The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors

PREFACE

PREFACE CARTOONS HAVE NO LIFE-SPAN. THEY UVE FOREVER. -JOE BARBERA I grewup aspart of the Hanna-Barbera generation. Although I waspartial to The JetsonSy Wally Gator, Lippy the Lion, Jonny Quest, and The New ScoobyDoo movies (How can you not be enthralled by the prospect of Scooby and the gang solving a mystery with Mama Cass?), my all-time favorite cartoon was TheFlintstones. I must have seen everyepisode at least thirty times, never tiring of the Hatrocks, Mr. Slate, the Way Outs, or Joe Rockhead. Even though most fans despised the episodes with the Great Gazoo, who showed up in season six, I loved them.Youcan imagine my excitement when,in1972, my parents took me to Custer, South Dakota, to visit Flintstone Village, a tourist attraction (or "trap"as my father called it) which wasa replica of the town of Bedrock.There werestone houses, a stone bank, and a stone theater, which showed The Flintstones exclusively.The best part of it all was the fact that they had Fred's and Barney's cars, which were street legal (on anygiven day, you could see them motoring around Custer). Little did I know at the time that my fascination with the inhabitants of Bedrock would lead to the book you nowhold in your hands. In 1984,1happened to catch an episode of TheFlintstonesy and,havingseen it manytimesbefore, I found myself not somuch watchingthe showas listening to it. I became engrossed in the performance ofAlan Reed and thought, "I ix PREFACE know the voice is perfect for Fred Flintstone, but is it perfect for AlanReed?" How did Reedlook?Ifiguredit would be easyto find the answersto myquestions by heading out to my local library (at the time, there wasno luxuryof surfing the Internet). I wassurprised to find that not only wasthere nothing available on Reed,there was nothing availableon any voice-over artists, save for the straytidbit about MelBlanc. I decided that if I was curious about my favorite voice actors, others would be interested aswell.That iswhen I decided to take on this project. I had no idea where to begin until I found a book about animated shows in general. Thebook had nothing on the actors themselves, but it did haveone valuable piece of information—the credits! That is when I first became aware of a man named Daws Butler. Butler's name was associated with almost every cartoon Hanna-Barbera made, as well as dozens of cartoons from just about every other studio. Since Reed had died in 1977, Butler was the logical person with whom to start. I called the Screen Actors Guild to see if I could get a contact for Butler. The conversation went something like this: TIM: Hello, I'm trying to locate Mr. DawsButler. S.Â.6.: Checking— Sorry,we haveno listing for a Doug Butler. TIM: No, it's Daws Butler. He does the voices for Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, and dozens of other characters. S.A.G.: Oh, well,no wonder I can't find him.Wedon't consider voice people to be actors. I was speechless. How could the Screen Actors Guild not consider these great talents to be actors? I wasdiscouraged, but I decided to give it one last try. On impulse (I wasyoungand verynaïve)I packed up my car and drove 2,400 miles to LosAngelesto seeif I could get this project off the ground. I remembered seeing JayWard Studios with its giant statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle on Sunset Boulevardon a trip to LosAngeleswith my parents in 1977, so I used that as a starting point. I arrived and nervouslywalkedto the entrance of the small,brown building and knocked on the front door. Avery nice gentleman answered and asked me to come in. Tomy surprise, the man turned out to be Bill Hurtz, who directed many of the Bullwinkk episodes. The director asked me to excusethe messand gave me a tour of the building, which looked like a rundown workshopwith cerealboxesand bits of animation lying around on antiquated light tables. He then informed me that my timing couldn't have been better, as the studio was closing for good in one x PREFACE xi week. He was in the process of finishing up some animation for a Capt'n Crunch commercial, but took time out to listen to my idea for a book about voice-over actors and agreed that it wasaproject that wasalong time...