Sunday 28 January 2018

Farewell to Doggie Daddy

There are fewer and fewer people left who were associated with the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons before the Flintstones came along in 1960.

We’ve lost another one. Doug Young has passed away at the age of 98, according to cartoon producer Mark Evanier. You can click here to read his obituary in the Seattle Times.

Doug was a native of Helena, Arkansas. His mother re-married and he and his family were living in San Antonio in 1930. It’s unclear when he arrived in California, but he was a radio announcer/actor before and after getting out of the service (he enlisted two days before Pearl Harbor; his draft card says he was unemployed). During the war, he was stationed at Fort Knox, where he got married. Mr. Young was good at voice impersonations; he was fired from one station for doing an impression of the station manager. The 1950 census reveals he was the assistant manager of a laundry. As the 1950s rolled on, he found himself, like so many others, with less radio work because television was taking over. To pay the bills, he drove a truck while making the rounds looking for on-air employment. Another of the many people knocking on doors was Daws Butler. Doug explained to interviewer Stu Shostak that he ran into Daws in a book store one day.

He said “What are you doing?” I told him. He says “Forget it.” Come to my place. We’re going to make a tape, take you out to H-B and that’s it ... he went out and we did an audition and Joe Barbera liked it.
The studio was launching the Quick Draw McGraw Show in 1959 and Barbera told the press he was looking for new voices. He hired several. Hal Smith and Jean Vander Pyl were called in to do incidental characters. Elliot Field got the job voicing Blabber, but bowed out after only a handful of cartoons because he ended up in hospital. And someone was needed to do a Jimmy Durante voice for Doggie Daddy. Barbera wasn’t just borrowing from the Durante-Moore radio show, he was borrowing from himself, as he had Daws Butler pull off a Durante impression as Spike in the Spike and Tyke cartoons at MGM.

Young recalled that he and Peter Leeds were auditioned for Doggie Daddy. Leeds had worked with Daws on various projects for Stan Freberg. Daws had apparently recommended Mr. Young for the role because he didn’t want to take it on the role due to the strain it would put on his voice. Doug said he tried to get Durante’s warmth and openness into the Doggie Daddy character, and I think anyone who has seen the cartoons will believe he succeeded. It’s one thing to belt out a line like “Everybody wants ta get inta de act!” but it’s quite another to use the same voice over 6½ minutes and create a character like Young had to do.

I won’t go into a full list of series Doug Young worked on; you can find it on line. His work was always first-rate. Suffice it to say he ran into personal problems in the mid-‘60s and felt the solution was to leave Hollywood. He moved to Oregon and thence to Washington State where he remarried in 1969, and was involved with a group that re-created old radio shows and brought old radio stars up to meet with fans.

From what I understand, he was still living in his home (at least he was until recently).

It may not be much, but my condolences to his family on their loss. I’m sure others here agree.

20 comments:

  1. RIP..Condolences to his family, and of course to fellow fans,..hsi family's loss is ours..Umbriago!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sad that he's gone, but I'm happy he had such a long life. Too bad he couldn't be lured back to do Doggie Daddy on the various shows H-B did which revived the original cast while Daws was still around. John Stephenson was okay, but he wasn't as good as Young.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Incidental-lall-y, as Doggie Daddy/Jimmy Durante/Doug YHoung woulf say, the smash family drama movie "Wonder"'s troubled hero Augie's iphone username is AuggieDog, and there's a YouTube Golden Retriever video series named Augie Doggie...HMMM..I WONDER where they got that. Glad to see Augie's still remembered..

    ReplyDelete
  4. RIP Doug Young. Condolences to his family.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderfully, if you wish to hear both Doug Young AND Daws Butler’s impression of Jimmy Durante, in one place, you CAN experience that!

    Check out the Augie Doggie cartoon “Crow Cronies”, where Mr. Young is, of course, Doggie Daddy, and Mr. Butler voices a conniving crow – reminiscent of “Crawford Crow” of “The Fox and the Crow” fame! …“Dueling Durantes”, imagine that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daws actually voiced the character of Doggie Daddy on the record album "Doggie Daddy tells Augie Doggie the Story of Pinocchio." Contrast this with the album "The Treasure of Sarah's Mattress" in which Doug Young provided the voice. The differences are quite subtle, but one can definitely discern which voice actor is doing the voice.

      Doug Young was a great talent who will be missed.

      Delete
  6. How ironic; I was revisiting some AUGGIE DOGGIE cartoons, especially that first one in which Auggie decides to take a trip to Mars, which Doggie Daddy tries in every way to stop. I also like Doug's performance throughout the cartoon in which Auggie, because of Doggie Daddy's umpire call in a little league game against his son's play in the game, takes a vow of silence. These are among my favorites in the entire series, and I find I like the characters best of all those in the QUICK DRAW MCGRAW series.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Young's voice made the cartoons and the character work -- when they used Daddy in some of those regrettable 1970s mash-up efforts involving the original H-B characters without Young doing the voice, it took you out of the character (in the same way Hal Smith doing Elmer's voice in the early 60s Warner cartoons and TV ads was always off-putting).

    ReplyDelete
  8. My father believed it really was Jimmy Durante doing the voice of Doggie Daddy. I wonder how many others thought Doug Young's imitation was the real thing?

    ReplyDelete
  9. You're right, Yowp. Doug Young's passing practically rings down the curtain on everyone associated with the early days of H-B Enterprises. Glad he had a long life. R.I.P. Doug.

    ReplyDelete
  10. For many years I thought Mr. Young passed away after the 1966 production season, because that was the last he was heard in any H-B cartoons- or from any other studio (he 'moonlighted' in Format Films' ALVIN SHOW in 1961 and possibly on the same studio's LONE RANGER Saturday AM series in 1966). It seems fitting that his last FLINTSTONE role was "Chief Rockshnozzle", in which he reprised his Doggie Daddy voice- and the Chief was drawn to look like Durante. It was through this wonderful blog that I discovered he was alive well into the 21st Century.

    Young was actually a gifted impressionist, also voicing Bigelow Mouse in an Edward G. Robinson imitation in guest appearances in several series.

    It's unusual for a voice artist, or any actor, to go into such a long period of seclusion between his last known role and death. Obviously, Young had reasons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's unusual indeed. But by no means unheard of.

      Julie Bennett, the voice of Cindy Bear, is another such case. She is still alive, but she hasn't played any roles since about the year 2000. Obviously this isn't nearly as long a period of seclusion as Young's, but it's quite a long time all the same.

      In the music world, Linn Berggren of Ace of Base has been in seclusion since 2002. That year, she made her last public appearance. Moreover, she has not granted any interviews since 1998. This is in stark contrast to her sister Jenny Berggren, who remains an active pop singer to this day.

      As was the case with Young, Bennett and Berggren surely have their reasons, though the world may never know what they are.

      Delete
    2. In Doug Young's case, it was pretty straight-forward because he said what happened. He decided he needed to get out of Hollywood for his own well-being. So he did. He remarried and continued radio work and acting in the Pacific Northwest. He wasn't in seclusion; he was even listed in the phone book.
      People move on to other things in life. That's what Doug Young did.

      Delete
    3. I thought that Bigelow was an impression of James Cagney's voice. But maybe it's a combination of Edward G. Robinson and Cagney? I've always liked Bigelow, and of course, Doggy Daddy, the Hugh Beaumont of cartoon fathers. So long, Doug Young, thanks for the warm and funny voices.

      Delete
    4. Mark Kausler Yes, you are absolutely correct, Mr. Kausler. Doug Young was doing an imitation of James Cagney for Bigelow's voice.

      Delete
  11. Jimmy Weldon in the HB world and in the case of rare moments later but hugely elsewhere, good old Larry Storch are still alive.; Storch just turned 95 on January 8!
    SC

    ReplyDelete
  12. REST IN PEACE, PARADISE AND POWER, SIR.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mort Walker and Doug Young died on the same weekend. Not the best weekend for the entire form of cartooning whether animated or on newspaper comics. Beetle Bailey and Doggie Daddy are gone.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Augie must be missing his dear old Dad....

    ReplyDelete