My favorite day last year may have been September 19. On that evening, a bunch of us filled the Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills — more than a thousand lovers of great cartoons and of a great cartoon voice actress convened to celebrate the life and times of June Foray. We wanted to do it the evening before but the theater was booked. The evening before would have placed it on her 100th birthday.
It was a helluva lot of work but I'm still hearing from people who'll say it was an experience they'll never forget. Alas, I'm also still hearing from people who are pissed that they weren't there and/or on stage. I've been telling them, "If we let everyone who loved June get up there, we'd still be there" and now, months later, that may still be true. I even have one person who says he reads this blog all the time, somehow didn't know about the event and is upset that I didn't call and tell him about it. Well, you all saw how infrequently I mentioned it here.
And I have people who want to know when a video of the whole thing will be posted so they can watch it. Answer: Never. The evening contained too many cartoons and videos that we don't have the right to put online…but we may be posting some clips from the speeches.
What you can watch below is a slightly-abridged version of what was projected on the screen that evening as everyone came in and took their seats. It ran in a loop over and over but there was so much happy conversation and hugging in that room, even a lot of the attendees didn't get the chance to view it. Now, they can. You'll need to take this full screen to see everything…