Unmasking Daws

December 30, 2002

Unmasking Daws, and also unmasking June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Scott, Walter Tetley and Charles Ruggles (the Narrator of Aesop & Son) was like uncovering a great mystery! I had gone several years, not having a clue about their appearance. It was a real thrill the day that I finally had the chance to contemplate their countenances! I didn’t really have to wonder, in awe, about Hans Conried, William Conrad or Edward Everett Horton because I had seen them on TV and/or in the movies during my childhood.

For me, even though it was frustrating not knowing, it was more than half the fun,
wondering, and having to wait til that fateful day when I finally knew. It’s kind of like anticipating Christmas for weeks and months. When it finally comes, it’s all downhill from there! That holiday is quickly over, within 24 hours, and then one must wait nearly another year to enjoy it again!

I had the most curiosity about what Daws Butler looked like. So that is why I named this article after him. When you have one man, who is capable of so much versatility—-from the low voices, to the high voices, and to all those in between——–I daresay it’s anyone’s guess what that type of a man might resemble!! Hard to identify with any one voice, in conjuring up his visage!

Daws Butler and Bill Scott have probably looked the most alike in all the photos that I have seen of them (I have not really seen a whole lot of pictures of Walter Tetley—–except from the 1940s). As far as Paul Frees and June Foray are concerned, I would characterize what I have seen of them as:

THE MANY FACES OF PAUL FREES (OR: THE MANY FACES OF JUNE FORAY)

I have seen a great variety of different appearances of Paul and June over the years. I suppose you come to expect that with a woman, as many women do experiment quite a bit with their hairstyles and their image. In Paul’s case, I say this not just from snapshots that I have seen of him—–but from when he played bit parts in movies (A Place In the Sun comes to mind, for one).

However, I think that Paul Frees, more so than any of the other voice artists, looked the most like what I thought he would, when I first saw his picture (that is, his very first picture, that his agent sent me, along with his record album, “Paul Frees and the Poster People”). There’s a good reason for that, however. One time, on Hoppity Hooper, Jay Ward showed a cartoon version of Paul Frees, while he narrated the show! That image was forever thereafter burned in my mind!!

I learned pretty quickly that most of these voice artists were pretty short. Though their pictures did not make this obvious, they all told me their height: Butler: 5’2″, Foray: 4’11”, Frees: 5’4″. I never would have guessed, in a million years, that most of them were relatively short. Thus another interesting mystery unraveled (and an interesting coincidence to boot!!).

Finding out, after 2-3 years, what my heroes looked like, was tantamount to
reading those articles:

“Whatever happened to (so and so)………..?”

Or delving into books like In Search of J.D. Salinger (Salinger, who penned Catcher in the Rye, has been the epitome of a classic enigma, introvert and hermit from society) or Garbo Speaks (Greta Garbo……..Ms. “I Vant to be alone!!”‘s supposed autobiography—–no doubt as mysterious and elusive as Ms. Garbo was…………she probably had a “ghost writer”!).

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