Hello to all the loyal “Cartoon Research” regulars and newcomers. It’s truly hard to believe, but a whole two years has simply zipped by in a flash (accompanied by Treg Brown’s “Tasmanian Devil approaching” sound effect) since I finally got to publish CARTOON VOICES OF THE GOLDEN AGE, 1930-70 back in the fall of 2022.
For those who don’t know, the book (actually two books, Volumes 1 & 2) was my long overdue history and accompanying reference log of the development of the noble art of animation voice acting. It attempted to cover the whole shebang, from the dawn of sound right up to when theatrical short cartoons were an endangered species, on life support by the mid-60s, before finally being supplanted by the made-for-TV variety.
I made it pretty clear in the original intro that my research wasn’t finished. On the plus side, I was quietly happy that a ton of previously unknown actors were finally named and identified, backed up by archival research, ancient photos and much other material. But alas, many other vocal mysteries may never be solved. The New York studios remain really problematic. In the last two years I have still had no real joy concerning any startling new info on Famous-Paramount, Terrytoons, etc. I have expanded the lists of known voices for Fleischer, Famous and Terry at the end of the Fleischer Studios chapter, but It may finally have to be another author who will one day locate records of sound production for those East Coast studios, if in fact any records still exist. As for Van Beuren, I live in hope of any discoveries, but don’t expect much.
Having said that, I again gently remind long-time Cartoon Research devotees – you animation buffs who have been visiting this site daily for years – that, should you find any tiny nugget when searching old newspapers or suddenly matching some cartoon voice with an actor otherwise never considered, please….don’t hesitate to let me know ASAP!! Anyone supplying something, anything, that leads to still another uncredited voice discovery will be acknowledged and gratefully mentioned in the revised edition to come.
What?? A REVISED edition, you are already pondering? Yes indeed, it will be a reality… I know not when, but it’s definitely in the works.
Mel Blanc
As great film historians like Kevin Brownlow have ruefully noted, no author – no matter how scrupulous and well-intentioned – can ever escape the curse of gremlin-like mistakes, typos, and all manner of miniature blunders (like erroneous or missing credits) that some eagle-eyed fan-person will pick up on….two small examples will suffice in the case of CARTOON VOICES, and both were noted on the very first day of its being published! Ouch!!
#1) In the Warner Bros. filmography: for Mouse and Garden (1959) I included Mel Blanc and his voice roles, but missing in action was June Foray and the voices she contributed! That was noted right here in Cartoon Research, in the comments under the article which launched my book!! As Popeye himself would mumble, “How embarraskin’.”
June Foray in a recording session on November 29th 1965
So… I’ve rewritten over and over, adding still more facts and discoveries and some corrections. And I’ve expanded various points throughout the main book (Vol. One, which covers the history of voice artistry at each vintage cartoon studio – Warner, MGM, Columbia, UPA, Lantz, Disney Productions and Fleischer). The large Notes section at the end will have some major infusions of solid new info, extra clarifications that finally confirm some previous best guesses. I’m also adding a sidebar about Mel Blanc, the most important name in the book. I wanted to cover his early life to show how he got to be the cartoon talent he eventually was. (Still not sure to have it as a Sidebar or in the detailed numbered Notes section at the end. Hmmmm.)
All that aside, the truly major changes will be reflected in the filmographes, aka Vol. Two. My intention is to ensure that the reference value of the endless cartoon listings is even more focused, exhaustive and (“I hope, I hope, I hope”) accurate.
First there will be changes to how the filmography actually looks. I made a few “executive decisions” so the book will be even easier for use as a go-to reference source. Mainly because there is so MUCH hard factual info crammed between those covers. And so…each cartoon cast list is going to be much easier to simply read – all the actors’ names will be highlighted in bold, while the roles they play will stay in standard font. Ergo, any names, like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Frank Graham, Pinto Colvig, Sara Berner & hundreds more, will instantly stand out.
Secondly, for WARNER BROS: All the cartoon directors’ names have been re-typed to reflect actual screen credits. For WB especially, I was vaguely unsatisfied that in the first edition of Volume Two I had “Friz,” “Chuck,” “Bob,” etc., when the cartoon credits themselves showed “Isadore” or “I. Freleng,” “Charles M. Jones,” “Robert McKimson” or “Robert Clampett” and so on. Now, the far more accurate names will reflect historically just when the screen credits were actually altered to their nicknames.
Many more Notes will appear under various cartoons containing historically pertinent info pertaining to the soundtracks, including the re-use of earlier voice performances, the many cartoons Milt Franklyn co-composed with Carl Stalling, and much more. For Warner cartoons in particular: not only are there copious extra notes, quite a few more revised voice credits, and more authentic info on Mel Blanc’s screen credits…but I finally added the feature film The Incredible Mr. Limpet to the 1964 entries. It’s a movie WB distributed and which should have been in the earlier book.
For MGM: More notes of interest appended to various cartoons, some additional voice credits, and the inclusion of the 1969 feature The Phantom Tollbooth, with full voice credits.
COLUMBIA: More notes appended to individual cartoons. Additional titles added include three Lawson Haris entries from 1941, released by Columbia. And the studio no longer ends at 1949: the book will now include the 1959-64 Loopy De Loop series. Even though some folks can’t stand them, they WERE theatrical releases. So now there are detailed voice credits for those 48 Loopys, as well as two cartoon features I should have included in the earlier book: Hey There! It’s Yogi Bear and The Man Called Flintstone, again with detailed voice credits.
UPA: Additional notes on the television Boing Boing Show with never before compiled voices. Included as an unusual example of cartoons made for TV by a studio which was then still making regular theatricals. Included also because the TV product so resembled much of the artistic experimentation of the cinema releases. I’m breaking my own non-TV rule in this one case.
LANTZ-UNIVERSAL: More notes appended to individual cartoons, particularly around screen credits for voices beginning in the mid-1950s (Lantz was one of the earliest adopters of on-screen voice credits).
DISNEY: More detailed notes and clarity on individual cartoons, particularly from the important early sound period.
• More information is being added to the George Pal Puppetoons, and I’m appending extra sections. John Sutherland Productions now has an entry with notes on the various radio actors he employed for his industrial cartoons, including the underrated Harding College pictures (subtitled Fun and Facts About America).
Jonathan Winters and Arnold Stang pose for a publicity image from ALAKAZAM THE GREAT
Of course I can grouse that all these items should have been included in the earlier book. It’s an oversight that in many cases has had me totally bamboozled for the last two years – I can recall exactingly proof-reading my own manuscript twice, correcting small typos and more, and yet all these many additions listed above somehow eluded me back then when my goal was intended to be as complete as possible. (Oh well, maybe think of all this extra stuff as being similar to the way Jerry Beck added material about The Bugs Bunny Show and other bonuses to his revised Warner cartoons book.)
I will even include a couple more vintage photos, including baby-voiced Berneice Hansell from the 1930s who was totally obscure image-wise when the first edition was published.
There’ll be an additional Appendix listing many radio actors who claimed cartoons among their credits, both West and East Coast. These are sourced verbatim from multiple volumes of radio industry casting books (The National Radio Artists Directory from the 1940s, and The AFRA Guide of the 1950s).
A rare photo of Bud Jaminson and Billy Bletcher recording a George Pal Puppetoon. Which Puppetoon this is we haven’t determined.
So exactly when am I considering re-publishing?…I truly don’t know yet…the norm seems to be about four or five years. Of course I hate the idea of doing it too soon…it would be inconsiderate to all the loyal cartoon lovers who shelled out their “hard-earned” in 2022… no author wants to revise TOO soon after a first edition, and don’t get me wrong – I can immodestly say that the info in Vol. 1 is still available NOWHERE else… and I reason that, a couple more years from now, I will have added still more facts and goodies so that a new purchase will truly be warranted.
Some folks may possibly suggest dumping an outmoded hard copy and creating an online page of corrections and additions, but nah… I’m relentlessly old fashioned. I still want to do an actual book which will have permanent reference value. The filmography volume was always conceived as something tangible you can pick up and refer to while watching the old cartoons… Yes, I’m that old-school and I fear by this stage I always will be. And that massive index to come will make it even more user-friendly.
Okay. That’s more than enough musing… Please regard this article as a heads up of what’s to come in a year or more…allow me some time and I will produce a revised and expanded CARTOON VOICES that will really be worth it. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Jerry (on left, in the shade, holding the book) and Keith on the right in the grueling Burbank sun.
Keith Scott is a voice actor, impressionist and animation historian. Scott provided the voice for Bullwinkle J. Moose in the 2000 motion picture The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (for which he had been specially flown to the United States several times) and did the voice of the narrator in George of the Jungle and George of the Jungle 2. An expert on the history of Jay Ward Productions, Keith authored the book The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose (St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
There’s nothing for you to feel “embarrisked” about, Keith. No reference work, even a landmark like yours, is ever going to be the final word on the subject. There’s always more to learn and discover.
I agree that an index to Volume 2 would be very useful. However, I’m reminded that Kurt Vonnegut’s novel CAT’S CRADLE contains a chapter with the title “Never Index Your Own Book.” One of the characters is a professional indexer, a profession the narrator had never known existed: “She told me that she had put her husband through college years before with her earnings as an indexer, that the earnings had been good, and that few people could index well. She said that indexing was a thing that only the most amateurish author undertook to do for his own book.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, just putting it out there as a caveat.
Your two-volume set is essential. I wish you the best finding more information, Keith. It seems discoveries are made when looking for something else.
I’d love to know who the scratchy-voiced guy is at Van Beuren during the Rodemich years, but I doubt we’ll ever know.
As Jerry Beck himself might tell you, researching classic animation is never easy or “finished“. Once you have started down the rabbit hole of looking up information or trying to find bits and pieces of the animation itself, you will be researching for the remainder of your life! This might make you gulp, but we all look forward to the results. I await the new addition of the books. Is it possible that this might be ONE big book someday? Just wondering. Good luck in further research.
Great work Dexter .. er.. Keith. (I am Australian)
To those wouldbe purchasers, If you think that IMDB has all the answers making these books redundant? No.
Thought I recall you said at the time that Covid hindered your research in some areas, particularly the New York end.
There is a Mel Blanc biography out there, but any new material is welcome.
Please stop apologizing however for including Loopy De Loop – they are entertaining and amusing to enough people to have made it to 48 cartoons in 6 years – more than many other short subject characters accomplished.
Don’t let this site turn into Cartoon Research Facebook – an almost daily poop on Hanna Barbera, with illogical putdowns like why isn’t Superfriends animation and backgrounds like Batman The Animated Series.
Commenters rewriting their childhood memories because they think it makes them cool, to fit in with others who have done the same – or those who have only seen bits, and dismiss them.because anything not made in their lifetime must be unwatchable.
As a writer, I greatly appreciate your sharing here. I, too, have found glaring errors after a work had already gone to press. In my latest novel, a scene set in a classroom included a date in history that was incorrect. I always make it a point to check my historical references, but in this instance I either relied on memory and didn’t check, or used an incorrect source. Whatever the case, it was an error that couldn’t be let go. Fortunately, we are able to revise and re-release the title, which never actually got a proper release in the first place. In the process, a new volume with a slightly different title and new artwork on the cover, was born.
My point is, no matter how careful we try to be, we all make mistakes, and I’m grateful that you had the courage (and integrity) to share. I really look forward to this revised edition, and I for one wouldn’t mind buying it twice.
MOUSE-PLACED KITTEN was the 1959 short Keith actually referred to..that I corrected him on..
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Steve
Consider me committed to getting the revised editions! The only suggestion I have is a layout issue for Vol. 2. I’d find it helpful if the name of the studio being covered were included in the header of each page in that particular section, assuming that’s possible or practical. Thanks!