Search Results for: foray

Not all that many years ago, comic book conventions were mostly Boys' Clubs. There were San Diego Cons where the only women on the premises seemed to be Mrs. Jack Kirby and maybe June Foray. June, by the way, will be a featured guest at the 2004 Comic Con International in S.D. and I'm going to put together something spectacular (I'm not sure what yet) for the occasion.

Anyway, one of the things that has changed about conventions in the last decade or two is the large percentage of ladies who are present, many of them quite spectacular in appearance. There's a photographer named John Chennavasin who goes to glamour-type events and takes pictures of the models, and he's lately taken to visiting Comic Con International with his camera. Here's a link to some photos that he took at the 2002 convention and here are pics from the 2003 con. [CAUTION: Selecting some of the other links on his site could plunge you into sectors of the Internet where ladies cavort without clothing. You will be one click from porn instead of the usual two clicks.]

I haven't seen the new Looney Tunes DVD yet but a reader named "Booksteve" informs me that the documentary narrated by Stan Freberg and included on the DVD has an error in it. There's a photo of voice actress Bea Benaderet, he says, that is identified as June Foray.

Booksteve writes, "Stan should be incensed!" He's right. A few years ago, the Rhino Records people put out a boxed set of comedy CDs that included one of the records that Stan did with his sometimes-sidekick, Daws Butler. In the accompanying booklet, there was a photo of Daws identified as Stan. Mr. Freberg says he called Rhino and told them about it and the response was, "Are you sure?"

A.S.I.F.A. stands for "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation." Just call it, like most folks do, "the animation society." The group does much to preserve and promote animation and its history so we're glad to have it around. They also stage wonderful events. It isn't listed yet on their website but the Hollywood Chapter has an evening coming up to honor the late, great voice actor — and one of the nicest men I ever knew — Daws Butler. It's on July 31 and it will celebrate the release of a new book, Scenes for Actors and Voices, which reprints many of the exercises that Daws wrote for the wonderful acting classes he used to teach in a little workshop in the back of his house. Some of the best voice actors working today studied with him in that garage and read these scenes under his supervision, and now they've been compiled into a book by Ben Ohmart and Joe Bevilacqua. Joe was among Daws's students, as were Corey Burton and Nancy Cartwright, who will be there that evening to perform scenes and autograph the book. One of Daws's best friends, the fabulous June Foray, will also participate.

I'll point you to a link with more details as soon as one is posted but for now, I thought those of you who are in Southern California would like to mark the date. That's the evening of Thursday, July 31, commencing at 7:30 at the Glendale Public Library Auditorium.

Just back from a lovely lunchtime birthday bash for Joe Barbera (of "Hanna and…) who turned at least 92 a week or two ago.  The "at least" is because a couple of animation historians in the back were quietly making the case that J.B. is actually older than his official bio ever claimed.  I don't know that it matters.  There couldn't have been any more reverence and respect in the hall than there was.  The place was packed with associates, long-time and recent, who came to celebrate the life and longevity of the man who helped invent TV cartoons.

(By the way: In the photo above, that's Barbera on the left, Hanna on the right.  I'm guessing 1965 or so.)

Present were folks who've known and worked with Barbera for years (Jerry Eisenberg and Iwao Takamoto both spoke) and a bevy of cartoon voice people: June Foray, Gary Owens, Lucille Bliss, John Stephenson, Casey Kasem, Janet Waldo, Frank Welker, Alan Oppenheimer and others.  Most interesting to me was the vast quantity of writers and artists whose debt to Mr. Barbera was less direct.  Yeah, he hired a lot of them or ran the company that did — but before that, his shows inspired them to want to be in the business and to develop their creative impulses into actual talents.  The place was full of us.

In any case, it was an even grander turnout than they had for Mr. Barbera's alleged 91st birthday party last year.  Tune in next year for a report on the 93rd, and the year after for the 94th.  And the year after and the year after…

As mentioned earlier on this site, Stan Freberg and his lovely spouse Hunter will be presenting "An Evening With Stan Freberg" from January 28 through February 1 at Feinstein's at the Regency, a rather swank Manhattan nitery.  Last night and the night before, Stan and Hunter "road-tested" the show with invitational performances up at the Magic Castle.  Animation expert Jerry Beck went to Tuesday night's show and his report is posted here.  As you can see, he says it ran two and a half hours and left the audience wanting more.  I went Wednesday evening and took in the "cut down" version which was closer to 90 minutes.  So we really left wanting more.

Stan sings — in surprisingly good voice — and tells wonderful anecdotes about his days as a cartoon voice actor and on Time for Beany.  He recreates several of his hit comedy records, in some cases playing all the roles, including those originally done by Peter Leeds, Daws Butler and even June Foray.  He shows TV commercials he produced and tells wonderful stories about their invention.  If you're anywhere near New York and can make it, you'll have a wonderful time, spending an hour or two with a brilliant man.  The number to call for reservations at Feinstein's is (212) 339-4095, and I guess I should warn you that the place is small and the prices are not.  But, hey.  It's Stan Freberg.

Various channels (including Cartoon Network and StarZ) are running Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas this week and next.  It, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are my four favorite bits of holiday animation and the only four that really developed into perennials.  For many of us, the holidays are not complete without a viewing of one or more of these, and I have to note: Magoo was produced in '62, Rudolph in '64, Charlie Brown in '65 and Grinch in '66…and that was it.  The Golden Age of Animated Television Christmas Specials was over.  Many have been done since but not one has had anywhere near the staying power or affection of those four.

I have no idea why this is, so I'll just mention this link to an article about the Grinch, complete with quotes from the lovely June Foray, who did the voice of Cindy Lou Who.  Her role was uncredited and less than a dozen words in duration…but even if I hadn't seen the special repeatedly since '63, I'd still remember her letter-perfect performance.

Here in its entirety is a current NBC press release…

"Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" returns to NBC in the fall of 2002 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the program's first airing on the network in 1962.  "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" was the first ever made-for-primetime animated television special and is credited for starting the genre. Making its network debut on December 18, 1962, the 60-minute special aired for six consecutive years on NBC. The holiday classic is a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and features original songs by Broadway greats Jule Stein and Bob Merrill (Funny Girl), as well as the voice talents of Jim Backus (Gilligan's Island), Morey Amsterdam (The Dick Van Dyke Show), Jack Cassidy and June Foray (The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle).

This is all nice to hear…but the composer's name was Jule Styne, not Stein.  And June Foray was not in the show at all.  She's not in the credits and her voice isn't present in the soundtrack, and I phoned her last night and double-checked, just to make certain.  It ain't her.  For some reason though, her name keeps turning up in articles and database entries about the special.

While I've got you here:  There's an audio outtake that is sometimes circulated on the Internet, plus it turns up on some of those "Celebrities At Their Worst" CDs.  It purports to be Don Messick and June Foray ad-libbing dirty dialogue at a recording session…and it isn't.  I mean, it is two cartoon voice actors screwing around in a studio, but it's not Don and June.  The man in the recording is the late Bob Ridgely.  Ridgely was an on-camera actor (he was the executioner in Blazing Saddles, the flasher in High Anxiety, the game show host in Melvin and Howard, the bigoted businessman in Philadelphia, and the TV announcer in That Thing You Do, to name five of his many credits.)  He was also a TV promo announcer, a cartoon voice actor (Thundarr the Barbarian, Tarzan, Flash Gordon) and one of the filthiest, funniest people I ever knew.

That's definitely him in that audio clip, not Messick.  I think I know who the woman is but I'm not 100% certain so I won't mention a name.  It is, however, absolutely not June.  If anyone tells you it is, tell them they're wrong.  Let's see if we can unattach her name from this.

Happy Halloween.  My buddy Scott Shaw! has a treat, not a trick, up for his Oddball Comics feature over at Comic Book Resources.  There, you can read the entirety of "The Monster of Dread End," a story that John Stanley wrote for Dell's Ghost Stories comic in 1962.  As explained here, Dell had just separated from its alliance with Western Publishing and was starting a whole new line of comics, most of which weren't that wonderful.  Most of the exceptions were the Dells written (and occasionally drawn) by John Stanley, who is now best remembered as the fine, talented writer of the Little Lulu comic books.  He did a few uncharacteristic forays into scary comics and they were genuinely scary in a way that scary comics rarely are.  A lot of us got chills when we read the tale that Scott makes available today, and it became a well-remembered moment in an otherwise long-forgotten comic book.  If you'd like to be creeped out a little, go read it by clicking here.

Every few months, the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters group stages a luncheon to honor someone who has made a vital and lasting contribution to the art of broadcasting.  Yesterday afternoon, it was the long-overdue salute to the First Lady of Voice Work, June Foray.  The place was packed to hear a dais that included Hal Kanter, Arthur Hiller, Tom Hatten, Fay Kanin, Milt Larsen, Leonard Maltin, Charles Solomon, Roger Mayer, Gary Owens and Yours Truly.  Stan Freberg was to have been among the speakers but a touch of bronchitis forced him to stay home and fax in a letter which Gary read.  Even without Freberg, it was a great afternoon with a lot of love and respect for a lady who has done the best-possible work in her field for more than a half-century.  (For a piece about an earlier tribute to June I attended, click here.)

I spent the last few days running around to meetings, putting the finishing touches on Mad Art (a book coming your way shortly from Watson-Guptill), lunching with Stan Lee (he says hi back), prepping my speech for tomorrow's luncheon in honor of June Foray and, most of all, setting up my new computer.  It's a Pentium-4 with 512 Meg RDRAM, two 120 gig harddisks, a DVD-Rom drive, a 40X CD-RW, a 250 mb Zip drive, an automatic ice maker, a built-in toaster oven, a set of wind chimes, five golden rings, four calling birds…

Okay, I'm lying about those last few.  But it's a helluva computer and I would like to again plug/recommend Bill Goldstein to anyone in the L.A. area who's in the market for anything that computes.  I couldn't have asked for wiser or better service.  You can visit his website at www.wdgoldstein.com.  Even if you don't buy anything there, he has a good repository of virus removal tools, as well as a terrific on-line video of a segment he did for the local news.  It's about how people donate old computers to charity or sell them, thinking wrongly they've purged the hard drive of personal info.  Bill and a reporter went to a thrift store, picked out some donated computers and Bill was able to restore the donor's files…including credit card numbers, personal data and probably a lot of downloaded porn.  A good, cautionary tale.

Things will be back to normal here as soon as things are back to normal here, if you know what I mean.  Our web counter will be topping a quarter of a million hits any day now and we'll celebrate by putting up a few new (old) columns.  Or something.

There has been no funnier actor in the business than the late, great Hans Conried.  I only had the pleasure of meeting him twice.  Once was at a Tribute to Jay Ward.  Hans was there, of course, because of his memorable voice work as Snidely Whiplash in the Dudley Do-Right cartoons, and as Uncle Waldo on Hoppity Hooper, as well as his on-camera hosting of Fractured Flickers.  He was rightfully mobbed and when June Foray introduced us, I had just enough time to say, "It's an honor to meet one of my fav-" before someone dragged him off to be interviewed by a TV news crew.

I had a somewhat better allotment of quality time when I visited a writer-friend on the set of the TV show, Alice, and found that Mr. Conried was the guest star.  While the rest of the cast rehearsed a scene he was not in, I got to finish my sentence, and Hans launched into wonderful anecdotes about working with Jay, playing Captain Hook for Mr. Disney, portraying Danny Thomas's Uncle Tonoose, etc.  It was one of those "wish I'd had a tape recorder" moments.

At www.hansconried.com, a fan of this fine actor has set up a site full of photos and biographical material.  It's just getting started but it's already worth a visit.  If I can manage to recall some of the stories he told me, I'll try to post them here and offer them to that site, as well.

Several times a year, a group called the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters pays an always-well-deserved tribute to some legend of early television and radio.  On Friday, September 27, they're having a luncheon to honor the incomparable June Foray and the dais will consist of a lot of people who belong in front of microphones, plus me.  I will probably have to follow folks like Stan Freberg and Gary Owens, and will feel like the guy who has to putt after Tiger Woods.  Nevertheless, I'll post a full report here.

I've written a number of articles about great cartoon voice actors like Daws Butler, Mel Blanc, June Foray and Don Messick.  Often, e-mails ask where the heck is the in-depth article about the late, great Paul Frees?  Surely, he ranks with the others.  And he sure does.  Trouble is, apart from one brief phone call, I never met Paul Frees.  Never had the honor.  And while I could rattle off a list of roles and parrot some third-hand anecdotes, I don't know enough to craft the kind of article he deserves.  He was an amazing performer, much admired by his co-stars and incessantly coveted by casting directors.

Some others did more famous characters…though Frees's Boris Badenov is one of the great performances ever in animation.  (I especially love when Boris would adopt, say, an Irish accent…thereby requiring Frees to do a Russian guy talking with a brogue.  June Foray says these things never threw him, not even for a second.  The only other comparable feat I can recall was the WB cartoon — I think it was Rabbit Seasoning — in which Mel B. had to do Bugs imitating Daffy, then do Daffy imitating Bugs.)

During his career, Frees occasionally had his agent assemble a demo tape of his work.  Every voice actor has one — some have several — and their creation is an art unto itself.  The Paul Frees demos are duped and circulated throughout the voice biz and widely considered the best ever.  Most of them run 6-7 minutes and one of the top voice agents once said to me, "I am torn on the subject of handing copies of these out to people.  On the one hand, I want them to see how wonderful a voice demo can be.  On the other hand, Paul Frees was maybe the only human being ever in the field who could sustain a 7-minute demo tape.  And I mean that.  Mel Blanc in his prime probably couldn't have kept you listening for seven minutes.  If one of my clients today brought in a 7-minute demo, I'd kick him out into the street."

So I suppose you're eager to hear one of these legendary demo tapes, right?  Well, here's a link to a site that has one you can hear on-line via RealPlayer.  I have a couple of other tapes and I'll post them here if there's enough interest.