Killing time ... even if I shouldn't

So, I'm watching The Cowboys, and old John Wayne movie, and the man who is the cook on this trail, says to the young boys who are the trail that "he could swallow them whole" because all he had to do was "butter your head and pin your ears back." The reason I comment on this is that I clearly remember by Grandfather Stonebraker telling us grandkids that he'd "pin our ears back." But I had no idea what he meant. I wonder if this is the saying that this would come from?

Oh, and John Wayne just said "We're burning daylight" - one of my Dad's favorite sayings.

I think that those early westerns tended to repeat what sayings/attitides were common to the time. What I'm saying it that, in my opinion, the writers reflected what was common, not people picking up what was in the movies. Any opinions out there?