I get a great many e-mails asking me to write about other great cartoon voice actors besides the ones covered here. Alas, I don't really know enough about some — like Paul Frees, to name one — to do their careers justice. Or take Allen Swift, for instance. For a few decades, Swift was to New York-based animation what Mel Blanc was to Hollywood. He lent his voice to a staggering percentage of all cartoons that were recorded in Manhattan, did loads of commercials and kids' records and even had a couple of good runs in live children's television. He was a vital part of The Howdy Doody Show, and some called him the man who saved the show…twice.
Swift was not a part of the original cast but, just before Christmas of 1952, most of the actors quit or were fired (pick one), leaving all those puppet characters without voices. Swift came in and did an uncanny job matching the sounds of Flubadub, Mr. Bluster and others — all except Howdy himself, whose voice was pre-recorded by the show's host, "Buffalo" Bob Smith. Later on, when Smith had a heart attack and was off the show for months, Swift saved the day again, learning how to replicate Howdy's voice. This enabled the title character to appear with the various guest hosts who filled in while the Buffalo recuperated.
Later on, Swift gained a young, loyal following hosting Popeye cartoons from 1956 to 1960 on WPIX, channel 11, in New York. The photo above is him in his "Captain Allen" character, as cribbed off the cover of a kids' record he made at the time. Of the many TV cartoons he did, he is probably best remembered for playing Odie Cologne (the skunk) and Itchy Brother on King Leonardo, most of the villains (including Simon Bar-Sinister) on Underdog, and Tooter Turtle in cartoons that ran on both those shows. Mr. Swift is still (happily) with us, occasionally doing a voiceover or playing an on-camera role. He had a small part in Safe Men, a barely-released feature of a couple years back, for instance.
And his genes are well represented on the Broadway stage. His son is Lewis J. Stadlen, one of the funniest stage actors of our generation. Stadlen rose to prominence playing Groucho Marx in Minnie's Boys and A Day In Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine. More recently, he played opposite Nathan Lane in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Man Who Came to Dinner, and was in the short-lived Neil Simon comedy, 45 Seconds From Broadway. (Stadlen has a long history with Neil Simon. Years ago, he also played one of those Hispanic flight attendants in Simon's female version of The Odd Couple that we mentioned here a week or two ago and before that, he played the nephew in the original production of The Sunshine Boys.)
He is said to be the leading contender to play Max Bialystock in the about-to-start-touring company of The Producers. I'm not sure anyone could ever top Mr. Lane in the role but I'd sure like to see Allen Swift's kid try it.