Quacking For Disney

In 1930, he was a postal telegraph clerk. Little did he realise he would soon veer on a career change that would make him, well, partly famous.

We say “partly” because for years and years and years, Clarence Nash never got to see his name on the animated shorts in which he provided the voice of Donald Duck. It doesn’t appear to have bothered him. He does appear to have been bothered by other cartoon studios which featured quasi-unintelligible quacking ducks. MGM even had a cat that sounded like Donald Duck. Nash didn’t voice any of those characters; he worked in shorts exclusively for Disney. Nash did use the voice on the Burns and Allen radio show for a character called Herman the duck (coincidentally, Nash had a brother named Herman).

Here’s one version of how Donald got his voice. It’s from the Chicago Tribune of February 26, 1961.

The Voice of Donald Duck
By Marion Purcelli
AN inconspicuous man wearing a well tailored but inconspicuous blue suit sat quietly in a chair; a conspicuous, brightly attired puppet duck in a sailor suit sat in his lap.
Around them a score of editors from high school newspapers gathered for a press conference. The students drank cokes or milk and munched cookies and petits fours, nervously waiting for something to happen.
No one seemed to notice the man until the duck began snapping at his nose.
“Quack, quack—so you want to fight, doggone you anyway,” the man said. He sounded so much like a duck that even the duck was startled.
One young editor whispered to her companion, “Have you ever heard anything like that?” Her friend said no, but actually she had. And so have most of the people in this country, at least those who listen to the radio, watch television, or go to the movies.
Clarence [Ducky] Nash is known in show business as the noisiest man in the world. He’s perhaps the busiest actor in Hollywood, yet he could stand in the middle of Main Street, U.S.A., and not be recognized.
Nash was in Chicago and especially at this news conference to plus his boss, Walt Disney’s latest full length cartoon feature, “One Hundred and One Dalmations.”
* * *

BARRY Freed, a press agent who looked no older than the assembled students, entered and asked the editors to be seated; the conference was about to begin. He introduced Nash as the voice of the world famous cartoon character, Donald Duck, and numerous birds, beasts, and scared urchins.
“How was the funtastic (sic) character of Donald Duck born?” asked one editor.
“Back on the farm in Oklahoma where I was born, I learned to love animals and imitate their sounds,” answered Nash. “I knew one day I’d make a living doing these imitations. My family moved to California and when I finished high school, I entertained on the Chatauqua [sic] and Lyceum circuits and then went into radio. The friends I made during these early radio years kept telling me I should meet Walt Disney who was pioneering in the field of animated cartoons and had become famous with his Mickey Mouse character.
“One day I was wandering down the street and passed a studio and noticed a sign that read ‘Walt Disney Studio—the home of Mickey Mouse.’ I remembered the words of my friends and walked in. I was ushered into the office of a director and auditioned a bit of the show I did on the Chatauqua circuit.
* * *
“As I recited ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ the director pressed a button on the interoffice communication system and my duck voice was piped into Walt’s office. Disney immediately came to the director’s office, listened to more, and fell in love with the voice. The was the first time the voice of a Disney character came first.”
Thru subsequent questions the students learned that Nash has made more than 125 cartoons, that Donald’s cartoons have spread around the world and are spoken by Nash in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish, and that Nash gets most of his animal sounds by spending hours at the Los Angeles zoo.
They learned that Donald is somewhat frustrated and quick to get angry and that he plays at being sad to prey on the sympathy of his nephews. When everything around him looks black, he’s the kind of duck that’ll fall to his knees and begin praying.
They learned that regardless of how well trained the animals are, it’s almost impossible to train them to make noises at just the right time. Instead of taking weeks to train a horse to whinny on cue, it’s much simplier [sic] and less risky to employ Nash. And Nash says he doesn’t mind not being recognized. “People recognize my voice,” he explained, “and that’s the important thing to me.”