Sunday 22 October 2017

Gorgeous Gal is Gone

Earlier this year the world lost June Foray, considered the Grand Dame of Cartoon Voice Acting. There were many other women who lent their voices to cartoon characters in the Golden Age, and some are not well known.

One of them was Gladys Holland, who has passed away yesterday afternoon according to Jerry Beck.

Holland was a radio actress whose first cartoon was Madeline for UPA, released in 1952. She even received screen credit. Her French accent was perfect for the narrator. The cartoon garnered an Oscar nomination. It didn’t win the Oscar. Another cartoon did, and she revealed to Mr. Beck she almost had a connection to it.

“I had met Hanna and Barbera, and I was talking to Mr. Hanna, who did the Tom and Jerry cartoons. And he had heard that I had narrated ‘Madeline’ and he asked me if I could do a German accent. And I said, ‘Well, I learned English and German in school, so I can do a German accent.’

“So he said, ‘Okay.’ He said ‘We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to have a man or a woman to narrate it. If it’s a woman, you will get it. If it’s a man, it will be someone else.’ So, the cartoon was shown and it was ‘Johann Mouse’ and it won the Academy Award. And I was so upset that I refused to go and see that cartoon until years later when I was at the Motion Picture Academy, and they were showing the Oscar-winning movie of that year, plus the cartoon, which was ‘Johann Mouse.’

“And it was so great. And Hans Conried did the narration and he was so wonderful that I finally forgave them for winning the Oscar.”


You might be surprised to learn (I was) that Holland also worked for Walter Lantz, though she never received screen credit.

“Yeah, the Woody Woodpecker cartoons, yes. They used to call me whenever there was an accent in it and then I would come and do it. And I never really saw the cartoons, except for the one that I did when I did a very sexy French voice and they said ‘It’s so funny, you must see it.’ And they showed it to me [it was released in 1954]. It was a very heavy-set, fat woodpecker, and with a very, very sexy voice.”

It’s a shame her work in cartoon isn’t better known. Until Holland’s interview with Jerry Beck, I had no idea the character of Gorgeous Gal in A Fine Feathered Frenzy was not played by Grace Stafford. It was within Stafford’s vocal range and she would have been capable of doing it. Evidently, Lantz liked Holland’s work and was willing to pay her. She did an excellent job, as those of you who have seen the cartoon know. Holland didn’t mention it, but I suspect she’s also playing French actress Gaga Gazoo in the Woody Woodpecker short Belle Boys (1953). Incidentally, both it and A Fine Feathered Frenzy were directed by Don Patterson.

Our condolences to Ms. Holland’s family.

5 comments:

  1. Holland also played Daffy's one time girlfriend in McKimson’s Muscle Tussle (1953)..

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  2. Didn't she also do some of work in front of the camera? Appearances in 1950's and 1960's television.

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  3. I've suspected for a long time that Grace Stafford did not voice Gorgeous Gal. Thanks for this. I've watched A Fine Feathered Frenzy and have fantasized more times about about Gorgeous Gal than is probably healthy ha ha! Her voice is a big part of that so thanks Gladys Holland and RIP.

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  4. I am her daughter, Kymm Zuckert, and was googling her to find something I had forgotten, and accidentally came across this. Thank you so much for this lovely obituary. I miss her a lot, and it’s grest to see that other people do too.

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    1. Oh wow her daughter! Sorry for your loss and thanks so much for posting.

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