In 1957,  Ralph Wright made a four year old Dennis Nyback very happy when he made Perri, a live action nature film based on a Felix Salten novel about a squirrel. The eye of the future film archivist was already first rate – Nyback fell in love with Perri not knowing (or caring) that it would win the Golden Bear for Best Feature Length Documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival the following year.

Wright co-wrote and co-directed Perri. Other Disney writing credits for Wright include Bambi, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and of course Jungle Book.

Ralph Wright also provided the voice for Eeyore in four of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh films- he originated the characterization in the first of the series – Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966).

Ralph Wright was born in Grants Pass, Oregon in 1908.

Pinto Colvig was almost 50 years into his show business career when he voiced Pluto in this holiday themed Disney cartoon.

Pinto was born Vance DeBar Colvig, son of Judge Colvig, in Jacksonville, Oregon in 1892. He entered show business in 1905 in Portland during the Lewis and Clark Exposition. He joined a street performer’s act, and learned he could get laughs by playing his clarinet with his eyes crossed.

He became an animator by way of newspaper cartooning. By 1915 he had his own animation studio, Pinto Cartoon Comedies, in San Francisco.

In 1922 he moved to Hollywood and went to work for Mack Sennett.

He was hired by Walt Disney in 1930, and originated the voice of Pluto in 1931.

I hereby claim Pluto’s Christmas Tree as an Oregon film, on the basis of Pinto Colvig’s contribution as voice artist.

Mel Blanc made this when he was 71 years old. Every voice is his.

“Ain’t I a little Dickens?”

I hereby claim Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol as an Oregon film on the basis of Mel Blanc’s contribution as voice artist.

“When handed my first Warner’s paycheck, I had to blink my eyes. Two hundred dollars! I’d never seen three digits on a check before, at least not on one made out to me.” Mel Blanc

Radio actor Mel Blanc decided to branch out into animation in part because he was worried that radio would be a passing craze. Plus he had heard that animation paid well. Plus he believed there was room for improvement in the voice work he heard in the cartoons he saw. He spent a year and a half pursuing an audition at Warner Brothers before one was granted.

Treg Brown liked what he heard and asked Mel to stick around for a minute while he found a second opinion.

From That’s Not All, Folks!, Mel’s autobiography:

A lively Christmas office party was in progress, so the entire cartoon division was present, albeit in various stages of mood alteration.

He ( Treg Bown) brought back the four directors: Isadore Freleng, whom everyone called Friz, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett and Fred “Tex” Avery. The diminutive Freleng was a holdover from the old regime and a Walt Disney refugee. At the time, he was involved primarily with the Merrie Melodies in-color shot subjects. Tashlin had only recently arrived at Schlessinger Productions, directing several of the black-and-white Looney Tunes. A comedy writer and cartoonist, he later went on to a distinguished film directing career. Clampett was an even newer addition to the staff; a handsome fellow with wavy hair and a lantern jaw. Then there was portly Avery, who’d gotten his start as an animator for producer Walter Lantz. At Warners he gained distinction as one of the most wildly inventive directors of all time.

With the four directors assembled around him, Mel Blanc repeated his audition.

“That’s terrific!” Avery exclaimed. “Tell me, can you come in for a recording session next Tuesday?” Not wanting to appear too overanxious, I thought about it for a minute before replying nonchalantly ” Yes, I think I can make it.”

And thus Mel Blanc, Lincoln High School dropout, began his Hollywood career.

Today is Mel Blanc’s 103rd birthday. I am posting Pickador Porky, his big screen debut, in honor of that occasion.

Porky Pig in Pickador Porky is voiced by Joe Dougherty ( who had originated the characterization ). The bull is voiced by Billy Bletcher. Mel Blanc voices a drunk. Treg Brown was the sound effects editor, Chuck Jones & Sid Sutherland & Bob Clampett were the animators. Tex Avery was the supervisor, Carl Stalling was the music director.

I hereby claim Pickador Porky as an Oregon film, based on the contribution of voice artist Mel Blanc.

In today’s Oregonian, Mike Russell compares Rango, the new animated Western starring a lizard, to this 1951 Warner Brothers cartoon starring Daffy Duck.

Johnny Depp voices the gun toting reptile. Mel Blanc voices Daffy.

“Hi ho, Tin Foil!”

I hereby claim Drip Along Daffy as an Oregon film, based on the voice acting contributed by Mel Blanc.

This post brought to you by Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Brad Bird demonstrates his Pacific Northwest roots by a) thanking Matt Groening, with whom he and Eric Goldberg shared the award, and b) asking his employees to “use all of the buffalo”.

Bird had to record his acceptance speech on video as he is out of the country scouting locations for his next film, Mission Impossible IV.

The good people over at Oregon Cartoon Institute would like to point out that Mel Blanc (Portland), Marc Davis (Klamath Falls), and Bill Plympton (Oregon City) preceded Matt Groening (Portland) and Brad Bird (Corvallis ) in receiving this award.

Congratulations, Brad!

Artist Carye Bye provided the above portrait of the great artist whose career we will be exploring, and whose Portland life and influences we will be discussing, in the upcoming Mel Blanc Project.

The project is a partnership with Oregon Jewish Museum, which is opening a Mel Blanc exhibit in May 2011, and Ethos Music School, which is providing the venue for a live concert in June 2011 of original electronic music inspired by Bugs Bunny and composed by OCI artist in residence, Heather Perkins.

More information about the project, including the four part Mel Blanc lecture series, organized by Anne Richardson and Dennis Nyback, will be found here on Oregon Movies, A to Z, and at the Mel Blanc Project blog.

Portlander Mel Blanc provided the voice of Private Snafu in a series of WWII army training films written by Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Suess. Portlander Dennis Nyback first presented The Dark Side Of Dr. Suess to  audiences at the Clinton Street Theater, and has since taken it around the world.

This promotional video was made by Madcap Theaters in Tempe, Arizona.

I hereby claim all of the films in which Pvt. Snafu appears as Oregon films, on the basis of Mel Blanc’s contribution as voice artist.

This post brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Three months after Hitler invaded Poland, MGM released this anti war cartoon. Director Hugh Harman was nominated for both the 1939 Nobel Peace Prize and an 1940 Oscar. Mel Blanc voices the narrator, Grandpa Squirrel.

I hereby claim Peace On Earth as an Oregon film, on the basis of Mel Blanc’s contribution as voice artist.

Caricature by Martinus Van Tee

Myth #1. Mel Blanc graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon.

False! Lincoln High School has no record that Melvin Jerome Blanc ever graduated. He did attend.

Myth #2. Mel Blanc moved to Los Angeles in order to become a voice artist.

False! Mel Blanc already was a voice artist when he arrived in Los Angeles. His first professional gig was here in Portland, on KGW radio, in 1927.

Myth #3. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig formed the center of Mel Blanc’s professional universe.

False! Mel Blanc’s first love was radio, and he worked steadily in radio throughout his entire life.

Myth #4. Mel Blanc’s phenomenal talent was a freak of nature.

False! Mel Blanc worked hard to develop his talent. He conducted two parallel careers in Portland from 1927 to 1935: he was both a musician and  a radio performer. As a musician, he had front row seats (in the orchestra pit) to study the comic delivery of the nation’s top vaudeville comics, a group which included Jack Benny, with whom he would eventually work. As a radio performer, he spent 6 years on a nationally syndicated one hour weekly show at Portland’s KGW, and two years on his own daily one hour show – which he wrote, produced, and starred in – on Portland’s KEX. He was eight years into a show business career when he moved to Los Angeles.

Myth #5. Matt Groening, Oregon’s other animation supernova (who did graduate from Lincoln High School), idolizes Mel Blanc.

Not sure! Matt Groening has gone on record stating that Bill Plympton is God.

Here’s Mel Blanc himself, in a clip introduced by Dennis Nyback. Mel appears at 2:55.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This post brought to you by the Oregon Cartoon Institute in honor of Bugs Bunny’s 70th birthday.