The Original Beany & Cecil
On the left is the voice of Beany, Daws Butler…on the right is the voice of Cecil, Stan Freberg. This photo was taken April 4, 1950 on the set at KTLA. More on the next post.
The Original Beany & Cecil
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10 responses to “The Original Beany & Cecil”
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Stan Freeberg? Really? Wow, so hard to imagine that.
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The microphones are very interesting. I guess this was before the smaller portable hanging mics that hosts of quiz shows, etc. wore some years later.
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Dating myself, but I used to watch this show live when I was a kid. Notice Stan’s facial expression. Cecil whistled with all his “S” sounds. It looks like Stan is in the middle of a whistling “S”.
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Sheriff John Rovick, who was Bob Clampett’s neighbor, told me that before Beany aired the first time, Clampett wanted to do many rehearsals, but the studio space was limited and Clampett’s garage was full. John offered his empty garage, which Clampett rented for one month at $100. John Rovick, who passed last year still complained that Clampett, who passed 29 years ago, still owed him that $100!
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Stan Freberg told me that he would get severe backaches from hunching over to fit in the set. He was over six feet tall, while Daws Butler was barely five feet tall. Bob Clampett wanted to either build a riser for Daws to stand on, or did a trench for Stan to stand in. Stan was concerned the Daws might fall. Next door to KTLA was a showmaker. Stan took Daws there to have 12″ lifts build for Daws to wear. When they were ready, Stan and Daws went into the store to pick them up. As Daws tried the first one on, and limped around the store, two tourists, who were browsing in the store, asked what was wrong with “that poor man”…Stan replied “that poor man” walks fine now, but you should have seen him before he had his feet fixed!”
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When I first started at KTLA, one of the switchboard operators who had been there from the start of the station told me that every day Beany aired, she would get a call from Lionel Barrymore expressing his appreciation of the show.
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Time for Beany became legendary for many reasons:
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Stan Freeburg says that one of the fans of the show was Albert Einstein. Einstein would quickly end his day at Caltech so he could go home and watch Beany and Cecil.
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I think that he loves the history of KTLA as much as we do. I did not send these photos but did send a picture of Dick and Freeburg looking thru a camera lens. Then I looked up Freeburg’s wonderful history and realized that as a kid, I ran home everyday after school to see Beany and Cecile the Seasick Sea Serpent.
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Love the mic’s!
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