Interviews With Cartoon Greats June Foray & Paul Winchell

PLEASE NOTE YOUTUBE THESE INTERVIEWS WERE PERSONALLY DONE BY ME IN 2003. THEY BELONG TO THE INTERVIEWER. THEY ARE BEING RELEASED NOW FOR OTHERS TO ENJOY.

SOME BRIEF JUNE FORAY FACTS:

--Foray guest-starred only once on The Simpsons, in the Season 1 episode "Some Enchanted Evening" as the receptionist for the Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Babysitting Service. This was a play on a famous Rocky & Bullwinkle gag years earlier in which none of the cartoon's characters, including narrator Bill Conrad, could pronounce "rubber baby buggy bumpers" unerringly. This was also a problem in a Tom Slick episode, regular feature on the George of the Jungle cartoon show.

--Foray was later homaged in The Simpsons, in the season 8 episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" in which a character named June Bellamy is introduced as the voice behind both Itchy & Scratchy.

--Foray appeared on camera in a major role only once, in Sabaka as a high priestess of a fire cult. She also appeared on camera in an episode of Green Acres as a Mexican telephone operator. She played a gag cameo in 1992's Boris & Natasha.
--In Season Three, Episode One ("The Thin White Line") of Family Guy, Foray reprised her role as Rocky in a visual gag with a single line ("And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!").

--Foray and Stan Freberg are among the few surviving voice artists from the Golden Age of theatrical cartoons. She remains active to this day, with roles in recent animated films, such as Mulan (as Grandmother Fa) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In October 2006, she portrayed Susan B. Anthony on three episodes of the podcast The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd.

--Renowned animator/director Chuck Jones is reported to have said, "June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc, Mel Blanc was the male June Foray."[1]

SOME BRIEF PAUL WINCHELL FACTS:

--Winchell's most successful TV show was Winchell-Mahoney Time (19651968), a highly-imaginative kids' show written by his then wife, actress Nina Russell.

---Winchell developed over 30 patents in his lifetime. He invented an artificial heart with the assistance of Dr. Henry Heimlich.

--Winchell (often with Jerry Mahoney) was a frequent guest panelist on What's My Line? in 1956. Other work included on-camera guest appearances on such series as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Lucy Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Brady Bunch, as well as a 1960 movie that included a compilation of Three Stooges shorts (Stop!, Look and Laugh), and a part in the Jerry Lewis movie Which Way to the Front? On Love, American Style, he appeared with fellow ventriloquist Shari Lewis in a sketch about two shy people in a waiting room who choose to introduce themselves to each other through their dummies.

--Winchell provided the voices of Sam-I-Am and his unnamed friend on Green Eggs and Ham from the animated television special Dr. Seuss on the Loose. He also created the voice of tigger in the winnie the pooh series and movies. he did thousands of cartoon voice overs.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• june
• foray
• paul
• winchell
• hal
• j.
• smith
• interviews
• cartoons
• voice
• poineers
• massena
• 2003

[BigBearPaul]

Don't forget that Paul Winchell also did the voice for Tigger.

[johnswackyworld]

yup..he was the one and only tigger!!

[143AC]

Hal Smith also hosted a local kids tv show

The Pancake Man for KHJ TV Ch.9 in L.A.,Cal.

and in national syndication in 1966.

[johnswackyworld]

too bad none of his tv shows of the pancake man are now recorded..all lost!! nobody recorded that show onto reel in the 1960's for future generations.

[PrincessWendy773]

Wow, she's like 93, and she's still acting. Not bad.

[SchmoozeMinkey]

Met Hal in the reception area of HB long before they tore the Cahuenga West studio down and put up a strip mall. It still makes me sick to think about it.

[TOMSLASSIE]

From one great-aunt (to Alexis) from another. Hi, You did great work. Love, Maueen

[bjr43]

That's really cool that you got the chance to interview them Paul past away a few years later.

[Cropredy02]

@JMarkField Well, i doubt that the old "Paul Winchell/Jerry Mahoney" shows were on tape - as i recall (i watched them) they were before the days of videotape. Weren't they done live, too, like "Howdy Doody" and the like?

If so, all that would exist would be kinescopes - films shot off a monitor.

(Of course, i could be remembering wrongly...)

[Cropredy02]

For those who don't understand how great Ms Foray's voice work is - the "Bullwinkle" tracks were recorded in single takes, like a radio play, with everyone there, and there were no overdubs.

Ms Foray voiced both Rocky and Natasha.

It is not uncommon for the characters - including Natasha and Rocky - to "step on" others' lines, interrupting them in mid sentence.

Ms Foray switched from one voice to the (vastly different) other voice in mid-sentence - sometimes almost in mid-word...

[Cropredy02]

I believe that Ms Foray had a walk-on/cameo in an episode of the short-lived series "The Duck Factory" as herself accepting an Annie award - yep, Episode 3. (Which also featured Veronica Hamel as herself.)

[jzerony]

@johnswackyworld , oh he was absolutely a genius. I was so disappointed to read that some idiot had intentionally erased much of Winchel's TV work during a dispute with him. I know that would make ME nutz! You did a great job with this YouTube clip, something I otherwise would NEVER have seen or heard. June Foray is another person you don't see/hear enough of. Thanks much!

[johnswackyworld]

it was a mix of information, feelings, memories and thoughts. i already knew about his "darkside" because i read up on whatever i could find. some of my sources told me he was "nutz" or "lost his mind" or "he would never let you interview him"..its a mixed bag..he surely was a genius in my opinion. but great minds always have flaws in relationships. i just sat and listened to some of his serious words that i havent released from my taped interivew yes, i felt some dark sadness while talking.