A P.S. on my earlier item about how Mary Poppins was the only Disney movie for which Daws Butler recorded a voice. This is probably true, though I should have mentioned he was up for one other job there.
For about about a half century, comedy legend Stan Freberg told folks that when Mr. Disney was casting voices for his version of Alice in Wonderland, he'd been personally cast by Walt to play the Jabberwocky, but the role was cut. This was doubted by some. While a lot of unrealized or abandoned Disney movie sequences still exist, at least in rough sketches, there was then no evidence of any "Jabberwocky" scene in the movie.
Well, of course, it turned out Stan was right. Years later, historians unearthed some papers that listed Walt's casting ideas: Freberg with Daws Butler and The Rhythmaires, which was a singing group headed by Jud Conlon. The paperwork is reproduced among the extras on the current Alice in Wonderland DVD.
The Rhythmaires are heard in the final movie, and Freberg is allegedly heard in a few tiny parts…but it does not appear Daws ever recorded anything for the film. At least, he never mentioned it to any of us. He did do some voices in the 1966 TV version of Alice in Wonderland that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, subtitled "What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" That's the one that had Sammy Davis Jr. as the Cheshire Cat, Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Hearts, and Bill "Jose Jiminez" Dana as the White Knight. It also had pretty good songs by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse (same guys who wrote the score for Bye Bye Birdie and other hits) and I'm surprised it's never been released on home video. Here's a web page about it.
Getting back to the Disney Alice: It's interesting that Disney would have thought of casting the Freberg-Butler duo at the time, which would have been around 1949. (The movie was released in '51) Both men were doing cartoon voices but had yet to really establish their reputations, either individually or collectively. Stan didn't even make his first comedy record until '51. They were first teamed on the Time for Beany puppet show, which went on the air in February of '49…so that must have been what caused Walt to think of them, not only as worthy performers but as a duo. Shows you, I guess, that Walt really did have a knack for spotting talent.
There's a new book out about Daws entitled Daws Butler, Characters Actor, and I hear it's good. But I haven't received my copy yet.