Hey Brian,
I emailed you once a while back and just came across your site again. Your work on Walter Tetley is invaluable. No other web source exists that I know of in this detail. I did see a book last year in a Barnes and Nobles in New Orleans that had a one page section on Watler. I do not remember the book’s title (I think it was about television or cartoons–maybe Jay Ward cartoons), but it told of his operation he had while a teenager or young adult that actually helped him grow a few more inches. Does any of that ring a bell?
You wrote:
‘I would like to find a picture of him, as he looked then, in the early to mid 70s. Most of the pictures, that I have seen of him, are from 30 years earlier. Though many of those later photos, were probably not particularly flattering (due that difficult phase of his life, and the fact that he was fast approaching the identity of a senior citizen), I would really enjoy seeing a different side of him.’
‘Amen’ to that. I had been looking for just such a thing five years before I discovered your wonderful site. (Back then it was difficult just to find a picture of him at any age!). He fascinates me for all the reasons you so eloquently wrote about. (That kid’s voice coming from a man) When I saw him in a bell hop cameo for a Gildersleeve movie, I was struck by his maturity really. I expected to see another Dickie Beals or Phillip Morris guy. But he looked more like a somewhat youthful-looking teenager. Not nearly as tiny (or elfish) as I had imagined.
Thanks.
Dave
Hattiesburg, MS
Hi David. The name of that book that you were talking about, which devotes a page to Walter Tetley is Keith Scott’s The Moose That Roared. I allude to it, quite a lot, in some of our articles. Keith Scott is no relation to Bill Scott, at Jay Ward. Keith Scott is from Australia.
I don’t know if you saw it, but, we actually added two new features, about Walter Tetley; not just Twilight of an Identity, but also Walter’s Radio Career. It wouldn’t surprise me if you missed it, because we listed Walter’s Radio Career separate from the Tribute and Twilight entries on the left margin.
I haven’t seen any of those Gildersleeve movies, but I did see W.T. in a bit part role in an Abbott and Costello movie called “Who Done it?”. They don’t even credit him for that in the movie (he has quite a few lines, actually), but his filmography does credit him. He plays a bellhop or elevator operator in that movie.
I just have not gotten around to doing that. I would have to do some digging to find him, of course (that never stopped me before, anyway!).
The reason why I decided not to put Walter’s Radio Career, side by side with the other Tetley features, in the margin was very simple. We want to attract people who are interested in all the Jay Ward voice actors; not just Walter Tetley. If we had three in a row, on the left margin, someone visiting our site might glance at that quickly, and think: ‘All this web site is about is W.T.; it doesn’t really focus that much on the other people.’ A person in a hurry might not bother to arrow down and read the other entries.
So I decided to use Walter’s Radio Career as a “bookend feature” in the margin’s index. I list that feature after the very last feature about Jay Ward’s voice actors. So the index starts with Walter and ends with him; why I call it a “bookend feature” in the index.
Brian