Character actor, comedian and cartoon voice actor Arnold Stang has passed at the age of 91. Arnold had an amazing career in radio, movies and TV and on the stage. He was in one of my favorite movies, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and he was the lead voice on one of my favorite cartoon shows when I was a kid, Top Cat. In animation, he was also the voice of Herman the Mouse in the old Herman and Katnip cartoons, and he was heard in other animation projects and in hundreds of commercials. He was, for example, the original voice of the Bee in the Honey Nut Cheerios ads. In radio, he had a long association with comedian Henry Morgan. In TV, he had a long association with Milton Berle. His other movies included The Man with the Golden Arm and the legendary Hercules in New York where he co-starred with (and provided a striking physical contrast) to the actor who would soon be famous as Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was even in the more-legendary Skidoo.
So he did an awful lot of stuff and more of it is mentioned in the New York Times obit. I can only add a personal note here…
As you can see, Arnold was in a lot of my favorite things. He was a naturally funny man and I was delighted, the one time we got to work together, to discover he was pretty much the same person off-camera as on.
It was a 1994 recording session for the cartoon series, Garfield and Friends. Ordinarily, the series was recorded wholly in Los Angeles with L.A.-based actors but the producer, Lee Mendelson, indulged me an extravagance. He let me go to New York and record a couple of episodes with talent from back there. I was there with the east coast actors while the rest of the cast was in a studio in Hollywood, the entire session connected via digital phone lines. For the day, I hired three actors I'd always wanted to work with — Arnold, Imogene Coca and Eddie "The Old Philosopher" Lawrence — and we booked a Manhattan recording studio. The studio was recommended by our L.A. recording supervisor and by coincidence, it turned out to be one where Arnold and Eddie had, decades before, recorded many Paramount cartoons.
Arnold was up first. I got to the studio an hour before he was due but, a true professional, he was already there…waiting patiently, looking for all the world like Arnold Stang. We sat and talked until the L.A. cast was in place, and the main topic was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Arnold was one of the few participants in that film to suffer an injury. At the hotel where the cast was staying, he slipped by the swimming pool and broke his wrist. The cast is well-concealed during the famous scene where he, Marvin Kaplan and Jonathan Winters destroy a gas station.
He was a joy to work with. The only direction I gave him — the only direction you could give a guy like that — was, "Try to sound like Arnold Stang." He did so with ease, like he'd been doing it all his life and he was perfect. He was also gracious enough to record a message for my answering machine. Click the little arrow below to hear it…
While I was recording with Arnold, Eddie Lawrence arrived. You may not know Eddie's name but he's a wonderful character actor and comedian who did a series of much-quoted records as "The Old Philosopher." His catch-phrase was, "Hey, is that's what bothering you, Bunky?" Anyway, he and Arnold were longtime pals, and when Arnold and I were done with his cartoon and he exited the booth, he and Eddie embraced.
Then Arnold looked him in the eye and sounding as serious as Arnold Stang could possibly sound, he pointed to me and said, "Eddie, don't give this young man any trouble. He's a fine director and you just do everything he says."
Eddie promised he would. That wasn't good enough for Arnold. He added, "If you give him any crap, I'll come back here and kick your ass." Then he handed me his pager number and said, "Remember…if he gets out of line, call me and I'll come back and kick his ass." This wasn't necessary but there was one moment when Eddie was giving me a little problem and I had to threaten, "I'll call Arnold." He immediately apologized and agreed to do it the way I wanted. The power of an Arnold Stang threat.
I had a limo hired for the day to pick me up, pick Eddie and Imogene up, etc. I'd offered it to Arnold to get him there but he'd declined. After his session, I told him we could have the driver take him to his next destination. He said, "No, I like to walk. You don't stay in touch with the city in the back of a limo." I remembered that. Arnold kept working well into his eighties and he sent me a Christmas card every year for a decade after that. What a charming, funny man.
Here's Naughty But Mice, the fourth Herman and Katnip cartoon, which was released on October 10, 1947. This print, by the way, sports the original opening titles which were removed when these cartoons were released to television. As you'll hear, Arnold's performance as Herman was more than enough to make the little rodent into a star character. But to me, the real star of these is Arnold…