Fourth Grade
Worksheets
Mel Blanc - The Man of a Thousand Voices
Mel Blanc
Reading Comprehension for May 30
Mel Blanc is best known for this: "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!" It's even on his headstone! Who was he? No, he wasn't Porky Pig, but he created the cartoon pig's voice. Mel Blanc was the most famous of voice actors. He created voices for many classic cartoon characters and became known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices."
His full name was Melvin Jerome Blanc. He was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco on May 30, 1908. He began working for Warner Brothers in the 1940s. Look at this list of cartoon characters that were given their unique voices by Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, and Pepe Le Pew, a lovesick skunk. He even did the voices of Barney Rubble and Dino in The Flintstones.
Odd voices weren't Blanc's only talent. He was a musician first. He could play the violin and the sousaphone. He became the youngest orchestra conductor in the United States at the age of 19. He led the pit orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre in Portland, Oregon. He also played in the NBC Radio Orchestra.
