We don't hear nearly enough from Merrill Markoe, one of the smartest, funniest women I've ever encountered. Here she is discussing George W. Bush's proposals to improve the lot of marriage in this country.

Yesterday was a bad day for people who worked with Stan Freberg. Not only did we lose Ann Miller, who starred in his most famous commercial, but death also claimed Stan's long-time friend and musical arranger, The Great Billy May. That's what everyone called him. In fact, when Stan introduced me to him, he said, "Mark, I'd like you to meet The Great Billy May." And later at the party where that occurred, I heard other people saying to him, "I always wanted to meet The Great Billy May." There was not an ounce of sarcasm in that title…only honesty and love.

Billy was one of the great bandleaders and arrangers of American popular music. To please both Freberg and Sinatra, you had to be. He arranged most of Stan's records, including both volumes (thirty-some-odd years apart) of Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. It represented only a small part of his credits, some of which are recounted in this obit. Many of his albums are still in print, and probably always will be. Listen to any of 'em and you'll know why they called him what they called him.

So far, none of the obits I've seen for Ann Miller have mentioned what was to me her most impressive credit. She was a wonderful star of musical comedy on stage and screen, but she also starred in what was, at the time of its filming, the most expensive TV commercial ever made. In 1970, Stan Freberg wrote, produced and directed a spot for Great American Soups that proved more memorable than the product. Ann played a housewife who broke into a Busby Berkeley style production number when her husband (played by Dave Willock) asked her what was for dinner. One of the costliest parts of the spot came when a giant Great American Soup can came up from below the floor and Ms. Miller tap-danced on top of it.

To accomplish this, they had to cut a hole in the floor of a soundstage at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio and install an elevator…but to Stan, no expense was too great, especially when someone else was paying for it. The sponsor may not have been too happy but Ann later credited the commercial with revitalizing her career in the seventies. She remained a star 'til the end, playing on Broadway and in regional productions. Many of the latter were productions of the musical, Follies, where she often sang Stephen Sondheim's defiant "I'm Still Here," a song which could have been sub-titled "The Ann Miller Story." Sad to say, she's not still here…but what a life that woman had.

Michael Kinsley on the current definition of "compassionate conservatism."

One of my right-wing friends has an interesting take on all this proposed spending, deficits and enlargement of government. He thinks it's all a smokescreen; that Bush is saying what Bush has to say to get re-elected and to have long enough coat-tails to keep Democrats from recapturing either the House or the Senate. Then, once he's got his four more years, Bush and Congress will simply kill all the expensive programs and enact everything on the Conserative Wish List. In other words, "Let's vote for Bush because in our hearts, we know he won't do what he's currently promising." It's an interesting argument…one we'll probably hear from his most fervent supporters as a reason to vote for him, and from his more fervent detractors as a reason not to.

Andrew Leal, who is the Webmaster for Toonjunkies.com sends the following to continue our discussion of New York cartoon voice actors. And isn't this a lot more important than discussing who's going to be the Democratic nominee for president?

Very much intrigued by the present discussions on your site regarding New York voice actors on records and in cartoons. Since Frank Milano has come up, I've sometimes wondered which sources are correct regarding Mr. Lizard myself, especially since most of the other times that I've heard Mr. Milano, they haven't been dialogue roles. From the 30's through the 50's, Frank Milano appears to have worked semi-frequently in radio as an animal imitator, and much less frequently in speaking dialect roles (usually Greek or Italian). He played Flush the Dog in an early New York broadcast of The Barretts of Wimpole Street on Lux Radio Theater and according to radio historian John Dunning and others, was the resident animal specialist on the kids western Bobby Benson and the B-Bar Riders, as various cattle, panthers, dogs, and Bobby's horse Amigo. Also played cats in episodes of Suspense and CBS Radio Workshop. In television, UCLA's film and TV archive identifies him as providing "special vocal effects" on the Wally Cox sitcom Mr. Peepers along with Donald Bain, another (and judging from most radio memoirs, far more active and better known) radio animal imitator. All sources seem to agree on his having worked on the early puppet show Rootie Kazootie as well, puppeteering and voicing Little Nipper and the villainous Poison Zoomack.

It strikes me as just possible that Mr. Milano may have performed a similar capacity on the Total TV production(s), since I do seem to recall an occasional animal sound being needed, but not certain. I don't know if anyone could or has contacted Allen Swift or Jackson Beck (who appear to be the only survivors from the Total TV troupe) to see if either might be able to shed some light on this.

As for Gilbert Mack, he was part of the New York dubbing group that handled so many 60's Japanese imports. Fred Patten has identified him as the voice of Bob Brilliant in Gigantor, and most sources identify him as Pauley Cracker in Kimba the White Lion (last time I saw the latter series, it was in Spanish, so I can't judge for myself). Some sources suggest that he was also amongst the several actors to impersonate FDR on March of Time (a roster which also the late Art Carney and Bill Johnstone, one of the post Welles portrayors of The Shadow). Not certain about this myself, since those particular texts were rife with errors, but fairly likely that he might have played it once or twice, in as much as most New York actors worked the show at some point and often a supporting cast member would have to "understudy" if FDR or another world leader happened to figure in a sudden news bulletin before air time, and the regular performers were unavailable for the broadcast, or whatnot.

I haven't gotten around to contacting Allen Swift or Jackson Beck, but I probably should. (At least one other regular cast member from the Total Television troupe is still with us. George S. Irving is still performing. Here's a link to an interview from a couple years back.)

I seriously doubt Total Television hired Frank Milano just to make a few animal sounds. One of the things you learn in researching cartoon voice work is that studios are always…well, I was going to say "cheap" but it's not always cheap to hire as few actors as you can get away with. Until the late sixties when a change in union rules altered the pay structure, you did a cartoon with a tiny stock company. Most of the non-primetime Hanna-Barbera cartoons were performed by two guys — Daws Butler and Don Messick, Daws Butler and Doug Young, etc. There were a few that were just Daws Butler. They minimized female roles (or had men do them) because that would have meant spending a whopping $25-$50 to hire a third person. H-B never hired anyone to make an occasional animal sound. They'd have one of the actors doing a regular character also do it, like Mel Blanc doing the barks for Dino along with playing Barney Rubble.

I'm going to research this a little more and get back to you all. Milano may have been one of the Narrators on the King Leonardo show. But thanks for the info, Andrew. Nice to know so many folks besides me care about these things.

Here's the Associated Press obit on George Woodbridge. And I forgot to mention that George had been invited as a Guest of Honor at the last two Comic-Con Internationals and had to cancel both times due to health problems. So obviously he had not been well for some time.

By the by: My favorite comics news site, ¡Journalista!, this morning mentioned my report on George's passing but said, "I haven't been able to find anyone else to confirm the news or provide further information." I'm guessing Dirk Deppey, who is usually a very good reporter, missed that I also linked to the New York Times obit several hours before he posted. But that can happen to anyone, and I was pleased by his caution, feeling he needed another source besides me (even me with a Sergio quote) before he took the report as firm. So no, to answer an e-mail this morn, I was not insulted that my word alone was not good enough for him. I really think Internet reporting needs more to be more prudent about passing along info like this. Just because one source said it doesn't mean it's true.

Here's a link to the New York Times obit for George Woodbridge.

One of the feral cats in my backyard waits while a feral possum dines on the food I put out, mainly for the cats. We still happily accept donations of money to feed the raccoons, possums, pussycats, hummingbirds and other critters. Click here to donate via PayPal and rest assured you're feeding them, not me. You can't afford to feed me.

My chum Earl Kress — and I know enough not to doubt him about this kind of thing — says both I and most reference books are wrong. Frank Milano, he says, was not the voice of Mr. Wizard the Lizard on the "Tooter Turtle" cartoons seen on the 1960 King Leonardo cartoon show. Earl is certain that voice was supplied by Sandy Becker, the famed New York kid show host. I think Allen Swift played Tooter, so I don't know what voice on that series might have been done by Mr. Milano, if he even did a regular character at all. But his name appeared in the credits.

Interesting Note: The company that produced King Leonardo and His Short Subjects, as the show was originally called, was Total Television. Total later produced a number of other shows including Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963), Underdog (1964), The Beagles (1966) and Go-Go Gophers (1968) that featured new cartoons wrapped around reruns from their previous shows. As a result, Frank Milano, who passed away in '62, was credited as a voice actor (and presumably paid decent residuals) on shows produced years after his death. Nice work if you can get it…

Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) is one of the smartest, cleverest gents on this planet. Ken Plume (of IGN Filmforce) is a terrific interviewer. Here's the latter interviewing the former.

David McLallen went to see The Producers and here's what he sent me…

Saw the current touring cast in Denver last night and I must say I was surprised & impressed. Not so much by Lewis Stadlen, although he was really good. I expected that. He is, after all, an old Broadway hand. But "Max" had the show stolen right out from under him…by Leo. Alan Ruck, who for so many years played the slimy, smarmy Stuart on Spin City, can sing! His voice, his acting, made him a perfect Leo Bloom! I was pleasantly stunned!

Ths show, of course, was precisely what one would expect — hilarious, side-splitting, laugh-out loud funny. But hey, it's Mel Brooks, the man who turned farting into an art form in Blazing Saddles. Charley Izabella King was a really good Ulla, (the tour's former Ulla moved to the Broadway company) although there were a few times when her "Swedish" accent got so thick that she was hard to understand. Lee Roy Reams as Roger, and especially Josh Prince as Carmen Ghia were fantastic. I know Reams is no kid, but he more than kept up with a very demanding role. (His bio on imdb indicates that he's actually 61!)

I came away with a stomach ache from laughing so hard, and the very appreciative audience awarded the show an instant standing "o" the moment that Ruck & Stadlen appeared in the curtain call. What a great show!

It is, and I wish I could see it with Lewis J. Stadlen, who is one of my favorite Broadway performers. If you ever get to see the DVD of the recent production of The Man Who Came to Dinner with Nathan Lane, watch for Stadlen. He doesn't show up until the third act but when he does, he proceeds to walk off with the entire play and most of the scenery.

And I wonder how many folks know that Stadlen is the son of Allen Swift, the great cartoon voice actor I mentioned in the previous posting. Swift was a New York kids' show host and also the voice of many a character on Howdy Doody. Anyway, thanks, David! Wish I could have been there.

Coming soon to my bookshelf and probably yours is a book called The Walt Disney Records Story, detailing the history of Disney record albums. It's by Tim Hollis and Gregory Ehrbar, and I am delighted to reprint this e-mail from Gregory telling me more in my eternal quest to find out about the Sandpipers…

As it happens, I can add to the Sandpipers story. Bob McGrath is a friend of mine and he said Mike Stewart was not the Broadway librettist, but a vocalist and vocal contractor who was responsible for getting him early work. Mitch Miller directed the early Golden Records with a group called The Sandpipers or the The Sandpiper Quartet. Mitch also played oboe occasionally on them. Jimmy Carroll was the arranger for Golden Records and Miller's Columbia sing along LP's.

The singers' names you have listed are accurate. Sally Sweetland, by the way, is now in her 90's and along with her husband Lee, still teaches and sings in California. Tim Hollis and I contacted her for our Disneyland Records book.

I think many of the Bugs Bunny vocals were done in NY also by Gil Mack, who was a frequent actor on the CBS Mystery Theater radio show. Frank Milano (Odie Colognie on King Leonardo) did a couple of Yogi Bear LPs too.

When Miller went on to great success at Columbia, Jim Timmens conducted most of the early 60's Golden records with a group either called the Sandpipers, the Glow-Tones, or the Golden Singers/Chorus. They are distinctive by the Timmens sound he used for Terrytoons and some Lantz TV stuff. Listen for lots of woodwinds and a mellower tone. One of his frequent singers was Rose Marie Jun, whose Broadway demos for some huge shows are now on CDs called Broadway First Takes. She was also in Needles and Pins with Streisand.

Speaking of CDs, your readers will be delighted to learn that many Golden Records were reissued on CD. Drive Entertainment bought the library and worked with them on compiling discs and writing notes. They actually did about two dozen, but only a handful were released initially. You can find an my amazon listmania list at this address.

When Drive Entertainment folded, Image Entertainment / Liberty International got the masters and released even more Golden LP's, but were not told about my involvement (that's showbiz), so their CDs were retitled and contain little clue about which Golden Records were their sources. They're on amazon and towerrecords.com too, almost all under confusing and inaccurate names.

All interesting…but I was under the impression that Allen Swift was the voice of Odie Colognie and that Frank Milano was Mr. Wizard the Lizard in the "Tooter Turtle" cartoons on the King Leonardo show. I do own at least one Yogi Bear record from the Golden folks that credits Milano for voices. Anyway, thanks to Gregory for the info and when his Disneyland records book is available, I'll sure plug the hell out of it here.

Sorry I have to report the death of George Woodbridge, whose presence in MAD Magazine dated back to the March, 1957 issue. George was in almost every issue until just a few years ago…never flashy but always dependable, and much-loved by his colleagues. It was an odd venue for his artwork as no matter how many issues of the world's leading humor magazine he appeared in, he always considered himself a historical illustrator.

He was a funny, charming gentleman but as he told me when I interviewed him for Mad Art, "I regard myself as an illustrator of historical subjects. When I'm not working for Mad, that's the field in which I work, though I'm damned proud to be part of MAD. I don't consider one field superior to the other and, in fact, the challenges are altogether different. In historical illustration, the goal is to be accurate. In Mad, the goal is to be funny." George was usually very funny.

He was born in 1930 in Flushing, New York and grew up in a house full of art and illustration books, which helped nudge him in that direction. He attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, figuring he'd follow in the footsteps of great illustrators like Robert Fawcett and Tom Lovell. But at that school, he began hanging around with folks who'd become great comic artists…guys like Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta. Another in that circle was Nick Meglin, who would soon become Assistant Editor of MAD and later its editor. Nick arranged for his friend George to audition for the magazine's then-editor, Al Feldstein, who liked what he saw…and George found a home.

"George's strong points were many," Feldstein says. "He was especially adept at delineating amusing street scenes with crowds and signs and outlandish going-ons, as well as depicting humorous interpretations of just plain people in comedic human situations. The articles he was assigned to illustrate were chosen with those superb talents in mind." One of those articles, and perhaps George's best-remembered assignment, was a story called "43-Man Squamish" that ran in a 1965 issue and is still hailed as one of the magazine's crowning works.

Throughout his MAD years, George also drew historical illustrations, often of the Civil War, for books and magazines of a more serious nature. He had amassed a huge reference library and was considered a great authority on certain periods. It amused him that when he dealt with scholarly editors and authors, one of them would occasionally, almost apologetically, ask if he was the same George Woodbridge who drew "43-Man Squamish." You can view some of George's illustration work at this site, where they refer to him as "America's Dean of Uniform Illustration."

His long-time friend and co-worker Sergio Aragonés said, "He was such a good friend. He knew everything about history and he knew everything about artwork. When I was starting out and they gave me assignments that had to be in color, George was the one who helped me. Even though he was color-blind, he did the most remarkable work in color. He was a wonderful man and I will miss him very much."

And here we have a point-by-point rebuttal to much of what George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address.

The Top Ten words that did not appear anywhere in George W. Bush's State of the Union address tonight…

1. Mars
2. environment
3. global warming
4. Colin Powell
5. equality
6. Halliburton
7. fairness
8. Enron
9. withdraw
10. Osama

And when he condemned "Activist judges [who] have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives," he was lucky no one jumped up and asked, "How do you feel when they stop votes from being recounted?"