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CHAPTER ONE

People ask me if I knew at the time I was contributing to the creation of a such a hated thing as Scrappy Doo. No, I didn't and no, I still don't. I am aware that there are some folks out there who, given the choice of seeing the execution of Osama bin Laden or Scrappy Doo, would opt for Scrappy and wonder why you even had to ask. Such people are, I believe, a fairly recent faction, and I don't think they're as widespread as their noise level would indicate. I recall Scrappy being wildly popular the first few years he was on the scene. He certainly bolstered Scooby's ratings and kept the series on a good 2-3 years longer than it would have lasted without him.

Scrappy debuted on the Scooby Doo program in 1979 as a "new element." Scooby had been on the air for some time by then and the narrow formula of the series had become repetitive to the point where ABC was considering cancellation. One of the very real concerns was whether the writers could come up with the thirteen requisite ghost premises to do another thirteen episodes. Let me tell you how you sold a script to the Scooby Doo series in those days.

You'd go to the producer or the story editor and say something like, "How about a ghost who's an aardvark and he's been haunting ant farms?"

The producer or story editor would consult a list of all the episodes produced to date, and there was about a 95% chance he'd look up from it and say, "Did it in Season Four" or whatever season it had been in. Sometimes, they'd say, "Did it in Seasons Two, Four, Five and I have one in the works right now, same idea." But if you lucked into something in the 5% category, you had an assignment…even if you didn't have a clue who the aardvark would be when he took off his mask or why he was haunting ant farms. Didn't matter. You or someone else could figure that stuff out later. You'd done the hard part.

In setting the schedule for that year, it had come down to a decision between renewing Scooby or picking up a new series — the pilot script for which I'd written — from another studio. Joe Barbera called me in and said, approximately, "If this doesn't work, Scooby's dead. We have this new character that I came up with…" And he showed me sketches of Scrappy Doo, explaining that this was Scooby's nephew. We would add him to the show and this would make things just "fresh" enough, while still keeping the winning Scooby formula intact, that ABC would order thirteen more episodes. And thirteen more for the season after that, and then there would be the season after that…

I was not then on staff at Hanna-Barbera. Quite a few writers were and most of them had taken a shot in the previous months at writing scenes or an entire episode to establish Scrappy. The folks at the network liked very little of what they'd done and were not about to green-light Scooby for another year; not without a finished teleplay that would show how Scrappy functioned, how he talked, where the comedy in the show would be with him around, etc. J.B. wanted me to write that episode. Even though it was competing with that other pilot I'd written, I said I'd do it. It was always very difficult to say no to Mr. Barbera.

The next thing that occurred was an unusually ugly negotiation between my agent and the gent in charge of Business Affairs for Hanna-Barbera. The latter took the position that this was not a pilot; that it was just another episode of Scooby Doo, so it should pay the same mediocre fee as all other episodes. My agent took the position that this was a pilot because (a) it was introducing a new character and something of a new format and (b) the network would or would not order episodes based on my script. I would also be going through several weeks of network meetings and extra rewrites, something that did not usually transpire on your average episode. Therefore, he concluded, it was a pilot and better pay was appropriate. The Biz Guy said no. My agent said, "In that case, Mark isn't doing it."

The Biz Guy said fine, Mark isn't doing it…or anything else for the studio, ever again. This was followed by the sound effect of the phone being slammed down. Then the Business Affairs guy called me at home and informed me that my days of writing for Hanna-Barbera were over. In fact, I should not bother trying to set foot in the studio again as I would be turned away. I pointed out to him that Scooby or no Scooby, I was still the editor of their comic book division. He said, "We'll see about that" and hung up.

Sure enough, I was banned from the studio for a good eighteen minutes, which is how long it was before Mr. Barbera phoned. He instructed me to — and I will clean up his language here a tad — "pay no attention to that damn idiot in Business Affairs." Before the sun set that evening, I had a deal to write the script that would introduce Scrappy Doo. The pay was sufficient (barely, of course) and there would be a small bonus if the show was picked up. The next day, I was to meet Mr. B. at the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood so we could brainstorm ideas over lunch.

• Why was Popeye's bearded, burly foe named Bluto in some cartoons and Brutus in others?
• Is it true that the Human Torch was replaced in the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon show because the network was afraid that kids would imitate him and set themselves on fire?
• Since Mel Blanc passed away, doesn't his son do the voice of Bugs Bunny and his other characters? And if not, why not?
• Is it true that Martin Landau used to draw comic books?
• Why did some artists working for Marvel in the sixties use phony names?
• I have lots of brilliant ideas that are as good as or better than what's being published. How do I get a job writing comic books?
• What was the relationship between Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics?
• Didn't Tex Avery do a lot of the voices in his cartoons?
• How do I go about obtaining a sketch from my favorite artist?
• Would you read a script I've written and give me comments and/or advice?
• Which writer or artist has had the longest streak working on one comic book?
• What's the difference between a Looney Tune and a Merrie Melodie?
• How did the Walter Lantz character Space Mouse appear in a Dell comic book years before he appeared in a Walter Lantz cartoon?
• On the Saturday morning cartoon show, Dungeons and Dragons, wasn't there a "last" episode in which the kids got home?
• I'm about to moderate a panel at a comic book convention. Do you have any tips?
• What was the deal with the cover of Thor #144?
• What was the deal with Star Spangled War Stories #144?

Columns for The Comics Buyers Guide

Since Mel Blanc passed away, doesn't his son do the voice of Bugs Bunny and his other characters?  And if not, why not?

Mel was amazing.  To "replace" him, it's required a whole squadron of voice actors including Greg Burson, Jeff Bergman, Billy West, Joe Alaskey, Bob Bergen, Maurice LaMarche, Mindy Segal, Neil Ross, Frank Welker, Frank Gorshin, Bill Farmer and at least ten others.  Some of these gents are the frequent voices of certain characters — Porky Pig is usually done by Bergen, Daffy by Alaskey, etc. — but no one seems to have an absolute exclusive on any role.  This is partly because various folks at Warner Brothers disagree on which actor does the best Bugs, who sounds most like Foghorn, and so on.  It is also because, by always having a large talent pool from which to pick, it prevents any one voice actor from demanding massive sums of cash…as Mel often did in his last decade or two.

In interviews he gave late in life, Mel sometimes said that his son Noel would take over his roles some day…and Noel reportedly did some small parts even while Mel was still with us.  Noel Blanc has also done a few roles here and there in the years since, usually as Tweety or Porky.  However, he is quite successful in other lines of work and apparently uninterested in spending his days locked in a recording studio.  So, by mutual agreement, others usually do Bugs and Friends.

Moose and Squirrel

by Mark Evanier

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 6/23/00
Comics Buyer's Guide

Set the dials on the Waybac Machine, Sherman…

The date? November 19, 1959.

The place? Right in front of a very bad Packard-Bell TV set in Mark Evanier's parents' living room.

The Wayback Machine performs flawlessly, as it always does. Within seconds, we're standing in a modest dwelling in West Los Angeles, watching as a budding 7-year-old comedy/cartoon writer takes in the first episode of a brand-new animated television series. Its name? Rocky and His Friends. Each half-hour consists of two episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and one apiece of Fractured Fairy Tales and Peabody's Improbable History.

And so it began…not just for me, but for a lot of us — our introduction to the wonderful world of Jay Ward (and Bill Scott and all the other splendid folks who conspired to create Jay Ward cartoons…)

Rocky was not the first TV cartoon with which the inventive Mr. Ward had been involved. I had been a big fan of Crusader Rabbit and even, at age seven, noted certain similarities between the series…

Both offered us serialized stories, told by a stentorian narrator.

Both starred a small, fur-covered hero who roamed the world with his big, dumb pal. Crusader's was Ragland T. Tiger; Rocky's was Bullwinkle J. Moose.

Both featured a recurring villain who popped up almost everywhere they want. Crusader and Rags kept running into Dudley Nightshade; Rocky and Bullwinkle battled Boris Badenov.

And both shows had slightly-askew senses of humor. The key difference was that Crusader Rabbit was funny, whereas Rocky and His Friends was FUNNY. Not only that but it was FUNNY in a very hip manner, never condescending to the viewers, never taking the easy route to something that kinda resembled a gag. As such, the shows would stand up to repeated viewings…and the more you saw them, the more jokes you'd get.

So it didn't matter much that, like all the early TV cartoons, the animation looked like it was done in the back room at Pic-and-Save. It never got much better, not even when the festivities trucked over to NBC and were aired in prime-time as The Bullwinkle Show.

The graphics were clever, the characters and scripts were brilliant and the voice acting was first-rate…maybe the best cast ever assembled for a cartoon show — June Foray, Bill Scott, Paul Frees, Daws Butler and William Conrad, with Edward Everett Horton as the Narrator of the Fractured Fairy Tales and Charlie Ruggles as Aesop, narrator of the Aesop and Son cartoons that were added later. (The Bullwinkle Show also introduced Dudley Do-Right, with Scott, Foray, Frees, occasionally Conrad and, in every installment, the glorious Hans Conried stealing the show as Snidely Whiplash.)

Of those folks, only June Foray is still with us. Matter of fact, we lost most of the men in a very short span of time: Hans Conried died in '82, Bill Scott in '85, Paul Frees in '86, Daws Butler in '88, Jay Ward in '89 and Bill Conrad in '94. The last time I saw some of these folks was at a funeral for another of these folks.

Happily though, June is around to reap the honors. On July 7, she will be honored when a star bearing her name is unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And it's about damned time.

She'll also be getting loads of well-deserved attention as a new motion picture opens around then — Rocky and Bullwinkle, starring Robert DeNiro, Jason Alexander and Rene Russo. But of course, in this film, they're nobodies. The real star will be June Foray, performing the role of the animated Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

So, you may be wondering: Who's doing Bullwinkle's voice? The answer is that they found the perfect person, even though they had to go halfway around the world for him. His name is Keith Scott.

First off: Keith is not related in any way to Bill Scott. Bill was the original voice of Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, George of the Jungle and many others. He was also the show's head writer and co-producer and a very funny, brilliant gent.

Keith lives and works in Australia. American cartoons and radio shows were imported into his country and, at an early age, he fell in love with both and set his sights on a career in vocal acting. Around age 17, he wrote to Daws Butler in America. Daws was not only one of the best voice actors of all time but a steadfast encourager of new talent. He and Keith developed a back-and-forth tutor/protégé relationship, shipping letters and tapes between continents. Keith finally came to Los Angeles and not only met all the great voice artists but began to indulge a passion for research. His two main areas of interest were…

1. Cartoon Voice History. Only a tiny percentage of the actors in theatrical animation received credit, and most of them were Mel Blanc. While some of the other voices are easily identifiable, many are not…or weren't, until a number of animation buffs put their minds to it. Keith is one of us — and an especially valuable scholar, owing to his huge collection of (and knowledge of) old radio shows.

2. The Jay Ward Studio. Daws referred Keith to Bill Scott which, in turn, led to Keith interviewing darn near everyone who worked on the premises, as well as gaining access to old scripts, tapes, files…the works. He quickly became the world's foremost authority on the place and…well, let's cut directly to the plug:

Keith has spent years compiling a book that comes out any day now from St. Martin's Press. It's called The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward and Bill Scott. If you have even the slightest interest in its subject, you absolutely have to have it. And if you don't have even the slightest interest in its subject, you should.

Can I make myself any clearer?

Over the years, Keith honed his skills and became one of the most in-demand announcers and performers of character voices in Sydney, Australia. He has joined a select group that some call "second generation" voice actors, meaning that they replicate the sound of a classic character, once the original performer is deceased or otherwise unavailable.

In the U.S., we have reached the point where the majority of great animated characters are in such custody. Since Mel Blanc passed away, for instance, his menagerie of voices has been simulated by, among others, Joe Alaskey, Billy West, Greg Burson, Maurice LaMarche, Jeff Bergman, Neil Ross, Frank Welker, Mindy Segal, Bob Bergen, Frank Gorshin, Jim Cummings, Bill Farmer and (occasionally) Mel's son, Noel Blanc. By my count, six of those gents have spoken for Bugs at varying times, five for Foghorn Leghorn and so on.

This is not easy to do. A voice must not only be imitated but sustained. A lot of folks can sound like Bugs for a line or two, especially if repeating dialogue that Mel performed in a cartoon. It's a whole 'nother thing to sound like Bugs throughout a 4-hour recording session, running a full gamut of emotions, often with no identical Blanc example to use as a template.

(Another problem: No two employees of Time-Warner seem to agree on exactly what Bugs sounds like, since Mel changed over the years. So if you please one department head, you displease another.)

As you can see, a whole squadron has stepped into Mel's shoes, at least for cartoons recorded in Southern California. Down under, Keith pretty much has the hemisphere to himself. He does most of the recordings of Mel's characters — and Daws's and others — when they have to be recorded locally. I don't know if there have been any recordings of the Tasmanian Devil for Tasmania…but if there have been, Keith probably did them.

You've heard him up here, as well. Sometimes, they do it via what's called a phone patch…which means that Keith is in a studio in Australia, working for someone here in the states. On bigger jobs, they fly him in. We had lunch one day here in Hollywood when he'd just come from recording Popeye and Bluto for a ride at the Universal theme park in Florida.

And of course, they've flown him in several times to record the role of Bullwinkle (and also the Narrator) for the new Rocky and Bullwinkle feature. All the time he was studying the history of the studio, he was practicing its voices, honing his Moose Sound-alike. June Foray told me, "There are times with Keith when, if I just heard a recording without knowing who'd done it, I'd have sworn it was Bill." Can't imagine a better endorsement than that. (Keith, by the way, also did the Narrator in the George of the Jungle movie.)

When he's in L.A. and not recording, we get together and swap info on voice actors. He's been working with the U.S. expert on the topic, Hames Ware, and with the British authority, Graham Webb. (Graham, by the way, also has a fine book out, well worth your attention — The Animated Film Encyclopedia, published by McFarland.) They all hope someday to publish a reference volume that will identify as many voices as possible from American cartoons made for theatrical exhibition. I'm going to close this piece with some nuggets of info I jotted down after the last time Keith and I got together. Many of these were things I hadn't known 'til he told me…

Mel Blanc always recalled that his first WB cartoon job was as a drunken bull in Picador Porky. Not so. His first role was as a drunken tramp in that film. His first "star" role came about in Porky's Duck Hunt when he took over from Joe Dougherty as Porky's voice.

Blanc did Bugs from the start, all through the various prototype versions. One brief exception is Bugs' line, "Of course you know, this means war" in Porky's Hare Hunt. That one line was done by director-storyman Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. Hardaway later replaced Blanc as the voice of Woody Woodpecker.

Daws Butler's first cartoon was Little Rural Riding Hood, which was directed by Tex Avery for MGM in 1949. Daws did the George Sanders impression as the voice of the City Wolf while the Country Wolf was played by Pinto Colvig, who was best known as the original voices of Goofy (for Disney) and Bozo the Clown (on Capitol Records). The gangly Country Red was voiced by Colleen Collins who, among many other credits, played Queen Isabella on the classic comedy record, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.

In that cartoon and many of Tex's, the singing voice of the attractive Red Riding Hood was Imogene Lynn, a popular radio singer. Her voice track in Little Rural Riding Hood was a re-use from Swing Shift Cinderella.

Daws Butler's first WB cartoon was a 1952 Tweety and Sylvester film, Gift Wrapped.

Stan Freberg did his first voice recording for WB doing a Franklin Delano Roosevelt impression for a cartoon that was to be called For He's a Jolly Good Fala. (Fala was the name of F.D.R.'s dog.) The film was written and recorded but then the President passed away and the project was abandoned.

Freberg's first completed cartoon was the role of Junior Bear in Bugs Bunny Meets the Three Bears (1944). Mel Blanc did the Father Bear and Bea Benaderet played Mama Bear. Years later, when the Three Bears were revived for a series of cartoons, Billy Bletcher took over the role of the Father Bear.

In the first Hubie and Bertie cartoon, The Aristo-Cat, their voices were done by storymen Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese. For the second, Trap-Happy Porky, Maltese was replaced by Freberg. In the third, Roughly Squeaking, Dick Nelson and Freberg did the honors. Eventually, Blanc and Freberg played Hubie and Bertie, though both sometimes did pick-up lines in the other's role.

All of the Goofy Gopher cartoons apparently feature Blanc and Freberg as Mac and Tosh. When Hubie, Bertie, Mac and Tosh turned up for brief interstitial segments on the 60's Bugs Bunny TV show, Blanc apparently did all the parts.

Storyman Tedd Pierce did the Bud Abbott imitation in A Tale of Two Kitties with Blanc providing the Lou Costello clone. Pierce was also the voice of the father in Quentin Quail, imitating the character of Daddy Snooks from the Baby Snooks radio show. Sara Berner played his daughter, an imitation of Fanny Brice in the Baby Snooks role.

Pierce provided the narration for Uncle Tom's Bungalow and was one of the two French chefs in French Rarebit. Blanc was the other.

John McLeish (aka John Ployardt) narrated Chuck Jones's The Dover Boys. Blanc and Pierce did the voices of the Dover Boys, and the glee club's singing was by the vocal group, The Sportsmen.

McLeish narrated The Ducktators, which features Michael Maltese as Mussolini and Blanc as both Hitler and Hirohito.

Animator Dick Bickenbach did the Bing Crosby imitation in Swooner Crooner. ("Bic," as everyone called him, later drew many of the Flintstones and Yogi Bear comic books of the 70's.)

Tex Avery turns up in bit parts in many of his cartoons and occasionally in those of other directors. Tex's biggest part was the Laughing Hippo in Hamateur Night.

The spider character in Meatless Flyday was inspired by an Avery voice and he often said that he'd done the part, even though he had left WB by the time this cartoon was recorded. He may have recorded the role but the voice in the finished cartoon is that of Cy Kendall.

Several published reports have fingered singer Terrence Monck as the voice of the frog in Chuck Jones's One Froggy Evening. This was apparently someone's deduction based on the job Monck did many years later for Jones on an MGM cartoon. It was actually Bill Roberts, a studio singer of the day. Monck also has been wrongly credited as the opera singer who keeps Bugs awake in Long-Haired Hare. That was actually Nicolai Shutorov. (And while we're at it, Carlos Ramirez was the opera singer in Tex Avery's Magical Maestro for MGM.)

Okay, that's all I have room for this week, so let me summarize your assignments…

1. Pick up Keith's book, The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward and Bill Scott.

2. When you go see the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, listen especially to June Foray as Rocky and Keith Scott as Bullwinkle.

3. Be here next week when I hope to provide a preview of some splendid panels that will take place at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.

That is all.

June Foray

by Mark Evanier

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/11/00
Comics Buyer's Guide

Today is July 7. Actually, it's quarter to Midnight, so it's almost July 8. I'm dead-tired and my feet feel like it'll take the Jaws of Life to get them out of my shoes. Oughta be in bed, but I had to write about today while it was still whirling around my cranium. What a terrific day today was. Today was June Foray Day.

It was, it really was. Don't take my word for it: Ask the Los Angeles City Council. It was their proclamation to honor the woman someone once called "The female Mel Blanc."

That prompted her friend (and frequent employer) Chuck Jones to correct folks. "June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc," he proclaimed. "Mel Blanc was the male June Foray."

One can readily make the case either way. Less arguable though is that June is one of a select group of voice legends that once included not only the immortal Mr. Blanc but two of her other frequent co-stars — Daws Butler and Paul Frees — as well. Put any of them in a room with a microphone and you had a cast of hundreds…

But put June and any of those men (or Stan Freberg or Don Messick, etc.) in that studio and the possibilities were infinite.

The impressive thing about June is not quantity but quality; the way every personality bursts forth, not as a funny voice but as a fully-rounded, well-delineated characterization. The folks she becomes breathe and laugh and cry and span the gantlet of emotions. They're also — when they're supposed to be — very funny. There's a reason she has worked so much…ever since age 12, to be precise.

That was when she first stepped in front of a microphone in her native Springfield, Massachusetts, performing in a radio play. Before long, she was a regular in the rep company of WBZA in Springfield, and not long after, she was in Hollywood, working steadily. She was heard in all the top radio programs of the day — everything from The Jimmy Durante Show to the prestigious Lux Radio Theatre. She even had her own kids' show, telling stories as Lady Makebelieve.

Then it was on to cartoons.

In the forties, a popular series of shorts was the "Speaking of Animals" series, which featured live-action nature footage with cartoon mouths superimposed onto the critters — like a penguin proclaiming, "I don't care what anyone says. I'm cold." June was one of the actors engaged to dub in such silly dialogue. One of the writers was Bill Scott, who would later play Bullwinkle to her Rocky.

Doing that series, she met and formed lasting relationships with two other voice performers — Stan Freberg and Daws Butler. Not long after, June became part of a stock company heard on high-budget kids' records for Capitol — a crew that included Stan, Daws, Pinto "Goofy" Colvig and Mel Blanc, among others. Soon, she was the most in-demand female in the cartoon voice business.

As a result of her work on the records, she was called in to create the sounds of Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella. (Disney's next animated feature was Peter Pan and, for it, June provided the movements but not the voice of a mermaid. She was filmed in a bathing suit, performing actions to serve as reference for the animation department.)

But she was heard — loud 'n' clear — in dozens of cartoons for Tex Avery at MGM, for Walter Lantz in the cartoons he produced in his studio and, perhaps most enduringly, for Warner Brothers. She took over (from Bea Benaderet) as Granny, the energetic owner of Tweety and Sylvester. She performed in many others, including the Honeymousers series, wherein she played Alice to the Gleason-like mouse voiced by Daws Butler.

Ask her to name her favorite role and the answer is easy: "I started playing witches…for Disney in Trick or Treat and then Chuck Jones had me play a witch for him. I've been playing witches every since."

The witch she did for Jones was Witch Hazel — another role inherited from Bea Benaderet, but one which June made her own. Her witch voice, in fact, became State of the Art, incessantly-imitated, even today. There are few voice actresses around whose demo tapes are minus some approximation of a June Foray witch.

If that was all she'd done in her career…if she'd retired then and there, she'd still be deserving of a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Truth is, we haven't even gotten to her real achievements.

When the aforementioned Freberg became a top comedy recording artist, June was heard on many of his best-sellers, including "St. George and the Dragonet" and "Sh-Boom.." As Stan says, "She was, quite simply, the best in the business. I could write anything, confident in the knowledge that whatever the age, whatever the accent, June could do it." She was a valuable member of the rep company on his legendary radio program, The Stan Freberg Show, the complete, too-short run of which is now available on tape and CD.

For a time, she dabbled in on-camera acting, appearing on TV shows and in movies. Want to see a short lady wince? Just tell her you have a tape of her role as the sexy High Priestess in the film, Sabaka. Or that you caught her last — to date — on-screen role as a Hispanic telephone operator on Green Acres.

Most of the time though, she preferred to remain at the mike, far from all lenses. She was fine on-camera but so are a lot of actresses. In voiceovers though, she was what crossword puzzle makers call a "oner." It means someone who is one of a kind — and that, June was and still is.

This, she proved handily with her best-known work, providing almost all the female roles — and the occasional male — for Jay Ward's cartoons. She was Rocky and the sultry Natasha on Rocky and His Friends (soon redubbed The Bullwinkle Show). She played the prim Nell Fenwick on Dudley Do-Right. She provided an array of fairies, princesses and — of course — witches for Fractured Fairy Tales and portrayed Ursula on George of the Jungle. She was on almost every Jay Ward program — shows which featured animation that ranged from Rotten to Barely Acceptable. It was due to brilliant writing and voice work that they've captivated several generations.

Some have called the Jay Ward stock company the Gold Standard of Cartoon Voice Acting. In addition to June, there was writer-producer Bill Scott, Paul Frees and — at times — William Conrad, Daws Butler or Hans Conried, among others. Daws used to say, "Working in that company was like getting to play for the Yankees at the top of their game. And June was Mickey Mantle, only cuter."

June has performed for hundreds of commercials, countless other animated shows, and dozens of movies, dubbing in off-camera voices or replacing dialogue for other actresses…or even actors. Just the other day, I was watching the underrated Dick Van Dyke film, The Comic. There's a little boy in there, about age six, whose voice is supplied by the ubiquitous Ms. Foray. Her voice has been heard in dolls (the original Chatty Cathy) and around Disneyland (The Pirates of the Caribbean).

She still does cartoons. Just a few years ago, she brought Granny back to life on The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and has been heard on The Smurfs, Garfield and Friends, and many more. And, as we all know, she recently voiced Rocket J. Squirrel in the new, big-budget feature, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle — sounding not a week older than when she first played the part in 1959.

June has also been a staunch supporter of the film and animation community, including service as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and also the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She has been so valuable to A.S.I.F.A. — The International Animated Film Society — that they even named their Lifetime Achievement award after her.

So the big question is: Why did it take until today to get her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

The Hollywood Walk of Fame lines both sides of Hollywood Boulevard between La Brea and Gower, plus both sides of Vine Street, from Yucca to Sunset. In the years 1960 and 1961, slightly more than 1500 charcoal terrazzo squares were embedded in the sidewalk, each honoring a great from the worlds of Motion Pictures, Television, Radio, Recording, or Live Theatre. Since then, around another thousand have been installed and they continue to be added at the rate of one or two per month. The selections are made by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, based on nominations submitted during an announced two-month period each year.

Nominations come from publicists, studios, fan clubs and occasionally from the performer himself/herself. The committee looks at professional achievement for five years or more, as well as community service. And except for the occasional posthumous honor, they require that the honoree commit to show up for the dedication ceremony. This last prerequisite has kept the names of a few biggies off the pavement — David Letterman, for instance. And Robert Redford.

Also, someone also has to pay the installation fee, which is currently close to ten grand. The "someone" is usually the star's current employer — like the studio releasing their new movie or the company putting out their new CD. It comes under the general category of Promotion.

June Foray was nominated for the Walk of Fame when the great animation director Chuck Jones, suddenly realized she wasn't already there. June has been a favored voice performer in Chuck's cartoons and, rumor has it, he called up the appropriate folks at Warner Brothers and said something like, "It's a travesty that June isn't already there. Do something about it!"

They did — though by the time it was arranged, Universal Studios was about to release the recent Rocky and Bullwinkle movie. So Universal wound up paying for it.

If they hadn't, you could have raised the dough just by passing the hat amongst the crowd this morning. TV Legend Steve Allen, who was one of those who spoke before the unveiling, remarked, "I've been to a few dozen of these and this is the biggest turnout I've ever seen." Someone else suggested that if it wasn't, it was certainly the most loving, knowledgeable-about-the-honoree crowd.

The ceremonies take place on the sidewalk at 11:30 AM. A speakers' platform is erected right near where the plaque will be unveiled and traffic is diverted so fans have an area to mass and view the festivities. Usually, I'm told, they get tourists who just happen to be wandering the boulevard and who crowd up in the hope of seeing someone famous. Today though, the audience contained primarily folks who came purposefully to cheer the First Lady of Animation Voicing.

Mr. Allen spoke, Stan Freberg spoke, Gary Owens spoke. Chuck Jones was unfortunately under the weather and unable to attend, but dozens of June's other friends and associates were there: film maven Leonard Maltin, voice actress Nancy "Bart Simpson" Cartwright, actress Kathy Bates, Ramona Ward (widow of Jay), director Arthur Hiller, local radio reporter Tom Hatten, San Diego Con founder Shel Dorf, much of the Women in Animation group, cartoonists Sergio Aragonés, Phil Ortiz, Scott Shaw! and Stan Sakai, Des McAnuff (who directed the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie), Keith Scott (who voiced Bullwinkle in it)…I can't remember all the names…

What I do remember — what I will never forget — is the ovation June received when she stepped up to the podium. I've been around show biz long enough to evaluate applause. There's obligatory applause, perfunctory applause, relieved applause, delighted applause…

This was better than any of those. This was real applause. Loving applause.

Later on, most of us trucked over to a reception in her honor. June seemed a bit stunned by it all. I guess you don't get into voiceover work and then expect this kind of recognition.

I first met June Foray at some animation event in the early seventies. She was at all of them, for her devotion to cartoons did not stop when they finished recording the voice track. I could not believe how giving and generous she was with her time.

Later on, I had the pleasure of working with her several times. She was an absolute professional and an honor just to be around.

I'd say I directed her but that's only true on a technicality. Let me tell you how you "direct" June Foray. You say, "June, you're doing this part and this part and this part." And then you roll tape and shut the hell up…because she always does it right and anything you say can only make things worse.

That's how you "direct" June Foray. It's kinda like telling Tiger Woods how to putt.

All of this explains why today was June Foray Day in Hollywood. If you ask me, every day should be June Foray Day. And they should close the schools, so all the kids can go home and watch old Bullwinkle cartoons.

Before we go, I have to share with you all, another in the ongoing series of incredible coincidences that permeate my silly life.

Recently, I wrote — with the help of my pal, Earl Kress — the script for a Scooby Doo Video Game that will be released in a few months. This week, we had to record the voices. The voice of Scooby, by the way, is now being done by Scott Innes, a radio personality from Baton Rouge. He does an uncanny replica of the late Don Messick's Scooby mumbling.

I asked the producers not to schedule the recording session on Friday because I wanted to be — no, make that "had to be" — at the dedication ceremony. Well, based on when the talent was available, they decided it "had to be" on Friday. That meant I "had to be" in two places at once.

I sighed and asked them where the voice track was being recorded. They said Soundesign Studios. I asked where that was. They said it was located at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

Synchronicity: June Foray's star was being installed in front of the building at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was some magical force at work here…like someone waved a magic wand or something.

Hey…maybe there's a reason June's so good at playing witches…