Don Messick, Musical Comedy Star

He sings! He dances!

He’s Don Messick.

Don would have turned 100 today, and I can think of nothing better than to highlight a likely unknown aspect of his career.

An extremely long shopping list of his various roles at Hanna-Barbera (and elsewhere) would waste your time. And we’ve already written extensively about Messick’s radio and ventriloquism careers in Maryland before coming to the West Coast to work in radio, then attracting the attention of both Tex Avery at MGM and puppet show meister Bob Clampett.

But 60 years ago, Messick tried for something new. He was hired for an American Musical Theatre Workshop production of Guys and Dolls. The Santa Barbara News-Press of Sept. 2, 1966 reviewed the musical.

A real pair of pros, Les Magann and Don Messick, were the hustling gamblers, Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet. They accounts for some of the brightest moments in the evening. Magann was outstanding in the rolicking “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.” And the two con-men were great in the title song. In 1969, Messick was hired for what was hoped to be a network TV success. No, not that Great Dane show. Daily Variety of Feb. 28 that year reported: Western Video Productions and Marineland today begin production of new weekly half-hour tv puppet show, “Fish ‘n Chip,” planned for Saturday-morning net viewing.
Program will use a dozen Marineland puppet characters, with voices provided by Daws Butler, Don Messick, Joe Boyes and Chris Allen.

Don was sought after for commercials, with Variety stating in its June 14, 1963 issue that he, Daws, Paul Frees, June Foray and Mel Blanc were all pulling in $100,000 a year. No doubt continued cereal campaigns helped, but Don also was the voice of Lemon Pledge and Lincoln/Mercury dealers.

Let’s end with a little story told to the Hollywood Citizen-News in its Jan. 25, 1967 by none other than Space Ghost, Gary Owens.

Another friend, Don Messick, who does hundreds of voices for Hanna-Barbera’s many cartoons, told me his interest in dubbing for animation came from ventriloquism. Maybe that’s where the art has gone. While we were discussing nostalgia, I attempted to play one of my favorite jokes on Don. THE FAMED IMITATION INK BLOT TRICK (“Imagine the horror of a careful housewife,” the ads used to say, “When she suddenly discovers a huge blot of ink on a valued tablecloth or a costly book.”) Then you furtively lift up the giant blot of ink and put it in your pocket, making it disappear, because the blot was made of cardboard or tin. The joke didn’t impress Don too much, however, because I used it under my pencil.

Mark Evanier knew Don Messick and wrote this touching remembrance in 1997. Don M. had died on Oct. 24 at the age of 71.