me pretty Hard..
RIP Val
It would be kinda neat if Trump picked up on that saying.
Foreign leader: “We will increase tariffs on American goods!”
Trump: “I’m your huckleberry.”
If anyone is interested in the rumor that the word “Huckleberry” isn’t accurate, I have quite a bit of research on it proving that it is the correct word.
Val was a great actor, and he made it look easy. He just seemed comfortable in any role he played.
Going to watch Tombstone again tomorrow night with my brother. We get together and hang out, have dinner, watch a movie. Every Tuesday...:)
How lucky a man am I?
RIP, Val. Best movie for him is Tombstone, my favorite scene is like many, the bar scene with the cup and Latin conversation!
This scene is a great play on words! Doc says “I’m you’re huckle bearer” whereas a Huckle is the handle on a casket and a pol bearer would there be a huckle bearer. Val may well have said “I’ll be your huckle bearer” basically taunting his opponent that he’d send him to his grave. It’s a little slurred.
I liked his role so much that I wouldn’t even have cared, but the first time I had ever heard the word used other than to describe a plant, but I immediately intuited just what was meant in that context, and I loved it. I understand why for many, that is their favorite scene...:)
I’m interested, because I have no idea what it means.
I read an article that it was never meant to be huckleberry but huckle bearer which is the handle on a coffin that a pallbearer would grab.
Here is what it means.
“In the 1800s, the phrase “I’m your huckleberry” was used to mean “I’m the one you want,” or “I’m the right one for the job,” or “I’m the right match.” Essentially, it meant that one was up to the task at hand.
In Doc Holliday’s case, it meant that he was up to dueling with Johnny Ringo.”
“look through newspaper archives of the time and you’ll find all sorts of examples of the phrase “your huckleberry,” and they all have the same context: I’m your guy. Or gal. Or sweet potato. Or acre lot near the railroad station. Or pie. You get the idea.”
“The line in the movie, “I’m your huckleberry, that’s just my game” comes DIRECTLY from the 1929 Walter Noble Burns book Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest:“Doc, Ringo said, I don’t need but three feet to do my fighting. Here’s my handkerchief. Take hold.” Holliday took a quick step toward him. “I’m your huckleberry, Ringo,” replied the cheerful doctor. “That’s just my game.”
Here are links to examples of “I’m your huckleberry” being used during the 1800s:
https://tinyurl.com/yrbnzde5 1897
https://tinyurl.com/mwzx8sdj 1869
https://tinyurl.com/2p98bj3d 1883
https://tinyurl.com/msv85k32 1894
https://tinyurl.com/2p8h5tt8 1899
https://tinyurl.com/k8sa89z2 1883
https://tinyurl.com/4zf5fazt 1899
https://tinyurl.com/2p8hc9sj 1892
https://tinyurl.com/2p8dtjdn 1892
Thank you, that’s awesome research. Much appreciated.
What It Doesn’t Mean
Despite persistent online rumors and myths, the phrase doesn’t have anything to do with huckle bearers, pallbearers or carrying someone’s casket. It sounds cool and is slightly more interesting than the term’s actual meaning, but there isn’t any real evidence to back it up.
And if you use that meaning in the context of the above examples, it makes even less sense. Do you want the best groceries in town? We’ll be your pallbearers!
Val Kilmer even addressed the rumor in his book, I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir.
“By the way, despite some fans’ contention that in the 1800s the handles of caskets were called huckles and thus word huckle bearer was a term for pall bearer, I do not say, ‘I’m your huckle bearer.’ I say, ‘I’m your huckleberry,’ connotating, ‘I’m your man. You’ve met your match.’”
The screenplay’s text says huckleberry, Kilmer named his book after the line, and countless newspaper articles use the phrase in the same context. So we can all be the huckle bearers of this rumor and put it in the ground for good.
Not many before or since who could step into any role and own it like he did.
Here are two examples one from a movie and one from a TV series.
A western movie “Rawhide 1951” uses huckeberry at 43:25.
https://youtu.be/rEdH9yWhFfg?si=nPJ4ygqUvX8m3d57&t=2597
Yancy Derringer at the 23:27 mark.
Season 1 Episode 1 - Return to New Orleans 1958 · 27 min
https://youtu.be/OQlhIEOleOc?si=b0sG1sdi7Bl_GfgE&t=1392
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