some Mel Blanc questions

[Madison Carter]

1. How did the situation with Blanc getting sole Voice Characterization credit come about, given the number of other voice actors WB employed?

2. Did Mel ever get credit on a cartoon that he never actually took part in?

3. How did other voice actors feel about their work not being credited?

4. Was Daffy the only major LT character that Blanc did whose voice was created by altering Blanc's original (speeding up, in this case)?

[cbrubaker]

To answer question #4, nope. Mel's Porky Pig's voice was also speeded up when recording his lines.

[Duck Dodgers]

if i remember well,the cartoons with the three bears in which billy bletcher,stan freberg and bea benaderet are the voice actors featured in the opoening credits for the voice characterization(but i'm not sure)

[J. B. Warner]

Four of Blanc's major voices were sped up after recording, those being Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, and Speedy Gonzales.

[Thad]

Warner Bros. wanted Blanc's versatile talents exclusively for their films, so they gave him exclusive "Vocal Characterization" credit starting with 1944's "Little Red Riding Rabbit" (Blanc was famous as the voice of Bugs Bunny, so only those cartoons had his name in the credits, until "Ain't That Ducky").

To be slightly fair to the other voice actors, Mel Blanc was only credited on films he did voices in, but not even in those films were the other actors credited. Despite the unfair nature of Blanc's contract, it's historic, as it made Warner Bros. the only studio to credit a voice actor on a cartoon short.

In 1960, when Mel Blanc's contract expired, the other voice actors were finally given credit (Sadly, this was after Arthur Q. Bryan's death :befuddled).

This topic and seeing "Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales" on HBO this morning made me remember how Blanc's fees were getting REALLY steep in the 1980s, and WB was thinking of letting Blanc go and have others voice Bugs, Daffy, Porky, and the rest. Of course, they never went through with this plan. Could you imagine the terrible publicity for WB if they canned the man who supplied the Looney Tunes character voices for 50 years?



-Thad

[Nanoumotion]

Another exception is the 1957 cartoon "Three Little Bops" for which, director Friz Freleng insisted to have Stan Freberg credited as the narrator.

[AngryBeavers]

Another exception is the 1957 cartoon "Three Little Bops" for which, director Friz Freleng insisted to have Stan Freberg credited as the narrator.Yeah, but according to Stan on the "Irreverent Imagination" documentary on the DVD, Friz Freleng still thought the "Stan Freberg" credit looked ridiculous.

[Jaime_Weinman]

And even in "Three Little Bops," Daws Butler (who voices the Wolf and at least one of the pigs) isn't credited. Giving credit to the voice actors just wasn't generally done, and Blanc was the big exception. Though there are a few '50s cartoons, like "Goo Goo Goliath," where even Blanc isn't credited, even though he's in it.

[detroittvguy]

I saw Mel speak at a local college in the late 70s. When asked if he voiced Pete Puma, Mel said "no," but he said he didn't know who did. Could there have been some bad blood between Blanc and Stan Freberg?

[AngryBeavers]

I saw Mel speak at a local college in the late 70s. When asked if he voiced Pete Puma, Mel said "no," but he said he didn't know who did. Could there have been some bad blood between Blanc and Stan Freberg?Maybe he just forgot the name, though it seems unlikely. There definately wasn't any blood on Stan's side. You can tell that from listening to him on the documentaries and commentaries on the LT: GC DVD (though he could have been faking it).

[Matthew Hunter]

You've also got to understand that Blanc worked with Freberg on "Rabbit's Kin" long before he spoke at your college. He may very well have forgotten who did the voice even if he knew and loved Stan Freberg....think how many cartoons and voices he did before and after that one cartoon. Pete Puma never appeared as such again in Blanc's lifetime, and certainly not with Stan's voice. Pete Puma is pretty well known now, but back when Blanc and Freberg recorded the voices, he was just a one-shot Bugs Bunny villain. The fact that Freberg remembered it well and Blanc forgot is no surprise to me in the least, and I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Blanc had something against Freberg. :bugs2:

[Yosemite682]

In one of the late 1960's early 70's WB cartoons Daws Butler is actually credited for the voice of a cartoon. I do not remember the name but it involves a magician mouse tries diferent tricks to get away from his only audience member-a cat. I think it is Robert Mckimson directed.:ysam:

[Matt the Y]

In one of the late 1960's early 70's WB cartoons Daws Butler is actually credited for the voice of a cartoon. I do not remember the name but it involves a magician mouse tries diferent tricks to get away from his only audience member-a cat. I think it is Robert Mckimson directed.:ysam:
That cartoon is "Merlin the Magic Mouse" from 1967. It was directed not by McKimson but by Alex Lovy (who was in charge of directing new WB cartoons at the time) and, although Butler supplied the voice in this cartoon, Larry Storch voiced the character in all subsequent Merlin cartoons (I've never quite understood why; Butler was a GREAT voice actor).

[J Lee]

That cartoon is "Merlin the Magic Mouse" from 1967. It was directed not by McKimson but by Alex Lovy (who was in charge of directing new WB cartoons at the time) and, although Butler supplied the voice in this cartoon, Larry Storch voiced the character in all subsequent Merlin cartoons (I've never quite understood why; Butler was a GREAT voice actor). Most likely due to scheduling. Butler was in great demand in the 1960s, especially at Hanna-Barbera, while Storch was actually working on the Warner Bros. lot as Cpl. Randolph Agarn in "F-Troop" so it was easy for the animation studio in 1967 to borrow him for a few minutes to do his lines.

Blanc signed his exculsive contract with Warners in the early 1940s, probably since the studio knew that not only was the popularity of their own characters voiced by Mel on the rise, but so was that of the character he was voicing over at Universal, Woody Woodpecker. They wouldn't ant ot lose his services to a rival studio if Walter Lantz decided to give Blanc an exclusive deal (Mel also did considerable voice work at MGM in the late 1930s under Freleng on the "Captain and the Kids" cartoons, and continued to work there for Friz in the Hugh Haman unit, and then for Harman directly into the early '40s after Friz went back to Warners. IIRC, when Hugh left Metro after using Blanc in "The Hungry Wolf" he wouldn't voice another MGM cartoon until the Chuck Jones T&J period, even though he didn't have an exclusing contract yet with Leon Schlesinger).

-- Also, when Freberg talked about Freleng saying the voice credits "looked ridiculous" he was talking about it being silly not having Stan's name of the credits of "Three Little Bops", and so he put it on there. Of course, since Stan in the previous 18 months had gotten his own CBS Radio national variety show (radio still had its non-music followers in the mid-50s), and a hit parody record in "Jessica and the Dragonette", people were far more likely to recognize Freberg's name when that cartoon hit the theaters than they would have been in the 1940s or early 50s.

[Javeman]

There have been a few exceptions. Two cartoons by MGM had vocal credits: "Johann Mouse" (Hans Conried) and "The First Bad Man" (Tex Ritter), both credited as Narrators.

[Elmerjfudd]

Warner Bros. wanted Blanc's versatile talents exclusively for their films, so they gave him exclusive "Vocal Characterization" credit starting with 1944's "Little Red Riding Rabbit" (Blanc was famous as the voice of Bugs Bunny, so only those cartoons had his name in the credits, until "Ain't That Ducky").

To be slightly fair to the other voice actors, Mel Blanc was only credited on films he did voices in, but not even in those films were the other actors credited. Despite the unfair nature of Blanc's contract, it's historic, as it made Warner Bros. the only studio to credit a voice actor on a cartoon short.

In 1960, when Mel Blanc's contract expired, the other voice actors were finally given credit (Sadly, this was after Arthur Q. Bryan's death :befuddled).

This topic and seeing "Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales" on HBO this morning made me remember how Blanc's fees were getting REALLY steep in the 1980s, and WB was thinking of letting Blanc go and have others voice Bugs, Daffy, Porky, and the rest. Of course, they never went through with this plan. Could you imagine the terrible publicity for WB if they canned the man who supplied the Looney Tunes character voices for 50 years?



-ThadAccording to Blanc,the REAL reason for the credit was,as usual for Schlesinger/Warners, a matter of money- Blanc wanted more more money,and Warner's was too cheap to gie him a raise,so Blanc figured (correctly it turned out) that screen credit would be more valuable in the long run..and sure enough, Blanc's RADIO work increased expotentially after he started receiving his 'voice characterzation' credit..more than making up for the lack of a raise AND all the other relatively low-paying toon work he missed out on from the exclusivitivity clause. It also didnt hurt that it was around this time that Benny started using Mel for more than growling as Carmichael the bear. Blancs biography,while entertaining, is FULL of hyperbole (he claims to have invented 'That's all Folks!' for example,when it used long before he showed up to TT),but that story rings very true....