The next year, he had a small part in the early Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers musical Roberta as a banjo player in the film's band.

[6][7] An often-seen act, in the "Golden Horseshoe Revue" episode of the Walt Disney anthology television series, was as a banjo player who kept getting his fingers stuck in the strings.

[1] His other speaking roles were banjoist Sam Jordan in the 1951 musical Golden Girl, notorious alcoholic Puffo the Clown in Paramount's 1954 film 3 Ring Circus and in Disney's 1960 film Toby Tyler as Sam Treat, a clown and animal trainer who is one of Toby's mentors and protectors.

Toby's other protector, gruff wagon driver Ben Cotter, was played by Henry Calvin, who co-starred on Zorro as Sergeant Garcia.

This characterization, an innovation over the deaf-mute Bernardo of the original stories, employed Sheldon's pantomime skills while making the character more integral to the series.