Thurl-ly Entertaining

Thurl and Tony.

Everybody knows the song You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch from the Dr. Seuss animated Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! And everyone also knows that it was sung by Boris Karloff … which of course, makes everyone wrong.

The booming bass belonged to Thurl Ravenscroft, whose voice is familiar to anyone who has ever seen a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes commercial or waited in an attraction line at Disneyland.

Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft, the man with the great name and even greater voice, was born in Nebraska in 1914 and migrated to California during the Great Depression seeking a career in interior design. He got talked into trying out for a singing role at Paramount and soon became one of the most sought-after vocalists in Hollywood, performing regularly on radio shows with a group called the Sportsmen Quartet. After a stint in World War II as a navigator flying courier missions across the Atlantic, Ravenscroft returned to music, performing with the Mellomen, who sang backup for many of the stars of the Big Band era, including Bing Crosby and Spike Jones. His voice appeared on several hit songs, including Rosemary Clooney’s 1954 number-one single, This Ole House. Ravenscroft also released several solo singles during this time in hopes of becoming a pop star, but it never panned out. This hardly mattered since he had more film, television, and soon, theme park work than he could handle.

Ravenscroft’s film career began in the early 40s, where he briefly appeared on screen in a few roles, including Lost Canyon with Hopalong Cassidy. But it was in the soundtracks, most often in Disney films, where Ravenscroft’s star would fully shine. His long association with Disney began in 1940 with Pinocchio. He would later lend his pipes to songs and sounds in Dumbo, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and One Hundred and One Dalmations.

After Disneyland opened in 1955, Ravenscroft’s voice could be heard in Country Bear Jamboree, the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Disneyand Railroad, Mark Twain Riverboat, It’s a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, and most notably in the theme song Grim Grinning Ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. (His likeness appears as a singing hologram on a bust in the cemetery, which many mistake for Walt Disney.)

In 1952, Ravenscroft was cast as the voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s Frosty Flakes cereal. It was a role he would play over 500 times until his death in 2005, making the catchphrase “They’re gr-r-r-r-r-reat!” familiar to millions.

How the Grinch stole Christmas! came in 1966, but due to an omission in the credits, many believed the film’s narrator, Boris Karloff, actually sang its signature song. This was a mistake that Dr. Seuss and producer Chuck Jones later tried to correct in a full-page ad in Variety.

Ravenscroft became a "Disney Legend" in 1995.

The Silent Voices of Valhalla

 

Valhalla’s voice of “Elmer Fudd,” Arthur Q. Bryan.

Jiminy Cricket, Betty Ruble, and Elmer Fudd all died and went to Valhalla. … No, it’s not the start of a animated Scandinavian mythology joke, but what actually became of the voice stars Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket), Bea Benaderet (Betty Ruble), and Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd), who all became permanent residents of Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood upon death.

Cliff Edwards, nicknamed “Ukelele Ike” – incorrect spelling and all – was a Jazz musician who single-handedly popularized the ukulele in the 1920s. He had several hit songs, but none so enduring as When You Wish Upon a Star, which he sang as Jiminy Cricket in the Walt Disney animated classic Pinocchio. A year later he had another hit as the chief crow in Disney’s Dumbo with When I see an Elephant Fly. Edwards died penniless in 1971 and Disney paid for his grave marker.

Bea Benaderet is best known today for starring as Kate Bradley, the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel in the 1960s television comedy Petticoat Junction. Previously, she nearly landed the roles of Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy, and Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. (She was considered too buxom for the latter character, but did appear on the show as Cousin Pearl, Jethro Bodine’s mother.) Two decades before her television work made her famous, Benaderet starred at Warner Bros.’ cartoon unit “Termite Terrace” as the voice of a different Granny, this time in the Tweety Bird cartoons. During her time on Petticoat Junction she did double-duty as the voice of Betty Rubble for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones alongside her old WB co-star Mel Blanc, who supplied the voice of Betty’s husband Barney. She died from lung cancer in 1968 and on the day of her funeral her husband died suddenly, and the two are now interred in the same crypt.

Arthur Q. Bryan (the “Q” stands for Quirk, no lie.) was the original voice of Elmer Fudd, the poster child for speech thewapy. Bryan died of a heart attack in 1959 at the age of 60 after a 20-year career in cartoons. He rarely got screen credit, and as a result, many people believe Mel Blanc created the voice of Elmer Fudd (along with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig – to name a few). Blanc (among others) did become the voice of Fudd after Bryan’s passing.

In case you’re wondering, you won’t find Mel Blanc at Valhalla, but at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. His is the grave that says, “That’s All, Folks!”

Legendary voice-artist Mel Blanc’s gravesite at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.