The Profundo-est of Basses
The following originally appeared in the GRAND JUNCTION FREE PRESS:
He was a ghost, a pirate and a talking tiger. He sang odes to God and Grinch. He performed for Nixon and Brezhnev, backed up Bing and Elvis and hawked for Gillette and Kellogg’s. He was Thurl Ravenscroft, and there never was another career like his.
Or a voice, for that matter. Ravenscroft, who died in May, 2005 at the age of 91, was the profundo-est of bassos, his low notes so low they could pop the rivets from a girder. Whether enthusing “They’re gr-r-e-a-a-a-t!” as Tony the Tiger, yo-ho-hoing as a Pirate of the Caribbean, bemoaning the state of “This Ole House” behind Rosemary Clooney or enumerating the three words that best described Mr. Grinch (”Stink! Stank! Stunk!”), Ravenscroft delighted listeners of all ages for almost 60 years with his rich, sonorous voice.
Ravenscroft was born in Nebraska in 1914, but he moved to Hollywood before his 20th birthday and was soon crooning (as part of the Paul Taylor Choristers) on popular radio variety shows like THE KRAFT MUSIC HALL, wherein he accompanied Bing Crosby. It was also during his time on THE KRAFT MUSIC HALL that Ravenscroft first met the man for whom he would do a lot of singing in later decades, satirist bandleader Spike Jones, then a lowly drummer for the NBC Studio Orchestra. Before the decade was out, two members of the Choristers — Bill Days and Max Smith — decided to form their own quartet and enlisted Ravenscroft to patrol the lower regions of their tessitura.
Soon the Sportsmen were in high demand. In addition to a regular spot on comedian Jack Benny’s radio program, the Sportsmen also found work in Hollywood… for instance, getting paid $11 a day to voice the old men who accompanied child star Shirley Temple in 1938’s LITTLE MISS BROADWAY. But in 1942, Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen for a spot in a somewhat larger “band” — the Air Transport Command, the official airline of the U.S. military during World War II. Ravenscroft spent the next five years criss-crossing the North Atlantic as a navigator, shuttling Army brass, world leaders and even celebrities like Bob Hope. (Nearly a decade later, Ravenscroft would accompany Hope and his old boss Bing Crosby on songs like “Hoot, Mon!” from ROAD TO BALI.)
Upon his return to civilian life, Ravenscroft was crestfallen to discover he couldn’t get his old job with the Sportsmen back. But disaster turned to opportunity when Max Smith approached him about forming a new vocal group along with Bill Lee and Bob Stevens. The Mellomen, as they were dubbed, proved even more successful than the Sportsmen, and were soon heard on radio, in film and on that newfangled contraption they called the television. At one point during the 1950s, the Mellomen were singing for literally dozens of different ad campaigns, including on commercials for Kellogg’s Sugar Corn Pops… which led to Ravenscroft’s most famous voice assignment. Starting in 1952, Ravenscroft became the only actor to voice advertising icon Tony the Tiger, until his death nearly 40 years later.