"Like millions of people, I've been listening to June Foray for most of my life. I remember when I first encountered Rocky and Bullwinkle in their first season on TV, and falling under the spell of Jay Ward's sharply-written, wonderfully performed cartoons. What I can't remember is when I learned that the same woman who provided the voice of Rocky also acted as Natasha, Nell, and a host of other characters on the series, including the gravely-voiced fairy godmother who was patterned after character actress Marjorie Main. But as a diehard cartoon fan, it didn't take me long to memorize the names of the actors in the show's credits (fleeting though they were). "Around the same time I became enamored of Stan Freberg's comedy records, including such hit singles as "St. George and the Dragonet" and classic albums like Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. The rich, colorful voices on those records became permanently ingrained in my consciousness, and in time I connected the dots and realized that June, Paul Frees, and Daws Butler were the same people I heard on so many cartoon soundtracks." - Leonard Maltin, from his Foreword
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, I grew up with you, too!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? - The Autobiography of June Foray (Paperback)
Yes, I grew up with June Foray. Long before I knew of her, I was hearing her voice like so many others who watched Saturday morning cartoons. I was born in 1976 and so I was raised pretty much on June's contributions in all forms of animated cartoons. There was once a time when older cartoons were still being shown with regularity on Saturday mornings...and not only could you hear June on those classic cartoons chances were you could hear her on modern-day cartoons, too. Being a child of the '80s, June's biggest impact among the cartoons in production at the time were as Mother Nature and Jokey Smurf on THE SMURFS and a series of characters for the Disney company. She was a regular on both Disney cartoons, THE GUMMI BEARS and DUCKTALES, two cartoons that aired throughout the mid '80s and into the early '90s in reruns. Her vocals in classic Warner Brothers cartoons were airing on Saturday morning's and everyday in some markets who programmed Looney Tunes program blocks.
It was then, in the early '90s, that I saw what June Foray looked like...I had seen her name in the closing credits of several cartoons...she appeared on-camera for a commercial on Nick-at-Nite back when ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE were being added to the line-up. As a kid you don't really pay attention to the people behind the scenes...but under her name it said "voice of Rocky and Natasha", two characters I knew nothing of at the time because I had never seen BULLWINKLE until Nickelodeon began rerunning it. I found out that June was a voice artist who by that time had been in her profession for over 30 years!! This book about the first lady of voice acting chronicles the life and times both on and off the air of June Foray. There are quite a collection of pictures of June and her voice acting co-stars...one that caught my eye right away, given that it was the first picture in the book, is a glorious picture of June, William Hanna, Joe Barbera, Walter Lantz, Daws Butler, AND Don Messick. They're all standing side by side. There are also pictures of June during the 1940's and 1950's...pictures of her, Stan Freberg, and Daws Butler and pictures of character's she gave voice to. It's a nice balance between her career and personal life, which of course is what an autobiography is. The epilogue section was written by June and it's dated July, 2009. Leonard Maltin wrote the forward...and do you know the story behind June Foray having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? You'll find out within the pages of this book. A lot of the book is broken up into chapters that follow a theme. Near the end of the book there's a chapter dedicated to a few people June knew that are no longer living. Bill Scott, Jay Ward, Paul Frees, and a few others. She tells the intricate details of what "looping" means and she explains that it's wise to be punctual because it pays by the hour. Chapter Eight, called "My Rocky Life" is dedicated to her being cast in the BULLWINKLE series, once known as ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS. This is where she remembers much of the Jay Ward era and offers pictures that were taken in the studio with her and Bill Scott and there's a picture of her, Bill, and Jay Ward; and a picture of her and Paul Frees. There are also cartoon stills of the characters. In Chapter seven, called "Chuck Who?" for comical purposes, is about her association with Warner Brothers director, Chuck Jones. The chapter was called that because June didn't know who Chuck Jones was. In a lot of her interviews she admits to not being much of a cartoon watcher so she didn't really know who made the cartoons. In this section she talks about how she was called on to do the voice of an Irish lady from the waist down on Chuck's version of TOM AND JERRY plus she talks about the various witch characters she has performed. It is also in this chapter where she relates a story about cigarette smoking and how it was a big advertising sponsor at one time. There's a priceless story about how she gave up smoking but a lot of others didn't and she tells about a recording session in the mid 1980's during the revival of THE JETSONS and it involves Mel Blanc. It's a cute little story about Mel's smoking in the studio. There's a picture of June and Mel in the studio, too. As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few pictures...and there's one on page 129 of June, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Art Babbitt at the 1974 Annie Awards. Before any can ask, the Annie Awards is short for the Animation Awards...a gala where animation big-wigs and voice actors and actresses gather. It's much like the typical awards programs you see but cartoons are being honored and celebrated instead of live-action. One of the things you may or may not notice is that the chapter's are short...well, a lot of them are. "Chuck Who?" is a rather lengthy chapter as is "My Rocky Life". There's a section called "The War Years" where she talks about her career doing radio shows and offers a picture of her as part of a dance group. She makes a lot of jokes about her short stature and reflects that her short stature must have been a good reason she clicked so well with Daws Butler in the recording studio. It's a fascinating read...I really wasn't expecting to read much about her animation career given that in other reviews at other web-sites it doesn't pin-point much about it and so I was going into it thinking that there wouldn't be much "cartoon talk" but there is plenty!! YES!! There is just one slightly bizarre piece in the book that will stick-out but it doesn't really bring down the book in any way. Once you are near the end of Chapter five, June begins to talk about Chuck Jones and it's him who she credits with bringing her to Warner Brothers cartoons. She ends chapter five with a lead-in line to Chuck Jones, as if the next chapter will be about him, but then Chapter six is about her career with Capitol Records. It isn't until Chapter seven and "Chuck Who?" that she discusses him at great length. So, I think those chapter's were accidentally reversed...so, when you get the book, after chapter five you should jump to chapter seven and then go back to chapter six. Here are the notable characters she gave voice to: 1. Rocky the Flying Squirrel 2. Natasha Fatale 3. Nell Fenwick {of DUDLEY DORITE fame} 4. Marigold {of TOM SLICK fame} 5. Ursula {of GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE fame} 6. Granny {from the TWEETY cartoons, taking over from Bea Benaderet; she returned to this role in the popular SYLVESTER AND TWEETY MYSTERIES series} 7. Witch Hazel {for Disney, first, but more famously in a series of Warner Brothers cartoons, taking over from Bea Benaderet} 8. Jokey Smurf 9. Mother Nature {on THE SMURFS} 10. Grammi Gummi 11. Magica DaSpell {from DUCKTALES} 12. Ma Beagle {from DUCKTALES} Those are just the characters that spring to my mind...she's voiced more. A lot of her witch characters often had a vocal delivery lifted from Marjorie Maine of the MA AND PA KETTLE series. A lot of her characterizations were abundant at the Jay Ward studio where she voiced quite a lot of the lead characters but was also cast as witches or princess roles in the famous 'Fractured Fairy Tales' segment of the BULLWINKLE shows.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
great fun; wish it were longer!!,
By
This review is from: Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? - The Autobiography of June Foray (Paperback)
I got my copy of "Did You Grow Up With Me Too?" last night and I finished it in just two nights!! Oh, how long I have waited for June's autobiography; I am glad it is just that----an autobiography-----and not a biography. I am also glad she finished it.....what a great thing to finish much later in life.....just like she FINALLY got her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in her early 80s! I am so happy for June that life continues to send great things her way!
For the price, I felt her book was a very good deal. I do wish that it had been longer, however, for all the years that I have waited to read her story. I would have paid as much as three times what I paid to see a more exhaustive autobiography. I cannot agree with the one reviewer on this site who claimed that June spent too much time talking about her formative years. I would have liked to read a lot more about her life outside of the recording studio. I would have enjoyed hearing more about the love of her life, her husband who died 33 years ago. I would have liked to hear more about her parents. I would have enjoyed hearing more about her hobbies and relationships with people in general---not just the people she worked with. I would have enjoyed hearing even more about her coveted spot in animation history at Warners Bros., since so few women did voices for cartoons there. And the Fractured Fairy Tales from Rocky and Bullwinkle were near the top of my all time favorite cartoons; I would have enjoyed hearing more about them. Still, a great read however, and at least I know a few more things about June's childhood, why she and Hobart married relatively later in life and how she felt about never having children. So many of the photographs are very, very enjoyable as well. I will take a shorter autobiography, any day, over a longer story written by someone else!
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining Memoir from One of the Last Classic Cartoon Voices,
By Mark Arnold "movie/tv, comic book and animati... (Saratoga, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? - The Autobiography of June Foray (Paperback)
I just met June Foray and Stan Freberg at the recent Comic Con International in San Diego. I was in cartoon voice bliss. Two greats in one day in one setting!! It would have only been surpassed if Mel Blanc, Daws Butler and Paul Frees were also there, but they have long ago left this mortal coil.
Anyway, June is one of those people that may not be a household name, but you HAVE heard her voice, be it as Rocky, the Flying Squirrel (pictured on cover) or Granny in the Warner Bros. cartoons or two different Witch Hazels, one for Disney and another for Warner Bros. Or, you may have seen her in various live-action roles in such places as "Green Acres", or as the voice of "Talky Tina" in a classic "Twilight Zone" episode where she creepily states, "I'm Talky Tina, and I'm gonna kill you!!" This book is well-written and covers her entire life and career. It's a little rushed on discussing some of her voicework and I think she spends a little too much time on her formative years, but that's minor quibbling as I really knew nothing about her childhood. Read about the life and career of one animation's greatest LIVING legends!! Also (plug plug) if you get a chance and like animated cartoons, pick up my book Created and Produced by Total TeleVision Productions. Unfortunately, June never voiced anything for them.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
