Hansel? HANSELL??

As the Prince would say in "Bewitched Bunny".

Sorry for the three month wait for a new post, but there will be more.

So you think that you know about the voice of Sniffles, the cherbuic WB cartoon mouse, or maybe some MGM squirrells, rabbits, dolls,mice,etc. or
Disney or Lantz cartoon animals. You probaly now have heard of BERNICE HANSEN. You know what the name is...
And she was a nonentity.,.
AND she was a child actresss.. blah blah..

Well...you'd be both right [on the roles EXCEPT Sniffles!] and MOSTLY WRONG...for starters:
Berneice Edna HANSELL [fill in your "Bewitched Bunny"[WB,`1954] quote]
was bkorn 7/11/1897 in Los Angeles, California, died 4/3/1981.
She was a seamstress as as well, and got into more trobule than her cute little animal alter egos ever did.
So you think that you know about the voice of Sniffles, the cherbuic WB cartoon mouse, or maybe some MGM squirrells, rabbits, dolls,mice,etc. or
Disney or Lantz cartoon animals. You probaly now have heard of BERNICE HANSEN. You know what the name is...
And she was a nonentity.,.
AND she was a child actresss.. blah blah..

Well...you'd be both right and MOSTLY WRONG...for starters:
Bernice Edna HANSELL [fill in your "Bewitched Bunny"[WB,`1954] quote]
was bkorn 7/11/1897 in Los Angeles, California, died 4/3/1981.
She was a seamstress as as well, and got into more trobule than her cute little animal alter egos ever did.

<a href=http://tralfaz.blogspot.com">Yowp's second blog</a> has the story.

She was just one of many of theser thirties-mid forties voices [including Sniffles, who lasted till the end of "Porky in a Drum" ending, 1945's "Hush My Mouse"]..and, now, here is the BIG thing..remember at the TOP when I wrote "she was the voice of the cartoon mouse S NIFFLES".?
Well, for ten years it was been mentioned the lamented ANIMATO! that someone else was..in addition to the CORRECT name given and date.. It is that real name BERNICE NAHSELL I plan to use when in reference to her.
As for the  REAL Sniffles, it was revealed and publicised by Keith Scott, Hames Ware and Graham Webb in ANIMATO!`, the 1990s animatiun magazine, that Gay Seabrooke was the voice as I and others
have already mentioned, and Sara Berner took over.
As also known, Bernice Hansell retired in 1940 but DID NOT die [see top and Tralfaz Blog by D.M.Yowp]
So who did the other cute child voices in the thirties [and for a while into the WW forties]?

I posted early in this blog's history.

Ironically, didn't work at, at least one L.A. studio..
She was just one of many of theser thirties-mid forties voices [including Sniffles, who lasted till the end of "Porky in a Drum" ending, 1945's "Hush My Mouse"]..and, now, here is the BIG thing..remember at the TOP when I wrote "she was the voice of the cartoon mouse S NIFFLES".?
Well, for ten years it was been mentioned the lamented ANIMATO! that someone else was..in addition to the CORRECT name given and date.. It is that real name BERNICE NAHSELL I plan to use when in reference to her.
As for the  REAL Sniffles, it was revealed and publicised by Keith Scott, Hames Ware and Graham Webb in ANIMATO!`, the 1990s animatiun magazine, that Gay Seabrooke was the voice as I and others  have already mentioned, and Sara Berner took over.

As also known, Berneice Hansell retired in 1940 but DID NOT die [see top and Tralfaz Blog by D.M.Yowp]
So who did the other cute child voices in the thirties [and for a while into the WW forties]?
I posted in the second post on this..

All about Pooh as a TV cartoon corpuscule??

What would you have thought bsck in 1971, if you saw a S teleivison animation ad and heard Sterling Holloway..if you thought Disney on TV you would be understanble but wrong.."All About Me" [1972] was a independently produced special about a kid who daydreams his way into his own body [yes, I kid you not] and meets a "Colonel Corpuscule" with Pooh's voice, courtesy of Sterling Holloway. There follows [with apparently no other major voice artists] a trip through his body with inside body villians equalling real diseases. Of course it turns out to be a dream.

It hasn't been seen since..

I mght add that this seems to be Sterling Holloway's mosty oddest and strongest sounding role outside Disney and a rare voice acting role outside Disney animation. It saired as one of the typical Sat.AM animated specials that used to air, here in the early 1970s. It would be interesting to hear more about this.

Credits-thanks to IMDB.I just noticed some familiar names

"All About Me"


A Production of ANIMATED CARTOON PRODUCTIONS

Debuted on Saturday, January 13, 1973 on NBC CHILDRENS SHOWCASE

CAST
Col.Corpuscle/STERLING HOLLOWAY
The Little Boy/PETER HALTON
With NANCY WIBLE, KEN SANSOM & SIMMY BOW

Directed and co-Written by BILL ACKERMAN

Additional writers are CAL HOWARD, ROY FREEMAN, WILLIE ITO, & RIC GONZALES

Produced by EMIL CARLE

Music by C.C.RYDER [I am NOT making that UP!]

FIlm editing by BOB LINVALL

For a full list of credits, see
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1351021/fullcredits#writers

Mr.Turtle, Mr.Turtle, Mr,Turtle..MR.COW?????? A look at the original version of that beloved 1969 lollipop commercial

"Mr.Turtle".."Mr.Owl"..then announcer. "Mr.Turtle".."Mr.Owl"..then announcer. "Mr.Turtle".."Mr.Owl"..then announcer.
Okay, you know how that ONE OLD commercial to run, on all stations, not just NICK at NITE as a "Retro-Mercial "starts. Okay, here it again..."Mr.Cow"..WHATTT! Mr.COW. With Frank Nelson doing his famed "Eyessssss" shtick..okay, conversaiton..then okay, little biy meets Mr.TURTLE---wait. No. MR.FOX--with Peter Lorre [Paul Frees}?
Mr.Fox's advice now, though, DOES lead to.."Mr.Turtle".."Mr.Owl"..then announcer. EXCEPT for a little bit of dialogue from the owl
and some smart alecky retort due to the owl eating the kid's lollipop, this is the same..As a matyter of the fact the title is Mr.Cow..won a Cleo award [for ads] in 1971.
Now WHAT WAS that?

It's the original late 1969 version of the memorable, perrenial "Tootsie Pop ad".
You know, the one that at least a lot of you, under, say, 35 years, know as follows:
Boy (goes up to the turtle, Tootsie roll pop in his hand, voiced by Jodie Foster's brother Buddy):"Mister Turtle. How many LICKS does it take to get to the
TootsieTM  Roll center of a Tootsie PopTM"
Turtle (elderly, with glasses, voiced by "Mork and Mindy"'s Ralph James):"I never made it without biting. Ask Mr.
Owl.
(Scene fades)
Boy (now with Owl on tree):"Mr.Owl, How many LICKS does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll
centre of a Tootsie PopTM.
Owl (voiced by Paul Winchell a la British actor Richard Haydn?):"A good QUESTION, let's find out"(licks then bites the kid's sucker!):
"A-one, a two"(then after crunching into it), a-three), (gives lollipop back to boy,who is now very visibled disgrunted) "A thr-r-re"9trills R's)
Announcer (Herschel "Fiddler on the Roof" Bernardi and in the world of commercials, elsewhere in TV land as "Charlie the Tuna", normal tone):
"How many licks Does it take.." You readers already know that ad...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhjb4P_jnKk&feature=related
The original was the same with the following..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2xMGI-QpZw
It was cut down due to FCC rules agaunst boringly long commercials.. In either case, it's the only surviving ad..and inspired many T shirts, YouTube parodies, as well as the writer-director's original online, done for Fred Wolf, ["The Point",etc/]. Now...just HOW MANY licks DOES it take...depends on whether one eats or lkcks the lollipop..it's never aired in its original form since around 1972, its fourth year.

CAST
The Little Boy/BUDDY FOSTER
The Cow [yesss..male]/FRANK NELSON
The "Peter Lorre-sounding" Fox/PAUL FREES
The Turtle/RALPH JAMES
The Owl/PAUL WINCHELL
The Announcer/HERSCHEL BERNARDI

Happy New Years, and upcoming odds here 'n' ends there

Happy New Year's day to all readers, even if it IS a few days late.

Nothing exactly yet has been planned but ideas are:
"Flintstones" credits from earlier 1960-62 altered to fit one post-Pebbles,1962 episode when the Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures TV fonts since September 1966 when the show first went into syndication [thank you Screen Gems./Columbia TV\and then the restoration of the first seasons by the late Earl Kress to the fit the season each given episode is from, post-childbirth/1962,since circa around 2000, as well as the
use of similiar gang credits from the remainder 1960-62 aince 1995.

At least one look at one obscure Saturday Morning cartoon special.

The real vs imitated voices of animated characters based on 1920s-1960s radio/cartoon voices [example,. Frank Nelson and Howard MacNear alternating being, and impersonting, their respective trademark personas on very early "Flintstones"].

Oddball opening circle/shield titles in Warner Bros.cartoons.


The "Hold the tiger" roaring lion used in some MGM cartoons.

Some long-forgotten animated TV commercials of 1950s-early 1970s and the original "Tootsie Pop Licks" ad as it appeared back in fall/winter 1969 and a "share" commerical from that time.

And many more, as they, hopefully, not neccessarily in that order. I may be starting music and other type blogs, so check back.

And for heaven's sake, go to Internet Animation Database forums and GAC Facebook, and my Your Pony Pal Pokey,too, blog, about the 1950s-60s state of Gumby

Goodbye, Golden Age Cartoon Forums..

And welcome back!

The longtime GAC forums, in various incarnations, also known as the Termite Terrace Trading Post, which since 2004 had been under the GAC name, has been discontinued as of last month.

However, it lives on in GAC Archives. There is also the GAC Facebook as well. Also, IAD - Internet Animation Database - Forum has carried on the tradition of the forums, which started around 1997 as just The Termite Terrace Trading Post, after the old 1930s-1960s Warner Bros.cartoon unit [actually, THAT name started in the mid to late 30s for the more outrageous Tex Avery type cartoonists..:)]...I post under Pokey J.Anti-Blockhead [neat, no?:)] on that forum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICKEY MOUSE!

One of most beloved but eventually blandest, sadly, cartoon characters had a birthday, in 1928: Walt Disney's loved little barnyard scrawny whiskered rat, known as one Mortimer Mickey Mouse. Mickey has been made a goody goody two shoes through the decades, all the way to the asinine [They Might Be Giants's presence notwithstanding] CGI [not the only reason for the bad quality] "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" almost ten years, where Mickey talks babyish. But there was a time, yes there was a time, back to "Plane Craxy","Steamboat Willie",etc. when there WAS a BRAVE and ADVENTUROUS Mickey Mouse.


Mickey came out of an irony when Walt had been riding on the train, legendarily, with wife Lillian, according to a fable straight out of Walt's animated feature movies themselves, when he thought up the character, or in his studio in another alternate universe, when a little mouse and him shared food, either way after his Oswald fiasco with Universal, whoi'd gotten that earlier rabbit which just a few years back Disney glot back, and who had then given Walt Lantz the character [the *&%$#hole that stole the pre-Bugs Bunny rabbit from Walt, Charlie Mintz, would move to Columbia, ironically, a 1930s distributor of...DISNEY films...]. But like Lantz's Woody Woodpecker it seems that this is not exactly true..but unlike the honeymoon versus Woody production at the Lantz studio that busts the honeymoon of Walt and Grace Stafford Lantz, it still seems shrounded in mousy msytery as to Mickey creation, only that Ub Iwerks had done the actual creation and design. The character eventually after auditions got Walt's voice, one of many in house voices, and then went to a major debut of sound in animation after Warner Bros. before their own animation entry a few years later with the Harman-Ising studio, had AL Jolson ushering the sound era in [the subject of the upcoming indie flick "The Artist"] at all.

Mickey Mouse is maybe the most misunderstood 1930s-1940s American classic theatrical cartoon character of all time.

During the thirties, Mickey, with Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy [nothing like a dog who stands up and a dog who walks in one cartoon, eh?:)], went on straight adventure, but by the mid thirties became so popular he became the male Shirley Temple. To put into context Disney got so many letter from angry parents that Mickey wanted to kick ass [LITYERALLY], that supporting cast nonethless [Leonard Maltin and others writing noted the surperior supporting cast issue here], it wasn't as much fun to watch the mouse.



Technicolor wasn't needed, nor Eastman or Cinecolor [THOSE were for the competition!!] for the black and white mouse even after color entered the new;ly started 1928-1939 "Silly Symponies" starting with "Flowers & Trees" on. But from "Band Concert" [1935], the studio did color cartoons, but sitll had exclusive "3-Color Tech." rights.However the mosue by 1939 was, well, fading.


He did get into The Major Expirment in November 1940--"Fantasia": in the second sequence "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", which brought him new fame, playing the title character. But kit wasn't tioll; mid 1940s, ironically when Disney retired playing his character but then in 1953 with "Simple Things" retired Mickey, with Bugs, Woody, and even Disney's own supporting cast outshining The Mouse [and sound effects guy Jim MacDonald took over the voice] by "Fun and Fancy Free". '

However 1955 brought the first [and REAL in my humble opinion] "Mickey Mouse Club", the first TV adaptation of the old `1930s theatrical and radio clubs, and he appeared on the opens and throughout, and in 1972 "The Mouse Fsctory debuted", but after 1958 it was just "symbol time"..Supermouse..Happy Hamster [he could be a great straight man to the Kia sports car hamster..] Fortunately the public and The Walt Disney Company havben't forgot and built him up in historical recongition though in one of  the slight inaccuracries, the originally silent-made 1927 "Plane Crazy" and "Galloping Gauchos" predated the 1928 "Steamboat Willie" which was the first with sound.
and that is what got added to the others once Warner Bros. found Al Jolson "Mammy-ing" in "Jazz Singer" [1927] to be a major turning point.

Attermpts WERE made, from "edgy" to "BABYISH" [the aforementioned "Mickey Mouse Clubhbouse"] to continue the mouse, who in 1983 DID get a comeback with a filmed version of the 1974 "Mickey Christmas Carol".

What's the REAL reason for historians's hysterical misinformation??

A post on the legendary Joel Whitburn's music stastistics Record Research/Billboard books on here

http://bsnpubs.websitetoolbox.com/post/Whitburn-mistake-5552011?pid=1271091327[ and a few entries in his famed Billboard Record Research books that turned out to be red herrings has instigigateed this topic.

We all know that the kids stuff rep of cartoons, sweet or violent, got the shorts tarred in America thru the 1960s.

We also know that skimpy credits led to wrong credits [five words: "Voice  Characterizations by Mel Blanc." And this "Film Editor" Treg Brown.The contractual or idiosyncratic practices. Short subjects like the Three Stooges at Columbia, which, showing the studio's own cheapness, only listed the stars, ntot he character actors/leading ladies of the live Stooges, so it wasn't just cartoon shorts with skimpy credits, likely stock-cues and sound effects on TV shows of the 1950s never got credited for the most part..]

Of course, then, it was okay, to deny credit for legal and contractual or other reasons, or to give somewhat undersating credits, this extending to not mentioning outisde "Now Hear This", 1963, that Treg Brown did SOUND EFFECTS, as well.

It seems any kinds of reason emrge from Jeff Lenburg: Example: "'Snoopy Come Home' [1972] ended tragically".[Not verbatim]. Many miscredits in the Lenburg books and in others. The usually accurate Graham Webb has, despite what animation fan "Sogturtle" has said in the old Termite Terrace Trading Post, wound up sadly wrong on voice credits. Not all, but a handful.

 All of this, of course, due to sloppy research, in short, or l.ack of interest, just wanting to show a hatrred or boredom of the subject [I know how that can be ] so as not to give any accurate data on the topic

BUT there is another, LEGITIMATE reason, getting back to showbiz, to animation, for having WRONG information. The attempt to stop plagiarism. [The link above at the start of this post would be the case, if you  wind up at "Whitburn Mistake"].


Many showbiz historians apparently have admitted to using false info to keep their books, in short, disctinctive, to track down those who would run off with the information.

[Keith Scott may take note here regaridng Graham Webb, that guesswork-both men certainly liked the cartoons, so ignorance wasn't a factor here!-may have not been the only reason for incorrect information in that Webb "The Animated Film Encyclopedia',2000, McFarlane Press].