The Walter Tetley Web Page

DEDICATED TO WALTER TETLEY AND THE OTHER VOICE ACTORS WITH JAY WARD PRODUCTIONS

Category: Others

Bill Scott Revisited

October 7, 2001

(A followup on our Jack of All Trades)

For many years I assumed that Bill Scott never did voices for cartoons, other than Jay Ward Productions. I had always assumed this because of the conflict of interest that this would have been (since he was the co-producer at Jay Ward). When I read his filmography for the first time, in 2000, I did get confirmation that this was true. Interestingly enough, however, I saw that he began to “venture out of the nest” in the mid 80s, and did voices for other producers, after he and Jay retired. In 1985 he provided voices for two extraneous cartoon TV series: The Gummie Bears and The Wuzzles. This first one was produced by the Disney Studios; an interesting irony since Bill once said, in so many words, that he had never worked for Disney and he was proud of it!! (he had worked for other animation giants, however, like Warner Brothers)

It was Keith Scott (no relation to Bill Scott, for the record) who enlightened me, in his masterpiece, The Moose That Roared, as to why Bill decided to “test the waters” and voice other cartoons. In 1984, Bill and Jay Ward saw the handwriting on the wall, that they were going to be closing down. They had been having many problems with Quaker Oats, for whom they had been doing animated cereal commercials for years. Bill Scott, who wrote 90% of the scripts for Jay Ward Productions (according to Daws Butler), had been forced, by Quaker, to write two, three or more drafts, for their commercial, in recent years, before they met with final approval. This was only the tip of the ice berg, vis à vis the lack of cooperation and the thinly veiled animosity that had been aimed at Scott and Ward, by this sponsor.

Keith Scott wrote that Bill began sending out tapes and “feelers”, to other animation studios, about doing voice work for them, as his own studio began to wind down its affairs. I assume that there were probably many times, over the decades, that Bill had been offered voice work, by other studios, but had turned it all down, since he was at the helm of Jay Ward. The only other voice work that I know of, that Bill did, was in radio. According to his 1974 letter to me, he was a “reasonably employed radio actor” for about two or three years (around the age of twenty). I am sure that he probably did some additional voice work, that I am not aware of; the filmographies of actors often do not include all their work.

I can only imagine, after twenty-five years of running the show at Jay Ward Productions (he wrote, directed, produced and did most of the starring voices in all their cartoons), it must have been rather difficult, to work for someone else and no longer be the boss…………and to be involved in animation work only from the voice angle. Doubtless there must have been many times when he bit his tongue and did not give advice that he would have liked to give. Also he was most assuredly disappointed with the scripts that he had to work with. The animation studios, which were still producing shows in the mid 80s, all “played the game” and kowtowed to a myriad of censor and sponsor demands. They either kowtowed or they did not produce.

Scott and Ward, for their part, fought tooth and nail, as long as they could, to not have to compromise and water down the quality of their work. So there Bill Scott was, in 1984 and 1985, working for cartoon producers who did just the opposite of what he and Jay did. For him to work for someone else, must have been analogous to a minister who retired from his church after thirty-five to forty years, and then remained at the church, as a parishoner, afterwards. You can imagine how hard it might be, for that retired pastor to bite his tongue, and not get involved with the decisions of the new pastor (especially if his church was a big church).

I believe that it was very admirable for Bill Scott to do what he did. I also think that it was great, since he was sixty-four years old, in 1984, that he did not just go away, quietly, and forsake his artistic leanings completely. Unfortunately, shortly after Bill began to work, with the same folks who had long been his competition, he died, very suddenly, of a heart attack. The other animation giants only got to work with him for a year or less. What a sad irony, since they had been denied access to his talents, for at least twenty-five years.

Though Bill’s voice work was not my favorite at Jay Ward, I would be very interested to learn about how he developed his vast repertoire, over the years. He was especially talented in the realm of accents and dialects; those were truly his strength. I never thought to ask him about that, when we exchanged letters in the mid 70s. I also never thought to ask him how he became interested in voice characterizations in the first place (or how old he was when he first developed a love for this; he was probably quite young, since he broke into radio work around age twenty).

On a more personal note, Bill Scott, like Paul Frees, seemed to have a great deal of confidence in me. He closed out his letter to me (he only wrote to me once), wishing me every success and great fortune for the future. He also emphasized that, whatever I decided to do with my life, he was sure that I would not have anything to worry about; that I would have a very successful life. How honored I was to read such an extraordinary ending, from such an extraordinary man. I hope to continue to draw on my memory of Bill Scott, as a very rich source of inspiration, for however many more years, that God is kind enough to bless me with.

Jay Ward

January 7, 2003

And now a man who needs no introduction………..And so I haven’t used any fancy title to write about Mr. Ward; his name pretty much says it all. I really did not have a strong desire to write an article on Jay Ward………….at first……….(mainly because, unlike co-producer, Bill Scott, he does not dabble in voices). However, after reading Keith Scott’s book, The Moose That Roared, a second time, I felt highly motivated to say something about this “animation pioneer”. I will try to use mostly just the information that Bill Scott and others relayed to me, in their letters from the early to mid 70s.

It is inevitable that some of their information will overlap with facts that Keith Scott brought out in The Moose That Roared. Be that as it may, I nevertheless did obtain these facts independently of Keith’s book. I daresay that there may even be a few nuggets, here, not covered exactly the same way as in Keith’s book (or possibly not covered at all). In spite of this, however, I still highly recommend that anyone who is truly interested in learning about Ward read Keith’s book. The anecdotes and biographical sketches on him are quite fascinating.

Bill Scott’s February 1, 1974 letter was the most “telling”, vis à vis Jay Ward. And rightly so! (as they were co-producers). Thus what I learned from Bill will be the LION’S SHARE of this discussion. I will include a few things from Daws Butler, Paul Frees and June Foray as well:

Bill Scott:

I found it interesting that Bill Scott and Jay Ward did not meet until 1957; just one year before General Mills bought Rocky & His Friends and just two years before that show debuted. They were born the same year—1920—-and they both died relatively close in time: Scott was in his mid 60s and Ward was in his very late 60s.

It’s interesting just how much they had in common; not just the years that they lived, but also that they shared a similar off-beat sense of humor—-and that
they were both REBELS and pioneers in cartoon history. The two men also got along FANTASTICALLY and worked very well together. I must credit Keith Scott for this last point; Bill did not go into detail about how very close they were. When you think about it, it is really very sad that the two men spent less than half their lives together (not even three decades!……….very little time, in the grand scheme of things).

In Bill’s letter, he said that at first just the two of them worked alone. Their first studio was an old Hollywood apartment house, in Spanish-stucco style, which was built around 1927 (how charming that sounds; no sarcasm intended there, as I really like Spanish architecture and older architecture very much). Though they never gave up that place, they eventually moved into four small buildings on Sunset Boulevard.

Bill said that they outgrew that Hollywood apartment because Jay had the collecting instinct of a pack-rat: the place got filled with old racing forms, hurdy-gurdys, merry-go-round horses and wooden Indians (I found that part about merry-go-round horses very interesting, as the opening scenes of Rocky & His Friends showed a circus scene, and some merry-go-round horses; hence I thought I understood why the first of their two Rocky and Bullwinkle shows had that type of
motif).

As I had mentioned in the feature, “Without Fanfare”, Bill Scott said that one of the reasons why he and Jay decided to call their studio Jay Ward Productions was because Jay was the one who worried the most about the money (he was also a real estate specialist in Berkeley, CA). But there was actually more to this decision than that: Jay already had a name in Hollywood as a producer. When Bill met Jay, in 1957, Bill had already worn many hats in the cartoon industry. His last role, before becoming a co-producer, was that of a free-lance cartoon story man.

***

Daws Butler:

Daws said that Jay Ward was always extremely loyal in that he was content to employ just a very small coterie of voice actors and he rarely turned to anyone else. Daws said, in so many words, that it was wonderful to be able to depend, so strongly, on Jay Ward. Ward appeared to have great confidence in Butler, Foray, Frees and Scott to take care of what he needed for his cartoons (perhaps he would have used Walter Tetley even more had he not started to have health problems toward the end of his life. Then too, Tetley’s voice was not as versatile as some of these other voice actors).

***

Paul Frees:

Paul Frees did not say a whole lot about Jay Ward. He did tell me, however, in answer to a question about getting into voice acting, that he would recommend Jay Ward as someone to whom I could send a tape of my voice characterizations. Initially he recommended sending a tape to Bill Scott (a very logical choice, since he did most of Ward’s starring voices) or to his own agent (Frees’ agent), Charles Stern. He hastened to add, however, that I might even want to consider sending a tape to Jay Ward.

***
So though Jay Ward was very much on top of finances and real estate, he was not too far removed, from the day to day operations, that he didn’t still have a good ear for voices (he just never tried to do these voices himself). Indeed Keith Scott did mention that Jay Ward was present at most of the recording sessions with Foray, Butler, Frees, Scott and the others (and that he enjoyed that time very much). This brings me to a few things that I learned from June Foray; none of which came from her letter, however, but from a couple of articles about her in 2000.

***

June Foray:

June said that Jay Ward gave her suggestions regarding Rocky and Natasha, when they first met (Rocky: clean-cut, all-American boy; Natasha: not too Russian, as the U.S. was already having enough problems with the Cold War). She also commented on Ward’s impact on the writing for Rocky and Bullwinkle. This was interesting to me, since Daws Butler had once said that Bill Scott wrote about 90% of the scripts. She said that if the material for the show made Jay laugh, then that was his stamp of approval! Anything that HE loved………..Anything that made HIM laugh………..Well then it was in! I believe that Bill Scott also had a similar philosophy, given some of the things that Keith Scott wrote of him.

***
Hopefully some of these facts will bring Jay Ward’s persona into sharper focus, for our web page. We had had this site for more than two years, without dedicating a single feature to him. Jay was indeed an enigma, as Keith Scott noted in The Moose That Roared. But he was also a very multi-faceted man and a man of many contradictions. The folks whom Keith interviewed, for his book, appear to be diametrically opposed, on some viewpoints, about just who this man was………..

***

Honorable Mentions – The Other Voices

March 12, 2001

In this portion, of the Walter Tetley Web Page, we will touch, briefly, on all the other voice-over artists, used in Jay Ward cartoons. Though we have not dedicated an entire detailed commentary, to each one of these, we wish to say at least a few words about them:

CHRIS ALLEN:

Hoppity Hooper
We will start with Chris Allen because she is the only other voice artist, (besides, June Foray, Daws Butler, Paul Frees and Bill Scott), who wrote to me. We will not dedicate a very long commentary to her, however, because by her own admission, she is, first and foremost, “a writer”. Voices have always been something that she has just done as a side-line.

She did not do very much, at all, other than the title role, in Hoppity Hooper. Her filmography at IMDB proves this. (There are at least 5 Chris Allens in show biz).

Should anyone have an interest, in more details about Ms. Allen (based on her 6-page typed letter to me), we would be happy to include that information under our mailbag feature, Peabody’s Pony Express.

Just a few words on Ms. Allen, before moving on: It is not certain if she is still living. I have no idea when she was born. She did say, however, in her April 28, 1974 letter, that she had a 24-year-old son and a 21-year-old daughter, then.

Bill Scott (the voice of Bullwinkle) said in his February 1974 letter that “Chris Allen is a handsome, middle-aged woman”. So we know that she was at least 40-45, back then, and that she was, most likely, a very attractive woman. For the record, Chris did not send me a photo, and I have never seen a picture of her.

Ms. Allen did say that Daws Butler was a very dear friend and a very dear human being. She said that he guest lectured, in a Drama class that she was teaching, and her college students were fascinated! At the time she was teaching Drama, part-time, while getting her MA degree in this same subject area (so although she was a writer, it appears that she had not completely lost her interest in the show biz angle).

HANS CONRIED:

Hans Conried

As far as Hans Conried, and the majority of the others who follow, are concerned, so much has already been written about them (and they are already quite famous), that I will just mention a few brief details.

Hans Conried was born in 1917 and he died in 1982. He did the voice of Snidely Whiplash, on Dudley Do-Right and he also did the voice, of Uncle Waldo, in Hoppity Hooper (the wolf pictured in the cartoon above).

Hans Conried also hosted a “non-cartoon” series, produced by Jay Ward, called Fractured Flickers. The show poked fun at the Silent Movie genre. Voices were dubbed into clips of several of the silent movies, and a whole new story was created!

Conried has appeared in many, many TV shows, including as a regular cast member from Danny Thomas’ TV show, Make Room for Daddy, in which he played “Uncle Tonoose”, for many years.

He has also been in his share of movies, and radio shows. As far as radio is concerned, I had read that he was playing middle-aged men, even when he was in his 20s.

WILLIAM CONRAD:

William Conrad

He was born in 1920 and he died in 1994. We all remember him from the TV shows, Cannon and Jake and the Fat Man. He was also a star, in radio, for years (he was the original Matt Dillon, on radio).

William Conrad was used primarily as the Narrator, in the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV shows. He also, briefly, did some of the narration work in Dudley Do-Right and in Hoppity Hooper (Paul Frees did the bulk of that narration work).

One other role, that Conrad took on, was that of Quake, the strong, mighty hero, from the cereal of the same name. This was in the mid to late 60s, when Jay Ward was doing cereal commercials for Quaker Oats.

EDWARD EVERETT HORTON:

Very famous actor, who started in silent movies, and kept doing film work all the way to his death. His last movie, Cold Turkey, about a town that gives up smoking for one month, was released one year after he died (1971). Edward Everett Horton was born in 1886 and he died in 1970. He could also been seen, guest-starring in TV shows such as Dennis the Menace, I Love Lucy, Nanny and the Professor and The Governor and J.J.

Edward Everett Horton narrated the Fractured Fairy Tales, in his very charming, grandfathely voice. That was his only role, with Jay Ward cartoons.

CHARLES RUGGLES:

Charles Ruggles

He and E. E. Horton had a lot in common. They both lived from 1886-1970. They both narrated a similar type of cartoon, for Jay Ward Productions, and that was the only thing that they did in these cartoons. Charles Ruggles was the Narrator in Aesop & Son (He was Aesop, of course).

Ruggles had been a movie star, years ago, had a dry spell for a long time, and was making a “comeback”, in the last few years of his life.

With the exception of Edward Everett Horton, I never really cared to write, to any of the rest of these artists, because they were already so well know and there was not as much mystery about them. Edward Everett Horton had already died, when I was trying to write to him. I did not learn this fact, until about one year after I started trying to reach him.
The reason why I had wanted to write to E. E. Horton, was because I had discovered that one of my great-aunts had known him, when he was still living in New York.

JULIE BENNETT:

She filled in, for June Foray, as a substitute, for three of the Fractured Fairy Tales. That was her only work, in Jay Ward Productions. Read more about her at IMDB. Some biographies give her year of birth as 1935 and some give it as 1943. Like June Foray, Ms. Bennett is still living. I found this information, on line, on the Frostbite Falls Page.

DOROTHY SCOTT:

Dorothy Scott is the wife, of the co-producer of Jay Ward Productions, Bill Scott. She did voices on three episodes of Peabody’s Improbable History. This fact can also be found on the Frostbite Falls Page. Unlike Julie Bennett, the Frostbite Falls Page does not call her a “substitute” for June Foray, in the Peabody episodes……So perhaps she really was their “first choice” for those three episodes.

We recently (December 2001) received an email from Barbara Scott, the daughter of Bill and Dorothy Scott. She graciously gave us some more information about her mother!

Hi,

Came across your Walter Tetley page with mention to Dorothy Scott (Bill’s wife and my mother), and thought I’d add some info if you’d like to update the paragraph.

Dorothy was born in Denver, Colorado and lived there until marrying Bill and moving to California. She was and is an actress. She lives in Ventura, where she is active with several theatre companies, and is in demand for roles such as the Stage Manager in Our Town, Madame Arcady in Blithe Spirit, the mother in On Golden Pond. She’s active in story theatre in elementary schools. She continues with voice and film work.

Thanks!

Barbara Scott

 

Mysterious, Elusive Chris Allen

July 16, 2002

Hoppity Hooper

(Page One)

Dear Brian:

So sorry I haven’t written sooner but I didn’t really receive either of your two letters until just this last week, when I returned from an extended trip through British Columbia. I am leaving again, on Thursday, for a year’s study abroad (mostly Europe, but I will be going to Africa as well). So I decided I’d better dash off a quick reply to such an enthusiastic fan, before I get back to my packing……………

(Page Six)

How could I fail to answer someone who has gone to so much trouble to find me? Besides…..my main claim to fame is that crazy frog and how many frogs do you know who have fans? Not many………so I have to treat those I have with great care………..

P.S.: I hope this six page letter makes up for not writing sooner. You will forgive a busy, old frog, now……..won’t you?

********************************************************************

For those who do not already know (and have not seen our feature, Honorable Mentions: The Other Voices), Chris Allen did the voice of Hoppity Hooper. Ms. Allen was one of the very few actresses, outside of June Foray, who worked for Jay Ward cartoons. This article is a reversal of our decision to omit a tribute to her. We mentioned that she was first and foremost a writer, and did very little voice work, over the years. After much thought, I felt that a write-up was absolutely necessary.

It appears that there is a great deal of speculation about Chris Allen. No pictures seem to be available, anywhere (and she did not send me a photo, in her April 28th letter of 1974). Even Keith Scott, the Jay Ward historian, wondered whether or not Ms. Allen was still alive, in The Moose That Roared. Her IMDB filmography does not really provide very much information either. Her filmography also does not give any personal data (place of birth or even her date of birth).

In mulling this over, I realized that I might possibly have more information about Chris Allen, than anyone else in the world!! Her six-page letter, was indeed quite prolific. She definitely “rose to the occasion” and proved that she was every bit “A Writer”.

I gave this article a lot of thought and decided that I wanted it to be special and unique; especially since Ms. Allen might not be the first voice artist, whom a lot of people would wish to read about. Granted, it would be very rewarding, and exciting, for me to re-read her letter a couple times, and try to “carve out” a summary of her key points in my own words…….and offer my own opinions, as I often do. It would be neat to approach summarizing her letter, in the same manner in which a sculptor creates a statue or as Monet painted so many of his beautiful French masterpieces, at the turn of last century.

In the end, however, I couldn’t get past the idea of simply allowing Chris Allen to speak for herself. You could say that this feature could almost use a dual by-line (by Chris Allen and Brian Kistler). For this reason, what follows will some of the most interesting and colorful excerpts of her own letter from 4/28/74.

Note that some of the pause dots (………..) are mine (when I choose to skip some of what Chris wrote) and some are her own. She used these dots, quite a bit in her style of writing. The same thing can be said of parentheses. Some are mine (when I reword some of her comments to clear up a quote, out of context) and some are hers (which she just happened to use these in her letter):

********************************************************************

(Page One)

I am a mature woman, my friend, with two children in college. My son, Greg, is 24………My daugther, Cindy, is 21………..

(This was probably written to me, with a snicker, as I had asked her age—-not quite as funny as what June Foray said, when I asked that—–she said that even her husband did not know her age—-and sometimes even she (June) forgot how old she was, because she lied about it so much—–and she added that, as Ms. Gabor always said: “A woman who will tell her age will tell anything”)

For the last three years I have been attending college, having given up show biz (or show biz has given up me……..I can’t decide which) to complete my BA and then forge on towards my Masters Degree in Drama………I hope to study the excellent work being done……..in England, Scotland and Denmark………..My husband and I also do quite a bit of filming in wildlife and geology. I will be teaching at the college level………and had I known that higher education was this much fun, I would have done this years ago.

(Page Two—-She goes on to talk about how she needed to have a side-line, in order to continue writing the kind of things she really wanted to write, and to not give up on this career. This is where cartoon voice work came in—-and writing for kids’ shows)

If a (married) woman is worth her salt, naturally her children and husband then must come first and her artistic endeavors must take second place. That’s why I’m very excited about what I’m doing now. My kids are grown up and pretty much on their own…….or will be, very shortly……….and I can pick up where I left off twenty some years ago. And…….it’s great!

I started writing when I was about nine years old. I wrote cowboy stories and mad love stories which I knew nothing about……….I kept writing away………just for my own fulfillment……….until much later I started receiving payment for some of these things.

I did comedy material……..on the Bob Hope Show years ago while I was still in Junior College. At the time I was majoring in Journalism and writing for the school paper. Vera Vague, from the Bob Hope Show, saw some of my so-called comedy stuff and called me, asking if I’d be interested in doing some specialized comedy material for her……..I was walking on air! This first job was………with four other MEN COMEDY WRITERS who were tops in the field, who looked at me like I had rocks in my head……..I mean………how dare this girl…….still in school……….try to compete with four top MALE writers?……Two of them wrote for Groucho Marx and one was a Jack Benny writer.

(Page Three)

I met Daws Butler (through producer Bob Clampett), who had about three kid shows on TV (when I began writing for several shows at once). Daws Butler is still a very dear friend……and a very dear human being. In fact, he was sweet enough to lecture to one of my Drama classes last year……..about voice work. He did a couple routines and the college students were fascinated. I guess I forgot to tell you that I have been teaching part-time while I completed my education.

My hobbies are filming wildlife, painting, candle-making (when I get some spare time), and camping. My husband and I own a camper and we love getting out on the road and heading for just “anywhere”……..IF we have a week or so off from our regular activities. I am also very interested in the American Indian, their religion and history………and have spent quite a bit of time studying the Hopi. Two years ago my husband and I spent the summer in Arizona and New Mexico doing research on the Hopi and the Navajo. This was for a class in Anthropology……..which is a very fascinating field……….

(Page Four)

I love the sea and own a house right on the ocean, in Manhattan Beach…….Someday when I am tottering and grey I shall probably live there year-round and paint my little heart out and sail my boat and maybe just sail off into the sunset when I figure my time is up………….

(A clue, possibly to where Ms. Allen may be now, 28 years later, in 2002!!)

Meantime I find every day very interesting and exciting. It’s a great, big, wonderful, magical world, you know…….filled with so many marvelous places and things and people………all of which I have read about, studied and researched……..and gone out to meet when I finally thought I was ready.

(This reminds me of myself, when I was reading up about France and Greece, in great detail, before I went there in 1998 and in 1999!)

(Page Five)

As far as writing is concerned, wasn’t it Eugene O’Neil who faced a college class one semester (as a professor in English) and said: “You are all here to learn how to write. I have just one thing to say to you. Go home and write.” And he walked out of the room.

I do lots of voices but Hoppity just happened to be a hit……….I’ve worked for Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward, Bob Clampett, Kroft Puppets (from which we got the shows H.R. Puff ‘n Stuff, Lidsville and the Bugaloos), did several things with Daws Butler, that didn’t sell…….in children’s shows………….

(As she continued on this point, it sounded like some of this was just writing and not all voice work)

(Page Six—–Her last words, before the P.S., that I covered earlier, were:)

The only way to learn how to do anything well is to DO IT.

Love and best regards to you & yours,

Chris Allen

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Bill Scott: Without Fanfare

January 23, 2001

(The Story of Bill Scott, a Jack of All Trades)

Bill Scott

From the really important things, to the superficial things, Bill Scott was a man who made incredible contributions to Jay Ward Productions……….had his hand in almost every aspect of these cartoons! Yet he modestly accepted very little credit for his work. He was actually an equal producer, with Jay Ward, but he opted to let Ward have exclusive recognition when they named the studio.

The fact of the matter is, Bill Scott actually had a lot more “overall experience”, in the cartoon industry, than did Jay Ward. For years he worked in various animation departments (lest there be any confusion, he actually worked in “animation” in the strictest sense of the word: the actual drawing end of the business), including stints with Warner Brothers and even while in the military. From animation, itself, he moved on to the layout departments and, later on, to the story-writing departments. Last, but not least, he claimed to be a fairly successful radio actor, for two to three years, when he was in his twenties (thus giving him the added experience to be able to do voices for cartoons).

Jay Ward, though he did have a love for cartoons, seemed to be much more of a businessman. According to Keith Scott, who penned The Moose That Roared, Ward had a real estate business, both before and during the studio’s reign.

In Scott’s 1974 letter, to me, he said that he and Jay Ward had discussed the name of their enterprise and had concluded that, since Ward already had a name in cartoons (he had produced the very first television cartoon series, ever, around 1950—-Crusader Rabbit.), they would name their studio after him. Scott also said that,he was willing to go along with this, because he knew that Ward was the one “who always worried about the money”.

I asked Bill Scott why he chose to never receive any credit for the voices that he did for all their cartoons…….After all………he did nearly all of the starring voices, in their three series. He answered my question, in the “P.S.” portion of his letter. He wrote: “I decided that it would look pretty dumb for my name to keep coming up for everything: Production, Direction, Writing, Voices………So I opted to take the highest credit: Producer.”; he added, “Looking back, I’m not sure that was such a good idea…….”.

A really interesting fact, about Bill……..not only did he do most of the starring voices but, per voice actor, Daws Butler (in his own letter to me), Bill wrote about 90% of all the scripts for Jay Ward Productions (even for their Quaker Oats and Aunt Jemima waffles commercials, which came later). Daws Butler, who had also dabbled in comedy writing (even after he had established himself as a voice-over artist), added that he and Bill had worked together, as writers, before Bill had met Jay Ward (Bill had told me that they met in 1957). Butler said that they used to compare notes. He said, “I’d laugh at Bill’s stuff and he’d laugh at mine!”.

In the final analysis, you could say that Bill Scott got a lot of recognition among his peers: the writers, the animators, the voice actors and the office support at his studio………They all knew about the tremendous amount of work that he did!………But the recognition pretty much stopped, behind those four walls………except for die-hard fans, like me (and many of you), who persevered and wanted to learn more about Jay Ward Productions. Bill Scott was like the man or woman, who gives away beaucoup de money, drops off food or flowers, for others, or offers hours of his/her time, in volunteer endeavors……….and does all of these things anonymously.

Though he appeared to do a lot more writing, than voice work, I would have really liked to see him recognized, on their shows, for all the characters that he portrayed. My own personal opinion is that Scott should have at least taken dual credit in the studio’s name (or espoused a neutral name, which included neither of their surnames), but that is what he wanted to do, so who am I to say?……….I will add, however, that he was a true GIANT, in his field. Maybe some of the biggest giants, as human beings, are those who tend to be modest about all their contributions.

With all these things, having been said, I will add, in total honesty (and this is just my opinion), that he was probably my least favorite voice-over actor on Jay Ward’s cartoons. He could be good………….even great, sometimes, but Daws Butler, June Foray and Paul Frees were stellar, supreme and absolutely magnificent!!……….comparatively speaking.

Giving credit, where credit is due, however, I loved his Dudley Do-Right/Tom Slick voice, which was truly a masterpiece and very funny! I also thought that he did a delightful, and wonderfully classy job, with some of the characters that he voiced, on the Fractured Fairy Tales portion of Rocky and Bullwinkle’s shows. There was one episode, in which he played Pinocchio’s master, Geppeto. He provided such a beautiful, grouchy, funny Italian voice. He was a total scream, as that character. On another episode he played a talking fish, with a very smug, upper crust, British accent (in a tale about a fisherman and his wife).

Other than these, however, most of his voices just were not that creative, unusual or unique:

Bullwinkle: though this voice has been loved, and relished, by many of us, when you come right down to it, it’s just a dopey voice, similar to others that I have heard in cartoons, for years.

Mr. Peabody: certainly better than Bullwinkle, but containing a very strong vestige of that trademark Scott voice, which can be easily heard in a lot of his other characters.

George of the Jungle: a caveman/Tarzan-like voice and that’s it!………..not particularly funny or interesting to listen to.

Super Chicken: one of his better voices, among those that I do not particularly care for, but not particularly imaginative. I really laughed, quite a few times, however, at his high-pitched, triumphant battle cry, that he’d call out, whenever he flew through the sky:

“Buck-a-Buck-a-Buck-a-Buck-a-Buck-a-Buck-Buck-a-Buck-a-Buck-BUCK!!!”

Fearless Leader: Actually, like Super Chicken, this voice was one of the “best of the worst” for me. Though I can hear that strong, trademark Scott voice, in this character, he had a great Russian accent!! And I just love that irritatingly-shrill voice, that he would use, to assault Boris and Natasha, whenever he was mad at them, and wanted to take them down a few notches.

At any rate, because so much of his personality was behind the work, that Jay Ward put out, and because he cared so little, about being remembered, we owe this creative genius a great deal of gratitude and praise! And even though I did not particularly care for most of his voices, it was his voices which made all those cartoons famous……..So I can’t help but tip my own hat to him for that……….And I know that there are many people, out there, who probably really loved his voices, and are not quite as picky as I.

Mr. Scott, you were very kind, and generous, to give of your time, twenty-seven years ago, when you wrote that long, long, informative letter to me (I remember that you joked, at the start of your letter, that you did feel a bit like the last witness, on a Perry Mason show, in responding to my many questions!). If you can see this piece, that I have written, from your “studio in the sky”, I am sorry that I was perhaps a tad bit too honest, and did not leave my personal feelings out, regarding some of your voices, but I did not want to be phony, and lie, to everyone who reads this. At any rate, thanks for the memories, vis à vis your voices that I really did love! Thank you, especially, for Dudley Do-Right!

I know that you left this world, fifteen to sixteen years ago…………and I know that I am really quite late, in saying this to you, but:

“Good-bye, Mr. Co-Producer!…………”

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