Editing Mel Blanc (section)

==Career==
===Radio work===
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 in 1927, when he made his acting debut on the [[KPOJ-AM|KGW]] program ''The Hoot Owls'', where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909–2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to [[KEX (AM)|KEX]] in 1933 to produce and co-host his ''Cobweb and Nuts'' show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.<gallery>
File:Private Snafu - Booby Traps.ogv|[[Private Snafu|Private SNAFU]]
File:Wabbitwhocametosupper.jpg|''[[The Wabbit Who Came to Supper|The Wabbit Who Came To Supper]]''
</gallery>With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.–owned [[KFWB]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles, California|Hollywood]] in 1935. He joined ''The Johnny Murray Show'', but the following year switched to [[CBS]] Radio and ''The [[Joe Penner]] Show''.

[[File:Jack Benny group photo.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The cast of ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'', from left to right: [[Eddie "Rochester" Anderson]], [[Dennis Day]], [[Phil Harris]], [[Mary Livingstone]], [[Jack Benny]], [[Don Wilson (announcer)|Don Wilson]], and Mel Blanc]]
Blanc was a regular on the [[NBC]] Red Network show ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'' in various roles, including voicing Benny's [[Maxwell automobile]] (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael and the train announcer. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role. One of Blanc's characters from Benny's radio (and later TV) programs was "Sy, the Little Mexican", who spoke one word at a time.<ref name="Blanc"/> He continued to work with Benny on radio until the series ended in 1955 and followed the program into television from Benny's 1950 debut episode through guest spots on NBC specials in the 1970s.

''Radio Daily'' magazine wrote in 1942 that Blanc "specialize[d] in over fifty-seven voices, dialects, and intricate sound effects",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Daily/RD-1942/RD-1942-08.pdf|title=57 Variety Blanc|first=Betty|last=Mills|work=Radio Daily|page=27|date=August 7, 1942|access-date=January 26, 2020}}</ref> and by 1946, he was appearing on over fifteen programs in various supporting roles. His success on ''The Jack Benny Program'' led to his own radio show on the [[CBS Radio Network]], ''[[The Mel Blanc Show]]'', which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie. Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as ''The [[Abbott and Costello]] Show'', the Happy Postman on ''[[Burns and Allen]]'', and as August Moon on ''Point Sublime''. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, including ''G.I. Journal''. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake".

===Animation voice work during the golden age of Hollywood===
[[File:Private Snafu - Spies.ogv|thumb|[[Private Snafu]]: ''[[Spies (1943 film)|Spies]]'', voiced by Blanc in 1943]]
In December 1936, Mel Blanc joined [[Warner Bros. Cartoons#1933–1944: Leon Schlesinger Productions|Leon Schlesinger Productions]], which was producing theatrical cartoon shorts for [[Warner Bros.]] After sound man [[Treg Brown]] was put in charge of cartoon voices, and [[Carl Stalling]] became music director, Brown introduced Blanc to animation directors [[Tex Avery]], [[Bob Clampett]], [[Friz Freleng]], and [[Frank Tashlin]], who loved his voices. The first cartoon Blanc worked on was ''Picador Porky'' (1937) as the voice of Porky's drunken friends who dress up as a bull.<ref name="Blanc"/> He soon after received his first starring role when he replaced [[Joe Dougherty]] as Porky Pig's voice in ''[[Porky's Duck Hunt]]'', which marked the debut of Daffy Duck, also voiced by Blanc.

Following this, Blanc became a very prominent vocal artist for Warner Bros., voicing a wide variety of the ''Looney Tunes'' characters. Bugs Bunny, as whom Blanc made his debut in ''[[A Wild Hare]]'' (1940),<ref>[[Michael Barrier (historian)|Barrier, Michael]] (2003), [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195167295 ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age''], Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-516729-0}}</ref><ref name="Bugs Bunny 1990">Adamson, Joe (1990). ''Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare''. New York: Henry Holt. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-1190-6}}</ref> was known for eating carrots frequently (especially while saying his catchphrase "Eh, what's up, doc?"). To follow this sound with the animated voice, Blanc would bite into a carrot and then quickly spit into a [[spittoon]]. One often-repeated story is that Blanc was allergic to carrots, which Blanc denied.<ref>{{cite book|author1-link=Tim Lawson (writer)|first1=Tim|last1=Lawson|author2=Alisa Persons|title=The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ffdBDDBUYsC&q=wild+hare|page=72|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2004|isbn=978-1-5780-6696-4}}</ref><ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2820/did-mel-blanc-hate-carrots "Did Mel Blanc hate carrots?"] A Straight Dope column by Science Advisory Board Member Rico November 4, 2008 (accessed November 20, 2008)</ref>

In [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Disney]]'s ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'', Blanc was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided to have Gideon be a mute character (similar to Dopey from ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]''), so all of Blanc's recorded dialogue was deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the finished film.<ref>''No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio'', Pinocchio DVD, 2009</ref>

Blanc also originated the voice and laugh of [[Woody Woodpecker]] for the theatrical cartoons produced by [[Walter Lantz]] for [[Universal Pictures]], but stopped voicing Woody after the character's first three shorts when he was signed to an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. Despite this, his laugh was still used in the ''Woody Woodpecker'' cartoons until 1951, when [[Grace Stafford]] recorded a softer version, while his "Guess who!?" signature line was used in the opening titles until the end of the series and closure of [[Walter Lantz Productions]] in 1972.<ref name="Blanc"/>

During World War II, Blanc served as the voice of the hapless [[Private Snafu]] in a series of shorts produced by Warner Bros. as a way of training recruited soldiers through the medium of animation.<ref name="looney.goldenagecartoons.com">{{cite web|url=http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/snafu/|title=Situation Normal All Fouled Up: A History of Private Snafu|website=Misce-Looney-Ous|access-date=June 20, 2020|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512092007/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/snafu/|archive-date=May 12, 2008|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Throughout his career, Blanc, aware of his talents, protected the rights to his voice characterizations contractually and legally. He, and later his estate, never hesitated to take civil action when those rights were violated. Voice actors at the time rarely received screen credits, but Blanc was an exception; by 1944, his contract with Warner Bros. stipulated a credit reading "Voice characterization(s) by Mel Blanc". According to his autobiography, Blanc asked for and received this screen credit from studio boss [[Leon Schlesinger]] after he was denied a salary raise.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mel Blanc: From Anonymity To Offscreen Superstar (The advent of on-screen voice credits)|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mel-blanc-from-anonymity-to-offscreen-superstar-the-advent-of-on-screen-voice-credits/|first=Keith|last=Scott|author-link=Keith Scott (voice actor)|work=Cartoon Research|date=September 13, 2016|access-date=July 18, 2017}}</ref> Initially, Blanc's screen credit was limited only to cartoons in which he voiced Bugs Bunny. This changed in March 1945 when the contract was amended to also include a screen credit for cartoons featuring Porky Pig and/or Daffy Duck. This however, excluded any shorts with the two characters made before that amendment occurred, even if they released after the fact (''Book Revue'' and ''[[Baby Bottleneck]]'' are both examples of this). By the end of 1946, Blanc began receiving a screen credit in any subsequent Warner Bros. cartoon for which he provided voices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=6641|title=Mel Blanc: filmography|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=November 25, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013070120/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/6641/Mel-Blanc/filmography|archive-date=October 13, 2007}}</ref>

===Voice work for Hanna-Barbera and others===
In 1960, after the expiration of his exclusive contract with Warner Bros., Blanc continued working for them, but also began providing voices for the TV cartoons produced by [[Hanna-Barbera]]; his roles during this time included [[Barney Rubble]] of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' and [[List of The Jetsons characters#Mr. Spacely|Cosmo Spacely]] of ''The Jetsons''. His other voice roles for Hanna-Barbera included [[Dino (The Flintstones)|Dino the Dinosaur]], [[Secret Squirrel]], [[Speed Buggy]], and [[Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels|Captain Caveman]], as well as voices for ''[[Wally Gator]]'' and ''[[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop]]''.

Blanc also worked with former ''Looney Tunes'' director Chuck Jones, who by this time was directing shorts with his own company Sib Tower 12 (later [[MGM Animation/Visual Arts]]), doing vocal effects for the ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' series from 1963 to 1967. Blanc was the first voice of [[Toucan Sam]] in [[Froot Loops]] commercials.

Blanc reprised some of his Warner Bros. characters when the studio contracted him to make [[DePatie-Freleng Enterprises|new theatrical cartoons]] in the mid- to late 1960s. For these, Blanc voiced Daffy Duck and [[Speedy Gonzales]], the characters who received the most frequent use in these shorts (later, newly introduced characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse were voiced by [[Larry Storch]]). Blanc also continued to voice the ''Looney Tunes'' for the bridging sequences of ''[[The Bugs Bunny Show]]'', as well as in numerous animated advertisements and several compilation features, such as ''[[The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie]]'' (1979). He also voiced [[Granny (Looney Tunes)|Granny]] on [[Peter Pan Records]] in ''4 More Adventures of Bugs Bunny'' (1974) and ''Holly-Daze'' (1974), in place of [[June Foray]],<ref name="Christmas Records">{{cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/bugs-bunnys-high-fructose-christmas-record/|title=Bugs Bunny's High-Fructose Christmas Record|website=Cartoon Research|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-06}}</ref> and replaced the late [[Arthur Q. Bryan]] as [[Elmer Fudd]]'s voice during the post-golden age era.

===Car accident and aftermath===
On January 24, 1961, Blanc was driving alone when his sports car was involved in a [[head-on collision]] on [[Sunset Boulevard]]; his legs and his pelvis were fractured as a result.<ref>{{cite news|date=January 25, 1961|title=Mel Blanc, Man of Many Voices, Badly Injured|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7806040/mel_blanc/|newspaper=The Terre Haute Tribune|page=5|agency=[[United Press International]]|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=February 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190217051645/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7806040/mel_blanc/|archive-date=February 17, 2019|url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="bio">{{cite book|title=That's Not All, Folks!|year=1988|first1=Mel|last1=Blanc|author2=Philip Bashe|publisher=Warner Books|isbn=978-0-446-51244-2}}</ref> He was in a coma and completely non-responsive. About two weeks later, one of Blanc's neurologists at the [[UCLA Medical Center]] tried a different approach than just trying to address the unconscious Blanc—address his characters instead. Blanc was asked, "How are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny?" After a slight pause, Blanc answered, in a weak voice, "Eh&nbsp;... just fine, Doc. How are you?"<ref name="Blanc" /> The doctor then asked [[Tweety]] if he was there, too. "I tawt I taw a puddy tat", was the reply.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiolab.org/story/248590-blanc/|title=What's Up, Doc?|date=November 6, 2012|access-date=October 27, 2014|series=[[Radiolab]]|last=Horowitz|first=Daniel}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.openculture.com/2013/05/the_strange_day_when_bugs_bunny_saved_the_life_of_mel_blanc.html|title=The Strange Day When Bugs Bunny Saved the Life of Mel Blanc|date=May 6, 2013|publisher=OpenCulture.com|last=Rix|first=Kate}}</ref> Blanc returned home on March 17. Four days later, Blanc filed a [[United States dollar|US$]]500,000 lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. His accident, one of 26 in the preceding two years at the intersection known as [[Dead Man's Curve#Other sharp curves|Dead Man's Curve]], resulted in the city funding the restructuring of curves at the location.
[[File:Mel Blanc 1976 2.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Blanc in 1975]]
Years later, Blanc's son [[Noel Blanc|Noel]] revealed that he performed some of his father's Warner Bros. characters for some cartoons during his recovery.<ref name="Gadgets Interview">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeySvo5HVA&t=761s|title=Mel Blanc visits Gadgets in the Eastwood Mall (Home of The Looney Tunes Revue and Sammy Sands) (1982)|date=January 15, 2025|publisher=YouTube|access-date=May 5, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Loop Lines">{{cite book|title=Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices|isbn=9781593932596|last1=Ohmart|first1=Ben|date=November 15, 2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p8KCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT182|access-date=April 22, 2025|quote=According to one report, Noel, by then a fair imitator of his father's characters, was asked by Warner Bros. to loop a series of cartoons, ones which needed an extra phrase or word redone. He would still pinch-hit for Mel later on occasion too, but "about 99% of what the public hears is my dad. My voice is basically used in public service announcements and on Armed Forces broadcasts."}}</ref><ref name="FilmGen">{{cite book|title=Creating The Filmation Generation|isbn=9781605490441|url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Lou_Scheimer/sVB5zwEACAAJ&pg=PT93|quote=We used a lot of the main Warner characters, except Bugs Bunny and the little mouse guy, Speedy Gonzales. And I think it's one of the few times we used that wonderful voice actor, Mel Blanc, although he may have been ill then. He had a terrible accident, and that may be the time his son (Noel Blanc) did some stuff for us, imitating his dad.|access-date=April 22, 2025|last1=Scheimer|first1=Lou|last2=Mangels|first2=Andy|date=December 15, 2012|publisher=TwoMorrows}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cm8nlBAie0&t=1361s|title=Noel Blanc interview (son of Mel Blanc - the man of a thousand voices) 2022|date=May 1, 2022|publisher=[[YouTube]]|access-date=April 22, 2025|url-status=live}}</ref> Warner Bros. had also asked [[Stan Freberg]] to provide the voices for Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, but Freberg declined, out of respect for Blanc.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGvzwCP2VWM&t=650s|title=Stan Freberg - The Complete "Pioneers of Television" Interview|date=January 29, 2022|publisher=YouTube|access-date=February 1, 2025}}</ref> [[Jerry Hausner]] briefly filled in for Blanc as Bugs and Yosemite Sam for some commercials and spots for ''The Bugs Bunny Show'' and additional lines in ''[[Devil's Feud Cake]]''.<ref name="On Record">{{cite web|title=Bugs Bunny on Record|url=https://www.newsfromme.com/2004/11/09/bugs-bunny-on-record/|publisher=News From ME|access-date=November 24, 2024}}</ref><ref name="CartoonVoices">{{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Keith|title=Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2|date=October 3, 2022|publisher=BearManor Media|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Collectors Choice">{{cite web|title=The Thad Review: "Looney Tunes Collector's Choice" Vol. 4|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-thad-review-looney-tunes-collectors-choice-vol-4/|first=Thad|last=Komorowski|work=Cartoon Research|date=November 18, 2024|access-date=November 24, 2024}}</ref> At the time of the accident, Blanc was also serving as the voice of [[Barney Rubble]] in ''[[The Flintstones]]''. His absence from the show was relatively brief; [[Daws Butler]] provided the voice of Barney for a few episodes, after which the show's producers set up recording equipment in Blanc's hospital room and later at his home to allow him to work from there. Some of the recordings were made while he was in full-body cast as he lay flat on his back with the other ''Flintstones'' co-stars gathered around him.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19880904&id=EsMnAAAAIBAJ&pg=1214,1135635|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712201936/http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19880904&id=EsMnAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cL4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1214,1135635|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|title=Blanc laments lack of cartoon quality|newspaper=[[Anchorage Daily News]]|last=Craig|first=Paul|agency=Mcclatchy News Service|date=September 4, 1988|access-date=June 20, 2020}}</ref> He returned to ''The Jack Benny Program'' to film the program's 1961 Christmas show, moving around by crutches and a wheelchair.<ref>{{cite news|date=November 24, 1961|title=Mel Blanc Is Back at Work|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7812606//|newspaper=The Vernon Daily Record|agency=[[Associated Press]]|page=3|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 11, 2016}} {{Open access}}</ref>

===Later years===
On January 29, 1962, Mel and his son Noel formed Blanc Communications Corporation,<ref name="Banc_Bio">{{cite book|last=Blanc|first=Mel|year=1988|title=That's Not All Folks!|publisher=Warner Books|isbn=0-446-51244-3|url=https://archive.org/details/thatsnotallfolks00blanc|pages=228, 252}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Blanc Communications Corporation, California, US|url=https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/C0427033|access-date=June 21, 2021|website=Open Corporates}}</ref> a media company which produced over 5,000 commercials and public service announcements, which remains in operation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.melblanccommunications.com/|title=Blanc Communications Corporation official site|access-date=October 8, 2017}}</ref> Mel and Noel appeared with many stars, including: [[Kirk Douglas]], [[Lucille Ball]], [[Vincent Price]], [[Phyllis Diller]], [[Liberace]] and [[The Who]].{{clear left}}

In the 1970s, Blanc gave a series of college lectures across the US and appeared in commercials for [[American Express]]. In 1972, [[Chuck McKibben]] started working as Blanc's personal recording engineer/producer and studio manager. His daily responsibilities at Mel Blanc Audiomedia in [[Beverly Hills, California]] included recording Blanc's voice for a variety of film, advertising and theme park projects.<ref>The Hollywood Reporter, section R5, November 29, 1972</ref><ref name="Last Interview">{{cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-his-own-words-mel-blancs-last-interview/|title=In His Own Words: Mel Blanc's Last Interview|website=Cartoon Research|language=en-US|access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref> In 1982, Mel's production company, Blanc Communications Corporation, collaborated on a special with the Boston-based Shriners' Burns Institute called ''Ounce of Prevention'', which became a 30-minute TV special.<ref name="Ounce1">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRoyZTD_4Sk&t=3005s|title=Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices|date=August 13, 2012|publisher=YouTube|access-date=May 11, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Ounce2">{{cite web|url=http://library.nfpa.org/surpass/websafari.exe/detail?sid=84E152E6-849C-449D-AB27-22DA2C07555B&database=database&list=R&rec=29&marc=9208|title=Ounce of prevention|access-date=October 8, 2017|website=Charles S. Morgan Technical Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008175005/http://library.nfpa.org/surpass/websafari.exe/detail?sid=84E152E6-849C-449D-AB27-22DA2C07555B&database=database&list=R&rec=29&marc=9208|archive-date=October 8, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Blanc performed his ''Looney Tunes'' characters for bridging sequences in various compilation films of [[Golden age of American animation|Golden Age-era]] Warner Bros. cartoons, such as: ''[[The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie]]'', ''[[The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie]]'', ''[[Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales]]'', ''[[Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island]]'' and ''[[Daffy Duck's Quackbusters]]''. His final performance of his ''Looney Tunes'' roles was in ''Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports'' (1989). After spending most of two seasons voicing the diminutive robot Twiki in ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'', Blanc's last major original character was [[Heathcliff (comic strip)|Heathcliff]], who he voiced from 1980 to 1988.

In the live-action film ''[[Strange Brew]]'' (1983), Blanc voiced the father of [[Bob and Doug McKenzie]], at the request of comedian [[Rick Moranis]]. In the live-action/animated movie ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' (1988), Blanc reprised several of his roles from Warner Bros. cartoons (Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, and [[Sylvester the Cat|Sylvester]]), but left [[Yosemite Sam]] to [[Joe Alaskey]] (who later became one of Blanc's regular replacements until his death in 2016). The film was one of the few [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] projects in which Blanc was involved. Blanc died just a year after the film's release. His final recording session was for ''[[Jetsons: The Movie]]'' (1990).<ref>[[Jerry Beck|Beck, Jerry]]. ''The Animated Movie Guide'' (2005).</ref>