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Speaker 1: This is Leehabib, and this is our American stories. And

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Speaker 1: our next story is an unforgettable tale about an American

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Speaker 1: icon whose voice everyone recognizes. Here's Greg Hangler.

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Speaker 2: If you added up all the hours from your childhood,

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Speaker 2: chances are the voice of Mel Blank made up the

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Speaker 2: majority of dialogues spoken to you. Bugs, Bunny, Daffy Duck,

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Speaker 2: Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite, Sam Foghorn, Leghorn, Marvin, the Martian,

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Speaker 2: pepe Le Pew, Speedy, Gonzalez, Wiley, Coyote, Roadrunner, Elmer Fudd, Barney,

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Speaker 2: Rubble Tom and Jerry Woody Woodpecker, and the Tasmanian Devil,

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Speaker 2: to name just a few of Blank's voice contributions. This

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Speaker 2: man embodied a sense of innocence and good nature, and

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Speaker 2: was so adored and respected that all who knew him

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Speaker 2: had something to say about him. For the sake of time,

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Speaker 2: I won't be introducing all those who contributed to this story.

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Speaker 2: They are fellow animators, inkers and painters from Warner Brothers, Disney,

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Speaker 2: and Hannah Barbera animation and film historians, director's voice artists

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Speaker 2: like Hank Azaria from The Simpsons. Mel's former agents, film critics,

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Speaker 2: his son Noel, and friends such as Kirk Douglas. Without

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Speaker 2: any further ado, let's jump right into the story of

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Speaker 2: Mel Blanc, the Man of a Thousand Voices.

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Speaker 3: Allow me to introduce myself Mel Blank.

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Speaker 4: What a amazing guy. What camp got?

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Speaker 5: Oh good?

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Speaker 6: You can't look at the Warner Brothers characters without hearing

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Speaker 6: his sound.

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Speaker 4: His voice.

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Speaker 7: There's such a delight to the sound of his voice

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Speaker 7: in every character he did.

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Speaker 6: Think about it today that everybody imitates these characters.

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Speaker 8: He created the god growey duck that my little cherub

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Speaker 8: is strictly a matter of opinion.

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Speaker 4: Mel was so unique at what he did.

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Speaker 9: Mel had the range that everyone wishes for.

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Speaker 10: Great horny cos I'm up north, gotta burn my boots.

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Speaker 5: They touched yankish oil.

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Speaker 1: I think it was a shock when I got older

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Speaker 1: to discover all those voices were one man.

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Speaker 11: His voice was like more powerful than a human body

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Speaker 11: could contain, so it seemed to be coming out of

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Speaker 11: every part of them.

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Speaker 4: Mel Blank had this phenomenal voice box.

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Speaker 12: As the only way I can explain it, he just

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Speaker 12: did all kinds of things that were just amazing.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 6: He didn't just do voices he played characters, and there's

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Speaker 6: a difference.

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Speaker 13: He was just able to do that to just totally, like,

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Speaker 13: you know, animate with his voice, to create a complete

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Speaker 13: three dimensional character, just with his voice alone.

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Speaker 3: That's no chickens son I I'm a chicken roast is.

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Speaker 4: How can you be?

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Speaker 13: A pair of vocal chords that had an eight octave range,

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Speaker 13: perfect pitch, great singer and an incredible actor.

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Speaker 4: There's Melon, there's like everybody else. There was nobody better

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Speaker 4: than mel Blank.

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Speaker 1: Real?

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Speaker 3: You know what?

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Speaker 14: Was it?

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Speaker 3: A cat?

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Speaker 9: Howdy do.

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Speaker 1: About that?

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Speaker 3: Age?

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Speaker 14: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Melvin Jerome Blank was born the youngest of two children,

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Speaker 2: on May thirtieth, nineteen oh eight, in San Francisco, to

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Speaker 2: Russian Jewish parents, Frederick and Eva. After leaving New York

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Speaker 2: to seek his fortune prospecting for gold in the Klondike

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Speaker 2: region of the Alaskan Yukon, his father eventually settled the

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Speaker 2: family down in Portland, Oregon. As a young boy, growing

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Speaker 2: up in the melting pot of the American West, mel

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Speaker 2: Blank would forever be affected by the medley of foreign

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Speaker 2: accents in the way voices defined personalities.

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Speaker 13: My dad was always interested in voices and in music,

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Speaker 13: and in singing, and entertaining.

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Speaker 4: He started to entertain in grammar.

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Speaker 15: School from around about the age of Tan mil Blank

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Speaker 15: was very interested in dialects, Yiddish, dialects, in Chinese and Japanese,

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Speaker 15: dialects Russian.

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Speaker 16: The school would have an assembly the grammar school. I

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Speaker 16: would entertain the kids with a dialect story or one

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Speaker 16: of a different dialect each time, and the kids loved it,

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Speaker 16: and they got such a big kick out of it.

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Speaker 16: They laughed and the teacher's life and then gave me

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Speaker 16: lousy marks.

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Speaker 2: Here's what Mel wrote in his autobiography, that's not all folks,

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Speaker 2: except for music class. I loathed school to be truthful.

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Speaker 2: Report cards c's and d's had little to no effect

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Speaker 2: on me. But that applause. What an impression it made

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Speaker 2: on a twelve year old.

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Speaker 5: Now where'd that boy go?

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Speaker 16: You gotta be a magician to keep a kid's attention

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Speaker 16: more in two minutes.

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Speaker 2: Nowadays, my talents weren't appreciated by all, in particular a

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Speaker 2: crotchety old teacher by the name of Washburn. When I

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Speaker 2: broke up a classroom discussion by giving an answer in

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Speaker 2: four different voices, she reprimanded me sternly, too sternly if

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Speaker 2: you ask me, you'll never amount to anything, she said scornfully.

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Speaker 2: You're just like your last name Blank. Her stinging insult

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Speaker 2: so shamed me that when I was sixteen, I started

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Speaker 2: spelling my surname with a C, B, LA, n C

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Speaker 2: instead of a K. Later, as an adult, I changed

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Speaker 2: it legally. I often wondered if missus Washburn associated Mel

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Speaker 2: Blank with the young student she had ridiculed so many

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Speaker 2: years before.

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Speaker 4: He dropped out of high school in about the ninth grade.

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Speaker 1: I used to say, I got lousy grades, but I

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Speaker 1: developed some great voices because of the echo in his

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Speaker 1: school in the hallways.

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Speaker 4: He started leading orchestras.

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Speaker 13: He was an orchestra conductory, and the orchestras moved all

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Speaker 13: around the Oregon area, in the Washington area, northern California area.

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Speaker 13: In between, when he was conducting the music, he would

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Speaker 13: do stick, he'd do different voices and different comedy routines.

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Speaker 13: Mel was the youngest orchestra leader in the country at

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Speaker 13: that time, at seventeen.

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Speaker 1: And you've been listening to the story of Mel Blank

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Speaker 1: and all we all starts in radio. Mel was persistent,

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Speaker 1: by the way, all those turndowns, all those times people

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Speaker 1: telling him no, and he kept pushing and pushing and

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Speaker 1: finally gets paired up with the legendary Chuck Jones. It

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Speaker 1: starts with Porky Pig and then a bunny named Bugs.

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Speaker 1: When we come back more of the story of Mel

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Speaker 1: Blank here on Our American Stories Liehabib here, and I'd

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Speaker 1: like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to

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Speaker 1: hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps

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Speaker 1: us keep these great American stories coming. And we continue

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Speaker 1: with our American Stories and the story of Mel Blank,

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Speaker 1: the man behind three thousand cartoon voices, the man behind

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Speaker 1: Looney Tunes, and so much else. Let's pick up where

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Speaker 1: we last left off.

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Speaker 13: I think my dad never thought of Hollywood when he

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Speaker 13: was young. He thought of going on the radio when

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Speaker 13: radio was quite new at that time.

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Speaker 2: And of course radio is ideal for a schooling for

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Speaker 2: someone who was going to do cartoon voices. In nineteen

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Speaker 2: thirty two, with the blessing of his parents, He jumped

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Speaker 2: into his nineteen twenty Ford Model A convertible and drove

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Speaker 2: south to Los Angeles, hoping to find a break. Instead,

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Speaker 2: he met a young woman named a Stelle Rosenbaum, a

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Speaker 2: bright and attractive girl with a radiant smile who would

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Speaker 2: become as big as supporter for the rest of his life.

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Speaker 2: She also shared Mell's deep interest in radio. Mel twenty

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Speaker 2: four in Estelle twenty two married that spring and then

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Speaker 2: proceeded up Route one oh one back to Portland to write, produce,

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Speaker 2: and perform their own sketch radio show called Cobwebs and Nuts.

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Speaker 2: To maintain audience interest six hours a week, Mel had

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Speaker 2: to come up with countless voices and lots of material,

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Speaker 2: which was then presented to Mell's one woman audience for approval.

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Speaker 13: My dad played one hundred different male characters, my mother

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Speaker 13: played all the different female characters, and they had a

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Speaker 13: great time. Although they were only paid fifteen dollars a

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Speaker 13: week to write it, produce it, and voice it.

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Speaker 2: The show failed to provide a livable wage for the blanks,

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Speaker 2: so Mel seriously considered quitting in order to become an

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Speaker 2: insurance salesman. At a whopping fifty dollars a week. Thanks

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Speaker 2: to Estelle's encouragement, he rejected the offer and followed his

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Speaker 2: dream and talents back to Los Angeles in nineteen thirty five.

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Speaker 2: Here are Estell's exact words, mel, if we're going to

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Speaker 2: be broke, at least let's be broke someplace where it's warm.

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Speaker 16: I had seen some of the Warner by the voice

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Speaker 16: or sort, or heard some of the voices in the cartoons,

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Speaker 16: and I thought, teez, they're missing out on awful lot.

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Speaker 3: Their voices are pretty bad. Usually Norman Spencer was there

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Speaker 3: to greet him.

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Speaker 16: I said, I'd like to audition for you and show

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Speaker 16: you what I can do. He says, sorry, We've got

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Speaker 16: all the voices we need. I said, but mister Slussinger

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Speaker 16: said that you were the one. He says, no, I'm sorry. Well,

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Speaker 16: I was as stubborn as he was, and now went

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Speaker 16: beck in two weeks and I said, look, won't you

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Speaker 16: just listen to me? He says, I told you, we

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Speaker 16: have all the voices we need. So I was still

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Speaker 16: as stubborn as him, and I went to him every

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Speaker 16: two weeks asking him to please listen to me.

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Speaker 4: And he says I.

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Speaker 3: Told you a hundred times, I've got all the voices

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Speaker 3: we need.

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Speaker 4: So she kept knocking on the door for two years.

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Speaker 2: Finally, in March of nineteen thirty seven, Mel's perseverance paid off.

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Speaker 3: It was probably the week before Christmas.

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Speaker 4: He came looking for a.

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Speaker 3: Job, and that day Treg Brown was sitting there.

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Speaker 13: Treg Brown brilliant sound effects man for the Warner's cartoons.

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Speaker 13: He happened to take over when this fellow passed away.

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Speaker 4: That wouldn't let my dad in the door.

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Speaker 3: And I said, mister Brown, I've been trying to get

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Speaker 3: in here to audition.

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Speaker 16: Just have him hear me. The guy kept saying, no,

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Speaker 16: I've got all the voices we need. He said, let

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Speaker 16: me hear what you do. So I auditioned for him,

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Speaker 16: and he got a big kick out of it.

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Speaker 3: He said, would you do it again for the directors?

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Speaker 3: I said gladly.

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Speaker 2: Warner Brothers decided to give Mel a shot in a

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Speaker 2: supporting role for Piccador Porky, a new cartoon animated by

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Speaker 2: a twenty five year old lanky kid named Chuck Jones,

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Speaker 2: featuring the studio's latest character, Porky Pig.

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Speaker 3: He said, I've got a cartoon coming up, the Drunken Bull.

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Speaker 3: Do you think you can do the voice of a

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Speaker 3: drunken bull? Said, yeah, I think I could. He says,

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Speaker 3: how would he talk? Talk like her?

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Speaker 16: A look look look off for a sour Max. He says, great.

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Speaker 16: Greig says, what are you doing next? Tuesday?

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Speaker 3: I wasn't doing a thing. I said, I think I

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Speaker 3: can make.

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Speaker 10: Her Cocker route playing on the uguitarn Cocker ut.

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Speaker 5: Playing it yarn Y playing.

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Speaker 10: On the older darn Cocker plan Rury alchemy.

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Speaker 2: Warner Brothers quickly recognized Mel's talent and offered him the

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Speaker 2: prize role of Porky Pig.

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Speaker 16: He says, he's a timid little character. I told him, all,

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Speaker 16: I want to be real authentic about it. So I

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Speaker 16: went out to a pig farm and wallered around with

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Speaker 16: the pigs for a couple of weeks. And I come

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Speaker 16: back and they kicked me out, So go home and

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Speaker 16: take a bath.

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Speaker 3: When I did come back, I said, if a pick

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Speaker 3: could talking talk with a grunt, you know that's parking

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Speaker 3: talk with a grunt. It is an all great, great.

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Speaker 9: Don't worry, he's making it in the moment launch.

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Speaker 15: In that same cartoon, he introduced a kind of embryonic

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Speaker 15: version of Daffy Duck.

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Speaker 9: No matter, worry, Skipper, I'm just crazy and got pulled down.

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Speaker 15: Now he's a guy suddenly doing the craziest, most energetic

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Speaker 15: voices they've ever had in one cartoon, and I think,

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Speaker 15: but that's when they suddenly threw it.

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Speaker 4: I think we're going to hang on to this guy.

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Speaker 2: It was Porky Pig and Daffy Duck that put Leon

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Speaker 2: Slessinger's Warner Brothers Cartoon Company and mel on the map.

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Speaker 2: But it was another character, a cool, sly in wise

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Speaker 2: cracking rabbit with a flair for survival named Bugs Bunny,

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Speaker 2: who would become his most famous and unforgettable creator. Bugs

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Speaker 2: made his cartoon debut on July twenty seventh, nineteen forty,

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Speaker 2: in an eight minute and fifteen second short titled A

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Speaker 2: Wild Hair.

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Speaker 16: They showed me a picture of this little rabbit, and

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Speaker 16: he's going to say, hey, what's cooking? I said, instead

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Speaker 16: of him saying hey, what's cooking, why don't you have him.

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Speaker 3: Say a yeah, what's up? Yank? That's the new expression

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Speaker 3: that was being so popular.

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Speaker 16: And I said to Mistress Lusson, I said, why don't

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Speaker 16: you name him after the guy who.

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Speaker 3: Drew the first picture of him. His name was Bugs Heartaway.

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Speaker 16: Why don't you call him Bugs Bunny?

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Speaker 8: Watch up, Doc, it's a rabbit down here and I'm

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Speaker 8: trying to catch him.

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Speaker 16: Well, he told me that Bugs was a tough little stinker,

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Speaker 16: and I thought, what kind of a voice can I

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Speaker 16: give him?

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Speaker 3: The tough character? Maybe Brooklyn of the Bronx.

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Speaker 8: So I put the two of him to get it, doc,

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Speaker 8: And that's how Bugs Bunny came out. But you know

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Speaker 8: you work just why like a rabbit and gime here listen, Doc,

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Speaker 8: Now don't spread this around, but.

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Speaker 3: Confidentially I am a rabbit.

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Speaker 2: The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best

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Speaker 2: Short Subject Cartoons. Over the next twenty years, Mel would

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Speaker 2: give life to nearly the entire cast of Looney Tunes characters.

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Speaker 3: They have preteni, hummish, I am, I might be the.

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Speaker 4: Daffy is not a list, people say, Daffy listening. He

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Speaker 4: is spraying the water out of the film. Lit. This

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Speaker 4: is not a list.

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Speaker 17: By the way, Tweety was a little baby bird.

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Speaker 8: So I gave my will you tiny baby voice? Oh

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Speaker 8: I could I go a putty tad and.

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Speaker 17: Sylvester was a big sloppy cat, so I gave him

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Speaker 17: a big sloppy voice. Speedy Gonzales was a little tiny mouse,

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Speaker 17: and he had to talk fast because his name was Speedy.

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Speaker 8: So I gave him a very fast little voice. And

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Speaker 8: my name is Speedy, Gonzelle said, she way, I can't

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Speaker 8: give me you the mind. I think you can understand

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Speaker 8: what the shit I think. Just to think, radiant flower,

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Speaker 8: you do not have to come with me to the

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Speaker 8: gas bar.

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Speaker 5: We are already.

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Speaker 18: He chased the pussy cat and catched them and kissed them.

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Speaker 18: I gave him more or less of a French voice,

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Speaker 18: like so a voiler, and I said, only French, what's wrong?

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Speaker 14: You know?

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Speaker 17: All? You skunk's clear hair, Yosemite Sam. They showed me

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Speaker 17: it was a little cowboy and it was only two

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Speaker 17: feet tall with long red hair and had to be recognized.

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Speaker 17: So I had to give him a recognizable voice, so.

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Speaker 5: I gave a real loud lay. So my name's Yo

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Speaker 5: seventy zion.

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Speaker 3: This is one that almost gets me every time I

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Speaker 3: use it.

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Speaker 1: And you've been listening to the story of mel Blank

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Speaker 1: and we learned that he wasn't just a great voice

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Speaker 1: man He didn't just create great characters. He didn't just

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Speaker 1: have great timing, nearly perfect comic timing and comic pitch.

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Speaker 1: What he really was was one of the great actors

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Speaker 1: to ever come out of Hollywood. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: he got this compliment about being a great actor from

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Speaker 1: none other than Jack Benny and Bud Abbott and lu

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Speaker 1: Costello and anyone who's ever acted knows comedy is the

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Speaker 1: hardest because you've got to play it straight. You don't

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Speaker 1: play it for laughs. When we come back more of

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Speaker 1: Mel Blank, his story, the man behind three thousand cartoon voices.

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Speaker 1: Here on our American stories, and we continue with our

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Speaker 1: American stories and the story of Mel Blink. Let's pick

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Speaker 1: up where we last left off.

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Speaker 2: Arriving on the screen shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

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Speaker 2: Bugs became a symbol of American strength in the face

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Speaker 2: of the enemy.

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Speaker 8: The tall man with high had we'll become down your way.

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Speaker 8: Get your savings out. When you're hear him, shout any

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Speaker 8: bunch today, Come on and get them folks.

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Speaker 5: Come on.

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Speaker 3: Skip right of print down.

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Speaker 15: Because of what was happening in Europe and the sneak

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Speaker 15: attack on Pearl Harbor, audience has just found his sassy

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Speaker 15: control of the situation just so, heroic coolness in the

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Speaker 15: face of danger.

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Speaker 3: Damp what Chip gack? What's up? Doc? Listen? Stranger? This

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Speaker 3: Tony big enough for the.

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Speaker 5: Two of us?

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Speaker 3: It ain't.

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Speaker 2: The Blanks gave birth to their only child on October nineteenth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty eight, a son named Nol. This stretched the

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Speaker 2: Blank household budget to the breaking point. At his wife's urging,

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Speaker 2: Mel decided to ask for a salary increase from the

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Speaker 2: tight fisted, savvy head of Warner Brothers Cartoons, Leon Slessinger, Hello, Baky.

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Speaker 9: Come on in Hey, hell Didory? Yes yes, lest Les,

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Speaker 9: Yes yes, lest Hello Leon?

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Speaker 1: Well, Palky?

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Speaker 3: What's on your mind? What can I do for you?

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Speaker 2: What Slessinger offered Mel was unprecedented for any voice actor

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Speaker 2: to date, soul screen credit on every cartoon produced by

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Speaker 2: the studio Paint. Mel was modest about his fame, and

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Speaker 2: he enjoyed his private life. He made friends with everyone

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Speaker 2: he worked with, but it was his friendship with Jack

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Speaker 2: Benny the Mel cherished.

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Speaker 4: Most Wednesday Night used to be Ping Pong Knight.

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Speaker 13: So Ping Pong Knight used to get all the people

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Speaker 13: that were on the radio show, Lucille Ball and George Burns,

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Speaker 13: Gracey Allen and Jack Benny and Jack Carson. They all

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Speaker 13: come out and play ping pong. My dad would make

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Speaker 13: them soda fountain drinks and then they go home.

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Speaker 2: Melis thought of as just a voiceman, but he was

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Speaker 2: so much more.

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Speaker 3: His timing was outstanding.

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Speaker 12: You know, you can be a comic and if you can't,

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Speaker 12: if you don't have the timing down, you have the

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Speaker 12: best material in the world.

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Speaker 5: It's meaningless but apings and clumsy.

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Speaker 8: The world's balls gigglers be the Spreep and his sensational

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Speaker 8: Hi dining here.

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Speaker 10: Fearless Freep, Watch my boy.

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Speaker 5: Son, you bought me.

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Speaker 4: It's the acting.

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Speaker 6: People say, oh, Mel blank, the men of a thousand voices,

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Speaker 6: greatest voice man that ever lived, one of the best

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Speaker 6: actors to ever come out of Hollywood. People don't take

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Speaker 6: the voice person as seriously as they would like the

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Speaker 6: Olivier's or Dustin Hoffman de Niro. But you know, to say,

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Speaker 6: you know Olivier de Niro blank, It sounds weird because

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Speaker 6: of what genre he worked in.

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Speaker 4: But no, he was a brilliant actor.

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Speaker 5: No, I won't be able to get the bird.

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Speaker 9: Oh mister, don't you like me anymore?

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Speaker 17: I think I think, I think you're I.

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Speaker 1: Think you're.

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Speaker 7: We'll tell you what I think Mel Blank's most genius

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Speaker 7: achievement was. And only if you're a voice actor do

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Speaker 7: you realize how incredible this is. When Bugs and Daffy

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Speaker 7: are fighting over whether it's rabbit season or duck season,

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Speaker 7: and Daffy Duck comes out dressed up as Bugs Bunny

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Speaker 7: doing a Bugs Bunny imitation. Then Bugs Bunny comes out

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Speaker 7: dressed as Daffy doing a Daffy impression.

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Speaker 8: That haven't any look duck.

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Speaker 5: You know, God darn minute, where do you get that?

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Speaker 14: Duck?

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Speaker 18: C dum?

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Speaker 7: You know how hard that is to do, to take

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Speaker 7: your own character have it imitate another one of your

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Speaker 7: own characters. It's almost impossible because if you try to

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Speaker 7: like combine two voices that you're doing, you kind of

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Speaker 7: just land in the middle. Like if I try to

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Speaker 7: do opuo imitating Mo, it'll sound just like Mo imitating opoo.

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Speaker 4: There's no We tried it one day at the Simpsons.

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Speaker 7: We were talking about who were marveling at mel Blank's

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Speaker 7: play to do this, and we all tried to do

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Speaker 7: one of our characters imitating another one and have them

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Speaker 7: sound different, and we couldn't do it.

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Speaker 8: You don't know what I'll do about Gun Doc.

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Speaker 13: I'd say, you know, Dad, you're an incredible actor. I said,

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Speaker 13: here's a picture signed by Budd Abbott. And Luke Costello

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Speaker 13: says to the greatest actor I know, Mel Blank, I said,

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Speaker 13: Jack Benny used to call you a great actor. Did

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Speaker 13: you know you were a great actor? He says, no, no, no,

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Speaker 13: I'm not really. I'm a voice person. But he didn't

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Speaker 13: realize that was acting and never took an acting lesson.

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Speaker 2: In all of his cartoons, when Mel wasn't performing all

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Speaker 2: the voices, his chemistry with his fellow actors was apparent,

400
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Speaker 2: none more so than with Arthur Q. Bran, the voice

401
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Speaker 2: behind Bugs's adversary Elmer Fudd. Here's Brian and Blank rehearsing

402
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Speaker 2: in the studio for the sixth minute and forty nine

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Speaker 2: second cartoon classic released in theaters on July sixth, nineteen

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Speaker 2: fifty seven, What's Opera Doc. The short is intformally referred

405
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Speaker 2: to as Kill the Rabbit after the line sung by

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Speaker 2: Fud to the tune of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, and.

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Speaker 1: I Will do it with my spear and magic helmet.

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Speaker 8: Your spear and magic helmet. Bwin, magic helmet, magic hillmet, helmet,

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Speaker 8: magic killmet magic.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's a shame. That was going well almost. I

411
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Speaker 3: don't think I'm right yet, and I'm going to kill

412
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,760
Speaker 3: the rabbit, have I that's fine, that's fine, Okay, kill it.

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Speaker 2: Melan Arthur acted out the combative relationship between bugs and

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Speaker 2: the tiptoein shotgun wielded Elmer in over thirty cartoons over

415
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 2: the span of twenty years until Arthur's passing at the

416
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Speaker 2: age of sixty in nineteen fifty nine. The ye voie quiet,

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00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 2: I'm hunting weapons, the classic voice of Elmer Fudd, needed

418
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Speaker 2: a replacement.

419
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Speaker 3: Chris Freeling, one of the directors, said to me, no,

420
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Speaker 3: will you do a couple of lines for Elmer Fudd?

421
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,439
Speaker 3: He says, I've tried others and they can't come close.

422
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 3: He said, just given they do a couple of lines,

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Speaker 3: He said, Oh, I don't why, but I don't know

424
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Speaker 3: if I could do order or not. He says, that's it.

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Speaker 3: So I as when he came over Fudd.

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Speaker 2: Whereas audiences felt sorry for the witless Elmer Fudd, the

427
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Speaker 2: pint size, pea brained ornery ombre named Yosemite Sam evoked

428
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 2: no sympathy at all. He was conceived as a more

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Speaker 2: challenging adversary for bugs bunny.

430
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Speaker 5: Whom you don't say, what comere, shorty, come here?

431
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,360
Speaker 8: Don't say I told you? But this is a guy

432
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 8: in the Knicks card that says he's the meanest toughest

433
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,639
Speaker 8: at centric Cent, and he's got a seven shooting to

434
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 8: prove it.

435
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 9: How's about that?

436
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 10: There is wh blast the moment wide open nobody, Yeah,

437
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 10: your smoy sail. The roughest, tougher he mass nubber sombre

438
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 10: has ever crossed a rio Grandee.

439
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 5: I'm the fastest gone north southeast west of the pecos.

440
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 5: I'm the y set app Did I hear someone say?

441
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: Shut up?

442
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:50,920
Speaker 14: Why are you?

443
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 2: By the late nineteen fifties, Mel was on top of

444
00:25:57,560 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 2: the world.

445
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: And when we come back the final installment of this

446
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: hour long celebration of the life of Mel Blank, his

447
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: story continues here on our American stories.

448
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 3: What have I done?

449
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 2: I've killed the rabbit, poor little bunny, poor little labb.

450
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 14: How do.

451
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:34,680
Speaker 3: Welcome to my shop?

452
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 8: Let me cut him up, let me save you crap.

453
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:40,359
Speaker 4: Detly.

454
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 8: Ly, Hey, don't look so perplexed. Why would you be mixed?

455
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 8: Can't you see you're next? Yes, you're next? Yees, so next?

456
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 8: How about a nice close teacher. Whisky is to be hate,

457
00:26:57,520 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 8: lots of leather, lots of soap. Please don't be you

458
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,119
Speaker 8: now we're ready for order scraping. There's no use to

459
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 8: try escaping yill and screaming, Wan and rade, it's no

460
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 8: use to lead a shave.

461
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 5: Oh oo oo, whoa out day?

462
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 8: Nice and clean. I'll told your face looks like it

463
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 8: might have gone through a machine.

464
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories and the story

465
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: of mel Blank. Let's pick up where we last left off.

466
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 2: Although we never personally won an Academy award, his voice

467
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 2: earned Warner Brothers five oscars. Then, on the night of

468
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 2: January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty one, this happened.

469
00:27:58,119 --> 00:27:59,719
Speaker 4: My mom called me. I was with friends.

470
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 13: She says, Dad didn't show up the recording session. She says,

471
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 13: wait a minute, the other phone was ringing. We had

472
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 13: two lines. It was UCLA hospital saying that he hadn't

473
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 13: been involved in a head on collision on dead Man's

474
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,200
Speaker 13: Curve right above UCLA and they had taken him to

475
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 13: UCLA after they had to use a cutting torch to

476
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 13: get him out of the Aston Martin. It happened that

477
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 13: a kid driving a ninety eight Oldsmobile Great Big car

478
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,159
Speaker 13: ran into a small Aston Martin sports car and.

479
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 4: It just folded up. They didn't expect him to live

480
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:32,639
Speaker 4: for the first twelve thirteen days.

481
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 19: I went to see him and it was really I

482
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 19: was shocked because he was wired up with all kinds

483
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 19: of gadgets to keep him together. Noel told me that

484
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 19: almost every bone in his body was broken.

485
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 13: He was unconscious for a long time. Finally a doctor

486
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 13: got an idea because my dad had a television in

487
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 13: his room and it was playing bug Bunny cartoons. So

488
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 13: the doctor went over to the bed and clapped his

489
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 13: hands and said, bugs, can you hear me?

490
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:06,520
Speaker 4: Bugs?

491
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 1: Can you hear me?

492
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 4: My dad goes, why's up?

493
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 14: God?

494
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:15,719
Speaker 13: The first words that he uttered were of bugs. Then

495
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 13: he says, Porky, can you hear me? And he would

496
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 13: answer me, I canna hear you. So he brought him

497
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 13: around doing the character's voices before my dad was fully awake.

498
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 4: As as himself.

499
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 2: Blake continued working for Warner Brothers, but also began providing

500
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 2: voices for television cartoons produced by Hannah Barbera. His most

501
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 2: famous role during this time was Barney Rubble from The Flintstones.

502
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 5: Oh boy, wait, old Fred, seize my new bowling ball.

503
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 5: He'll bring my score up to at least a hundred.

504
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 3: And of course he was missed spicely in The Jetsons.

505
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 3: Send up Jetson, Miss Gamma.

506
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, ready, mister Jetson. Right, Well, good luck.

507
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: Fired.

508
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 15: But I don't think any of the characters he did

509
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 15: in the later years of his life had the staying

510
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 15: power of anywhere near of the staying power of the

511
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 15: immortal Looney Tune characters.

512
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 3: Everywhere you go, everybody knows the bugs Bunny.

513
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 8: They don't know now blank, but they know Bugs Bunny,

514
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 8: And everybody knows Dad.

515
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 14: I cannot tell you the quantity of fan mail he received,

516
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 14: and something really really phenomenal about him That man answered

517
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 14: every piece.

518
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 20: Of course one personally. He would call people. He'd get

519
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 20: a letter, Oh, it's my daughter's birthday. She's turning twelve.

520
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 20: Her favorite character is Tweetybird. It would be so terrific, sir.

521
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 20: You know, if you ever have time, could you call

522
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 20: my daughter?

523
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 14: And Mel would call these people from all over the

524
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 14: world and literally wish them happy birthday or happy anniversary

525
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 14: or whatever the celebration was.

526
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 13: When he lived in Plade l Ray or Pacific Palisades,

527
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 13: kids would come over every day and say, mal, can

528
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:13,840
Speaker 13: we have your autograph?

529
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 4: Do some voices? And we'd have kids at the door.

530
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 13: I mean literally every day Halloween, we'd have fifteen hundred

531
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 13: to two thousand kids and he'd give out signed little

532
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 13: autographs and candy.

533
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,280
Speaker 14: The kids would always go to me in a Cell's

534
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 14: house because they never knew who was going to answer

535
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 14: the door. Yeah, bugs are poor Gy or Peppy or

536
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 14: Daffy or Wilie or road Runner.

537
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 20: You never know.

538
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 3: So it was it was great to watch that.

539
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 14: It was really really wonderful.

540
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 2: Here's legend of Hollywood's Golden Age. Kirk Douglas.

541
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 12: The longer I'm in this business, the more I feel

542
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 12: that we we really are very lucky people because in

543
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:03,479
Speaker 12: a strange way, we obtained immortality. And if you judge

544
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 12: immortality by the pleasure that you've given to others, I

545
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 12: would certainly say that mel Blank is one of the

546
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 12: greatest of the immortals.

547
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 14: He devoted a lot of time and burn units for

548
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 14: Eelian children. And I think he really had a great

549
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 14: effect in doing so, even if it made him feel

550
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 14: better for just a minute.

551
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 3: He did.

552
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 14: He had to try to get him to leave first

553
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 14: of all. I mean he would spend all day doing it.

554
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 14: I mean there would be times I would say, you know,

555
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 14: well we've got to go. It's getting dark. You know,

556
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 14: we've got to get back on the road. And when

557
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 14: there were children and children, you know, in that situation, he.

558
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 4: You couldn't get him away.

559
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 3: If I saw a person smile, that to me was

560
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: payment themselves.

561
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 13: And then.

562
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 3: If I could make them laugh when they had been

563
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 3: very sad, it was great payment to me.

564
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 2: On May thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, Mel Blank turned eighty,

565
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 2: who framed Roger Rabbit Premier that year, and Blank contributed

566
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 2: many voices to the Summer Blockbuster. A huge party was

567
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 2: thrown by Warner Brothers on its Burbank lot, and again

568
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 2: Mel was asked the same question he had been asked

569
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 2: every birthday since he turned sixty five, Mel, when are

570
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 2: you going to retire? Mel's answer the day I drop,

571
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 2: that's when who'd want to quit making people laugh? On

572
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 2: July nineteen eighty nine, when he agreed to star in

573
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 2: a new commercial for Oldmobile, neither he nor his son

574
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: Noel would know that this would be his final performance.

575
00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 2: Here's Nolan now bantering inside the cutless Sierra. In between takes,

576
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 2: you'll hear Noel doing his father's characters voices too. Growing

577
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,839
Speaker 2: up mail train Noel on the voices so that when

578
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,720
Speaker 2: the time came, he could take over.

579
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 14: For his father.

580
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 3: Is that any Is that any good?

581
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 8: We had the new generation of olds? Yes, yea any

582
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,240
Speaker 8: man with the new generation of owlves.

583
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 4: The director there is out pulling his hair. But we're

584
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:25,120
Speaker 4: gonna do this commercial anyhow.

585
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 12: What here?

586
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, it's that one.

587
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,560
Speaker 4: It's not the art director? Well, how would you send many?

588
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:29,839
Speaker 18: Sam?

589
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 3: Say this?

590
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:32,880
Speaker 5: We are a no generation of old.

591
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:34,759
Speaker 4: Look in the look at the dealer right there and

592
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:35,279
Speaker 4: talk to him.

593
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 5: We are a new generation of old.

594
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:38,480
Speaker 2: How you heard that?

595
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 4: You better believe it. We are and we're gonna try

596
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,280
Speaker 4: to do this commercial. But it's tough anyway.

597
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 10: We got this direct, he says, very simple, about twenty

598
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 10: seven hours.

599
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 13: We had shot the Osmobile commercial all day. It's not

600
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 13: your father's Osemobile, And uh, I said, Dad, you're coughing

601
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:56,479
Speaker 13: a little bit. Why don't you go to the doctor

602
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 13: and get your lungs cleared out. The doctor called me

603
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 13: and said, yeah, Mel's over here. And the doctor says, well,

604
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 13: I can keep him in the hospital overnight or just

605
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 13: give him an inhaler to get the cough out of it.

606
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 13: My dad said, no, let's stay in the hospital overnight.

607
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 13: It was a mistake, of course.

608
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:14,759
Speaker 4: He fell out of bed. They forgot to put the

609
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:15,400
Speaker 4: bed rails up.

610
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 13: He broke his femur, got fed and while I into

611
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 13: the brain and was basically gone in forty eight hours.

612
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 4: He was still at the height of his career.

613
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 13: He could still do all the voices that he could before,

614
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 13: and he was still really terrific.

615
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 2: Mel Blank lays to rest in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

616
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:39,360
Speaker 2: under a star of David. The epitaph on Blank's tombstone reads,

617
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 2: that's all folks. Mel Blank has a star on the

618
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,839
Speaker 2: Hollywood Walk of Fame at sixty three point eighty five

619
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 2: Hollywood Boulevard. He is the only person to have himself

620
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 2: and two of his characters on the Walk of Fame,

621
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 2: with both Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker receiving a star.

622
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,359
Speaker 2: The only others to have received this honor are Walt

623
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 2: Disney as both himself and Mickey Mouse, Jim Hanson as

624
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 2: both himself and Kermit the Frog, and Mike Myers as

625
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 2: both himself and Shrek. Mel Blank is one of the

626
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:21,279
Speaker 2: pillars of entertainment, an actor whose talents can still be

627
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 2: marveled at today.

628
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 4: My dad's legacy is laughter. He wanted to make people

629
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 4: feel good and laugh out loud.

630
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 13: The thing I miss most about my dad is my

631
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:39,000
Speaker 13: dad and his personality, being the great father, listening to me,

632
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:44,359
Speaker 13: never doubting me, asking good questions, being great to my mom.

633
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 13: The fact that he was such a marvelous human being,

634
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 13: not only to the world but to his family.

635
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:51,959
Speaker 4: That's what I remember most.

636
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 13: I can turn his voice on any time and see

637
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 13: one of the cartoons, so I can really bring him

638
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 13: back to life at any time I want to.

639
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:02,719
Speaker 4: I hear his voice every day.

640
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,120
Speaker 1: It's all folks, and a terrific job on the production,

641
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 1: editing and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And what

642
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: stories you heard? That story about what happened to him

643
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: On January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty one, an accident in

644
00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: his Aston Martin on dead Man's Curve over UCLA hospital

645
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:27,480
Speaker 1: and he's out for a while, and then the doctor

646
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 1: gets this idea to talk to him and address him

647
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 1: as bugs, bunny bugs, can you hear me? And Mel

648
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 1: Blank's first words were, what's up?

649
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 3: Doc?

650
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 1: Amazing? They don't know mel Blank is a relative, said,

651
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: but they know bugs. And my goodness, the stories about

652
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 1: him with the fans and with the sick children, with

653
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,759
Speaker 1: the hurting children, how he just couldn't leave them. What

654
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: a heart the man had, and ultimately how he dies

655
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: in an accident falling out of a hospital bed. What

656
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 1: the son said was so true. His leg I see

657
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: was laughter. I love the line from mel Blank. He said,

658
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: when I see a person smile, that's my payment itself.

659
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: The story of Mel Blank, the man behind three thousand

660
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: cartoon voices here on our American Stories