Straight On Till Morning: Every Day In May!

Tuesday May 24, 2005

Thurl Ravenscroft died today.

I know that probably doesn't bring a tear to your eye, but it did mine. You probably think you have no idea who Thurl was, but I guarentee you do.

Most likely, you know him as the voice of Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes. I think anyone who has ever turned on the TV does. However, if you ever went to Disneyland as a child and were enchanted by the Tiki birds, or were led on a spectacularly spectral journey through a haunted mansion in Disney World, Thurl might have a deeper place in your heart, as he does mine.

I'm a huge, huge Haunted Mansion fan, but if you've ever even just ridden it, you probably remember the singing busts, and the theme song. Yup, that's Thurl.

Take a minute to mourn with me, by listening to Grim Grinning Ghosts. I uploaded it just for you. I've always joked that I want that song played at my funeral, but I hope they really did play it at his. I secretly think he's gone off to live in the Haunted Mansion with Paul Frees (dearly departed voice of the Ghost Host). Besides HMansion, you can also find Thurl in the Enchanted Tiki Room as Fritz, and at the Country Bears as Buff, the Buffalo head on the wall.

He also had about a zillion uncredited voice parts in Disney films, as you can see on IMDB. He may never have been the one saving the day, but he was always there.

So, you're not a Disney fan? Nope, there's one more place you know Thurl from. Sing it with me now..."You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!" Yup, Thurl sang the song for the original Grinch cartoon. Can you imagine that movie without that song?

I am really happy to see that at least one place acknowledged Thurl's death, but this is the only one I've found so far.

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