It's not only Midwinter's Day/Winter Solstice today, but the bunting's out for birthday celebrants Jane Fonda (85!), Kiefer Sutherland, Samuel L. Jackson, Benjamin Disraeli, Frank Zappa, Anthony Powell, Chris Evert, Emmanuel Macron, Albert Lee and Florence Griffith Joyner, and it's the centenary today of the birth of ventriloquist, US children's TV show host and actor Paul Winchell.
Who? I hear you ask...
Well, the bulk of Mr Winchell's acting work was as a voiceover artist, and his was the voice of none other than...
...the "double-dealing do-badder" himself, Dick Dastardly!
Ah, memories...
Hooray! Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteIt's Winchell-Mahoney Time,
It's Winchell-Mahoney Time,
It's time for fun!
Another great talent (and even a brilliant inventor) who lived a very troubled life while making everyone else laugh.
Means nothing to me, sweetie. We only know him from his voices (he was apparently also Tigger, Fleegle (in Banana Splits), and several characters in The Pink Panther Show, Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! and Hong Kong Phooey, too. Jx
DeleteHe was a ventriloquist. He was very entertaining. His most popular TV show was Winchell-Mahoney Time (Jerry Mahoney was his “star” puppet). There are videos from the show on YouTube.
DeleteWe had Ray Alan and his "Lord Charles" and "Titch and Quackers" and - bizarrely - Peter Brough and "Archie Andrews" on the radio(!). A little later, from across the pond, came Shari Lewis and "Lambchop", but Mr Winchell remained firmly "over there"... Jx
DeleteLoved these toons, back in the day. As for Frank Zappa - while revered in Rock 'N Roll circles, he was sort of dismissed as a pothead by the media in general. In fact, as I watch more and more of his interviews - he predicted everything the US is currently going through... he was a visionary and quite the philosopher. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteHanna-Barbera cartoons were the staple diet of telly viewing when we were kids (alongside home-grown staples such as Trumpton, Roobarb & Custard, The Herbs and suchlike, of course) - brilliantly silly fun.
DeleteZappa, on the other hand, remains a bit of an "unknown quantity" as far as the UK's concerned, though I am sure he would have been at home amongst the psychedelic madness of shows like Banana Splits or HR Pufnstuf. Jx
I wanted to be Penelope Pitstop! So glamorous, and an early role model.
ReplyDeleteSx
P.S I think I ended up more like Mutley.
For me, it was always Dick 😜 Jx
DeleteI was always on Dick Dastardly side. Happy Birthday and Hooray for Paul Winchell
ReplyDelete"Snazza frazza rashin' fashin' Rick Rastardly!" Jx
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