Mel Blanc Birthday Stuff

[Yhtapmys]

I was hunting around for stuff on this, Mel Blanc's birthday, and came across this in Virginia Vale's syndicated column for the Western Newspaper group, dated Oct. 14, 1943:

Mel Blanc, who plays the Happy Postman on the Burns and Allen show, is star, quizmaster, stooge and sound effects operator on a twice-weekly quiz show which is recorded for our overseas fighting men; rings bells, toots horns, has a swell time.

Does anyone know anything about this show? I know he was on a quiz show, but not a twice weekly one for AFRS.

Yhtapmys

[Yhtapmys]

Here's an AP story I found in a paper dated May 24, 1967. There may not be too much you haven't read before, but I post it for information's sake.

Mel Blanc Heads Hollywood Firm Creating Humorous Commercials
By GENE HANDSAKER
HOLLYWOOD (AP) — Most listeners likely will agree that radio commercials featuring mindless jingles, strident voices or weird sounds are a nerve-jangling bore.
And that a few, made with taste and a light touch, can be charming.
But best of all, says one expert, are the ones with wit.
"Humorous commercials are stronger thant dirt," quips Mel Blanc.
Mel is the man of many voices who did the talking for Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig in movie cartoons. Now he makes commercials—hopefully funny ones.
His competitors in Hollywood include satirist Stan Freberg, who kids his clients' prunes, chow mein, coffee, tea or airline service—and grosses $500,000 a year. A half dozen other firms grind out plugs for everything
from carbonated drinks and potato chips to a stomach remedy to take after overindulging.
Blanc, 58, squat and swarthy with a glum face but cheerful disposition, is a onetime Portland, Ore., violinist, tuba player and radio-band leader.
In Hollywood 30 years ago he originated the voices of Bugs, Porky, Daffy Duck, Tweetie and other Warner Bros cartoon characters. On the Jack Benny radio show he played a parrot and a Mexican character and
even supplied the sputtering sound of Benny's dying Maxwell.
Six years ago, Blanc's commercial venture—and Mel him self—nearly failed to get off the ground. On the very day that brochures hit ad agency mailboxes, announcing the formation of Mel Blanc Associates, a head-on collision accordioned his car and broke, he says, "every bone in my body except my left arm."
Hospitalized two months in traction, Mel went home in a body cast and there continued recording the voice of Barney Rubble in the "Flintstone" TV series. He now uses a cane only on stairs.
Revived 3 1/2 years ago, Mel Blanc Associates has since doubled its business annually. With 22 writers, Mel says, he sells "entertainment, imagination and comic invention."
In one skit, elephants squirt suds from their trunks to prove that linoleum coated with the client's wax resists detergent. In another, insects cry alarm at the hiss of a bug spray. Another product, called "Superfun,"
consists of more or less hilarious sketches which radio stations can play between commercials or records.
Mel was at work the other afternoon in his studio. Standing at a microphone, his bald spot shining under the fluorescents, he jiggled merrily in time with the recorded children's chorus he could hear in
his earphones. In Bugs Bunny's voice he sang the praises of a kiddies' drink-mix for "fun that never ends."
"A little happier, Mel", said a visiting producer for whom he was providing the sound track.
Mel made it happier.

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