Milton Knight is an accomplished animator, designer, painter and filmmaker – and a periodic contributor to this blog. A few weeks ago he posted a video on Facebook featuring scenes with voice actors he likes. I asked Milton to expand upon that – tell us in a few words what he likes about these voices. Animators often cite their artistic influences, but it’s very rare to hear them talk about vocal talent. Following Milton’s comments, below the video, I asked voice expert Keith Scott to give us a little background on the performers Milton selected. I hope you enjoy this double-header post today. – Jerry Beck
I prefer voices that are not dogged put-ons. Voices that sound like people. For example:
HONEY’S MONEY – Wentwoth
Contrasting with his appearance, the voice is an overly gleeful child who “needs his nap”. Refreshing that he wasn’t given the Blanc “moron” voice.
A CAR-TUNE PORTRAIT – The Lion Master of Ceremonies
Stentorian tones, eloquent while avoiding dislikable pomposity. His “Greetings, my good friends”, sounds entirely sincere without parody, even coming from a lion in a tux.
FLY HI (?) – a Fly
Often the Van Beuren Fables sound as if they were built around whatever entertainer was going to be in town, A ‘precious’ voice that has the feel of a stage performer. The British accent doesn’t play into the situation at all. I think this is a female.
BEHIND THE CLOCK – Owl
An ad for Kellogg’s by Anson Dyer (British). Finicky, blustering, human-y voice. Watch it here.
GRIN AND SHARE IT. – Spike
An Irishman’s gentle bellow. An unctuous, insincere eloquence.
“Behind The Clock”
A false frog’s croak, incongruous.
GET RICH QUICK PORKY – The Huckster
Smooth, unctuous. A lovely and fast talker, literally.
LITTLE FOX
From a 1970s People’s Republic of China cartoon that frequently turned up as filler on cable television in the 1980s. Cajoling with an audible sneer. The actor doesn’t sound like English was his first language and lends a unique inflection. In other parts, a Papa Bear shouts “You god damn swindler” and a Bunny Rabbit cries “You bastard!” I can only suppose that they didn’t reckon that these lines were taboo in America.
THE BIG CITY – Bubble
Hearty, deep British voice coming from the chest. Very male. Most likely a smoker.
CINDERELLA BLUES – Fairy
A staff member who did most of the vocal noises in the early 30s Van Beurens goes falsetto for a Beautiful Fairy Queen, but I wasn’t fooled for a moment.
CHEW CHEW BABY – Wally Walrus
A thick, convincing accent that made the character. No subsequent actors equaled it . An overly dramatic astonishment, as if the ‘ruse’ hadn’t been obvious.
LORBER’S FOR SERVICE – Narrator
A commercial short from Australia with matter-of-fact cruel humor. Extra points for the deadpan delivery. Watch the full short here.
WET BLANKET POLICY – Buzz Buzzard / Woody
Lionel Stander’s ashtray rasp captures the unwholesome district of Damon Runyon. The bee buzz Woody voice is heard here and then in THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, where there is barely acting in his deadpan delivery. [I thought it’s Bugs Hardaway.
TOONERVILLE PICNIC – Doctor
A radio announcer-like voice, musical and crisply delivered. No “hey, I’m a cartoon!” here.
WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO – Bluto
I had thought this was Dave Barry’s voice; p’raps not. More of a “reader” than actor, but strong and more eloquent than Bluto has a right to be. His laugh is no Gus Wickie or Jackson Beck, but I like it.
“Clobber” by Moye
Comedian and entertainer doing Heckle’s slick wise guy normal voice plus an enjoyable Jolson schtick.
Allen was versatile, doing the voices of both magpies plus their adversaries.
• The frightening soliloquy from the earlier HAPPY GO LUCKY spotlights the warm syrup tones of Sid Raymond.
• The Wolf in FLYING SOUTH is, I believe, a Greek accent. Hungry Greek wolves appeared frequently in Terrytoons, usually on the prowl for Gandy Goose. A friend tells me the bass, stilted reading is Herschel Bernardi.
• Ending with Doug Moye in CLINT CLOBBER’S CAT. A natural non-actor actor.
In this interesting Milton Knight-created compilation of short cartoon sequences, there is a raft of unusual voices, some quite well known to cartoon buffs and some still highly obscure. I won’t pretend to know any of the voices in the early black and white Van Beuren clips (it’s obvious some are staff members, including a female voice done by a man using a wobbly falsetto), but some others here merit a note for their sheer longevity (Earle Hodgins) or, conversely, the brevity of their careers (young Billy Booth).
Most prominent in this video montage are the true professional voices, such as David Ross, the talking lion MC in Fleischer’s A Cart-Tune Portrait (1937). He was a cultured, literate critic and author who turned to New York radio announcing in the early 1930s. His sonorous tones with the perfectly modulated speech were in demand on top East Coast radio programs as a commentator on musical fare like The Fred Waring Show and Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer. He could almost be mistaken for Frank Gallop (later the narrator of the Famous Studios Casper cartoons, although Gallop had a slightly more ironic tone and could do comedy. Ross was pretty straight, but blessed with that baritone smoothness).
Another fine artist was Earle Hodgins, here heard as Honest John Gusher in a clip from Get Rich Quick Porky. A member of a Mormon family from Utah, he spent the decade of the 1920s learning the craft of a versatile character man in traveling stock companies, then honing his vocal ability to talk very quickly (and still be understood) by jumping into the very new vocal medium of radio in San Francisco, where he was a writer, actor and studio director. He ventured to Los Angeles in 1933 and gained more radio work at the Warner Bros. owned station KFWB, in various short-form comedy programs like Comedy Stars of Hollywood and Hi-Jinks. Here he perfected the con artist voice he became known for in scores of movies, particularly Westerns, where he played the snake oil salesman-patent medicine-motormouth character he made his specialty, which got him hired by Tex Avery for cartoons like Porky’s Garden, or this Bob Clampett clip from, as noted above, 1937’s Get Rich Quick Porky. He was a most prolific actor who worked until his death at age 70 in 1964.
The little boy voice accompanying the hideously large brat Wentworth (at the very start of this video) is Billy Booth from the Yosemite Sam starrer Honey’s Money. Booth was a child actor (aged eleven when he recorded this), and was most known for the role of Dennis the Menace’s buddy Tommy in the long -running TV series of the late 1950s.
We also hear Bill Thompson, as the Irish-inflected Butch the Bulldog with Droopy; Allen Swift mumbling as Clint Clobber; Jack Mather as Wally Walrus in the 1945 Woody Woodpecker entry Chew-Chew Baby; movie actor Lionel Stander as villainous Buzz Buzzard in Wet Blanket Policy (Lantz loved his voice and would often brag at conventions “I used Lionel Stander as the voice of the buzzard!!!”; a frustratingly unknown bass baritone used only once for Bluto in the all-musical Popeye classic We’re On Our Way to Rio; Dave Weber is heard as the first Heckle & Jeckle voice in this compilation, followed by Sid Raymond also having a go at the magpie, and I think it’s Dayton Allen as the French accented Wolf in a third Terry clip, but not certain 100%). Some others here are ones I can’t ID at present.