Today is the day to celebrate the birthday one of the most overlooked impressionist of both animation and live-action in this day and age, Kent Rogers. He is most known for being (possibly) one of THE youngest impressionist out there.
Before getting into voice acting, Rogers had minor roles in movies such as All American Co-ed and appeared in many radio shows of the time.
At Warner Bros. cartoon studio, Rogers voiced an array of cartoon characters for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, was noted for doing Beaky Buzzard, Henery Hawk and Junior Bear, among others throughout the early 1940s. He is even known for voicing 95% of the male Hollywood celebrity caricatures in Tex Avery’s Hollywood Steps Out (save for Jerry Colona, who Mel Blanc did), and also doing voices at Walter Lantz Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he voiced Woody Woodpecker for a short while, and some bits of Avery’s Wolf character, and many more for the respective animation studios.
Keep in mind he was late teens when doing all of these voices!!
He is close to the likes of Mel Blanc as being the “Man of a Thousand Voices”.
Sadly, Rogers was drafted with his life was cut short in a plane crash in July 4th, 1944. Sad how he will never get the same recognition that Mel Blanc and June Foray had.
Happy 75th anniversary, Bugs Bunny! (”A Wild Hare” directed by Tex Avery premiered in theaters nationwide on July 27, 1940.)
Tex Avery died August 26, 1980. This tribute by Chuck Jones was published in the Sunday, August 31, 1980 Los Angeles Tribune Calendar section. (Bottom: photographic negative of an original Tex Avery Bugs Bunny model sheet.)
“What Tex taught me was this:
“1. You must love what you caricature. You must not mock it–unless it is ridiculously self-important.
“2. You must learn to respect that golden atom, that single-frame of action, that 1/24th of a second, because the difference between lightning and the lightning bug may hinge on that single frame.
"3. You must respect the impulsive thought and try to implement it. You cannot perform as a director by what you already know, you must depend on the flash of inspiration that you do not expect and do not know.
"4. You must remember always that only man, of all creatures, can blush, or needs to; that only a man can laugh, or needs to, and that if you are in that trade of helping others to laugh and to survive by laughter, then you are privileged indeed.
"5. Remember always that character is all that matters in the making of great comedians in animation and in live-action.
"6. Keep always in your mind, your heart and your hand that timing is the essence, the spine, and the electrical magic of humor–and of animation.”
You can do something different. Whether they’re entertaining, whether they have longevity. When you for them 30 years later, like I have so much stuff that was done thirty years ago that’s running right now. And will continue to run, it’s never gonna go away, you know. So that’s the way to do this stuff. Don’t go for a flash-in-the-pan idea that’s not gonna last […] Be interested in it. Also look for different things, just look for different approaches and new ideas. Everybody talks about new ideas. Unfortunately, most ideas are always familiar, or are ripped off from something else. That’s the name of the entertainment business. Can’t get away from that.
where exaclty did you get those two reactionfaces of eddie? it looks like it's from one of the old cartoon network bumpers, but I don't remenber that one with the wrench and the hydrant. were's the video to it???
