He Should Have Happened To a Dog

Animated commercials on television in the 1950s drew from the ranks of radio for their voices. In many cases, they were the same people who provided voices for animated cartoons from the major studios—people like Marvin Miller (UPA), Daws Butler (MGM/Lantz/Warner Bros), Stan Freberg (Columbia/Warner Bros/UPA) and Allen Swift (Terrytoons) come to mind. But there were others who never appeared in theatricals, so their identity in commercial voice work is far less known, no matter how successful the spot.

One was the voice of the Ford Dog. It was the voice of Hugh Douglas, who read news at KNX and announced Have Gun Will Travel, Bob O’Hara and a number of other CBS shows in the ‘50s. His voice was never heard in theatrical cartoons.

Certainly there are no voice credits on cartoon commercials (okay, Daws Butler got one for legal reasons in the ‘60s) but we know it’s Douglas because the Newspaper Enterprise Association interviewed him about his role at the time the commercial first aired. It was an instant smash. This column appeared in newspapers starting around June 11, 1959. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce the wire photo that went with the article.

Hugh Douglas Finds Fame As ‘Voice’ From Doghouse
BY ERSKINE JOHNSON
NEA Staff Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (NEA)—Hugh ("I'm A Dog") Douglas was wearing a neatly clipped mustache with matching crew cut, his usual horn-rimmed glasses and the sport togs he wears to work as a Los Angeles radio staff announcer.
Only his incredulous look was new.
After 17 years of obscurity as a radio voice, he had good reason to ponder the subject of sudden fame and unexpected extra cash.
As a human being, fame and sudden riches eluded him.
As the "voice" of a dog, he's found both.
He's enjoying such public recognition, in fact, that his regular news broadcast lights up the switchboard of the CBS radio-station here. People as incredulous as Hugh want to be sure:

"Wasn't that the voice of the shaggy dog reading the news?"
It is. Hugh Douglas is the benign voice of the huge, shaggy dog on that automobile (Ford) TV commercial which seems to have captured the public's fancy. What's more, he's the voice of another dog now in a movie.
He's “playing” a mongrel canine named Skippy who carries on long conversations with Jerry Lewis in a farce movie comedy from the Broadway hit, “Visit To A Small Planet.”
Producers of other TV commercials can't wait now to hire Hugh's voice to help sell their products. He has six new TV commercials in the works.
"I'm playing fairy godfathers, hipsters, beatniks and on one announcement they've even got me singing." the slim, smallish, merry-faced Douglas told me.
“It's crazy. I've done all sorts of characters before on the air but never an animal until now, and look what happens. Here I've been engaged in honest, hard work for 17 years on the radio but now that I'm in a kennel people recognize me.”
They do recognise him, too. By his voice, that is.
He needs but to open his mouth among strangers with as much as a "How do you do?" and his identity as the TV dog is out immediately. Beaming and enjoying it thoroughly, Douglas says:
“People really enjoy believing that the dog actually exists. They always want to know all about me and, of course, the dog. I carry pocket-size cartoon likenesses of the animal with me and the minute I spot a person about to pop the question, I hand out one of the photographs.”
Douglas reached into his pocket and handed me one.
Beside the photo of the dog are words:
"Yes, it's me."
Animator Bill Melendez at Playhouse Pictures, where the commercial was produced, knew about Hugh's penetrating, deep voice and called him in to do the recording. "Bill and I talked his dog over and I looked at the sketches.
"I saw him as an amiable, friendly, cool dog—so I applied my coolest voice."
Douglas also narrates films about rockets and guided missiles for Uncle Sam, but he's not allowed to discuss them. It's secret stuff. Last year he was named the best TV and radio voice in California at the state fair. Today you might say that voice has gone to the dogs.
Practical Jokers are sending Douglas dog bones, dog biscuits, miniature fireplugs and even small doghouses. The other morning even his wife observed that from now on maybe, she should be serving dog biscuits instead of corn flakes tor breakfast.
“To put you in the mood,” Mrs. Douglas kidded.
Hugh's answer, he told with twinkling eyes, was:
“Honey, at this salary I'm willing to eat dog biscuits for the rest of my life.”

Douglas left CBS in 1962 to freelance. He was represented by the same agency that represented June Foray and Paul Frees at the time. To the best of my knowledge, Hugh is retired from the business and still around.

Some other familiar names besides Bill Melendez worked on the Ford Dog commercials. We’ll see if we can put together another post on the campaign down the road.