That's a photo of Bill Scott, who was the voice of Bullwinkle and the producer of his show, and June Foray, who was the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. This photo did not make the cut and is not found in June's newly-released autobiography, Did You Grow Up With Me, Too?
But dozens of other great photos did. They illustrate the wonderful anecdotes and the delightful tale of how this tiny lady with the big voice became the First Lady of Cartoon Voices...and by the way, she's also been heard in hundreds and hundreds of non-animated movies and TV shows and commercials, and she founded the L.A. branch of ASIFA and she was on the Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy and she's just an amazing woman.
The book made its debut at the Comic-Con in San Diego, where the line of June's fans backed up to Frostbite Falls. Not everyone had a chance to purchase one with her autograph so we've decided to make that possible. We've set up www.juneforay.com where you can go — right this minute, even — and order your every own copy, signed by June...and she'll even autograph it to you.
Earl Kress and I helped her write it, and our pal Leonard Maltin contributed the foreword. But never mind us. Get one because it's June Foray. That's reason enough right there.
Once again, that's www.juneforay.com. Your one-stop destination for copies of June Foray's autobiography signed by June Foray.
About once a week, some blossoming cartoonist writes to ask me about art supplies. Seeing as how I last purchased art supplies in the eighties, I'm probably the wrong guy to ask. One right guy would be Tom Richmond, who does such splendid work for MAD Magazine. In this post, he tells of what he uses...and his whole blog is a trove of tips for those who wish to make money drawing silly pictures.
While I'm on the subject of Tom: That Sergio guy ain't the only one of The Usual Gang of Idiots whose work is hanging in a museum someplace. A show of Tom's spot-on caricatures is currently festooning the walls of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, which I believe is located in, uh, Pittsburgh. If you too are located in Pittsburgh or anywhere near it, you might want to drop by. And believe it or not, Sergio will be drawing on the walls of the Men's Room there, too.
A couple of points about this article that notes the ratings plunge (but demographics gain) of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien behind the desk. One is, of course, that NBC ain't as happy with the situation as they claim to be. They couldn't be. Another is that CBS isn't crowing too loudly about Letterman's ratings dominance because everyone at both networks is thinking that anything can happen once Mr. Leno's new show debuts. It's all so lacking in precedent — and the viewerships for Conan and Dave seem so uncommitted — that no one wants to predict anything.
And the third thing is that because of the second thing, everyone's quietly drawing up contingency plans. CBS is thinking about what they'll do if all the late night viewing patterns collapse. NBC is thinking about what it would involve to put Leno back on The Tonight Show. And all the other networks are thinking that once they see what Leno's show will do to the dynamics, it might be a dandy time to invest in new late night programming. No one's saying it out loud but meetings are being held and proposals are being pitched. A friend of mine who's in the thick of it says, "Everyone knows someone's going to eat it...and they're all poised to leap in and capitalize on that failure. Just as soon as they know whose it is."
Bob Elisberg — who, I'm proud to say, I no longer owe a lunch or anything else — thinks that a Kennedy Center nod should go to the songcrafting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Absolutely.
For what it's worth: In the upcoming Writers Guild election, I'm throwing my support to the slate of Elias Davis for President, Tom Schulman for Vice President and David N. Weiss for Secretary/Treasurer. Here's a link to the website promoting this trio and many fine board candidates. Not that there aren't some good folks not on this list...but I think the Guild is doing a lot of things right these days and that these candidates are primed to continue and build on that momentum.
Last night, I posted a link to a commercial for Fruit Stripe Gum and made reference to the ubiquitous (for a time in New York) singer who sang for the zebra in it. Greg Ehrbar, who knows about this kind of stuff, says it's probably Mike Stewart...and the female singer is Robie Lester, who was on every kids' record that came out in the fifties and sixties. Or so it seems.
Greg also notes that in South Pacific, Bill Lee did the singing for John Kerr. I've written before here about Mr. Lee, who was heard in a heck of a lotta movies. Greg reminded me of a few in his e-mail: Bill Lee sang for Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music and for Yogi Bear in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear. What's more, his daughter Diana sang for Samantha Eggar in Doctor Dolittle, Diana Sowle in Willy Wonka and Liv Ullmann in Lost Horizon. So dubbing other actors is apparently hereditary.
Moving on to new business: Thirty-five years ago today, Richard M. Nixon resigned as President of the United States. Here's part of the speech he delivered in prime time the night before. My father thought it was the best thing he ever saw on television and was hoping the networks would make it a weekly series...
August 10, 2009
