Readers of this website know that one of my heroes is the great Stan Freberg. Stan is a writer and director and performer who has distinguished himself in many arenas. He was (and still is) one of the great cartoon voiceover actors with a career that started in the classic Looney Tunes and which continues to this day. No one has ever logged more years in this field.
He was a puppeteer performing Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, Dishonest John and many supporting players on the original Time for Beany.
He wrote, produced and starred in some of the best-selling comedy records ever produced, including St. George and the Dragonet, Green Chri$tma$ and what I think is the greatest comedy album of all time, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.
He starred in The Stan Freberg Show, the last real network variety series, which brought an end to the Golden Age of Radio.
He pretty much invented the funny commercial. In the fifties through the seventies, if you laughed at an ad, it was either created by Stan Freberg or by someone trying to follow in the footsteps of Stan Freberg.
And he's done so many other wonderful things. Why, this man deserved a big, splashy tribute to celebrate his seventy years of Frebergian madness…and he's getting it. It's Sunday evening, November 2nd at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and I'm pretty sure this is the first notice of this anywhere. In fact, you can't even order tickets for it yet, though that will change in a day or two.
For complex reasons, the folks staging this (I'm one of them) haven't been able to announce it 'til now and we're going to have to hustle to let everyone know about it in time. In a day or so, I'll post a link so you can order seats.
The host for the evening will be the illustrious Harry Shearer, and there will be classic and rare Freberg clips, as well as speeches and performances by a number of folks who admire Stan and his work. I can't list the names just yet but it's looking like quite an event. Stan and his wonderful wife Hunter will also be favoring us with a performance.
So if you're a Freberg fan and you can possibly get yourself to Hollywood on November 2, this is your "heads up" to save the date. And watch this space for more info.