I guess like most fans of Rocky and Bullwinkle, these days, I saw the majority of these shows in re-runs......Though I think that I did catch some of the latter shows, when they aired for the very first time, at the very tail end of the series (I was nearly 5 years old, when the series was canceled in 1964).
Probably my favorite part of this vintage cartoon series was the episodes of Rock & Bullwinkle.......and also the Fractured Fairytales. Sometimes I think that I liked the Fractured Fairytales even better than the episodes of R & B.
Jay Ward was very clever, however, to have so many different "side shows", if you will, on the program. I pretty much liked all of them (Peabody, Dudley Do-Right too). My least favorite of "Rocky's friends" was Aesop's Fables---but even that had some redeeming qualities.
Though I always loved the show, I think that I first REALLY became interested in it when my Great-Aunt Esther admitted to having met and known Edward Everett Horton, who used to narrate the Fractured Fairytales on the series. She met him when the two of them lived in the New York City area, when he was doing "winter stock". Supposedly Mr. Horton was born around 1886 and my great-aunt was born in 1895.
I had always loved his wonderful, grandfatherly voice, which was just so perfect for conjuring up the images of those priceless and precious fairytales (albeit "fractured" fairytales). I think that Edward Everett Horton truly lent a genuine modicum of CLASS and DELIGHT to those cartoons, by being the one to tell the story.
I started trying to tape all of the fractured fairytales, since my great-aunt and he had been acquaintances and since I liked him very much. I was not successful in getting too many of them on tape.
In the process of taping these tales I gained an even keener appreciation for the other voice-over actors, that Jay Ward used. Jay Ward was really quite loyal to these people----He generally only used four people, on all of his cartoons, over and over again-----but these folks were really all that he needed because they were truly THE BEST!!
I came to love the characterizations of June Foray (who did almost all of the female voices on all of Ward's cartoons---and some of the male ones---like Rocky and young boys), Daws Butler (in Rocky and Bullwinkle he was mostly used for the Fractured Fairytales, but he was a lot more active in the George of the Jungle series----including the Tom Slick and Super Chicken episodes), Paul Frees (Boris Badenov, Captain Peachfuzz, Fred the Lion in Super Chicken and the Narrator in many of Ward's cartoons)and Bill Scott (Bill usually did the starring roles in all of Ward's cartoons-----perhaps the fact that he was a co-producer, with Jay Ward, had something to do with that----he was Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, Super Chicken, etc., etc.).
As much as I loved listening to Edward Everett Horton's voice, I think that the rich talent, of all of these other voice-over artists, far outshined Mr. Horton (who was just a narrator).
Since my great-aunt had known him, I had hoped to write to him, but I was too late. He died in the Fall of 1970 and I began trying to write to him in 1971 or 1972. It was a rude awakening when I learned that he was already dead for some time.
I did, however, manage to find, write to and exchange letters with all four of my above "heros": June Foray, Daws Butler, Paul Frees and Bill Scott. June and Daws were the most fascinating of these people.
Sadly, except for Ms. Foray, they are all dead. On September 18th, June Foray will be 83, 81 or 75, depending on which year of birth is correct for her......I have seen dates of 1917, 1919 and 1925, given for her, and I have no way of knowing which is correct (she understandably declined to tell me how old she was, back in December, 1973, when she wrote to me).
