Thursday, December 09, 2010

BRADLEY BOLKE

My dear friend Brad Bolke called me today to wish me well! Brad was the voice of Jangle Bells in RANKIN/BASS' THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS, CHUMLEY THE WALRUS, etc. We talked about many things including Howard Stern's father Ben recording the cast of Tennessee Tuxedo at 152 W. 52nd. He said he did all of his RANKIN/BASS recordings there as well. Brad's brother was the late, great Dayton Allen (Deputy Dawg, Howdy Doody show, The Steve Allen Show, Winky Dink, etc.). He said his brother appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in 1951 or 1952 as Ugly Sam and froze his #@*% off! I didn't know Brad did the voice of Grouicho Marx for the Plymoth De Soto animated commercials/promos. He brought up the DVD below that my friend Patrick Owsley did the cover art for....He said, "Patrick's art should be featured in a TOTAL TELEVISION book!" Brad appeared with us at the MUSEUM OF TELEVISION and RADIO in New York a few years back and can be seen in the documentary on the new YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS BLU RAY. He mentioned that he is still trying to get the smell out of his television set from the live action version he saw a few years back.

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