Mel Blanc is a man who needs no introduction. If you're reading this blog, you already know all about him, his career, and his never-ending list of cartoon voices. Tomorrow is his birthday, and in honor of the man of a thousand voices, here's a splendid piece focused on him from the January 14th, 1983, edition of The Daily News.
Unsurprisingly, the piece isn't too concerned about his work for Hanna-Barbera. Doubling as marketing material for the third Bugs Bunny flick, the story focuses on Blanc's visits to colleges across America, his stints with Disney and Walter Lantz, and his relationship with Jack Benny.
At 74, Mel Blanc reminisces about his favorite characters
By Richard Freedman
NEW YORK—Mel Blanc was in a near-fatal auto accident Jan. 24, 1961. His car was demolished; he broke practically every bone in his body and was in a coma for 21 days. When he finally came to, legend has it, his first words were: "Ehhh—What's up, Doc?"
If that classic American line belongs to anybody, it belongs to Blanc, who for nearly half a century has impersonated Bugs Bunny—to say nothing of Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Pepe LePew, Speedy Gonzales, and Sylvester the sputtering cat.
Now Bugs has re-emerged in a delightful cartoon compilation called "Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales," and Blanc was in New York recently to reminisce about the world's most raffish rabbit, whose features adorn Blanc's blue tie, gold tietack, and—embroidered in red—even his shirt pocket.
With him was his son Noel, whose full name in French means "white Christmas." For 22 years, Noel Blanc has directed his father. Noel is president of Blanc Communications Corp. and owner of a Beverly Hills antique watch store -- a lucrative hobby he shares with his father.
Noel also can imitate all the Mel Blanc characters except irascible Yosemite Sam, who "would tear my vocal cords apart." Even Mel finds Yosemite's gravelly voice hard to sustain for more than a few lines at a time, and Sam's transformation into Sultan Sam for the latest Bugs Bunny movie was no help.
"When they first told me about Bugs Bunny, they described him as a tough little stinker," Blanc recalls. "So I thought, what's a tough accent? Brooklyn? The Bronx? I couldn't decide, so I combined the two, although I'd never been in either place.
"I know about 300 dialects now, but never studied them formally. I only listen to people talking, and I guess I have a good memory. Anyway, when I first came to New York in 1966, I was pleased at how everyone here sounded like Bugs Bunny."
Blanc also developed Woody Woodpecker's maniacal laugh for Woody's creator, Walter Lantz. But Blanc left Lantz for Warner Brothers, and the Woody role went to Lantz's girlfriend, Grace. To this day, Blanc insists Lantz only married Grace so as not to lose yet another Woody Woodpecker.
Bugs is still Blanc's favorite character, though he's become partial lately to Sylvester Jr., who "doesn't spray like his father; he just lisps."
On the 144-odd college campuses where Blanc has regaled students with Academy Award-winning cartoon shorts and live virtuoso displays of accent, he's noticed each audience has a special favorite.
"Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzales are generally the most popular. But Yosemite Sam is the all-time favorite at Texas Christian University for some reason. And at Notre Dame they can't get over the fact that not only is Bugs Bunny Jewish, so is Porky Pig. "Incidentally, in Israel, the cartoons are subtitled in Hebrew, and in Egypt in Arabic. The only two countries I know of where my voice is actually dubbed by a native speaker are Italy and Mexico.
"Speedy Gonzales and his country cousin Slowpoke are heroes to the Mexicans. The only time I ever got any flak about them was when I was making commercials for Frito Bandido chips. They loved the dialect, but couldn't stand the fact that he was a stereotyped bandit. So the commercial was taken off the air."
Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Blanc began entertaining his grade-school classmates with his accents. And shortly after high school, in 1927, he began working for a radio show called "The Hoot Owls" on Portland station KGW. His talents came to the attention of Jack Benny, who had him imitating his creaky Maxwell car and soon became both boss and devoted friend.
"I little thought when I was a kid and watched Benny's vaudeville shows twice a week that someday I'd be working for him. he was the kindest, most generous man in the world. We never even had a contract. Once a year, I'd ask to discuss a raise over a drink, and he'd say: 'All right, Mel. At least I'll buy you the drink.'
"When I was in the hospital after my car crash, he'd visit every day. He called it his home away from home. For eight months, I taped Barney Rubble and Dino for 'The Flintstones' while lying in a plaster cast. I think I only missed two or three episodes."
Apart from his cane -- a remnant of the accident -- Blance is a hale 74. But sometimes he begins to wonder about his age, especially when he was recently introduced to an 86-year-old man who told him, "I've been a fan of yours since I was a little boy."
"My God, I thought, I must be 104 years old! But I still get kids asking for my autograph. Kids know the difference between Bugs Bunny cartoons and the cheap stuff they watch on television. We've been on top of the Nielsen ratings for 21 years now."
A little-known fact is that Blanc once worked for the competition: Walt Disney.
"Disney only made about 35 shorts, you know, while Warner's made over 3,000," he says. "But Walt asked me back in 1937 to do the voice of Gideon the Cat for 'Pinocchio'. He paid me $50 a day for 16 days to hiccough like a cat.
"Then he got worried people might think Giddy was a lush, so he cut it all down to one hiccough. At that time, $800 wasn't bad pay for doing one hiccough!"
