Monday, 3 October 2016

A Beautiful Curve Ball

“Here comes McGrip’s beautiful curve,” says the announcer in Tex Avery’s Batty Baseball. And a beauty it is. The fans in the stands appreciate it. Note the war-time salute.



Ray Abrams, Ed Love and Preston Blair are the animators. John Wald is the announcer. It sounds like Pinto Colvig got in one line as McGrip but was replaced later in the cartoon with Kent Rogers. And the growly ball player who stopped the action in the cartoon’s best gag? I think it’s Harry Lang. I can’t get some of the growly voices in Avery’s Metro cartoons straight, but it sounds like the same guy who was the black cat in Bad Luck Blackie.
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4 comments:

  1. Mark Kausler3 October 2016 at 12:37

    That's Preston Blair's animation on the "beautiful curve" scene, Yowp.

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  2. Jonathan Wilson3 October 2016 at 13:47

    That Harry Lang voice in this short also appears to be George Bear's voice in the "George and Junior" films.

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  3. Yowp3 October 2016 at 15:39

    The MGM cartoons have several actors who did similar raspy voices. I think I can pick out Pat McGeehan but the rest are anyone's guess. The actors all seem to have worked more in radio drama than comedy, so I'm not familiar with much of their work.

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  4. EOCostello3 October 2016 at 16:31

    Note the detail work: you can just make out the path of the pitch in the last still you post.

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