Thurl Ravenscroft

Ravenscroft left his native Norfolk, Nebraska, in 1933 for California, where he studied at Otis Art Institute. In 1939, he joined a singing group formed by tenor Bill Days called The Sportsmen: Days, Johnny Rarig, Max Smith, and Ravenscroft. They served as backup singers to vocalist Marie Greene on the Okeh record label (credited as "Marie Greene and Her Merry Men"). The quartet also contributed to a Disney feature, Pinocchio (1940), singing "Honest John". This was deleted from the film, but can still be heard in the supplements on the 2009 DVD.

The group, billed as The Four Merry Men, appeared in three-minute musical films, produced in 1941 by the Featurettes company, for coin-operated jukeboxes. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda, The Soundies Book, iUniverse, 2007, p. 380. That same year the Four Merry Men left Featurettes for the more successful Soundies company, and made more jukebox musicals; they were now billing themselves as "The Four Sportsmen". MacGillivray and Okuda, p. 95. They were also very popular on radio and in live nightclub appearances.

In 1942, Thurl Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen quartet to serve in the armed forces. He served as a keeper navigator contracted to the U.S. Air Transport Command, spending five years flying courier missions across the north and south Atlantic. Among the notables carried on board his flights were Winston Churchill and Bob Hope. As he told an interviewer: "I flew Winston Churchill to a conference in Algiers and flew Bob Hope to the troops a couple of times. So it was fun."{{cite web |last1=Heintjes |first1=Tom |url=http://cartoonician.com/hes-grrrrreat-the-thurl-ravenscroft-interview/ |title=He's Grrrrreat! The Thurl Ravenscroft Interview |website=Hogan's Alley |access-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405052421/http://cartoonician.com/hes-grrrrreat-the-thurl-ravenscroft-interview/ |archive-date=April 5, 2013 |date=November 14, 2012}}

When he returned from the service, he found that his place in The Sportsmen had been taken by bass singer Gurney Bell, and Bell was unwilling to relinquish the job to Ravenscroft. Undaunted, Ravenscroft formed his own quartet, The Mellomen. Thurl Ravenscroft to Mark Voger, Asbury Park Press, Nov. 12, 2002, p. 153. The Mellomen contributed to other Disney films, such as Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp. The group appeared on camera in a few episodes of the Disney anthology television series; in one instance recording a canine chorus for Lady and the Tramp and in another as a barbershop quartet that reminds Walt Disney of the name of the young newspaper reporter Gallagher. Ravenscroft sang bass on Rosemary Clooney's "This Ole House", which went to No. 1 in both the United States and Britain in 1954, as well as Stuart Hamblen's original version of that same song. He sang on the soundtrack for Ken Clark as "Stewpot" in South Pacific, one of the top-selling albums of the 1950s. He also backed The DeCastro Sisters on their 1955 top 20 hit, "Boom Boom Boomerang."{{Cite web |title=1955 HITS ARCHIVE: Boom Boom Boomerang - De Castro Sisters |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERA1G8jlGiI |website=YouTube| date=June 16, 2019 }} He sang "King of the River," as the character Mike Fink, on a Golden Record released in 1956.{{cite web|url=https://disneylandrecords.com/davy-crockett/440568-p/|title=King Of The River / Yaller Yaller Gold|website=Disneyland Records}} Singing with the Johnny Mann Singers,{{Cite web |url=http://bayarearadio.org/audio/ksfo/ksfo_sound-of-the-city.shtml |title=560 KSFO Radio - the Sound of the City |access-date=December 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117220824/http://bayarearadio.org/audio/ksfo/ksfo_sound-of-the-city.shtml |archive-date=January 17, 2014 |url-status=dead }} his distinctive bass can also be heard as part of the chorus on 28 of their albums that were released during the 1960s and 1970s. He was also the bass singer on Bobby Vee's 1960 Liberty hit record "Devil or Angel". Andy Williams' recording of "The 12 Days of Christmas" features him as well. His work with Spike Jones included singing "(I Was a) Teenage Brain Surgeon" for the 1959 album Spike Jones in Stereo.

He sang the opening songs for the two Disney serials used on The Mickey Mouse Club, Boys of the Western Sea and The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure.

He sang the "Twitterpatter Song" and "Thumper's Song" on the Disneyland record Peter Cottontail and other Funny Bunnies.

On the Disneyland record All About Dragons, he both provided the narration and sang the songs "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Loch Ness Monster".Disneyland Record "All About Dragons", DQ-1301.

His voice was heard during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as well as The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland as Uncle Theodore, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the cemetery near the end of the ride.{{cite web |url=http://365daysofmagic.com/history/listen-to-the-unmistakable-voice-of-thurl-ravenscroft |title=Listen to the Unmistakable Voice of Thurl Ravenscroft |website=365 Days of Magic |access-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104122100/http://365daysofmagic.com/history/listen-to-the-unmistakable-voice-of-thurl-ravenscroft |archive-date=November 4, 2013 |date=June 6, 2013}} He also played the Narrator in The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion. Ravenscroft is also heard in the Enchanted Tiki Room as the voice of Fritz the Animatronics parrot, as well as the tree-like Tangaroa tiki god in the pre-show outside the attraction. He was also the voice of the Disneyland Railroad in the 1990s. Further roles include that of The First Mate on The Mark Twain Riverboat, a spokesalien for Tokyo Disneyland's Pan Galactic Pizza Port restaurant, and the American bison head named Buff at The Country Bear Jamboree.{{cite web|url=http://disney.go.com/disneyinsider/history/legends/thurl-ravenscroft|title=Insider - Oh My Disney|website=Oh My Disney}}

One of Ravenscroft's best-known works is as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". He was accidentally uncredited, leading the song to be misattributed to Boris Karloff and Tennessee Ernie Ford. The song, now credited to Ravenscroft, peaked on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 32 for the week ending January 2, 2021.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/2021-01-02|title=The Hot 100 Chart|magazine=Billboard}}

Ravenscroft sang "No Dogs Allowed" in the Peanuts animated motion picture Snoopy Come Home.

For more than 50 years, he was the uncredited voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. His booming bass gave the cereal's tiger mascot a voice with the catchphrase "They're g-r-r-r-eat!!!!".{{cite news|title= He's 'G-r-r-r-eat!!!' : Tony the Tiger Voices Pleasure |work= Los Angeles Times|date=May 3, 1987|url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-03-me-8443-story.html|access-date=March 23, 2012|first=Marcos|last=Breton}}

Various record companies, such as Abbott, Coral, Brunswick, and "X" (a division of RCA) also released singles by Ravenscroft, often in duets with little-known female vocalists, in an attempt to turn the bass-voiced veteran into a pop singer. These efforts were commercially unsuccessful, if often quite interesting. He was also teamed up with the Andrews Sisters (on the Dot Records album The Andrews Sisters Present) on the cover of Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man". The Mellomen released some doo-wop records under the name Big John & the Buzzards, a name apparently given to them by the rock-and-roll-hating Mitch Miller.

A devoted Christian, he appeared on many religious television shows such as The Hour of Power. In 1970, he recorded an album called Great Hymns in Story and Song, which featured him singing 10 hymns, each prefaced with the stories of how each hymn came to be, with the background vocals and instrumentals arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Ravenscroft was narrator for the annual Pageant of the Masters art show at the Laguna Beach, California, Festival of the Arts.

Ravenscroft married June Seamans in 1946 and they had two children. June died in 1999.

Ravenscroft died at his home on May 22, 2005, from prostate cancer, at the age of 91. He was buried at the Memorial Gardens at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.{{cite news |date=May 25, 2005 |title=Thurl Ravenscroft, Voice of Tony the Tiger, Dies at 91 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/arts/television/25ravenscroft.html |access-date=March 23, 2012 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press}}

In the June 6, 2005, issue of the advertising industry journal Advertising Age, Kellogg's ran an advertisement commemorating Ravenscroft, the headline reading: "Behind every great character is an even greater man."

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• Mad, Baby, Mad – 1955 (Fabor)
• I Ain't Afraid – 1956 (Bally)
• You Wanna Talk About Texas – 1956
• Wing Ding Ding – 1956
• Big Paul Bunyan – 1962 (Globe)
• Gold Dubloons and Pieces of Eight – 1962 (The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure)
• The Headless Horseman – 1965 (Disney)
• Great Hymns In Story And Song – 1970 (Light)
• Rubber Duckie and Other Songs From Sesame Street - 1970
• Nathaniel the Grublet (In Direwood) – 1979 (Birdwing)
• Psalms and Selahs – 2002

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{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Biography|Music}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090116052753/http://allthingsthurl.com/ All Things Thurl] (an authorized fan site, to which Ravenscroft contributed; includes discography)
• {{IMDb name|id=0712391|name=Thurl Ravenscroft}}
• {{TCMDb name|158334{{!}}146859}}
• {{Find a Grave|11015444}}
• [https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/hes-grrrrreat-the-thurl-ravenscroft-interview He’s GRRRRRRR-EAT! The Thurl Ravenscroft Interview]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGJRJmXiF4w All About Dragons - Part 1] (the first side of the LP)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZWmA9Vc5Ng All About Dragons - Part 2] (the second side of the LP)

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{{Disney Legends Awards 1990s}}

{{Winsor McCay Award 2000s}}

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Category:1914 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:American basses

Category:American male voice actors

Category:American performers of Christian music

Category:Animal impersonators

Category:Audiobook narrators

Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in California

Category:Disney Legends

Category:Kellogg's people

Category:Male actors from Nebraska

Category:People from Norfolk, Nebraska

Category:Singers from Nebraska

Category:United States Army Air Forces officers

Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II

Category:Warner Bros. people