The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 34: That's All Folks

Episode Date: December 14, 2016

Who knew cartoon characters could be so litigious?

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Walter stared across the table at his attorney, dumbfounded. Are you serious? I'm being sued by Bugs Bunny? It's not just Bugs Bunny, said the attorney. It's Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Pie, the Roadrunner, even the coyotes after you. They want $500,000. Walter swallowed hard. Technically, he was not the top. target of a class action lawsuit leveled by America's favorite animated characters, but it sure felt that way. And half a million dollars in 1948 is nearly $5 million in today's money.

The question now was, what to do? The problem first arose eight years earlier on his honeymoon, where problems often arise. Walter and Gracie were celebrating their nuptials in a remote cabin on Lake June somewhere in the high Sierras, a world away. from Walter's Hollywood office. For once, the young animator was focused not on his sketches, but only on his beautiful bride. The scene was ideally suited for the task at hand. Gracie lit some candles as Walter started a fire and poured some champagne. Across the room, the marriage bed beckoned, and soon everything was unfolding according to plan.

Then, an urgent knocking on the front door shattered the moment. Walter leapt from the bed in no condition to answer. Who is it? No reply. Walter cracked the door and peeked out. Nobody there. Was he hearing things? Back in bed, the young lovers picked up where they left off,

when the rapping once again commenced. Good grief, said Walter, leaping again from the last place in the world, he wished to leave and yanking the door open to confront the unforgivable perpetrator of this inexcusable infligible. Dante Delecto. Once again, nobody there. But the wrapping continued, just above Walter's head. Walter stepped outside, looked up at the roof, and quickly identified the culprit.

Dryocopus, Piliatus, a woodpecker, banging away at the cabin, which was ironically, precisely what Walter was trying but failing to accomplish. Walter decided to blow his interlocutor to Kingdom Come, a perfectly understandable decision and one that he could have easily accomplished with the shotgun in the station wagon. But Gracie blocked his way and gazed up at their uninvited guest. Forget the shotgun, Walter. Nobody is getting blown to Kingdom Come today. Go get your pen. This bird is trying to tell you something. sketching a woodpecker was nowhere near the top ten things Walter wanted to be doing at this particular point in time, but he took Gracie's advice, picked up his pen, and captured the essence of his winged nemesis on paper, while giving it a decidedly human persona. Gracie was enchanted, and for the rest of their honeymoon, the woodpecker became their constant companion,

serenading them with his constant tapping, distracting Walter to no end, but always getting a laugh out of his blushing bride. You can probably figure out the rest. Walter returned to his studio a week later and brought Woody the Woodpecker to life. There he created an avian smart aleck that has never been rivaled, with the most obnoxious laugh in the history of animation. You see, Walter wanted his woodpecker to sound just as a zonautical. annoying as he actually was on the day they met. So he hired a guy named Melvin, who just happened to

have the most annoying laugh Walter had ever heard. I can't begin to imitate it, but if I tried, it would sound like this. Over the decades, Melvin's unique laugh would sear its way into the minds of millions. But Woody's speaking voice was another matter. After just two episodes, Melvin abandoned Woody the Woodpecker. He got a better offer, and Walter was in a pinch. Gracie volunteered her services, and Walter considered it. His wife was a talented performer, but Woody was a male bird. So Walter hired a guy named Ben Hardaway.

Then a few years later, Danny Webb. Then Kent Rogers. After that, Walter Babbit. in spite of his ever-changing voice, Woody became a household name. But things didn't really explode until 1948. When Walter released the Woody Woodpecker's song, a catchy little earworm that featured Woody's obnoxious laugh throughout. The hit tune went on to be nominated for an Academy Award

and became Woody's official theme song. Soon, there were fan clubs, popping up all over the country. And Woody's popularity, thanks to that crazy laugh, went through the roof, which brings us back to America's favorite rabbit and that $500,000 lawsuit, which threatened to clip Woody's wings once and for all. You see, even though Melvin had abandoned Woody just weeks after giving him his original voice, his signature laugh was provided as stock footage. That meant Walter had the right to keep using Melvin's laugh in all future episodes. For the song, though, Walter did not have that right.

So, Walter hired someone else to imitate Melvin's laugh for the song. And when Melvin heard the results, Bugs Bunny said, Yeah, what's up, Doc? To which Sylvester the cat replied, Suffering suck attacks. Somebody owes us some money. Long story short, the judge was not persuaded by the man of a thousand voices.

Mel Blank had protected his voice from being used, but not from being copied. In other words, the judge gave Mel Blank the bird, and Porky Pig said, That's all, folks! After the trial, Walter breathed a massive sigh of relief and resumed his endless search for Woody's permanent voice. Once again, thousands of audition tapes crossed his. desk, but only one sounded right to Walter's ear. The voice was high and reedy, but bursting with attitude and personality. It was perfect. Incredibly, though, the audition tape had no name attached, no agent, no phone number. There's nothing. But once again, Walter got lucky.

After letting him twist for a while, Walter eventually heard from the performer who had submitted the anonymous audition tape, a very talented performer who would go on to provide Woody's voice for the next 35 years. The same performer, in fact, who talked Walter into picking up his sketchpad eight years earlier at a remote cabin on Lake June somewhere in the high sierras, a performer named Gracie Stafford, otherwise known as Mrs. Walter Lance, the Savior, and the voice of their most unlikely love child, the one and only Woody Woodpecker. Anyway, that's the way I heard it.

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