I'm not sure how much I want to write about the June Foray Celebration a bunch of us threw at the Motion Picture Academy last Tuesday night. The Internet is already close to bursting from all the self-congratulation crammed into it…but the five of us who threw the bash (Jerry Beck, Bob Bergen, Howard Green, Tom Sito and myself) are darn proud of what we done did, and lots of people seem grateful that we gave the late 'n' lovely Ms. Foray such a special, sincere salute. I was most impressed by the turnout. To see so many important folks from the world of animation assemble like that was really stunning.
Did I mention here that I was the M.C. for the evening? I was the M.C. for the evening…and also the person in charge of the rundown so I was able to minimize my on-stage time. The first rule of something like this is that it should be about the deceased and only about the deceased.
I go to a fair number of Show Biz Funerals and there always seems to be at least one speaker who cannot resist the urge to get up there and deliver an infomercial about themselves, especially if the hall is filled with Very Important People. One time at the send-off for a somewhat-famous stand-up comedian, a less-famous stand-up comic took the stage and began his speech by saying, "He was a great guy and very supportive of his friends. Every time I was on TV, he would make a point of calling me up and telling me how good I was."
We wanted none of that so I said no to a number of people who wanted to speak — at least one of whom is royally pissed at me for denying them the chance to perform before a crowd of industry folks, some of whom have hiring power. I said no to a greater number who selflessly wanted to salute our beloved June for all the right reasons. If I'd said yes to all of them, we'd still be there. Our on-stage speakers were Nancy Cartwright, Jerry Beck, Keith Scott (who came all the way from Australia on his own dime just for this), Bob Bergen, Charles Solomon, Tom Sito, Floyd Norman, Tony Bancroft, moi and the daughters of Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones and Jay Ward. That would be Hope and Sybil Freleng, Linda Jones and Tiffany Ward.
In the audience at one point, we had voice artist Misty Lee and a cameraman who was shooting video that was appearing simultaneously on the big movie screen. We gave Misty five minutes to get as many voice actors as possible to say something brief about June and among those who did were Bill Farmer, Russi Taylor, Gregg Berger, Teresa Ganzel, Fred Tatasciore, Bill Mumy, Tony Anselmo, Laura Summer, Debi Derryberry, Katie Leigh and Billy West.
The highlight of the show for most folks was when we brought up ten women to speak briefly about what June meant to their careers and/or their lives. Nine came up and after each one spoke, she moved over to pose next to a big picture of June we'd placed onstage on an easel. Then I asked several other women who'd participated in the show to come up and join them for our photo-op. Then I introduced our tenth woman who was going to speak in this segment…Lily Tomlin.
We did a fairly good job of keeping Lily's presence a surprise. She wanted to participate and we gave her the choice of sitting through the entire show or just sneaking in for her spot. She said she wanted to see the entire show so we snuck her into the second row during the first cartoon (Broomstick Bunny) and surrounded her with tall people, including me when I was seated. When I announced her name from the stage, there was a satisfying gasp of delight from the crowd. Then she came up, said the perfect things and joined the group for the photo. Here is a small version of that image. It'll get bigger if you click on it…
Here's who's who, L to R: Debi Derryberry, Marian Massaro, Nancy Cartwright, Grey Griffin, Debra Wilson, E.G. Daily, Vanessa Marshall, Lily Tomlin, Photo of June, Laraine Newman, Teresa Ganzel, Audrey Wasilewski, Candi Milo, Julie Nathanson, Kari Wahlgren, Misty Lee, Laura Summer, Russi Taylor and Katie Leigh. Let me know if you ever see another assemblage of talent like that in one JPG.
Of course, we showed cartoons…and some clips of June's work in front of the camera, along with footage of her being interviewed about her life and work. It was difficult to assemble some of that stuff — Jerry Beck did most of the heavy lifting — but even harder to decide what to leave out. For reasons of time, I cut a Fractured Fairy Tale at the last minute and our projectionist was not happy because she, like all of us, loves Fractured Fairy Tales.
Many, many people helped out. We read a list that evening but I wanted to mention two of them here. Seeking to not have the klutzy M.C. on stage much, I had most speakers introduced by our off-stage announcer — a lady whose voice you know from many of the major award shows — Marian Massaro. And other announcements were handled by another award show voice (and frequent cartoon actor) Neil Ross. Oh — and the clips of June talking about her life were excerpted from the documentary, The One and Only June Foray, produced by Gavin Freitas.
People keep asking if the event will be released on DVD or posted online so they can see it. No, it will not be, at least in full. We showed too many film clips for which we only had permission to run them then and there. Excerpts from the speeches will probably be released online but no decision has made yet about doing this.
Throughout the evening, I was busier than a Fact-Checker at a Donald Trump speech and I should apologize to the many friends and acquaintances who I either ignored or didn't give enough attention because I had 9,944 things to do at any given moment. It was an exhausting endeavor but well, well worth it. June deserved the best and I hope we came close to giving her that.