Trivia

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch; Thurl Ravenscroft

It’s amazing the amount of trivia that any of us have be-boppin’ around inside our heads. I love to play Trivial Pursuit with my cousin W. and anyone else who happens to get pulled in by our TP tractor beam. I frequently lose. But I have had my moments.

The one that outshines them all occurred when I had landed on the blue chippie spot five different times without answering the question correctly. Geography questions should not have posed any problems for me. Yet here I was on my sixth question. W. looked at me, with both sympathy and bleeding-heart compassion, by the way, and said, “You’re not going to get this one either. ‘What does Fort Payne, Alabama, make more of than anybody else?’” SOCKS!! Gimme my chippie!! I stunned the cuz.

When I worked on the Crown Odyssey and the Star Odyssey, one of the vocalists, S.K., came from Fort Payne, Alabama. After he performed the second number of his show, he would always tell the audience a little about himself. “I come from Fort Payne, Alabama. There are only three things that ever came out of Fort Payne. Socks, the country band Alabama, and me.”

I lost the TP game, though. In well over one hundred games with W., I think that I have won only twice. I’m not bitter. It’s her house, it’s her game. If she wants to memorize the cards in the middle of the night, it’s her prerogative. I honor her game-winning strategy, it just makes me work all that harder, that’s all.

I have a fascination with cartoon voices. For years, as a young cartoon watcher, I would relish the animation and the madcap antics that suffused themselves into the plot. After a while, though, I began to develop an intrigue with the voices of the characters and the people who brought them to life. Mel Blanc, of course, had a career for the ages with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Same, Sylvester, Pepe le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn. And June Foray associated herself with a number of studios voicing witches, grandmas, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, and sweet, sweet Nell, daughter of Inspector Fenwick on Dudley Do-Right. I enjoyed the work of Daws Butler who brought many of the Hanna-Barbera studio characters to life like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss and Cap’n Crunch. Jim Backus did Mr. Magoo. Bill Scott did Bullwinkle and Mr. Peabody. Don Adams did Tennessee Tuxedo. Casey Kasem did Shaggy. Alan Reed did Fred Flintstone. And now I’m just showing off.

And I was probably showing off in December of 2007 when a bunch of us in the Annapolis Chorale had the post-rehearsal munchies. We were able to get a table at Chili’s. At some point during the merriment, “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” took its turn on the background music lineup. “Who sings this?” someone asked. “Boris Karloff,” someone claimed. Actually, I said in my best Mr.Peabody voice, it was Thurl Ravenscroft. “No, Boris Karloff’s name is credited at the beginning of the show.” He does the narration, but the song was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft. “Who’s he?”

I’m glad you asked. He was the voice of Tony the Tiger. He sang the part of the pig in the animated farm scene in “Mary Poppins”. He sang “No dogs allowed” in “Snoopy, Come Home”. I heard him singing a solo at the end of “There Is Nothing Like A Dame” in the film soundtrack of “South Pacific”. He had a huge voice-over career over the course of sixty-five years. He passed away in 2005.

“Well, I remember Boris Karloff’s name in the credits. I’ve never heard of this Thurble Cravensloft.” I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I had to look it up. So, when I got home, I found the information that I needed on the ol’ world wide interweb and e-mailed it to everyone who had been at the table. In retaliation for my overkill tactics, I unwittingly acquired a new nickname: Thurl. For crying out loud. The price you pay for knowing a little something. Next time, I'm just gonna' stick a sock in it.

Credits: To Bill Scott. I love Bullwinkle. And to Daws Butler. I love Quickdraw McGraw and his alter ego El Kabong.