The Search For Smith

You recognise these Warner Bros. characters, don’t you?



One is the Crusher in Bunny Hugged. The other is the meat-and-gravy-loving dog in Chow Hound. Both are from the Chuck Jones unit at Warner Bros. Both were released in 1951.

And both were voiced by John T. Smith.

This is a story of failure, failure to answer the question “Who was John T. Smith?”

Smith did get screen credit on cartoons—but not at Warner Bros. He appeared in a handful of shorts at Warners.

Homeless Hare (1950, Chuck Jones, construction worker)
Hillbilly Hare (1950, McKimson, Punkinhead Martin, dance caller)
Forward, March Hare (1953, Jones, sergeant)
Water, Water, Every Hare (1952, Jones, evil scientist)
There Auto Be a Law (1953, McKimson, narrator)
No Parking Hare (1954, McKimson, construction worker)

Keith Scott, who knows more about old cartoon actors than anyone alive, confirms the Hillbilly Hare appearance, which was recorded in June 1949. Keith says he lent his voice to Jerry Fairbanks’ “Speaking of Animals” series for Paramount, and was also employed by Walter Lantz. The former series isn’t available for viewing; much of the latter is but I can’t think of which cartoons he may have appeared in. He would have made a good Buzz Buzzard, but Dal McKennon was cast in the role.

1949 is a year you can hear his voice on shorts for UPA. One is in an industrial cartoon, The Seagull and the Sailor, a short by the U.S. Navy pushing re-enlistment. Smith is the sailor, with the “What, no gravy?” voice heard later in Chow Hound. Daws Butler is the seagull. He is also the crow in The Magic Fluke; for whatever reason, UPA didn’t wish to bring back Frank Graham when it was asked by Columbia to revive its characters.

UPA didn’t start giving screen credits for actors until early 1952. The following year, Smith played a father with a Southern drawl and several other characters in the studio’s “Jolly Frolics” short Little Boy With a Big Horn. They don’t sound like any of the growly, aggressive characters you associate with him.



Our cartoon trail goes cold for now.

Smith came from radio but, unfortunately, he never seems to have been interviewed about it, certainly not at the time. He also doesn’t appear to have been a regular on any show. Being a supporting player had disadvantages: lack of an on-air credit and lack of a mention in newspaper radio listings/highlight columns. Between the Hollywood Citizen-News and the Radio Goldindex, we have been able to assemble the following appearances; I imagine he made far more than these.

December 21, 1947: “Christmas Story,” starring Jeanne Crain, KLAC.
July 8, 1948: “The Last Chance” episode of Suspense (with Daws Butler, Shep Menken and Paul Frees), CBS.
January 21, 1950: “The Bid For Freedom” episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, CBS.
April 4, 1951: “The Great Lover” episode of Dr. Christian (Robert C. Bruce also appeared), CBS.
April 17, 1951: “Grocery Budget,” episode of Fibber McGee and Molly (with Bill Thompson, Arthur Q. Bryan and Herb Vigran), NBC.
May 18, 1951: “Kristi” episode of NBC’s Short Story.
Sept. 7, 1951: “The Curious Fisherman” episode of This is Your FBI, ABC.
July 21, 1952: “Love Song” episode of The Railroad Hour, NBC.
Aug. 25, 1952: “Fantasie Impromptu” episode of The Railroad Hour, NBC.

The Citizen-News mentions other projects, the first of which is intriguing:

Jan 21, 1951: Jerry Corneaya Productions are making a film on chimps for the “Professor Lightskull and Dr. Twiddle” series for Bing Crosby Enterprises. Voices are by John T. Smith and Daws Butler.
Apr. 30, 1951: Radio actor John T Smith narrates the forthcoming movie "You Never Know.”
Sept. 14, 1951: John T. Smith, radio-TV actor, has completed dubbing the voice of the Jester and various others in the Alexander Productions color film "The Seven Ravens.”

I suspect the latter is from the Alexander Film Company, a commercial film maker based in Colorado Springs. Tex Avery did some animation work for it.

This is the easy part. The biographical part is where we have a dead end.



Keith says there was a small mention in a radio casting guide that he was from Oregon. A post by Devon Baxter on the Cartoon Research site says he was from Seattle. Regardless, in checking all kinds of records on-line, I’ve found a John T. Smith who was a newscaster at KYA San Francisco in early 1944 but I have no clue if it's the same guy. He’s not in any of the Radio Annuals, which would have been helpful. And there’s no explanation why he seemingly vanishes around 1954. Keith has a teeny bit more about him—he spoke to both June Foray and Daws Butler about him—but I’ll leave it for him to tell; I don’t want to steal his research.

It very well could be John T. Smith was a stage name; a young actor named Robert Van Orden decided to change his screen name in 1954 to John Smith. But there’s no point in speculating.

For now, we’ll just have to wait to see what other information comes to light. It’s got to be out there somewhere.

My thanks to Keith Scott and John Hayes for IDs on this post.