We received an email, earlier, which spoke of the very “tight relationship” that Daws had with Hanna-Barbera; tight to the point of loyalty………..tight to the point of not even wanting to receive credit for his voice work on Jay Ward cartoons (which had a competing cereal sponsor; General Mills vs. H-B’s Kellogg’s). As Greg Burson, who emailed us, explained, Daws apparently understood where the majority of his “bread and butter: was coming from: Hanna-Barbera.
Interestingly enough, however, I have found some further interesting details, about Daws’ relationship, with H-B, on a google website. This site developed by Mark Evanier (Mark Evanier also has had some recent contact with June Foray, as she is working on her own autobiography) points out that, by the mid 1960s, “Daws’s fruitful relationship” with Hanna-Barbera began to unravel.
Evanier states that this was not related, at all, to personality problems, between Daws and these two giants of animation. There were several problems. For one thing, Daws was largely responsible for helping their studio to become huge and successful. He had created the voices for most of their key characters. It was only natural that Daws would now deserve to be paid, even more money, than back in the late 50s. Now Daws’ talent agent, Miles Auer, apparently always negotiated for Daws to be paid the highest fees possible for his work.
Another problem was that the studio had been criticized for churning out cartoons that all sounded alike. As much as Daws masterfully concocted completely different voices, I suppose it just couldn’t be helped, that his signature voice would slip out, occasionally, and be recognized as that of the same man.
Finally Hanna and Barbera apparently realized the trouble, that they could encounter, if Daws continued to provide most, if not all, of their voices. If Daws were to go on strike, if his agent happened to feel that the studio was not paying him enough, then there would be a myriad of cartoon voices that would have to be recast…….and probably by more than just one man. That could have proposed a real nightmare for the two producers.
For the rest of his life, Daws rarely got the starring roles in H-B’s cartoons. Mark Evanier mentions that 1968 was a pretty good year for him however. He was one of the Banana Splits, and he also did quite a bit of voice work on the Wacky Races and Catanooga Cats cartoons. In 1971 he also got the title role, in the cartoon, The Funky Phantom (the phantom sounded a lot like Snagglepuss).
Other than that, unless H-B was recycling one of their older series, with new episodes (such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, etc.), Daws more and more played supporting roles and minor roles.
Mr. Evanier went on to explain another interesting fact, about Daws’ relationship with H-B (however this one dates back to his earlier days with the studio). Butler was, essentially, the star of H-B’s “Daytime cartoons”…….but not for most of their “Nighttime” work. Networks and sponsors apparently feared that if Daws was the voice of Fred and Barney, in the Flintstones, the show would sound too much like a “kid’s” show. The Flintstones aired at 9:00 p.m., in some TV markets. This show also had one sponsor, which aired cigarette commercials. Clearly The Flintstones was being targeted for an adult audience. There could be a grain of truth, I suppose, to their fears, since Daws did so MANY voices for H-B’s “kiddie shows”.
Daws had recorded the pilot movie, for The Flintstones: The Flagstones. He was actually the original voice for BOTH Fred and Barney. Surely it must have been a disappointment, for Butler, when he lost these two roles to Alan Reed and Mel Blanc.
There was still another reason, why Daws lost out on landing these leads. Apparently attorneys were very concerned that Jackie Gleason might sue H-B, because Butler did such a very good Ralph Kramden imitation (for Fred Flintstone). It was already obvious that Fred and Barney were inspired by the TV show, The Honeymooners, with Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton. Many of The Flintstones plots beared a resemblence to the plots of The Honeymooners too. To have Daws do Fred’s voice, might have been just enough to push the Gleason people, over the edge, and bring about an unwanted lawsuit.
Interestingly enough, Jackie Gleason did say, in a 1986 interview with Playboy Magazine, that he and his people had considered suing H-B over this show, but later decided not to bother.
As far as Daws’ Jackie Gleason imitation is concerned, I personally wondered why H-B could not simply ask Daws to do another voice………with his vast repertoire, surely that would have been quite easy for him. Thus, I am not sure that we have gotten the whole story on that.
To view Mark Evanier’s article, in toto, visit:
http://povonline.com/COL329.htm
Brian