Question about Woody's voice

[Der Captain]

I have heard differing accounts on who did Woody Woodpecker's voice throughout the forties in films like "Ski For Two" and "Bathing Buddies". Mel Blanc claims to have done the honors all the way up to "Drooler's Delight", but other sources claim that Ben Hardaway was the voice at some point. Can anyone help me out here?

[Matt Yorston]

Why, soitenly (Ok, that's enough Stooge impersonations for now).

Actually, Ben Hardaway did Woody's voice for practically ALL of the 1940's in addition to being the writer (or rather co-writer since he shares credit with Lowell Elliot, Milt Schaffer, Webb Smith, Jack Cosgriff, and Heck Allen on many films) of Woody's 1940's cartoons as well.

Mel Blanc did indeed do Woody's voice originally in "Knock, Knock" as well as "Woody Woodpecker" and "The Screwdriver" as well. But around the time "Pantry Panic" came out, that was the time when Mel Blanc's contract at WB was put into effect... meaning Blanc could ONLY do voices for Warner Bros. after that. So, as a result, Blanc left the series and from around 1941 to 1949 (including "Drooler's Delight"), Hardaway provided the woodpecker's voice.

Hope that helps!

[J Lee]

Just an addentium to the last post -- Blanc did do Woody's voice for the 1948 recording of "The Woody Woodpecker Song," which apparently since it was a record and not part of any Lantz cartoon, did not violate the terms of his deal with Warner Bros.

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by J Lee
Just an addentium to the last post -- Blanc did do Woody's voice for the 1948 recording of "The Woody Woodpecker Song," which apparently since it was a record and not part of any Lantz cartoon, did not violate the terms of his deal with Warner Bros.

John (and crew)~

Good point John... Annnnnnd in reality Mel went on doing Woody's voice for Capitol records quite a while, in point of fact from the latter Forties way clean into the middle FIFTIES (this was parallel with his Looney Tunes Capitol work). Even stranger is that the 1949 record-reader "Woody's Talent Show" was written by none other than Tedd Pierce (and curiously does NOT list the artist(s) who drew it...). Blanc's later Woody records for Capitol would include "Woody Woodpecker Meets Davy Crockett" (a realistically drawn Crockett no less). On the (now) nearly-forgotten Woody Woodpecker "Little Golden Records", Blanc was replaced by Grace Stafford :( Sooooooo with this in mind it means that Mel did Woody's voice just about as long as Ben Hardaway (though since Mel was on record then not near as many times).

[absolutpaul]

I remember reading in Mel Blanc's book that even though Ben Hardaway had taken over as Woody's voice, the "Laugh" used for those cartoons was still Blanc's recording. Apparently Walt Lantz's point of view was that he owned the recording (of the laugh) outright, so he could use it as he pleased, but Mel saw it as an unfair use of his voice. Blanc said that although he considered Lantz a good friend, as a matter of principle he took him to court, and I think they reached an out-of-court settlement of some kind.

[rodney]

I don't know if that's true or not, but you can't believe everything you read in Blanc's biography.