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Thurl Ravenscroft | |
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Born | Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft February 6, 1914 Norfolk, Nebraska, U.S. |
Died | May 22, 2005 91) Fullerton, California, U.S. | (aged
Resting place | Crystal Cathedral Memorial Gardens, Garden Grove, California |
Alma mater | Otis College of Art and Design |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1939–2005 |
Spouse | June Seamans (m. 1946;died 1999) |
Children | 2 |
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft ( /ˈθɜːrlˈreɪvənzkrɒft/ ; February 6, 1914 – May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was well known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also the uncredited vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the classic Christmas television special, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! [1]
Ravenscroft did voice-over work and singing for Disney in various films and Disneyland attractions (which were later featured at Walt Disney World), the best known including The Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Mark Twain Riverboat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland Railroad, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room.
His voice acting career began in 1939 and lasted until his death in 2005 at age 91. [2]
Ravenscroft left his native Norfolk, Nebraska, in 1933 for California, where he studied at Otis Art Institute. In 1939, he joined a singing group formed by tenor Bill Days called The Sportsmen: Days, Johnny Rarig, Max Smith, and Ravenscroft. They served as backup singers to vocalist Marie Greene on the Okeh record label (credited as "Marie Greene and Her Merry Men"). The quartet also contributed to a Disney feature, Pinocchio (1940), singing "Honest John". This was deleted from the film, but can still be heard in the supplements on the 2009 DVD.
The group, billed as The Four Merry Men, appeared in three-minute musical films, produced in 1941 by the Featurettes company, for coin-operated jukeboxes. [3] That same year the Four Merry Men left Featurettes for the more successful Soundies company, and made more jukebox musicals; they were now billing themselves as "The Four Sportsmen". [4] They were also very popular on radio and in live nightclub appearances.
In 1942, Thurl Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen quartet to serve in the armed forces. He served as a keeper navigator contracted to the U.S. Air Transport Command, spending five years flying courier missions across the north and south Atlantic. Among the notables carried on board his flights were Winston Churchill and Bob Hope. As he told an interviewer: "I flew Winston Churchill to a conference in Algiers and flew Bob Hope to the troops a couple of times. So it was fun." [5]
When he returned from the service, he found that his place in The Sportsmen had been taken by bass singer Gurney Bell, and Bell was unwilling to relinquish the job to Ravenscroft. Undaunted, Ravenscroft formed his own quartet, The Mellomen. [6] The Mellomen contributed to other Disney films, such as Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp . The group appeared on camera in a few episodes of the Disney anthology television series; in one instance recording a canine chorus for Lady and the Tramp and in another as a barbershop quartet that reminds Walt Disney of the name of the young newspaper reporter Gallagher.Ravenscroft sang bass on Rosemary Clooney's "This Ole House", which went to No. 1 in both the United States and Britain in 1954, as well as Stuart Hamblen's original version of that same song. He sang on the soundtrack for Ken Clark as "Stewpot" in South Pacific , one of the top-selling albums of the 1950s. He also backed The DeCastro Sisters on their 1955 top 20 hit, "Boom Boom Boomerang." [7] He sang "King of the River," as the character Mike Fink, on a Golden Record released in 1956. [8] Singing with the Johnny Mann Singers, [9] his distinctive bass can also be heard as part of the chorus on 28 of their albums that were released during the 1960s and 1970s. He was also the bass singer on Bobby Vee's 1960 Liberty hit record "Devil or Angel". Andy Williams' recording of "The 12 Days of Christmas" features him as well. His work with Spike Jones included singing "(I Was a) Teenage Brain Surgeon" for the 1959 album Spike Jones in Stereo .
He sang the opening songs for the two Disney serials used on The Mickey Mouse Club, Boys of the Western Sea and The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure.
He sang the "Twitterpatter Song" and "Thumper's Song" on the Disneyland record Peter Cottontail and other Funny Bunnies.
On the Disneyland record All About Dragons, he both provided the narration and sang the songs "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Loch Ness Monster". [10]
His voice was heard during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as well as The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland as Uncle Theodore, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the cemetery near the end of the ride. [11] He also played the Narrator in The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion . Ravenscroft is also heard in the Enchanted Tiki Room as the voice of Fritz the Animatronics parrot, as well as the tree-like Tangaroa tiki god in the pre-show outside the attraction. He was also the voice of the Disneyland Railroad in the 1990s. Further roles include that of The First Mate on The Mark Twain Riverboat, a spokesalien for Tokyo Disneyland's Pan Galactic Pizza Port restaurant, and the American bison head named Buff at The Country Bear Jamboree. [12]
One of Ravenscroft's best-known uncredited works is as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." His name was accidentally omitted from the credits, leading many to believe that the cartoon's narrator, Boris Karloff, sang the song, while others cited Tennessee Ernie Ford as the song's signature voice. [1] The song, now credited to Ravenscroft, peaked on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 32 for the week ending January 2, 2021. Thanks to "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", Thurl Ravenscroft has officially hit the Top 40 as a solo artist. [13]
Ravenscroft sang "No Dogs Allowed" in the Peanuts animated motion picture Snoopy Come Home .
For more than 50 years, he was the uncredited voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. His booming bass gave the cereal's tiger mascot a voice with the catchphrase "They're g-r-r-r-eat!!!!". [14]
Various record companies, such as Abbott, Coral, Brunswick, and "X" (a division of RCA) also released singles by Ravenscroft, often in duets with little-known female vocalists, in an attempt to turn the bass-voiced veteran into a pop singer. These efforts were commercially unsuccessful, if often quite interesting. He was also teamed up with the Andrews Sisters (on the Dot Records album The Andrews Sisters Present) on the cover of Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man". The Mellomen released some doo-wop records under the name Big John & the Buzzards, a name apparently given to them by the rock-and-roll-hating Mitch Miller.
A devoted Christian, he appeared on many religious television shows such as The Hour of Power . In 1970, he recorded an album called Great Hymns in Story and Song, which featured him singing 10 hymns, each prefaced with the stories of how each hymn came to be, with the background vocals and instrumentals arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ravenscroft was narrator for the annual Pageant of the Masters art show at the Laguna Beach, California, Festival of the Arts.
Ravenscroft married June Seamans in 1946 and they had two children. June died in 1999.
Ravenscroft died at his home on May 22, 2005, from prostate cancer. He was buried at the Memorial Gardens at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. He was 91 years old. [2]
In the June 6, 2005, issue of the advertising industry journal Advertising Age , Kellogg's ran an advertisement commemorating Ravenscroft, the headline reading: "Behind every great character is an even greater man."
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1940 | Pinocchio | Monstro the Whale | Voice |
Isle of Destiny | Sportsman Quartet Member | ||
Little Blabbermouse | Bad Tobacco Face | Voice | |
Prehistoric Porky | Bass Lizard | ||
1941 | Dumbo | Singer of "Look Out For Mr. Stork" and "Pink Elephants on Parade" | |
The Nifty Nineties | Singer | ||
1942 | Wacky Blackout | Carrier Pigeon singing | |
Saludos Amigos | Singer of the main title theme | ||
1944 | Springtime for Pluto | Singing Caterpillar | Short, Voice |
1948 | Melody Time | Singer | Voice |
1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Card Painter | |
Rooty Toot Toot | Jonathan Bailey a.k.a. "Honest John the Crook" | ||
1952 | Jack and the Beanstalk | Singing voices of two villagers | |
1953 | Peter Pan | Singer / Pirates | Voice |
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom | Singer | ||
1954 | Rose Marie | Medicine Man | |
1955 | Daddy Long Legs | Daydream Sequence Song | Short, Voice |
Lady and the Tramp | Al the Alligator / Singing Pound Dogs | Voice | |
1956 | Design for Dreaming | (singer) | |
Hardy Boys | Theme Song | ||
1958 | Paul Bunyan | Paul Bunyan | Short, Voice |
1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Singer | |
1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Captain the Horse | Voice |
1962 | Gay Purr-ee | Hench Cat | |
1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Sir Bart | |
1964 | Mary Poppins | Banker / Pig | |
1965 | The Man from Button Willow | Singer / Reverend / Saloon Man | |
1966 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Singer of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" | |
1967 | The Jungle Book | Colonel Hathi's crew | |
The War Wagon | Backup singer on main theme | ||
1968 1977 | Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Singer Black Honeypot | |
1969 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Singing Voice | performed "South American Getaway" |
The Trouble with Girls | Bass Singer | with the Bible Singers Quartet (The Mellomen) | |
1970 | Horton Hears a Who! | Wickersham Brother | |
The Phantom Tollbooth | Lethargians | ||
The Aristocats | Billy Bass - Russian Cat | Voice | |
1971 | The Cat in the Hat | Thing One | Voice |
Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Singing voice of Russian vendor / Various cartoon animal voices | ||
1972 | Snoopy Come Home | Singer of "No Dogs Allowed" | Voice |
The Lorax | Singer | Voice | |
1977 | The Hobbit | Goblins/Chorus | Voice |
Halloween Is Grinch Night | Singer / Monsters | Voice | |
Donny & Marie | Darth Vader / Narrator | Star Wars Segment | |
1978 | The Small One | Potter | Voice |
1987 | The Brave Little Toaster | Kirby | Voice |
1990 | Disney Sing Along Songs: Disneyland Fun – It's a Small World | Singer of "Grim Grinning Ghosts" | |
1996 | Superior Duck | The Narrator | Voice |
1997 | The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue | Kirby | Voice |
1998 | The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | The Baby Huey Show | General Does-Little | Voice; ep. "Target...Huey!" |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1955 | Mark Twain Riverboat | Bosun | Voice |
1963- | The Enchanted Tiki Room | Fritz the Parrot, Tangaroa | |
1967- | Pirates of the Caribbean | Pirates/Chorus, Singing Dog | |
1967-1987 | Adventures Thru Inner Space | Chorus | |
1969- | The Haunted Mansion | Uncle Theodore | |
1971- | Country Bear Jamboree | Buff the Buffalo | Voice |
1984- | Country Bear Christmas Special | ||
1986 | Country Bear Vacation Hoedown | ||
1989-2023 | Splash Mountain | Brer Frog | |
1988-2002 | Disneyland Railroad | Announcer |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
late 1970s-early 1980s | Toys R Us | Geoffrey the Giraffe |
1953–2005 | Kellogg's Frosted Flakes | Tony the Tiger |
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an attraction located in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort and in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and previously in Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort. First opened on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyland Resort, the attraction is a pseudo-Polynesian musical Audio-Animatronic show drawing from American tiki culture.
Remember... Dreams Come True was a Disneyland fireworks display commemorating the 50th anniversary of the park in 2005 and 2006. The show featured fireworks, lower level pyrotechnics, isobar flame effects, projection mapping, lasers, searchlights, and lighting set to the soundtracks of some of Disneyland's rides and shows.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 American animated musical fantasy short film based on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth chapters of Winnie-the-Pooh and the second, eighth, and ninth chapters from The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. The featurette was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, produced by Walt Disney Productions, and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 20, 1968, having been shown in theaters with The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh theatrical featurettes. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It was notable for being the last Disney animated short to be produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, two years before its release.
"Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Screaming Song)" is the theme song for The Haunted Mansion franchise and its attractions at Disney theme parks. It was composed by Buddy Baker, with lyrics written by X Atencio. Its melody has been adapted for numerous uses since its composition in the late 1960s.
"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is a Christmas song that was originally written and composed for the 1966 animated special Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
"Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" is the theme song for the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disney theme parks. The music was written by George Bruns, with lyrics by Xavier Atencio. The version heard at Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was sung by the Mellomen, featuring Thurl Ravenscroft.
The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) was an attraction located in the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was an updated version of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which was previously known in the Florida park as Tropical Serenade, that featured the bird characters Iago and Zazu from the respective Walt Disney Animation Studios franchises Aladdin and The Lion King. The attraction ran for almost thirteen years from April 1998 until January 2011, when a small fire damaged it, leading Disney to restore the original Enchanted Tiki Room to Florida.
Halloween Is Grinch Night is a 1977 children's animated Halloween television special and is a prequel to the 1966 television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It premiered on ABC on October 28, 1977. The original voice actor for The Grinch, Boris Karloff, by then deceased, was replaced by Hans Conried, though Thurl Ravenscroft, who sang on the original special, again provided singing vocals. The songs and score were written by Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo.
The Nifty Nineties is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on June 20, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures. The animated short was directed by Riley Thomson and animated by Ward Kimball, Walt Kelly, Fred Moore, Claude Smith, David Swift, and Les Clark with effects animation by Art Fitzpatrick. It was the 113th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the fourth in that year. The film stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse and romanticizes the decade of the 1890s.
Robie Lester was an American actress, author, singer and voice artist. She was best known as the voice of "Miss Jessica" in the Rankin/Bass animated special Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, the singing voice of Eva Gabor in Disney's The Aristocats and The Rescuers, and the original "Disneyland Story Reader" for Walt Disney Records read-alongs.
"That's What Friends Are For (The Vulture Song)" is a song in the Walt Disney film The Jungle Book from 1967. It was sung by a quartet of "mop top" vultures who are making friends with Mowgli, the main character of the film. The song was written by Disney staff songwriters, Robert and Richard Sherman, and sung primarily by J. Pat O'Malley, Lord Tim Hudson, Digby Wolfe, and Chad Stuart. Bruce Reitherman and George Sanders both made cameo appearances in the song singing as Mowgli and Shere Khan the tiger, respectively, in different parts. In the soundtrack album, The Mellomen member Bill Lee replaced the unavailable Sanders, a trained bass singer.
Fulton Burley was a Canadian performer, most widely known for his work in Disneyland. Born in Toronto, Ontario, and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Fulton came to the United States in 1943 after a telephone audition landed him the singing lead in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe Revue on Broadway. He later marveled at his "Irish" luck saying, "The peculiar thing is I was at the Golden Horseshoe for 25 years, and I had started [my professional career] at the Diamond Horseshoe."
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Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is an American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols. A sequel to the first Adventures in Music cartoon, the 3-D short Melody, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is a stylized presentation of the evolution of the four orchestra sections over the ages with: the brass ("toot"), the woodwind ("whistle"), the strings ("plunk"), and the percussion ("boom").
The Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. They recorded under a variety of names, including Big John and the Buzzards, the Crackerjacks, the Lee Brothers, and the Ravenscroft Quartet. They were sometimes credited as the Mellowmen, the Mello Men, or the Mellow Men. They sang backup to some of the best-known artists of the day, including Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Arlo Guthrie, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, and Jo Stafford.
William Lee was an American playback singer who provided a voice or singing voice in many films, for actors in musicals and for many Disney characters.
Donald and the Wheel is a 17-minute Donald Duck animated short directed by Hamilton Luske, produced by Walt Disney and released on June 21, 1961. It is an educational-based film, and features a considerable amount of musical vocals. Disney described the cartoon as "using the revolutionary Xerox and Sodium Screen Processes together for the first time, Disney and his director, Ham Luske, combine real people and objects in the same perspective as animated characters and objects."
The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song is a 1992 three disc set of Disney songs spanning eight decades that were originally recorded from 1928 to 1991.
Paul Bunyan is a 1958 American animated musical short film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The short was based on the North American folk hero and lumberjack Paul Bunyan and was inspired after meeting with Les Kangas of Paul Bunyan Productions, who gave Disney the idea for the film. The film was directed by Les Clark, a member of Disney's Nine Old Men of core animators. Thurl Ravenscroft starred as the voice of Paul Bunyan. Supporting animators on the project included Lee Hartman.
Mario Gino Merlino was an American singer and musician known professionally as Gene Merlino, and most recognized for providing the singing voice of Lancelot in the musical film Camelot, for being part of the Grammy Award winning quartet, The Anita Kerr Singers, and for being a prolific singer of song poems.