live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Mel Blanc was nicknamed "The Man Of 1,000 Voices" and that moniker was not far off. The man thought of as America's greatest voice-over artist created hundreds of unique voices for radio, TV, movies, and some of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time. Blanc is perhaps best known for his work with Warner Bros. on their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Nicknamed the Man of a Thousand Voices
0:03
Mel Blanc was once considered America's greatest voiceover artist. He created hundreds of unique voices for radio, television, movies
0:11
and some of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time. But most don't know that Blanc's life was filled with amazing moments
0:18
just like the stories he lent his voice to. Today, we're going to take a look at some facts about Mel Blanc
0:23
the legendary voice of the Looney Tunes. Born May 30, 1908, to a Russian Jewish family in San Francisco
0:35
Melvin Jerome Blank's last name was originally spelled B-L-A-N-K. He started practicing voices at the incredibly early age of 10
0:43
and just six years later, he changed his last name. Not all of it, just the last letter
0:49
Why make this seemingly insignificant change? According to Mel, a teacher told him he would amount to nothing
0:55
and would wind up just like his name, a blank. It would all work out just fine for Mel, but it's worth saying, that teacher's a real jerk
1:04
In the Warner Brothers cartoon shorts, Blank voiced nearly all the major characters
1:08
And when we say nearly all, we really mean it. Amazingly, he was Bugs Bunny, Pepe Le Pew, Sylvester, Tweety, Dappy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn
1:18
Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzalez, Marvin the Martian, the Tasmanian Devil, the Roadrunner
1:25
Wile E. Coyote, and the Porky Pig voice that everyone remembers. But those are just the headliners
1:32
Mel was also Henry Hawk, Charlie Dog, Happy Rabbit, Cecil Turtle, Ralph Wolf, Sam Sheepdog
1:39
and nearly a dozen others. The only main character he didn't voice was Elmer Fudd
1:44
Well, at first he didn't do it. When Elmer's original voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan, passed away in 1959
1:51
Blank stepped up to the plate to take the character over. If history is any judge, he hit that one out of the park
1:57
So given all this and the fact that Mel was famously known as the man of a thousand voices, many people find themselves
2:03
wondering what his actual voice sounded like. According to the man himself, the voice of Sylvester
2:09
is the closest to his real voice. He just added a spray at the end
2:17
Porky Pig was originally voiced by Joe Doherty an actor with a real stutter However that real stutter would become a source
2:25
of frustration for the producer when it caused Doherty to mistime his cues
2:29
Firing someone for that isn't terribly classy today, but nonetheless, the part was given to Mel Blank
2:35
Mel took a method-acting approach to Porky and observed real pigs at a pig farm
2:40
He later said that his version of Porky's stutter was intended to be akin to a pig's grunt
2:45
Rumors persisted throughout Blank's career that the man who voiced the world's most famous rabbit
2:49
was allergic to carrots. While that would have been pretty ironic, it wasn't true
2:54
In fact, when he did Bugs' lines, Blank would actually chew carrots
2:58
to make the sound of Bugs' chewing and spit them out so he could speak clearly. It had nothing to do with allergies
3:04
That being said, while Mel wasn't allergic to carrots, he really didn't love them either
3:08
According to Chuck McKibben, the operations manager at Mel Blank Studios, Mel was not a fan of anything healthy
3:20
Bugs Bunny made his first official appearance in a 1940 cartoon entitled A Wild Hair
3:26
Bugs's voice, right from the start, was provided by Mel Blank. And over the years, Blank came to identify
3:32
with the character at a very deep level. Case in point, in January of 1961
3:37
then 52-year-old Blank was involved in a serious car crash. It was a head-on collision that left him in a coma for several weeks, and Blank's son
3:46
Noel, has gone on record describing the ordeal. The doctors observed his father for signs of life
3:51
speaking to him with no response. Eventually, after seeing Looney Tunes playing on the TV
3:56
they switched to another tactic. According to Noel, one doctor leaned into the comatose Blank
4:02
and said, how are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny? Miraculously, Mel heard this, and in character
4:07
he responded, eh, just fine, doc. How are you? While recovering from his car crash
4:13
Mel was bedridden in the hospital for 70 days. When he was finally released, he still
4:18
had a lot of recuperating to do. So he was set up with a hospital bed in his home
4:22
But Mel wasn't happy just sitting around, and he had no intention of letting his convalescence
4:27
stop him from working. As it happened, one of the characters he was voicing at the time was Fred Flintstone best friend Barney Rubble The cast and crew of the Flintstones knew that Mel voice was the bedrock of their show pun intended so they all came to his house set up his microphone
4:42
and read their lines from around his bed. Mel also revealed, years later, that his son Noel ghost-voiced
4:48
several Looney Tunes characters for him during his recovery. Back in the 1980s, there was a very popular game show called Press Your Luck
5:01
where contestants were repeatedly called on to answer trivia questions. On one occasion, the question asked was about what famous cartoon character said the phrase
5:10
Sufferin' Succotash, to which they, of course, answered Sylvester. The host, however, buzzed them as wrong and gave the answer as Daffy Duck
5:18
which really has to make you wonder about who was writing these questions
5:22
Mel Blank happened to be watching that day and he was completely flabbergasted by the mistake
5:27
Not being the type to let a thing like that go unaddressed Mel called into the studio to set the record straight
5:33
But to keep things fun, Mel didn't call in as himself he called in as Sylvester
5:37
Of course a few other Looney Tunes also got on the call to say hello. CB Radio is a system of short-distance radio communications often used by long-haul truck
5:51
drivers. And for a moment in the 1970s, it was popular for regular people to tinker with as a
5:56
hobby. Blank jumped on the bandwagon for a while, but he did it a little differently than most
6:01
others. To the confusion and delight of others on his channel, he would sign on and speak as his
6:06
famous characters. Mel Blank voiced most of the Looney Tunes ensemble, but he also did a number
6:11
of voices for Hanna-Barbera. As we mentioned earlier, he provided the voice for Barney Rubble
6:16
for a while, but that's not all. Mel also voiced Fred Flintstone's pet dinosaur Dino
6:21
and George Jetson's boss Cosmo Spacely. On top of that, he was the eponymous Speed Buggy in the
6:27
cartoon Speed Buggy and the prehistoric superhero Captain Caveman in Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
6:34
Mel also spent four years providing vocal effects for the legendary cat and mouse team of Tom and Jerry
6:40
when they were under the direction of former Looney Toons boss Chuck Jones
6:44
On occasion, Mel also lent his voice to commercials. For example he was the first person to provide a voice for Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam While all of these characters are worth being proud of not everything male was Plenty of cartoons are best left to history as they don fit with modern sensibilities
7:04
Or maybe even past sensibilities, too. Nobody's perfect. For example, the Frito Bandito was used in commercials for Frito's corn chips from 1967 to 1971
7:13
Created by Tex Avery and voiced by Blank. The 1988 Robert Zemeckis-directed hit film Who Framed Roger Rabbit was, among other things, a tribute to the golden age of animation
7:25
Given that, it couldn't possibly be complete without an appearance from Mel Blanc
7:29
And in fact, Mel did record lines for the film, providing the voices of most of the Looney Tunes
7:35
The only Looney Tune he didn't reprise was Yosemite Sam, whose gruff voice was always rough on Blanc's throat
7:41
Sadly, that movie would be Blanc's last. He would die on July 10, 1989, at the age of 81
7:48
After his death, producers still managed to squeeze a few shorts out of him, though
7:53
by using previously recorded dialogue to piece together some recordings that weren't yet completed at the time of his passing
8:03
Ironically, for a man who made his living using his vocal cords, Mel Blanc was a near-lifelong smoker
8:09
He first picked up the habit at the shockingly young age of nine
8:14
From that point, he quickly became a pack-a-day smoker, a habit that would stick with him until he was 77
8:19
He finally quit for health reasons as he was trying to regain control of his breathing
8:23
after developing emphysema. Regardless of the effort, Mel would be dead just four years later
8:29
His cause of death was ultimately ruled to be complications from emphysema
8:33
as well as advanced coronary artery disease. The Looney Tunes' signature closing sequence has almost always featured the signature line
8:40
that's all, folks. And while it was first uttered by a character named Bosco, it later became the
8:46
famous catchphrase of Porky Pig. While Blank didn't originate the character of Porky, he did provide
8:51
his voice during the character's heyday. And someone decided that the line would make a
8:55
fitting tribute and appropriate send-off for the voice acting legend. That someone? It was Mel
9:01
himself. As such, the words were inscribed on his gravestone at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in
9:07
Los Angeles. And in the words of the great Porky Pig, that's all, folks
#Cartoons
#Entertainment Industry
#TV & Video