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

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Since the beginning of animation, of the hundreds of people who traditionally worked on cartoons, usually it was only the executives or the directors who were given screen credit, leaving the general public none the wiser. Although it has been noted that a good vocal performance can save a mediocre cartoon or even elevate a good cartoon to a great one, especially when the animation is very limited, there are many reasons why producers were motivated from the verystart to keep the voice actors anonymous. In spite of the fact that animation is now often discussed as an art form, it has always been a business first, with none of the animators or voice artists among the most recognized. It has been suggested that keepingthe voicetalent anonymous ensured that other studios could not target actors to hire them away; however,the producer may also havewanted to ensure that the public could not associate the part with a specific person, as it could give the actor leverageto ask for more money.The earliest case in point might be the early Fleischer brothers' Popeye cartoons of the late 19308. According to Leslie Cabarga,the author of TheFleischer Story, actor William Costello performed the title voiceuntil "success went to his head"and he wasjudged"too difficult" to workwith. Consequently,when Popeye animator and writer Jack Mercer was hired away from the drawing board to continue the role for the XVII xviii INTRODUCTION next five decades, he did not receive screen recognition until the animated character made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Robert Altman live-action film. In fact, this dynamic is still very much in evidence even for an entity that has met with as much commercial success as The Simpsons. During the 1998 pay dispute between the Fox network and the voice actors, after nine years of work on the most successful comedy running, the cast was reportedly threatened by network executivesthat should they not reach an agreement , adequate replacements for the voice talent could be found at "any college campus." Not long after the animation industry began in earnest, labor struggles began among the production staff; recognition, of course, was an issue that lagged behind better wages and working conditions. Actors' unions had existed from the late nineteenth century when the American Federation of Labor issued acharter to the AssociatedActorsandArtistesofAmerica to represent the performers of the time; stage actors and vaudevillians had divergent interests and they split into Actor's Equity and the American Guild of Variety.With the invention of radio and film, the separation continued with the ScreenActorsGuild created to handle film actors while radio performers were then represented byAFRA—theAmerican Federation of RadioArtists. Who better amongthe voice-overartists to takeon the establishment than "Bluto," i.e., animation and radio veteran Jackson Beck? Beck, who was a charter member of AFRA, went on to become one of the founders of the American Federated Television and Radio Artists when television representation wasincorporated into AFRA in 1952. The holder ofAFTRA card number two (after the organizer, Broadway actor George Heller), Beck served in various executivecapacities within the union, including that of president in the 1970S. Over seven decades later, the union that Beck helped found remains a powerful organization, not just for animation actors but for all represented recording and broadcasting artists. Not surprisingly, it wasthe man who is still the most recognizable name in cartoon voice acting who activelychallenged the culture of anonymity for animation actors. In 1942, Mel Blanc and his wife, Estelle, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a raise from notoriously tight-fisted Warner Bros, executive Leon Schlesinger. In his 1988 autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc quoted Schlesinger asreplying to the request with "What do youwant more money for, Mel? You'll only have to pay more taxes." Blanc, who was not naïve enough to be duped by that strategy, had a sudden inspiration and struck a bargain that cost the studio no more money but paid off for him in more ways than he could have imagined. After the WarnerBros, shorts were graced with the screen credit "Voice Characterizations byMelBlanc,"hewas INTRODUCTION xix inundated with more offers of work than he could handle, which, he concluded , more than made up for any raise the studio could have offered. Although it set aprecedent for voice artists in general,it wasalso detrimental to the other Warner's actors as the blanket credit gave...