Today is the natal anniversary of voice artist extraordinaire June Foray, born on September 18 in 1917, the same year that brought John F. Kennedy and Dizzy Gillespie into the world.
Before her plum role as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, June had a myriad of credits. Here she is on The Johnny Carson Show.
Of course, thinking of June Foray gets us thinking of cartoons by Jay Ward Productions, especially Rocky and Bullwinkle!
Am mystified as to why the previous graphic does not include one of June Foray's funniest characters, Nell Fenwick from Dudley Do Right!
June is all over the Jay Ward cartoons, playing numerous and varied roles, especially in the Fractured Fairy Tales.
Her "Marjorie Main" voice is particularly hilarious.
Being, as always, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write a Blog, today we'll post clips, beginning with June's appearance with Darrell Van Citters, author of The Art Of Jay Ward.
June is in a tie with Friz Freleng for the longest career in animation and was still working into her nineties.
The sheer number of credits across genres - radio (The Stan Freberg Show!), feature films, television, animation, recordings - is stunning, akin to opening a Wiki entry for Allan Dwan.
Many of us first became familar with June Foray's ability to ace any role with her contributions to Warner Bros. cartoons.
Check put the bravura performance in Tugboat Granny.
June was extremely active in ASIFA-Hollywood, the society devoted to promoting and encouraging animation and in establishing the Annie Awards, as well as the creation of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001.
Recall reading that filmmaker Gavin Frietas was producing a documentary about June a few years ago. Don't know if this film is commercially available for viewing on Blu-ray or DVD. Here is a clip from it which was posted on Gavin's YouTube page.
Having just made a cross country trip involving trains, planes and automobiles, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has enough energy to. . . well, watch Planes Trains & Automobiles but even more likely relax on a Friday with some cool cartoons.
The series of Jay Ward Productions, starting with Crusader Rabbit in the late 1940's, are a perennial favorite.
I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for the cartoons of Jay Ward Productions, even to the extent of having tracked down Bill Scott in November 1981 and interviewed him at length.
Jay Ward Productions' incredible roster of character actors/voice talents - Scott, June Foray, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Hans Conreid, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley - combined with the studio's satiric edge, still gets Mr. Blogmeister laughing after all these years.
In the TV cartoon field at that time, the Jay Ward cartoons were only equaled - in comedy mojo and voice work - by Pantomime Pictures' Roger Ramjet series.
Even the second string Jay Ward shows - Fractured Flickers and Hoppity Hooper - have much to offer in the way of big time belly laughs, in large part due to all of those incredible voice talents and the consistently brilliant comedy writing by Lloyd Turner, Allen Burns, Chris Hayward, Chris Jenkyns, George Atkins and head writer Bill Scott.
As far as the Jay Ward Productions commercials for Quaker Oats go, they were frequently wonderful and superior to the programs they sponsored.
The Jay Ward studio's last series, George Of The Jungle, also featuring Super Chicken and Tom Slick, certainly had moments of serious hilarity. Alas, the two decades after this went off the air, the 1970's and 1980's, would be a dark, dreadful, arid, awful and worst of all, boring stretch for American cartoons. . . a bombed-out wasteland.
June Foray's career in radio, recordings (Stan Freberg), movies and in the cartoons of Warner Bros. and Jay Ward Productions has been responsible for a gazillion laughs. Here she is with animator and writer Darrell Van Citters, author of The Art Of Jay Ward.
For more info, by all means get a copy of the Jay Ward Studio history, The Moose That Roared, A.S.A.P. The story of Jay Ward, Alex Anderson, Bill Scott and the multi-talented animators and voice artists involved in these shows has been painstakingly researched and very entertainingly written by character actor/voice artist/impressionist and film and radio historian Keith Scott.
I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for the cartoons of Jay Ward Productions, even to the extent of having tracked down Bill Scott in November 1981 and interviewed him at length.
Jay Ward Productions' incredible roster of character actors/voice talents - Scott, June Foray, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley - combined with the studio's satiric edge still gets Mr. Blogmeister laughing after all these years.
In the TV cartoon field at that time, the Jay Ward cartoons were only equaled - in comedy writing and voice work - by Pantomime Pictures' Roger Ramjet series.
For more info, by all means get a copy of the Jay Ward Studio history, The Moose That Roared.
The story of Jay Ward, Alex Anderson, Bill Scott and the multi-talented animators and voice artists involved in these shows has been painstakingly researched and entertainingly written by voice artist - impressionist - film and radio historian Keith Scott.
