Pinto Colvig

Colvig was born Vance DeBar Colvig in Jacksonville, Oregon, the youngest of seven children of William Mason "Judge" Colvig (1845–1936){{cite web |title=William M. Colvig |url=https://www.truwe.sohs.org/files/colvig.html |website=Medford Pioneers |publisher=truwe.sohs.org |access-date=August 31, 2021}} and his wife, Adelaide ({{nee}} Birdseye) Colvig (1856–1912).{{cite web |last1=Truwe |first1=Ben |title=Medford Pioneers: William M. Colvig |url=http://id.mind.net/~truwe/tina/colvig.html |website=Southern Oregon History, Revised |access-date=September 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907174604/http://id.mind.net/~truwe/tina/colvig.html

|archive-date=September 7, 2015}}

William Colvig was a pioneer, an attorney and a distinguished Oregonian; he was never actually a judge. Pinto attended but did not graduate from Medford High School. Pinto was accepted and attended, sporadically from 1910 to 1913,{{cite web |url=http://truwe.sohs.org/files/pinto%20notes.html|title=Pinto Notes}} Oregon State University, in Corvallis,{{Cite web|url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/colvig_vance_debar_pinto_1892_1967_/|title = Vance DeBar (Pinto) Colvig (1892-1967)}} where he took art classes and played clarinet in the band.{{cite web |title=Colvig, Pinto |url=https://www.sohs.org/content/colvig-pinto |website=Southern Oregon Historical Society Library |access-date=August 31, 2021 |archive-date=August 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831230657/https://www.sohs.org/content/colvig-pinto |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |author1=Southern Oregon Historical Society|title=William Colvig home interior |url=https://digital.sou.edu/digital/collection/p15013coll2/id/544/rec/1 |website=Southern Oregon Digital Archives |access-date=August 31, 2021 |language=en}} He drew cartoons for the Oregon Agricultural College Barometer newspaper, and the yearbook.{{Cite web|url=https://offbeatoregon.com/1310b-pinto-colvig-pioneer-animator-showbiz-legend.html|title=Goofy, Bluto, Bozo were all Oregon's "Pinto" Colvig | Offbeat Oregon History | #ORhistory}}

I was born in Jacksonville and named Vance DeBar Colvig. At age 7 (because of too many freckles, and goony antics) I was nicknamed 'Pinto the Village Clown' (which I have used professionally during my circus and other show business activities, besides occasional jobs as a newspaper cartoonist.
— "'Pinto' Colvig Writes About Names, History of Clowning", Medford Mail Tribune, July 12, 1961.{{cite web |title=Notes on Pinto Colvig |url=https://www.truwe.sohs.org/files/pinto%20notes.html |website=sohs |access-date=1 September 2021}}

In 1913, Colvig worked the Pantages Theatre Circuit, briefly, before leaving for clarinetist in the Al G. Barnes Circus band for part of a season. In 1914 he was a newspaper cartoonist in Reno, Nevada and then in Carson City, then again clarinetist in the Al G. Barnes Circus band for part of the 1915 season.

I didn't know when I was going to school whether I wanted to be a clown, draw cartoons, write, hobo, or be a musician. So I wrapped it all up and made stew out of it.
— Pinto Colvig{{cite web |url=http://www.asifaportland.org/uncategorized/more-about-goofy-pinto-colvig-oregon-animation-pioneer/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140831142634/http://www.asifaportland.org/uncategorized/more-about-goofy-pinto-colvig-oregon-animation-pioneer/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-08-31 |title=More About Goofy: Pinto Colvig, Oregon Animation Pioneer |publisher=ASIFA Portland |date=2013-10-12 |access-date=2016-07-17 }}

Colvig performed chalk talks in vaudeville.

In 1916, Colvig worked at the Animated Film Corporation in San Francisco where he made Creation, reported to be the world's first feature-length cartoon. Only five 35 mm frames survive, housed at the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Animated Film Corporation in San Francisco, ended with the entry of the U.S. into World War I (April 1917).{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/ccarm_003910/page/n9/mode/2up/search/Byington+Ford?q=The+fabulous+career+Byington+Ford |title=The fabulous career Byington Ford |last=Eisner |first=Judith A. |date=September 24, 1970 |website=archive.org |publisher=Carmel Pine Cone |access-date=2020-04-11 }}

In 1919, Pinto produced "Pinto's Prizma Comedy Review" the first color cartoon, it is now considered a lost film, and published in the San Francisco Bulletin (May 1919—February 1920), the "Bulletin Boob" column, and photographs.{{cite web |title=Pinto Colvig--the "Bulletin Boob" |url=https://www.truwe.sohs.org/files/pinto%20bull.html |website=Southern Oregon Historical Society |access-date=August 31, 2021}}

In 1922, Colvig created a newspaper cartoon panel titled "Life on the Radio Wave" for the San Francisco Chronicle. The feature ran three or four times per week on the newspaper's radio page, was syndicated nationally,{{cite web |url=https://truwe.sohs.org/files/radiowave.html|title=Life on the Radio Wave by Pinto Colvig}} and lasted six months.{{cite web |url=http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2011/05/obscurity-of-day-life-on-radio-wave.html |title=Stripper's Guide Obscurity of the Day, May 4, 2011 |access-date=May 4, 2011}} In 1922, Colvig and his family moved to Hollywood, working as an animator, title writer and comedian in silent comedies and on sound cartoons, working first for Mack Sennett.

By the late 1920s, Colvig became associated with Walter Lantz, with whom he attempted to establish a cartoon studio, creating a character called "Bolivar, the Talking Ostrich", which would have appeared in sound shorts{{cn|date=September 2021}}. When Lantz became producer of Universal's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons in 1929, Colvig was hired as an animator, also working as a storyman and voice artist, briefly voicing Oswald.{{cite web|url=http://www.intanibase.com/gac/lantz/1930.aspx|title=The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1930|access-date=April 24, 2011|publisher=The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia}}

In 1930, Colvig signed an eight-year contract with Walt Disney Productions as a writer, also providing sound effects, including the barks for Pluto the Pup. The following year he began voicing Goofy, originally known as Dippy Dawg.{{cite news|title=Northwest Noir: An Art of the Serious Goofy|first=Timothy|last=Egan|date=July 14, 1991|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/14/movies/northwest-noir-an-art-of-the-serious-goofy.html}} Other notable characters he voiced include Practical Pig, the pig that built the "house of bricks" in the Disney short "Three Little Pigs", and both Grumpy and Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He directed (along with Erdman Penner and Walt Pfeiffer) the 1937 Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Amateurs. Colvig was associated with Disney for most of his career.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

Between 1937 and 1940, Colvig did not work for the Disney studio, after falling out with Walt Disney. He was offered a job with Fleischer Studios, then planning to produce a competing feature-length animated film in the wake of Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, moving to Miami in early 1938. For Fleischer, he worked on 1939's Gulliver's Travels, for which he voiced town crier Gabby, who was spun off into his own short-lived series. He also voiced Bluto for the studio's Popeye the Sailor cartoons, replacing Gus Wickie, who elected to remain in New York rather than move to Miami. Colvig's departure from Disney meant that the increasingly popular Goofy went voiceless for several years. A select few shorts during the interim period of leave featured a soundalike voice for Goofy provided by Jack Bailey.{{cite book|first=John|last=Canemaker|author-link=John Canemaker|date=October 21, 1999|chapter=Four: Ted and the Boys: Animation's First Story Department|title=Paper Dreams: The Art & Artists of Disney Storyboards|edition=1st|publisher=Disney Press|publication-date=October 21, 1999|page=86|isbn=978-0-7868-6307-5}}{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 |date=3 October 2022 |publisher=BearManor Media |language=en}} He began working on radio, providing voices and sound effects, including the sounds of Jack Benny's Maxwell on The Jack Benny Program, later performed by Mel Blanc.{{cite news |last1=John |first1=Finn J.D. |title=Voice of Goofy was Oregon's "Pinto" Colvig |url=https://www.mckenzieriverreflectionsnewspaper.com/story/2013/19/10/history/voice-goofy-was-oregon-s-pinto-colvig/1482.html |access-date=September 1, 2021 |work=McKenzie River Reflections |date=October 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901043431/https://www.mckenzieriverreflectionsnewspaper.com/story/2013/19/10/history/voice-goofy-was-oregon-s-pinto-colvig/1482.html |archive-date=September 1, 2021 |quote= Historian Ben Truwe's Southern Oregon history page }}

In 1939, Colvig returned to California, and began to devote himself to acting and doing voices in several cartoons for the Warner Bros. animation studio and for MGM, where he voiced a Munchkin in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.{{cite web|url=http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Funnyworld/Bletcher/Bletcher.htm|title=Interview with Billy Bletcher, by Michael Barrier and Milton Gray|publisher=Funnyworld|year=1978|access-date=March 20, 2018}}

In 1946, Colvig was cast as Bozo the Clown for Capitol Records. He played the role for a decade, which also included portraying the character on television.{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93063&page=1|title=Battling Bozos|website=ABC News |access-date=February 18, 2008}}[https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=116511&page=1 ABC News: Bozo Finally Unmasked (2004)][http://famousclowns.org/bozo-the-clown/pinto-colvig-%e2%80%94-the-original-bozo-the-clown/ Pinto Colvig – the original Bozo the Clown] During this period, Colvig also recorded the "Filbert the Frog" song, which featured Colvig's virtuoso use of the glottal stop as a musical instrument in itself.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

In 1967, Colvig's last known performance, as Goofy, was for the Telephone Pavilion at Expo 67. Colvig's dialogue for this exhibit was recorded six months before his death.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5484336/the_akron_beacon_journal/ "The Akron Beacon Journal, October 21, 1967"]. Retrieved November 10, 2018.

Colvig married Margaret Bourke Slavin (1892–1950) in 1916, and settled with her in San Francisco, where four of their five boys were born. Later, their last son was born in Los Angeles.[http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/colvig_vance_debar_pinto_1892_1967_/ Oregon Encyclopedia]

Colvig was the father of the character and voice actor Vance Colvig, who also later portrayed Bozo the Clown on a live TV program.{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=1991-03-11 |title=Vance Colvig; Roles Included 'Bozo the Clown' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-11-mn-22-story.html |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}

A lifelong smoker, Colvig was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages in the United States.{{cite web | url = https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/colvig_vance_debar_pinto_1892_1967_/ | title = Vance DeBar (Pinto) Colvig (1892-1967) | last = Curler| first =Dawna | date =September 19, 2022 | website = Oregon Encyclopedia| publisher =Oregon Historical Society | access-date =September 3, 2023 | quote = A lifelong smoker, Colvig died of lung cancer in 1967, but not before helping promote awareness of smoking health hazards and supporting Oregon Senator Maurine Neuberger’s bill requiring cigarette package warning labels. }}

Colvig died of lung cancer on October 3, 1967, at Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, at age 75.{{cite news

|title=Pinto Colvig, 75, Voice Of Cartoon Characters

|date=October 6, 1967

|work=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/10/06/archives/pinto-colvig-75-voice-of-cartoon-characters.html?sq=Pinto+Colvig&scp=1&st=p

}} He was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.{{Cite web |url=http://www.sohs.org/content/colvig-pinto |title=Southern Oregon Historical Society |access-date=October 15, 2018 |archive-date=October 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015052403/http://www.sohs.org/content/colvig-pinto |url-status=dead }} Their graves remained unmarked for years until Colvig's great-granddaughter designed his marker and Arthur Dark, his descendants placed this headstone in 2020.

• Bozo At The Circus (Capitol, 1946)[https://www.discogs.com/artist/310160-Pinto-Colvig"Pinto Colvig at Discogs"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Bozo the Clown
• Mickey and the Beanstalk (Capitol, 1947)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free-on-records-part-2/"Walt Disney's "Fun and Fancy Free" on Records, Part 2"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Goofy
• Here Comes...Colonna's Trolley (Capitol, 1947) as Voice Characterizations
• Bozo and his Rocket Ship (Capitol, 1948) as Bozo the Clown
• Bozo Under The Sea (Capitol, 1948) as Bozo the Clown
• Bozo and the Birds (Capitol, 1949)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ktA52w5wE Bozo and the Birds – A Capitol Record-Reader (1949), YouTube] as Bozo the Clown
• The Grasshopper And The Ants (Capitol, 1949)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/disneys-grasshopper-and-the-ants-on-records/"Disney's "Grasshopper and The Ants" on Records"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as The Grasshopper
• Bozo on The Farm (Capitol, 1950) as Bozo the Clown
• Bozo Has A Party (Capitol, 1952) as Bozo the Clown
• Mickey Mouse's Candy Mine (RCA Victor, 1952)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mickey-mouses-candy-mine-and-orphans-benefit/"Mickey Mouse's "Candy Mine" and "Orphan's Benefit"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Goofy
• Bozo At The Dog Show (Capitol, 1954) as Bozo the Clown
• Bozo's Merry-Go-Round Music (Capitol, 1954) as Bozo the ClownI
• Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party (Capitol, 1954)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/spin-special-stan-freberg-records/ "A Spin Special: Stan Freberg Records"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Goofy, Pluto, Grumpy, Practical Pig, Cleo
• Walt Disney's Song Parade from Disneyland (Golden, 1956)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/walt-disneys-song-parade-from-disneyland-on-golden-records/""Walt Disney's Song Parade from Disneyland" on Golden Records"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Goofy
• Mickey and the Beanstalk (Disneyland, 1963) as Goofy
• Goofy's TV Spectacular (Disneyland, 1964)[http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/walt-disneys-goofy-on-the-record/ "Walt Disney's Goofy – on the Record"]. Retrieved October 8, 2017. as Goofy
• Children's Riddles and Game Songs (Disneyland, 1964) as Goofy (speaking voice only)

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/colvig_pinto.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia biography.]
• {{IMDb name|id=0173418|name=Pinto Colvig}}

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{{s-bef|before=none}}

{{s-ttl|title=Voice of Goofy|years=1932–1967}}

{{s-aft|after=Hal Smith}}

{{s-bef|before=none}}

{{s-ttl|title=Voice of Pluto|years=1932–1937}}

{{s-aft|after=Jimmy MacDonald}}

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{{Commons category}}

{{Disney Legends Awards 1990s}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvig, Pinto}}

Category:1892 births

Category:1967 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American comic strip cartoonists

Category:American comics artists

Category:American circus performers

Category:American clowns

Category:American male radio actors

Category:American male voice actors

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:Animal impersonators

Category:20th-century American clarinetists

Category:Animators from Oregon

Category:Animators from California

Category:Bozo the Clown

Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City

Category:Deaths from lung cancer in California

Category:Disney Legends

Category:Fleischer Studios people

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people

Category:Oregon State University alumni

Category:People from Jacksonville, Oregon

Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people

Category:Walter Lantz Productions people