Cartoon characters have been used for entertainment, education and propaganda over the years. About 30 years ago, TV networks became increasingly reactionary to pressure groups and forced studios to come up with cartoons that were “educational” (or “propaganda,” depending on one’s point of view). They sure weren’t entertainment. Kid cartoon viewers are generally intelligent people who know when they’re being blatantly preached at.

Of course, cartoon characters were used for this sort of thing before the 1980s; the John Sutherland studio made its fortune producing “educational” cartoon shorts in the late ‘40s and through the ‘50s. And Hanna-Barbera’s characters made educational appearances long before they loaded into an ark.

One appearance was in 1962 on the children’s record “How to be a Better-Than-Average Child Without Really Trying!” Billboard magazine of October 27, 1962 reviewed it, in the column next to its spotlight on “Rusty Warren in Orbit.”

Various Artists. Golden LP 90—Here’s Yogi Bear, one of the most popular of all TV characters, along with a flock of his TV buddies, all created by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. This time, the tunes are based on the general theme of how to be better than you are. The title—“How to be a Better-Than-Average Child Without Really Trying”—is a take-off on a current Broadway musical hit, and it sets the tone for such items as “Everybody Makes Mistakes,” “Get Neat,” “Doodlin’ and Dawdlin’,” “Take a Little Care” and “So Many Rules.” Cute wax with a built-in lesson for the kiddies.

As a kiddie, this record would have bored me somewhere into the first song. And 50 years later, it has the same effect. Setting aside the “lessons” (any kid would rather listen to Yogi outwit someone for a pic-a-nic basket), this is a Golden Record which means the original cast of the cartoons is nowhere to be found. Instead, we get Frank Milano as Yogi (he keeps losing the voice). Boo Boo’s voice is sped up for some reason. Mike Stewart and Dottie Evans (as Julie Bennett as Cindy Bear) round out the cast.

You can click on the arrow to listen to each band on the record but I’ll tell you what you’d rather do. Skip right down to the theme songs. 1962 marked the debut of ‘The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series,’ featuring Lippy the Lion, Touché Turtle and Wally Gator. “Top Cat” began the preceding fall. So, to pad out the record, the usual Golden Records chorus and combo give a rendition of them all, and toss in a previously-unknown theme for Dum Dum the Dog, Touché’s sidekick. Unlike the originals by the Randy Horne Singers, you can actually understand all the lyrics. And I like Jim Timmens’ arrangement for the Wally Gator theme better than Hoyt Curtin’s; with a few more pieces and someone really banging at the piano and less timid on the guitar, Wally could really be a “twistin’ syncopator.” Sorry the Top Cat open is crackly.

I don’t have copies of the original lyric sheets so I’ll wildly guess that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera came up with the additional words you don’t hear on the TV versions of the themes while Jackie Relnach and Joan Lamport are only responsible for the be-a-better-kid material.

YOGI BEAR IS BETTER THAN THE AVERAGE >

HAPPY AS A CLAM

EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES

GET NEAT

DOODLIN AND DAWDLIN

DON'T DO UNTO OTHERS

TAKE A LITTLE CARE

A LITTLE THIS, A LITTLE THAT

SO MANY RULES

THERE'S A REASON FOR THE RULES

PARENTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

REPRISE of YOU CAN BE A BETTER CHILD

TOP CAT

WALLY GATOR

DUM DUM

TOUCHÉ TURTLE

LIPPY THE LION and HARDY HAR HAR

You’ve got to admit, Yogi’s First Christmas is a great title for a cartoon. But the people at Hanna-Barbera were awfully forgetful. And who could blame them?

Yogi’s First Christmas first aired in 1980, two years after Yogi and Boo Boo witnessed the arrival of Jolly Old St. Nick in the forgettable Casper’s First Christmas, which we discussed earlier on the blog. But while that was Casper’s first Christmas—and you’d figure since he could speak perfect English, he would have lived through more than one Yuletide as a real boy—it certainly wasn’t Yogi’s. If you consider other media, that is.

In 1961, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera joined the kiddie Christmas record parade by co-penning two songs that were released on 78 and 45 by Golden Records in New York. While the sleeve for the record says “Song by Paul Parnes” the tunes are among a number copyrighted that year by Hanna, Barbera and Sylvia Parnes. I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about either Parnes—other than you’ll never mistake them for the Gershwins— but I can tell you who is portraying Yogi and Boo Boo. It’s none other than New York voice actor Frank Milano. The real Yogi (Daws Butler) and Boo Boo (Don Messick) were under contract to Colpix Records in Los Angeles, so Golden had to be content with members of its stable doing what they could to sound like Daws and Don. I’m afraid Mr. Milano wasn’t too successful, but he gives it a good try.

The songs on this 78 are copyrighted as “Have a Hap-Hap-Happy Xmas” and “Give a Goodie for Christmas.” Have a listen to them (as much as you can) below:

HAVE A HAP-HAP-HAPPY CHRISTMAS


GIVE A GOODIE FOR CHRISTMAS


It seems the best part of these Little Golden Records is the artwork on the cover. And that brings us to Yogi’s second Christmas appearance, also in 1961, and also thanks to the folks at Golden. And there’s a Sylvia involved in this one, too.

A couple of years ago, Barbie Miller at the Golden Gems blog posted some great scans from the children’s book Yogi Bear, A Christmas Visit. The artwork is by Sylvia and Burnett Mattinson and the story by Stuart Quentin Hyatt. There was a Burnett Mattinson who played with the American Institute Symphony in the mid-20s and drummed in the Horace Heidt band in the ‘40s. He was found dead, under suspicious circumstances, in his Sherman Oaks, California home in 1970. Whether it’s the same chap, I don’t know, but homicide isn’t very much in the spirit of children’s books or Christmas, is it? So, instead, check out the illustrations in the Yogi book. And if you’re into this sort of thing, Barbie’s fine blog (now, unfortunately, on hiatus) is RIGHT HERE. She’s got work by the Master of ‘60s Children’s Illustration, Mel Crawford, and work by Mary Blair, Tom Oreb, Tom McKimson, Vernon Grant, Hawley Pratt and a bunch of other names you may recognise.
















The following year, Golden Books came out with Yogi Bear Helps Santa, drawn by Lee Branscome, who worked for Hanna-Barbera on The Jetsons and Jonny Quest. You can find it on Barbie’s site HERE.

Finally, something of Yogi’s that has nothing to do with Christmas. But think of it as a Christmas bonus.

The blog has briefly touched on the creation of Hanna-Barbera Records. Among the kid product the label released in 1965 was Yogi Bear telling two stories to Boo Boo—‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’

The oddest thing is even though Daws Butler and Don Messick were employed by Hanna-Barbera, the record features two other cartoon voice actors in the principal roles. Yogi is portrayed by Allan Melvin, best-known at H-B for his starring role as Magilla Gorilla. Boo Boo is played by someone who spent very little time at Hanna-Barbera prior to 1980—June Foray. She’s doing a ‘slow’ voice here, somewhat reminiscent of her portrayal of Bridey Hammerschlaugen on the Stan Freberg radio show. The Yogi Bear Song is heard twice; I’m only posting it once. I’m not an expert on the H-B record label, so I don’t know who is singing the Yogi song, though some possibilities may be found on this web site.

The Red Riding Hood Song is, like, keen to the scene, man.

YOGI BEAR SONG


JACK AND THE BEANSTALK STORY


JACK AND THE BEANSTALK SONG


LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD STORY


LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SONG


The beanstalk story seemed to occupy Bill and Joe’s minds in the mid-60s. A live action/animation Jack special starring Gene Kelly and the voice of Ted Cassidy as the giant at the top of the stalk aired on February 26, 1967. It won an Emmy and seems to have paved the way for similar television combinations, like the Huckleberry Finn series (with Ted Cassidy) the following year.

We’ve got more goodies for the holidays coming up. This definitely won’t be Yogi’s Last Christmas.

There was a time before celebrities had indistinct and uninteresting voices (i.e., today) when anyone could do a passable and instantly-recognisable impression of some well-known show biz figure at will. Cagney, Robinson, Durante, Jolson. Later, it was Shatner, Lynde, Seinfeld. Cartoon characters, too. At least, if they kept it to a catchphrase.

One ventures into dangerous territory if one endeavours to spout more than a few words as John Wayne or Yogi Bear. The longer one talks, the easier it is to lose the voice and start sounding like a semi-detectable, eyeroll-inducing, quasi-impersonation. And that’s perhaps something the casting director at Golden Records should have considered.

Golden Records was a New York-based company that put out seemingly endless numbers of children’s discs in the ‘40s, ‘50s and early ‘60s featuring storybook characters or favourite cartoon stars. The early Hanna-Barbera stars were no exception. Unfortunately, there was a problem. The voices of those characters—Daws Butler and Don Messick—apparently were signed to exclusive kiddie record deals with other companies, so Golden had to make do with its small company of New York actors pretending to be Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and even some of the more obscure characters like Major Minor.

Maybe for a few words, the actors could have pulled it off. For a whole song? As they say in New York—Fawggedabouddit. Some of the results were shockingly inept.

It’s unfortunate because it wasn’t the fault of the voice actors. They certainly had talent; they never would have been hired to begin with in a very competitive environment if they hadn’t. It’s just their talent didn’t include the ability to competently mimic Daws and Don’s cartoon creations.

Golden hired radio actors Gil Mack and Frank Milano to be their male voices. In 1961, the success of the newly-aired Yogi Bear Show prompted Golden to release a children’s LP Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s Songs of Yogi Bear and All His Pals. And the lot fell on Milano to replicate the voices of a fair portion of the Hanna-Barbera menagerie. The best part of the album is the cover. Some of Milano’s work is painful, to be charitable.

But before you judge for yourself, let’s read a little about what Milano could do. And he could do a lot. His radio credits include Lux Radio Theatre, Suspense and X Minus One. Two columnists devoted their space to Milano’s special gifts. The first was syndicated by the New York Tribune on June 22, 1952.

Out Of The Air
By JOHN CROSBY
Meet Frank Milano—A Most Versatile Actor
One of the most highly specialized actors around is a man named Frank Milano.
You probably never heard of him, but you’ve certainly heard him. Among the roles he has played (in voice only) are a mouse, a goose, frogs (several of them, them, which shows real talent), a puppy singing “The Star Spangled Banner”, a fish with a high-pitched laugh, a psychopathic motorboat—I’m not making this up, Mannie. He played a psychopathic motorboat—a jet-propelled spoon, an auto starter with a rundown battery, a talking eagle, a talking owl, a stallion fighting a wild boar and a coyote fighting a collie.
ALL GREAT and, in their way difficult roles. However, his best known part—you must have heard this—was the snap, crackle and pop he did for Rice Crispies. Milano took over the chore when Rice Crispies was on the fringe of desperation. They’d tried everything to get their vaunted snapping and crackling on the air. They even, for heaven’s sake, held a bowl of cereal in front of a mike and poured milk on it. Didn’t sound right, as any fool could have told them. Years ago a sound effects man who had tried every possible device to create a sound like clashing swords struck on the unlikely scheme of clashing swords together. This is the last time anything so simple has worked out.
Finally the ad agency decided to create three cartoon characters named Snap, Crackle and Pop. Milano played all three roles, conceivably his greatest.
His particular artistry has stirred his press agent, Eddie Jaffe, into transports of prose not heard in these parts since, as the saying goes, sliced bread.
“Can we fail to do else but salute a man who in a single record album has had to be the voices of a dog, a cat, a lamb, a robin, a goose, two frogs, a horse and four pigs?” inquires Jaffe on an ascending note of esteem.
“Mr. Milano is a gentleman in love with sound. He is stirred to the excitement of a hole-in-one or winning a Pulitzer Prize when he successfully licks the challenge of projecting a lion’s roar or doing a convincing talking eagle.
“His work proves there is imagination and adventure left even in those of us who spend our waking hours in the shadows of the drug store. What adjectives can you find to describe a man who spends hours of his life so he can become a walking encyclopedia of automobile sounds—anything from a Model T to a fire engine? Without Milano, where would the director be who wanted the sound of a dying horse or a humor-loving omnibus—a lovelorn orangutan or an automobile starter with a rundown battery?”
Where indeed? Probably back in Pocono.
MILANO STARTED to be a legitimate actor with aspirations toward Hamlet and that sort of nonsense before he got into his present line of work.
But the going was rough and jobs were not numerous. There were only a few animal imitators around and Milano was encouraged to specialize. He’s very glad he did. “I wouldn’t act a straight line now for anything—even if I still could.”
In the old days of radio, Milano was called whenever they needed animals. Now he works regularly on two shows—the Bobby Benson radio show and the Rootie Kazootie TV puppet show. On the Benson show he’s Bobby’s horse, dog and a skunk (a sort of kissing noise.) On Rootie Kazootie, he not only makes the sound but manipulates two characters—Galapoochie Pup and Poison Zoomack, the villain.
You mustn’t think he has a clear field in this line of work. Milano makes children’s records for RCA Victor twice a year as little Nipper the Pup (who is supposed to be the RCA Victor Trademark dog.) He won the part over 100 other applicants.
Milano started making animal sounds when he was 4 or 5 years old, walking in the woods with his father.
Now he owns his own farm in Hillsdale, N. Y., where he converses with woodchucks and chipmunks. The woodchuck sound is a sort of hollow, knocking sound caused by the animals chomping their jaws together.
Milano was chomping one day, outside his house, when a woodchuck came racing through the grass. Suddenly the beast found he was racing toward Milano, not another woodchuck. He stood paralyzed until Milano stopped chomping. Then he fled. You can get only so close to woodchucks.

And here’s an Associated Press column, dated March 21, 1953.

Frank Milano Can Imitate Anything But Tinkle of Bell
By HAL BOYLE
NEW YORK (AP)—Frank Milano is perhaps the only man in the world who can make a sound like a flying saucer.
“It takes off with a strange whistling, whining noise, like this—OO-OOO-OOO-OOOO—then it becomes supersonic, and you can’t hear it,” he said.
Milano is firmly convinced flying saucers do exist, they are not of this planet, and it is high time us Earth people came to terms with them.
“They are not hallucinations,” he insisted. “I have seen one myself, and my wife has seen several.”
Frank’s ability to imitate the sound of a flying saucer stems from a highly educated set of vocal chords that earn him $35,000 to $50,000 a year. He is one of the nation’s few professional animal imitators and vocal effects artists.
Talented Imitator
Milano, a pleasant, mild-mannered ex-actor, drifted into his specialty by accident. But today radio and television would be hard put to do without him. He does the voice effects for half a dozen programs, ranging from a pup on the Rootie Kazootie show to a live parrot on the Bill Goodwin show.
“I can imitate anything from a cricket to a roaring lion,” Frank said. “I’ve been a gorilla, an elephant, a burro, Rip Van Winkle’s dog, and even a mosquito.”
He has also been the voice of a motor boat with a sense of humor, a wayward bus, a jet- propelled spoon, and an automobile starter with a rundown battery. Oh, yes, he also was a Rice Krispie for a while. His “snap, crackle and pop” performance in that role is, of course, now a part of theatrical history—like Hamlet.
Likes Gadget Stuff
“I like imitating mechanical gadgets,” Frank said, “Right row I’m playing the part of a washing machine — chug, chug, gluggle, gluggle, gluggle. I can also make a sound like a squadron of talking airplanes, but none of the airlines will buy it for a commercial. They say it's too frightening.”
The animals he hates most to imitate are bears. Scratches his vocal chords.
“Animal battles— two stallions fighting it out, or a mountain lion fighting a horse—are hard on my throat, too,” he said. “I guess I like to do dogs best. There are only two kinds of dog barks really — big dog barks and little dog barks.
“Dogs have been very important in my career. Some day I’d like to retire and raise them. I owe them a lot.”
Can’t Imitate Bell
Frank takes his art seriously, goes to endless lengths to be certain his sounds are realistic. His toughest assignment was to imitate a talking eagle.
“I haunted the zoo for days, but the eagles wouldn’t talk, although I tried 300 different sounds on them trying to get them to answer,” he said. “Finally, during a trip to the country, I heard a couple of eagles screeching at night. I got out of bed and screeched back at them until I had the sound down pat.”
All great artists have their sorrows, and Frank has his. There is one sound he has never been able to imitate.
“I can’t tinkle like a bell,” he said. “I have tried and tried, but I can’t make it. So far as I know nobody can. If you could vocalize like a bell—well, you’d really have something, wouldn’t you?”

In reading these stories, if you’re a fan of old-time radio people, you can’t help but feel bad that Milano so badly misses the mark as an impersonator of Vance Colvig, let alone Daws Butler. However, I’ll let you judge for yourself.

We get songs, so to speak, and a Loopy fairy tale. The best tune is the stripped-down combo that chirps out the Yogi Bear Show theme song. None of the rest of the songs come from any of the TV shows and were concocted especially for the record company. If you can listen to them all, and all the way through, you’ve done more than I could.

YOGI BEAR THEME
BEFORE YOGI
CASANOVA OF THE CAVE SET
THE CUTIE OF THE CAVE SET
THE SNAGGLEPUSS MARCH
MAJOR MINOR
EXIT STAGE RIGHT
SNOOPER AND BLABBER
LITTLE FELLER
LIKE A DUCK
FIBBER FOX
ALFY GATOR THE ALLIGATOR
YOGI BEAR PRESENTS CINDY BEAR
INTRODUCING LOOPY DE LOOP
LOOPY DE LOOP MEETS RED RIDING HOOD

Setting aside his unfortunate attempt at emulating Alfie Gator, Milano did have some actual cartoon voice experience. Mark Arnold, author of The Story of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Rest, says Milano performed some incidental voices for Total Television. And in an ironic tit for tat, Milano’s “Hamlet” roles—as Snap, Crackle and Pop—were taken over by the
main character actors at Hanna-Barbera: Daws Butler and Don Messick.

If the VoiceChasers web site is correct, this album was close to Frank Milano’s last work. He died in New York on December 15, 1962, age 64, leaving his dogs, owls, woodchucks and psycho motorboats to lesser talents.

And although the album cover is silent, Billboard magazine of the day revealed the identity of the woman lending a drawl to Cindy Bear on this LP. She had a bit of experience in the world of cartoon characters herself, having played Casper the Friendly Ghost and on Little Audrey and Little Lulu shorts for Famous Studios. She’s none other than Cecil Roy.