Stan Freberg was drafted in the US Army from 1945 to 1947 where he served in Special Services attached to the Medical Corps at McCornack General Hospital in Pasadena, California.
45 Facts About Stan Freberg
2.
Stan Freberg had two children from that marriage, Donna Jean and Donavan.
3.
Stan Freberg began his career doing impersonations on Cliffie Stone's radio show in 1943.
4.
Stan Freberg was employed as a voice actor in animation shortly after graduating from Alhambra High School.
5.
Stan Freberg began at Warner Brothers in 1944 by getting on a bus and asking the driver to let him off "in Hollywood".
6.
Stan Freberg walked in, and the agents there arranged for him to audition for Warner Brothers cartoons where he was promptly hired.
7.
Stan Freberg voiced the character of Junyer Bear, but the role was actually created by actor Kent Rogers in Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears.
8.
Stan Freberg often found himself paired with Mel Blanc while at Warner Bros.
9.
Stan Freberg was the voice of Pete Puma in the 1952 cartoon Rabbit's Kin, in which he did an impression of an early Frank Fontaine characterization.
10.
Stan Freberg received screen credit for his voice work on Three Little Bops, where he voiced all the characters and sang the titular song.
11.
Stan Freberg voiced Cage E Coyote, the father of Wile E Coyote, in the 2000 short Little Go Beep.
12.
Stan Freberg was cast to sing the part of the Jabberwock in the song "Beware the Jabberwock" for Disney's Alice in Wonderland, with the Rhythmaires and Daws Butler.
13.
Stan Freberg made his movie debut as an on-screen actor in the comedy Callaway Went Thataway, a satirical spoof on the marketing of Western stars.
14.
Stan Freberg costarred with Mala Powers in Geraldine as sobbing singer Billy Weber, enabling him to reprise his satire on vocalist Johnnie Ray.
15.
In 1963's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Stan Freberg appeared in a non-speaking role as the Deputy Sheriff and acted as the voice of a dispatcher.
16.
Stan Freberg was one of the talents recruited by Capitol Records when it launched its spoken-word division.
17.
Stan Freberg began on February 10,1951, and produced satirical recordings about popular culture.
18.
Stan Freberg reported getting more angry feedback for this than from any of his other parodies.
19.
Stan Freberg recorded a parody of Elvis Presley's first chart record, "Heartbreak Hotel".
20.
At that time, when it was still hoped that musical standards might be preserved, it was quite permissible to ridicule the ludicrous, as Freberg had obviously thought when he parodied Presley.
21.
Network pressure forced Stan Freberg to remove the reference to the hydrogen bomb and had the two cities being destroyed by an earthquake instead.
22.
Stan Freberg describes being called in for a chat with Robert Karp, the department head, and being asked whether he had ever belonged to any group that might get attention from McCarthy.
23.
Stan Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after the demise of his show, producing and recording "Green Chri$tma$" in 1958, a scathing indictment of the over-commercialization of the holiday, in which Butler soberly hoped instead that we'd remember "Whose birthday we're celebrating".
24.
In 1958, the Oregon Centennial Commission, under the sponsorship of Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, hired Stan Freberg to create a musical to celebrate Oregon's one-hundredth birthday.
25.
In 1960, in the light of the payola scandal, Stan Freberg made a two-sided single titled "The Old Payola Roll Blues", which tells the story of a corrupt recording studio promoter who finds "Clyde Ankle", a teenager who cannot sing.
26.
The popularity of Stan Freberg's recordings landed him his own radio program, the situation comedy That's Rich.
27.
Stan Freberg suggested the addition of dream sequences, which made it possible for him to perform his more popular Capitol Records satires before a live studio audience.
28.
The Stan Freberg Show was a 1957 replacement for Jack Benny on CBS radio.
29.
In lieu of actual commercials, Freberg mocked advertising by touting such products as "Puffed Grass", "Food", and himself, a parody of the well-known Ajax cleanser commercial.
30.
The lack of sponsorship was not the only problem, and Stan Freberg complained of radio network interference, factors which forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only 15 episodes.
31.
Stan Freberg made television guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV variety shows, usually with Orville the Moon Man, his puppet from outer space; he reached through the bottom of Orville's flying saucer to control the puppet's movements and turned away from the camera when he delivered Orville's lines.
32.
Freberg had his own ABC special, Stan Freberg Presents the Chun King Chow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year, but he garnered more laughs when he was a guest on late night talk shows.
33.
Stan Freberg founded the Los Angeles-based advertising agency called Stan Freberg Limited, which produced many memorable radio and television commercials.
34.
Stan Freberg is noted for introducing satire to the field of advertising and revolutionized the industry by influencing staid ad agencies to imitate his style into their previously dead-serious commercials.
35.
Stan Freberg is known for his affinity with the radio platform, stating that it is a special medium capable of stretching the imagination more than television.
36.
Stan Freberg was very popular in Australia, visiting there several times in the 1950s as a performer in a number of "Big Show" concerts.
37.
Stan Freberg felt a truly funny commercial would cause consumers to request a product, as was the case with his elaborate ad campaign that prompted stores to stock Salada tea.
38.
Stan Freberg guest starred multiple times on The Garfield Show where he provided the voice of Dr Whipple, and as the studio chairman on an episode of Taz-Mania.
39.
Stan Freberg was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
40.
From 1995 until October 6,2006, Stan Freberg hosted When Radio Was, a syndicated anthology of vintage radio shows.
41.
Stan Freberg is among the commentators in the special features on the multiple-volume DVD sets of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection and narrates the documentary "Irreverent Imagination" on Volume 1.
42.
Stan Freberg was the announcer for the boat race in the movie version of Stuart Little, and in 2008 he guest starred as Sherlock Holmes in two episodes of The Radio Adventures of Dr Floyd.
43.
From 2008 onwards, Stan Freberg voiced numerous characters, including Doctor Whipple and Fluffykins, on The Garfield Show.
44.
Stan Freberg recorded his last voice-over role as the Mole for the episode "Rodent Rebellion" in 2014.
45.
Stan Freberg died on April 7,2015, aged 88, at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica in Santa Monica, California from pneumonia.