The Turtle Mel Blanc

“I am known as the man with the thousand voices,” says Mel Blanc. Only it’s not really Mel Blanc. It’s Mel Blanc playing a turtle auditioning for Porky Pig in “Curtain Razor” (released in May 1949). Mel, of course, was known as the Man of a Thousand Voices, along with a thousand other people.



He’s Senator Claghorn (who doesn’t sound like Foghorn Leghorn)



He’s Bugs Bunny.



He’s Pedro the Handyman on the Judy Canova Show. Blanc played the role on radio.



He’s Jimmy Durante.



He’s Rochester. “Hold that phone, boss!”

There are a couple of Jack Benny references at the start of the cartoon when the grasshopper is auditioning. “I wowed them in Waukegan!” he says (Benny’s home town). “I killed ‘em in Cuc...(pause)...amonga!” (Blanc played Benny’s train announcer that called for passengers to “Anaheim, Asuza and Cuc...(pause)...amonga.”)

Manny Perez, Pete Burness, Ken Champin and Virgil Ross are the credited animators on this fun Freleng film. See the comments for the identity of the animator of this scene.