Speaking Out Loud

Mel Blanc is a hero, of sorts, to me. His broad abilities and vast talent contributed to my love of animation and voice acting. Mark Evanier recently posted on his website at News From ME a video clip his friend, Bob "Porky Pig" Bergen
had pointed out to him. This clip shows a side of Blanc few have ever seen:


his larynx, or more specifically, his vocal cords.

Bob Bergen has been kind enough to publicly share some personal audio of Mel Blanc and others here.


Mel Blanc in an American Express Commercial


Mel Blanc in G.I.Journal

Warning: The Private Snafu cartoons were written during a time of war and intended for military personnel and not for public distribution. They may be considered propaganda and racist. Please view them from an historical perspective.

Go here for a complete list of Private Snafu shorts. By the way, the more polite, less crass representaion of the acronym S.N.A.F.U. (i.e. politically correct) is Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. However, Fouled represents another word.

For downloads of Private Snafu go here.


Mel Blanc as Private Snafu - Spies


Mel Blanc as Private Snafu - The Home Front


Mel Blanc as Private Snafu - Booby Traps


Mel Blanc as Private Snafu - Snafuperman


Mel Blanc as Private Snafu - A Lecture on Camouflage


Mel Blanc as Savings Bond and Arthur Lake as Mr. Hook in "Tokyo Woes"

Serendipitous Tourist

The Internet is a serendipitous collage of information and diversions. In plain English, you get sucked in, you're down a rabbit hole, and hours later you wonder where your productivity went.

I've made Mark Evanier's web site, News From ME the start-up page on one of my browsers. Today, Mark has posted a link to a tour of Restaurant Relics in Los Angeles, hosted by writer, Marc Scott Zicree (The Twilight Zone Companion) and I found that short film at Turn Here interesting so I decided to see what they had available for Arizona

They had this for Papago Park,

this for Downtown Phoenix,

this for Mill avenue in Tempe,

and this one for Scottsdale.

Elements of these short films do come off as commercials (especially the Scottsdale film), but it's interesting to look at ourselves as others see us.
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