Perhaps the role of Touche Turtle was a consolation prize.
As far as I can tell, Bill Thompson never publicly spoke about it, but fellow voice actor Hal Smith related how, in 1960, Thompson had been cast as Fred Flintstone, but his voice couldn’t handle the role, so some soundtracks were scrapped, and the part was recast.
Around the time The Flintstones debuted, Hanna-Barbera was developing other cartoons, one of which included a turtle with a bent sword and a plumed hat. It’s safe to say the character developed into Touché Turtle. That proved to be Thompson’s only starring role at Hanna-Barbera.
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera drew a lot from their 20 years at MGM for their early work at their own studio. Thompson was part of that. He was the voice of Droopy from when Tex Avery created him until the studio closed in 1957 (with time out for the war).
Like Daws Butler, Alan Reed and many cartoon actors, Thompson came from network radio. If you want to know about his pre-cartoon voice work, here’s a story from the Indianapolis Star of March 7, 1937.
HOOSIERS ON THE AIR
BY JOHN C. SPEARS.
TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Bill Thompson is best known to dialers as the dialect comedian of the Fibber McGee and Molly program heard each Monday evening at 7 o'clock over NBC. How he twists and stumbles through the English language, using over ten different dialects, is quite a story.
Thompson says this business of being a comedian, and especially one of many dialects, is a very serious profession. He says that in order to become adept in so many characterizations, he has studied the rudiments of each language he later butchers and bungles when combining it with English.
Thus, if he wants to get laughs using Assyrian and Egyptian dialects he first does a little research with these languages in order to better tear them to pieces. He says those are two tongues he's studying now, since they haven't been used on radio for comedy purposes to any extent as yet.
Although young in years, Bill Thompson has been in the amusement profession practically since birth. His parents, both on the stage in musical comedy and vaudeville, located in Terre Haute around 1913, and it was there Bill was born.
It wasn't long until the parents returned to the theater circuits, taking infant Thompson along. In Grand Rapids, at 2, Hill first appeared on the stage, doing a little tap dance. He received $2.50 for the dance.
At 5, Thompson was doing what is known as a “single” in vaudeville, and was press-agented as "Jackie Coogan's double." While working in theaters, Bill often came in contact with another vaudeville actor, an old-timer named Arthur Donaldson. This gentleman became very much interested in Thompson, and it was through his efforts Bill tried dialect on the stage.
Donaldson was also a make-up expert for character parts, and he was impressed with Thompson's ideal face for this type of portrayal. Bill also had a Scotch grandfather, and liked to imitate him. He's never used Scotch dialect on the radio, he says, but hopes to before long.
SO THAT'S HOW Thompson chose dialect comedy as his specialty. His education, like many whose parents were on the stage, came from private tutors. When he was 12, his stage career stopped, during which period he went to school for the first time in his life. School work then occupied his time, and he went to high school in Chicago. While there, and in 1934, NBC held a contest for professional entertainers in connection with the Century of Progress exposition. Bill entered and did ten dialects in one sketch, called an "International Broadcast."
Besides winning the contest prize, NBC signed a contract with him to appear on programs from the Chicago studios of the network. He was first heard on the Saturday Jamboree and Breakfast Club programs. The characters he now does with Fibber McGee and Molly are Nick the Greek; Vodka, the mad Russian, and Horatio K. Boomer, windjammer extraordinary.
To the ladies we pass along the information he's unmarried. For the fact-finders, Bill is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has a dark complexion and brown hair and eyes.
Thompson’s first cartoon role, according to Keith Scott’s research, was for Walter Lantz in 1939 where he reused his old-timer voice in Arabs With Dirty Fezzes. Thompson’s first cartoon at MGM was Blitz Wolf (1942), where he played the title character.
Network radio died, though Fibber McGee and Molly carried on as long as it could, stripped down thanks to lower budgets. Thompson moved on. The Edmonton Journal of Feb. 3, 1964 explains.
Radio’s Old ‘Timer’ Takes New Attack
By BILL PAYNE
Of The Journal
What's in a voice?
If the voice is Bill Thompson's, the answer to that question is as complex as his colorful theatrical and business career.
And for further information ask Old Timer of Fibber McGee and Molly fame. Old Timer one of Mr. Thompson's characterizations.
William Thompson, Jr., manager of community services for an international oil company, is in Edmonton to address several professional and service organizations. His theme is serious—declining respect for law enforcement officers.
These speaking engagements are far removed from the vaudeville stage of the Roaring Twenties, when Indiana-born Billy Thompson and his parents did song and dance routines for American audiences.
As the family vaudeville act travelled through the United States, young Billy began his voice training — not in music — but in dialects and impersonations.
From Radio To Youth
The 1930s were the booming years of radio, rocketing to stardom such memorable characters as Fibber McGee and Molly, Charlie McCarthy and Fred Allen.
The Fibber McGee and Molly show, with its wide range of character roles, was a "natural" for Bill Thompson.
By 1940, the Old Timer with his "That ain't the way I heard it, Johnny” was a fixture in the American entertainment scene.
Even though Bill's radio career was time-consuming, he began to expand his talents and energies in the direction of community service — particularly in youth work.
His was the voice of the little white rabbit in "Alice In Wonderland," of Mr. Smee in "Peter Pan," and of no less than five characters in Disney's canine cartoon, “The Lady and the Tramp."
When NBC, in 1956, dropped the Fibber McGee show Mr Thompson retired from the entertainment world and devoted himself entirely to community service.
In his recent tours, he has become alarmed at what he terms the "rapid decline in respect for constituted authority."
"And I wanted to do something about it," he adds.
That "something" has brought Mr Thompson on his current speaking tour — pointing out to citizens, particularly parents, their personal responsibility in cultivating in children a respect for police and other law enforcement officers.
Meanwhile at Hanna-Barbera, it was taking some time to get Touché away. Joe Barbera didn’t mention Touche in a phone interview with The Oregonian published Sept. 26, 1960, but did mention a five-year order (from Screen Gems, we presume) for a new series featuring Hairbreadth Hare and Lippy the Lion with Hardy-Har-Har. Barbera told Harry Harris of the Philadelphia Inquirer, published Oct. 9, about another series starring Ribbons and Rosie, two female characters.
The first mention of the three Touché/Lippy/Wally Gator cartoons in the popular press seems to have been in Hank Grant’s column in The Hollywood Reporter of Aug. 17, 1961, saying production was about to start (and four acres had been purchased and blueprints made for a new, four-storey studio). Apparently, a press release was sent out because the Birmingham Post-Herald reported six days later on the cartoons, but also added “Snaglepuss”, said Fibber McGee was being considered for Lippy’s voice and “Dawes” Butler would take on the role of Wally. There must have been some confusion as the Minneapolis Star reported on Oct. 5 that “Old Timer” Bill Thompson would be “Tooshay Turtle” and Daws would be Lippy. On top of this, syndicated columnist Marie Torre wrote on Oct. 29 that Wally Gator planned “to lift characters and action from the popular comic strip, ‘Pogo.’”
The three, five-minute cartoon series were designated for syndication. Unlike the early syndicated shows (Huck, Quick Draw, Yogi), these would not be tied in with an agency or sponsor; Screen Gems would sell them directly to stations. Colour ads taking up several pages aimed at TV management began appearing in Broadcasting magazine in late January 1962. Variety of Jan. 31 pointed out there would 52 of each series made at a cost of almost $1,500,000, with stations getting the option of dropping them into daytime cartoon shows or stringing together half-hours twice a week.
A Variety update on March 7 revealed seven stations had bought the cartoons (WPIX New York, WTTG Washington, KPTV Portland, WTIC-TV Hartford, WGAL-TV Lancaster Pa., WOC-TV Davenport Ia. and KOVR Stockton). On June 21, the Reporter said the 156 episodes had been purchased by KCOP Los Angeles for a September start.
When Touché and the rest first appeared on television isn’t clear. We do know KCOP aired a half-hour preview on Monday, August 27, 1962 starting at 7:30 a.m. (before the station normally signed on), hosted by Beachcomber Bill Biery and introduced by programme director Bob Guy (Reporter, Aug. 24). The Beachcomber Bill show debuted (in colour) on Monday, Sept. 2. At 6:30. Up the I-5 at KPTV, the cartoons began airing the same evening at 6 p.m. as “Lippy Lion” (in black and white).
Arlene Garber, TV editor of the Hollywood Citizen-News, caught the KCOP preview and approved of the cartoons, saying “these creative efforts by Hanna-Barbera may very well be among those which satisfy cartoon lovers in the season coming up.” Her column of Aug. 28, 1962 also mentioned The Jetsons, but here’s what she said about Touché, et al., including the basic plots of each cartoon.
Cartoons Stir Young Minds
There may be more in cartoons for children than most of us think.
Because those animated antics are not performed by real people, but the creations of paper and ink, they could easily stir the young minds much more than a western adventure show or a "Dennis the Menace."
It seems that an animated figure running across the screen leaves a lot to the imagination, especially to the willing imagination of children.
Hanna-Barbera Studios' latest creations, "Touche' Turtle," "Wally Gator" and "Lippy the Lion" give credence to this idea. All three were previewed Monday morning on Channel 13, before they start their regular run next week at 6:30 p.m.
First thing that will tickle the young viewers' curiosity is probably the names of these new cartoon characters. Just saying Touche' Turtle and Lippy the Lion out loud must be fun for kids.
Lippy the Lion turned out to be just goofy enough to have a feline friend called Hardy Har Har. And the two of them seemed exactly the type of characters who would run from a loud pirate captain, without any thought of fighting back.
Because they came across the screen as believable personalities you might never meet in this world, I'm sure the youngsters will not think any of their escapades are impossible.
A TURTLE
Touche' Turtle had a rather throaty voice to go with his hard-shelled, soft-hearted personality. His pal Dum Dum was an over-grown puppy type who was agreeable to anything.
These two got involved with a rather tame gorilla in what appeared to be a loose spoof on the movie of "Mighty Joe Young." And they did it without filling the screen with terrifying violence.
I imagine that Touche' Turtle could become everyone's favorite, as he romps through his adventures as the unheroic underdog.
Wally Gator turned out to be an alligator with more size than sense or courage. His troubles began after an old English hunter mistook him for a dragon on his front lawn.
This segment had some of the best comedy lines of the three cartoons. Children must have enjoyed it when Wally Gator asked, "What are you, an alligator hater?" or "Don't you recognize a confirmed coward when you see one?"
All three series have successfully relied upon continuous action based on story lines with which the viewer can associate himself.
Hanna-Barbera will be giving youngsters lots of laughs, plus something for the imagination to feed upon with their Channel 13 schedule this fall. And adults won't be turning away from them either.
The three cartoon series were okay and likeable, but that was about it. There wasn’t a whole lot about them that was new. The plots seemed familiar, the character designs seemed familiar, the voice work seemed familiar, as if Hanna-Barbera had done the same things funnier before. Blanc’s Hardy voice was the same as the Happy Postman on the Burns and Allen radio show. And Thompson’s Touché pretty much sounded like the later Droopy, who was little more up-tempo than the slower voice of the 1940s. Regardless, they saw a lot of TV time.
It’s a shame Hanna-Barbera didn’t take advantage of Thompson’s talents more often. It could have been Thompson was too busy. It may be that the dialects he used in the 1930s and ‘40s were starting to go out of fashion in the 1960s. Or it may have been a case of health. Whatever it was, he provided a couple of voices for Disney post-Touché and was only 58 when he died on July 15, 1971.
