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Encyclopedia > Stan Freberg

Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, puppeteer and advertising creative director. Image File history File linksMetadata Sfreberg2. ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these 6 frames. ... A voice actor (also a voice artist) is a person who provides voices for animated characters (including those in feature films, television series, animated shorts), voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides. ... A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life. ... Commercialism redirects here. ...


The son of a Baptist minister, Stan Freberg grew up in Pasadena, California. His traditional upbringing is reflected both in the gentle sensitivity which underpins his work (despite his liberal use of biting satire and parody), and in his refusal to accept alcohol and tobacco manufacturers as sponsors (an impediment to his radio career when he took over for Jack Benny on CBS radio), as Freberg explained to Rusty Pipes: Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Baptist is a term describing individuals belonging... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Jack Benny (February 14, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois – December 26, 1974 in Beverly Hills, California), born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor. ... CBSs first color logo, which debuted in the fall of 1965. ...

After I replaced Jack Benny in 1957 they were unable to sell me with spot announcements in the show. That would mean that every three minutes I'd have to drop a commercial in. So I said, "Forget it, I want to be sponsored by one person like Benny was, by American Tobacco or State Farm Insurance," except that I wouldn't let them sell me to American Tobacco. I refused to let them sell me to any cigarette company. [1]

Freberg has two children, Donna Jr. (Donna Jean Ebsen, named after her mother, Donna) and Donavan Freberg, who was given his name on his fifth birthday. Before that he was simply known as "Baby Boy." Donavan Freberg explained, "As for how they decided on Donavan, my sister is named Donna, as was my mother. My dad had writer's block, so he just elongated Donna. Until then, they called me baby boy, a name I shared with the family dog, a freakishly small but very cute Yorkshire terrier." [2] Stan Freberg's first wife, Donna, died in 2000, and he married Betty Hunter in 2002. Donavan Freberg (born April 6, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an actor and writer. ...

In 1950, Daws Butler and Stan Freberg are backstage doing both voices and puppeteering on Bob Clampett's Time for Beany (1949-54) at KTLA in Los Angeles. Freberg operates Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent and Dishonest John, while Butler handles Captain Huffenpuff and Beany.
In 1950, Daws Butler and Stan Freberg are backstage doing both voices and puppeteering on Bob Clampett's Time for Beany (1949-54) at KTLA in Los Angeles. Freberg operates Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent and Dishonest John, while Butler handles Captain Huffenpuff and Beany.

Contents

Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...

Animation

Freberg was employed as a voice actor in animation shortly after graduating from high school. He began at Warner Bros. in 1946 by taking the advice of his uncle, stage magician Raymond Freberg (Conray the Magician), who advised him to take a bus into Los Angeles and have the driver let him off "in central Los Angeles," whereupon Freberg was to walk into the first building he saw and ask for an audition. He did this, got off the bus when he saw a sign that said "talent agency," walked in and immediately found work at Warner Bros., as he described in his autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh (Times Books, 1988). [3]


His first was Roughly Speaking (1946) as Bertie, and in 1947, he was heard in It's a Grand Old Nag (Charlie Horse), The Goofy Gophers (Tosh) and One Meat Brawl (Grover Groundhog and Walter Winchell). He often found himself paired off with Mel Blanc while at Warner Brothers, where the two men performed such pairs as the Goofy Gophers, Hubie and Bertie and Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier. [4] He was the voice of Junyer Bear in Chuck Jones' Looney Tunes cartoon What's Brewin', Bruin? (1948), featuring Jones' version of The Three Bears. The Goofy Gophers in the short I Gopher You. ... Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972), an American newspaper and radio commentator, invented the gossip column at the New York Evening Graphic. ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor, performing on radio, in television commercials, and most famously, in hundreds of cartoon shorts for Warner Bros. ... Warner Bros. ... Hubie and Bertie are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. ... Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. ... Image:Bugsybears. ... Chuck Jones in 1976 Charles Martin Chuck Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. ... Looney Tunes opening title Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. ... The Three Bears are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. ...


From 1949 to 1954, he and frequent collaborator Daws Butler provided voices and were the puppeteers for Bob Clampett's puppet series, Time for Beany, a triple Emmy Award winner (1950, 1951, 1953). Daws Butler in 1976. ... A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life. ... Robert Emerson Bob Clampett (May 8, 1913–May 4, 1984) was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. ... Wayang shadow-puppet created in Bali, in the early 20th century. ... Time for Beany was a television series, with puppets for characters, which aired circa 1949-1955. ... An Emmy Award. ...


His first credit as a voice actor in a Looney Tunes cartoon was in Three Little Bops (1957). Freberg's work as a voice actor for Walt Disney Productions included the role of Beaver in Lady and the Tramp (1955). He succeeded Kent Rogers as the voice of Beaky Buzzard in The Bashful Buzzard after Rogers died. Looney Tunes opening title Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. ... Three Little Bops is a 1957 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, with voices by Stan Freberg and music by a jazz group including Shorty Rogers. ... Walt Disney Productions is the former name of The Walt Disney Company, which it held from 1929 to 1986. ... Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theaters on June 16, 1955 by Buena Vista Distribution/RKO Radio Pictures. ... Kent Rogers (d. ... Beaky Buzzard with Bugs Bunny. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


Capitol Records

Also in 1950, he scored a huge success with his first recording for Capitol Records, "John and Marsha," a soap opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both played by Freberg) repeating each other's names. In a follow-up, he used pedal steel guitarist Speedy West to parody the 1953 Ferlin Husky country hit, "A Dear John Letter", changing it to "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Capitol 2677).) Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, owned by EMI. // The Capitol Records company was founded by the songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of movie producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, (1910-1971) (owner of Music City, at the... For Philippine soap opera, see Teleserye. ... In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Pedal steel guitar with two 10-string necks The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. ... Wesley Webb Speedy West (January 25, 1924 – November 15, 2003) was an american steel guitarist, for a long time playing with Jimmy Bryant, either in their own duo or as backing band for Tennessee Ernie Ford and many others. ... Ferlin Husky (born December 3, 1925 in Flat River, Missouri) is an American singer who has become well-known as a country-pop chart-topper under various names, including Terry Preston and Simon Crum. ...


Throughout the 1950s, he made a name for himself by writing and performing original satirical ("Tele-Vee-Shun") and parodies of popular tunes ("The Yellow Rose of Texas", "Day-O", "I've Got You Under My Skin", and others). With Daws Butler and June Foray, he produced a medieval parody of Dragnet called "St. George and the Dragonet". The latter recording was a #1 hit for four weeks in late 1953, and prompted the follow-up success of the record's B-side "Little Blue Riding Hood," in which the title character is arrested for smuggling goodies. 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... The Yellow Rose of Texas is a traditional folk song of the Southern United States, which became popular in 1955 in a recording by Mitch Miller. ... The Banana Boat Song is a traditional Trinidadian Calypso folk song, whose best-known version was sung by Harry Belafonte and is the most well-known calypso. ... Ive Got You Under My Skin may be: Ive Got You Under My Skin, a song by Cole Porter Ive Got You Under My Skin (Charmed Episode), an episode of the television series Charmed Ive Got You Under My Skin (Angel episode), an episode of the... June Foray (born September 18, 1917) is an extremely versatile voice actor who has worked for most of the studios which produced animated films since the 1940s. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Dragnet opening frame from the 1967 version. ... St. ...


Freberg's musical parodies were a byproduct of his collaborations with Billy May and his Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson. With his 1957 spoof of TV "champagne music" master Lawrence Welk, "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!", Freberg had a true partner in crime with May, a veteran big band musician and jazz arranger (known for his work with Frank Sinatra among others), who loathed Welk's corny and syrupy style. To replicate that sound, May and some of Hollywood's finest studio musicians and vocalists worked to virtually clone Welk's musical mediocrity, right down to the bad notes and timing mistakes. Billy Liebert, a first-rate accordionist, copied Welk's own abysmal accordion playing. Welk denied he had ever said "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!", yet it became the title of Welk's autobiography, published by Prentice Hall in 1971. William E. May, better known as Billy May (10 November 1916 – 22 January 2004) was an American composer, arranger and musician. ... Lawrence Welk during a taping of The Lawrence Welk Show Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was a musician, accordion player, bandleader, and television impresario. ... A big band, also known as a jazz orchestra, is a large musical ensemble that plays jazz music, especially Swing. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American jazz oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor. ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... Session musicians are musicians available for hire, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical outfit or who have acquired fame in their own right. ... This article is about the instrument as a whole. ...


Another hit song to get the Freberg treatment was Johnnie Ray's weepy "Cry", which Freberg rendered as "Try" ("You too can be unhappy. .. if you try!"), exaggerating Ray's intense, histrionic vocal style. Ray was furious, until he realized the success of Freberg's parody was helping sales and airplay of his own record. Johnnie Ray from the trailer for one of his few films, Theres No Business Like Show Business (1954) John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927–February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. ... Airplay is a technical term used in the radio industry to state how frequently a song is being played on a radio station. ...


Freberg also tackled political issues of the day. One extended sketch paralleled the Cold War brinkmanship between the USA and the Soviet Union by portraying an ever-escalating public relations battle between the El Sodom and the Rancho Gomorrah, two casinos in the city of Los Voraces (Spanish for "The Greedy Ones" -- a thinly-disguised Las Vegas). The sketch ends with the ultimate tourist attraction, The Hydrogen Bomb, which turns Los Voraces into a barren, vast wasteland. Network pressure forced Freberg to remove the reference to the hydrogen bomb and destroy the two cities with an earthquake, instead. The version of "Incident at Los Voraces", released later on Capitol Records, contains the original ending. [5] For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Public relations (PR): Building sustainable relations with all publics in order to create a postive brand image. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... The Wasteland Speech was given by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton N. Minow on May 9, 1961: When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. ... An earthquake is the result from the sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ...


On two occasions, however, Capitol balked at releasing Freberg's creations. "That's Right, Arthur" was a barbed parody of controversial 1950s radio-TV personality Arthur Godfrey, who expected his stable of performers known as "Little Godfreys" to endlessly toady to him. The dialogue included Freberg's "Godfrey" monologue, punctuated by Daws Butler imitating Godfrey announcer, Tony Marvin, repeatedly interjecting "That's Right, Arthur" between Godfrey comments. Capitol feared Godfrey might take legal action. Capitol also rejected the equally acerbic "Most of the Town," a spoof on Ed Sullivan. Both eventually surfaced on a box-set Freberg retrospective, issued by Rhino Records. Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. ... Daws Butler in 1976. ... It has been suggested that civil trial be merged into this article or section. ... Ed Sullivan Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the emcee of a popular TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was at its height of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. ... A box set (sometimes referred to as a boxed set) is one or more musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related things that are contained in a box. ... Rhino Entertainment is a specialty record label originally known for releasing retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, and Spike Jones. ...


Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after the demise of his show, producing and recording "Green Chri$tma$" in 1958 (again with Butler), a scathing indictment of the overcommercialization of the holiday. Freberg, the son of a church minister and very religious, himself, made sure to soberly point out "whose birthday we're celebrating" on that record. Green Chri$tma$ is piece of audio theater written and performed by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, released by Capitol Records in 1958 (catalog number F 4097). ...


Green Chri$tma$ also foreshadowed Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years (1961), in that both combined dialogue and song in a musical-like style. (One can almost imagine Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin performing the big Broadway finish on "A Man Can't Be Too Careful What He Signs These Days"). "Stan Freberg Presents. .. Volume 1" was released on Capitol. It is a parody of the history of the United States from 1492 until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1776. For instance, in the Colonial era, it was common to use the long s, which resembles a lowercase f -- thus, as Ben Franklin is reading the Declaration of Independence, he questions the passage "Life, liberty and the purfuit of happineff???" A dialogue (sometimes spelt dialog[1]) is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition. ... The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical in history Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ... Portrait of Benjamin Franklin Dr. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706–April 17, 1790) was an American journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. ... Broadway theatre[1] is the most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. ... Combatants United States France Spanish Empire Dutch Republic Oneida Tuscarora Polish volunteers Quebec volunteers Prussian volunteers Kingdom of Great Britain Iroquois Confederacy Hessian mercenaries Loyalists Commanders George Washington Nathanael Greene Gilbert de La Fayette Comte de Rochambeau Bernardo de Gálvez Tadeusz KoÅ›ciuszko Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben King George... An italicized long s used in the word Congress in the United States Bill of Rights. ... A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. ...


There was a little exchange, as Freberg's Christopher Columbus is "discovered on beach here" by a Native American played by Marvin Miller. Being skeptical of the Natives' diet of corn and "other organically grown vegetables", Columbus wants to open "America's first Italian restaurant" and needs to cash a check to get started. Christopher Columbus (1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator and maritime explorer credited as the discoverer of the Americas. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... Miller in Deadline at Dawn Marvin Miller July 18, 1913 - February 8, 1985, born Marvin Mueller, was an movie and voice-over actor. ...

  • Native: "You out of luck today. Banks closed."
  • Columbus: "Oh? Why?"
  • Native: "Columbus Day!"
  • Columbus: "Oh, yeah." [pregnant pause] "We going out on that joke?"
  • Native: "No, we do reprise of song. That help, but. .."
  • Columbus and Native together: "...not much, no!"

Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two was planned for a release during America's Bicentennial in 1976 but did not emerge until 1996. [6] An anniversary is a day that commemorates an event that occurred on the same day of the year some time in the past. ...


Freberg's early parodies revealed his obvious love of jazz. His portrayals of jazz musicians were usually stereotypic "beatnik" types, but jazz was always portrayed as somehow "nobler" than pop, calypso and particularly the then-new form of music, rock and roll. He whopped doo wop in his parody of "Sh-Boom", and Elvis Presley was lampooned with an echo/reverb rendition of "Heartbreak Hotel". His contempt for Presley, as well as skiffle vocalist Lonnie Donegan, whom he spoofed with his 1956 recording of "Rock Island Line", reflected a scorn for changing times or diverse tastes, be it Welk or rock. Beatnik is a media stereotype that borrowed the most superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s to present a distorted (and sometimes violent), cartoon-like misrepresentation of the real-life people and the spirituality found in Jack Kerouacs autobiographical fiction. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. ... Calypso might refer to one of several things: Calypso is the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology; Calypso music is a style of Caribbean folk music; Calypso is the name of an album sung by Harry Belafonte; Calypso is the name of a moon of Saturn; 53 Kalypso... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... 10:10, 8 September 2006 (UTC)87. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ... For the Whitney Houston song, see Heartbreak Hotel (Whitney Houston song). ... Skiffle music is a type of folk music with a jazz and blues influence, usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the washboard, tea-chest bass, kazoo, cigar-box fiddle, or a comb and paper, and so forth. ... Lonnie Donegan Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. ... Rock Island Line is an American blues/folk song, written and originally performed by Lead Belly in the 1930s. ...


Radio

The popularity of Freberg's recordings landed him his own program, the situation comedy That's Rich (1954). Freberg portrayed the bumbling but cynical Richard E. Wilk, a resident of Hope Springs, where he worked for B.B. Hackett's Consolidated Paper Products Company. Freberg suggested the addition of dream sequences, which made it possible for him to perform his more popular Capitol Records satires before a live studio audience. The CBS series aired from January 8 to September 23, 1954. This article or section seems to contain too many examples (or of a poor quality) for an encyclopedia entry. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...


The Stan Freberg Show was a 1957 replacement for Jack Benny on CBS radio. The satirical show, which featured elaborate production, included most of the team he used on his Capitol recordings, including June Foray, Peter Leeds and Daws Butler. Billy May conducted and arranged the orchestra. The Jud Conlon Singers, who also appeared on Freberg recordings, were also regulars. The Stan Freberg Show was a weekly radio comedy show that ran on the CBS Radio Network for only fifteen episodes in 1957–58. ...


The show failed to attract a sponsor after Freberg decided he did not want to be associated with the tobacco companies who had sponsored Benny. In lieu of actual commercials, Freberg mocked advertising by touting such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("Put some food in your tummy-tum-tum!") and himself ("Stan Freberg — the foaming comedian! Bobba bobba bom bom bom" — a parody of the well-known Ajax cleanser commercial). Image:Ajax powder. ...


The lack of sponsorship was not the only issue. Freberg frequently complained of radio network interference. Another sketch from the CBS show, "Elderly Man River", anticipated the Political Correctness movement by decades. Daws Butler plays "Mr. Tweedly," a representative of a fictional citizens' radio review board, who constantly interrupts Freberg with a loud buzzer as Freberg attempts to sing "Old Man River". Tweedly objects first to the word "old", "which some of our more elderly citizens find distasteful." As a result, the song's lyrics are progressively and painfully distorted, as Freberg struggles to turn the classic song into a form which Tweedly will find acceptable "to the tiny tots" listening at home: "He don't, er, doesn't plant 'taters, er, potatoes... he doesn't pick cotton, er, cotting... and them-these-those that plants them are soon forgotting," a lyric of which Freberg is particularly proud. Even when the censor finds Freberg's machinations acceptable, the constant interruption ultimately brings the song to a grinding halt (just before Freberg would have had to edit the line "You gets a little drunk and you lands in jail"), furnishing the moral and the punchline of the sketch at once. The performance skewered political correctness about thirty years before the term even existed. But all of these factors forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only 15 episodes. A radio network is a network system which distributes programming to multiple stations simultaneously, or slightly delayed, for the purpose of extending total coverage beyond the limits of a single broadcast signal. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... For the song from the musical Show Boat, see Ol Man River For the Canadian river, see Oldman River Old Man River is a nickname for the Mississippi River in the United States of America Old Man River is the name of a song by country music singer Reba McEntire...


After the radio show, he created an album, which was supposed to be similar to his radio show. This album is most famous for a bit in which, through the magic of sound effects, Freberg drained Lake Michigan and refilled it with hot chocolate, whipped cream, and a cherry, saying, "Let's see them do that on television!" That became a commercial for advertising on radio. An album (from Latin albus white, blank, relating to a blank book in which something can be inserted) is a packaged collection of related things. ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ... Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one in the group located entirely within the United States. ... Hot Chocolate For the musical band, see Hot Chocolate. ... Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of raw milk before homogenization. ...


Television

Freberg made television guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV variety shows, usually with Orville, his puppet from outer space. He reached through the bottom of Orville's flying saucer to control the puppet's movements and turned away from the camera when he delivered Orville's lines. Freberg garnered big laughs when he made occasional talk show appearances, but his big splash on television was his own ABC special: Stan Freberg Presents: The Chung King Chow Mein Hour (1962). The Ed Sullivan Show is an American television variety show that ran from June 20, 1948 to June 6, 1971, and was hosted by former entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. ... Layers of Atmosphere - not to scale (NOAA)[1] Outer space, sometimes simply called space, refers to the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... UFO redirects here. ... A professional video camera (often called a television camera even though the use has spread) is a high-end device for recording electronic moving images (as opposed to a movie camera, that records the images on film). ... The American Broadcasting Company ( oftenly known as ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...


When Freberg introduced satire to the field of advertising, he revolutionized the industry, influencing staid ad agencies to imitate Freberg by injecting humor into their previously dead-serious commercials. Freberg's long list of successful ad campaigns includes:

  • Contadina tomato paste: "Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?"
  • Jeno's pizza rolls: A parody of a contemporary commercial for Lark cigarettes that used the William Tell Overture, here ending with a confrontation between a cigarette smoker (supposedly representing the Lark commercial's announcer) and Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger over the use of the music.
  • Sunsweet pitted prunes: Depicted as "the food of the future" in a futuristic setting, until science fiction icon Ray Bradbury (a friend of Freberg's), shown on a wall-to-wall television screen reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451 butts in: "I never mentioned prunes in any of my stories." "You didn't?" "No, never. I'm sorry to be so candid." "No, they're not candied" (rim shot). Bradbury reportedly refused to consider doing a commercial until Freberg told him, "I'm calling it Brave New Prune," prompting Bradbury to ask, "When do we start?"
  • Another Sunsweet commercial features Ronald Long as a picky eater: "They're still rather badly wrinkled, you know," and ends with the famous line, "Today, the pits; tomorrow, the wrinkles! Sunsweet marches on!")
  • Heinz Great American Soups: Ann Miller is a tap-dancing housewife, whose husband asks, "Why do you always have to make such a big production out of everything?" At the time (1970), this was the most expensive commercial ever made — so expensive, in fact, that there was little money left over to buy air time for it.
  • Jacobson Mowers: Sheep slowly munch on a front lawn. On camera reporter/announcer: "Jacobson mowers. Faster. .. than sheep!"
  • Encyclopædia Britannica: The boy in these commercials is Freberg's son Donavan. Freberg talks to him from offscreen.
  • Chun King Chinese Food: Magazine ad, featuring a line-up of 9 smiling Chinese men and 1 frowning Caucasian man, all dressed in scrub suits and white lab coats, with the caption, "Nine out of 10 doctors recommend Chun King Chow Mein!"

Today, these advertisements are considered classics by many critics, and Freberg is usually credited as being the first person to introduce humor into television advertising with memorable campaigns. Freberg felt a truly funny commercial would cause consumers to request a product, as was the case with his elaborate ad campaign which prompted stores to stock Salada Tea. The owner of Jeno's Pizza Rolls had to pay off a bet over the success of a Freberg ad campaign by pulling Freberg in a rickshaw on Hollywood's La Cienega Boulevard. Freberg won 21 Clio awards for his commercials. [7] Many of those spots were included in the Freberg four-CD box set, Tip Of The Freberg. Tomato paste is a thick paste made from ripened tomatos with skin and seeds removed. ... Totinos and Jenos are brands of frozen pizza owned by General Mills, which collectively are reportedly the best selling economy frozen pizza brands in the United States. ... In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Guillaume Tell (William Tell) is an opera in four acts by Gioacchino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schillers Wilhelm Tell. ... Clayton Moore (September 14, 1914 - December 28, 1999) was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger. ... The Lone Ranger was an early, long-running radio and television show based on characters created by George W. Trendle of Detroit, Michigan and developed by writer Fran Stryker of Buffalo, New York. ... Prune refers to any of more than 125 varieties of fruit, most grown for drying. ... For the meaning in finance, see futures contract. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian soft science fiction novella by Ray Bradbury that was published in 1953. ... A rimshot is the sound produced by hitting the rim of a snare drum with a drum stick. ... Ronald Long (January 30, 1911–October 23, 1986), was a British actor who appeared principally in American television shows of the 1950s and 1960s. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Ann Miller was born on April 12, 1923 and died on January 22, 2004. ... Man tap dancing Tap dance was born in the United States during the nineteenth century, and today is popular all around the world. ... A stereotypical housewife A homemaker is a person whose prime occupation is to care for their family and home. ... The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general encyclopedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ... Donavan Freberg (born April 6, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an actor and writer. ... Japanese rickshaw (jinrikisha), 1886. ... Clio—detail from The Allegory of Painting by Johannes Vermeer For other uses, see Clio (disambiguation). ... A box set (sometimes referred to as a boxed set) is one or more musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related things that are contained in a box. ...


Later work

Following his success in comedy records and television, Freberg has often been invited to appear as a featured guest at various events. Each time has been memorable, such as his skit at the 1979 Science Fiction Awards, again playing straight man to Orville in his UFO. He innocently asks why there is a hole in the end of the spacecraft, only to be told, "That's where the swamp gas comes out." UFO can mean: Unidentified flying object United Future Organization, a Japanese-Brazilian electronic jazz band UFO, the rock band that previously featured Michael Schenker UFO, the Gerry Anderson TV series United Farmers of Ontario, a political party that formed the government in Ontario from 1919 to 1923 U.F.O...


In his autobiography It Only Hurts When I Laugh, Freberg recounts much of his life and early career, including his encounters with show business legends such as Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra and Ed Sullivan and the struggles he endured to get his material on the air. Show business is a vernacular term for the business of entertainment. ... Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 - March 27, 2002) was an American comedian who was born Milton Berlinger according to his birth certificate. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American jazz oriented popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor. ... Ed Sullivan Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the emcee of a popular TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was at its height of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. ...


Freberg was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. From 1995 until October 6, 2006, Freberg hosted When Radio Was, a syndicated anthology of old-time radio shows. The release of the 1996 Rhino CD The United States of America Volume 1 (the Early Years) and Volume 2 (the Middle Years) suggests a possible third volume. This set includes some parts written but cut because they would not fit on a record album. // The National Radio Hall of Fame and Museum, located in the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, Illinois, is a museum dedicated to recognizing those who have contributed to the development of the radio medium throughout its history in the United States. ... October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... When Radio Was is a syndicated radio program that re-airs old-time radio programs. ... In the entertainment and news industries, syndication is a method of making content available to a range of outlets simultaneously. ...


Freberg appeared on "Weird Al" Yankovic's The Weird Al Show, playing both J.B. Toppersmith character and the voice of the puppet Papa Boolie. Yankovic has many times acknowledged Freberg as his greatest influence. [8] Freberg is among the commentators in the special features on the multiple-volume DVD sets of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. This article is about the musician himself. ... The Weird Al Show was a short-lived television show starring Weird Al Yankovic. ... DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... The Looney Tunes Golden Collection is a yearly series of four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Bros. ...


Legacy in popular culture

  • In 2007, comedy artist the great Luke Ski recorded a ten-minute homage called MC Freberg, a style-parody illustrating what a Freberg-type satire of rap music would have sounded like.
  • In the episode "Duke's Oil" from the short-lived animated series, The Critic, millionarie Duke Phillips pays a Dr. Kevorkian-like suicide specialist to help him euthanize himself after dying of an illness. When given the choice of his last rights, the nurse tells him "[he] can listen to Stan Freberg on the headphones", to which Duke replies "The perfect end to a perfect life".

The Great Luke Ski is the stage name of Luke Sienkowski, a filk musician who writes, records and performs comedy music. ... Hip hop music is a style of popular music. ... Jay Sherman posing. ... Jack Kevorkian, M.D. (IPA pronunciation: [1]) (born May 20, some sources say May 26[2], 1928) is a controversial American pathologist. ... Euthanasia (Greek, good death) is the practice of killing a person or animal, in a painless or minimally painful way, for merciful reasons, usually to end their suffering. ...

Discography

Reference

  1. ^ Pipes, Rusty. "An audience with Stan Freberg," Cosmik Debris
  2. ^ Freberg, Donavan. Demented Tidbits
  3. ^ Freberg, Stan. It Only Hurts When I Laugh. Times Books, 1988.
  4. ^ IMDb
  5. ^ Bevilacqua, Joe. "The Stan Freberg Show"
  6. ^ Stan Freberg Discography
  7. ^ Award to be Presented to Freberg at the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards (June 22, 2006)
  8. ^ Yahoo! Music: Weird Al Yankovic Biography

Listen to

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
CNN.com - John and Marsha and a man of comedy - Aug. 19, 2003 (1248 words)
Stan Freberg's comedy -- from "St. George and the Dragonet" to an Ann Miller soup ad to "The United States of America" -- has attracted legions of fans.
Stan Freberg was speaking to a group of seminary students when the father of the funny commercial, inventor of the modern comedy album and co-creator of the beloved 1950s kids show "Time for Beany and Cecil" had his audience doubled over in laughter.
Freberg has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a plaque in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, another in the Radio Hall of Fame and still another in the Animation Hall of Fame.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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