It’s strange to think of roles such as Granny and Witch Hazel’s being voiced by anyone but June Foray. Foray was such an iconic voice actress that it’s easy to assume that approximately ninety percent of all female cartoon character prior to about 1975 were voiced by her, especially when it comes to animated shorts. It isn’t true, however, and what is true is that many of the ones that weren’t voiced by Foray were voiced by Bea Benaderet instead. And, in fact, Benaderet worked at Termite Terrace before Foray did and was more a part of our lives than we remember.
She was a convent girl, the daughter of a Sephardic Jew from Turkey and an Irish Catholic woman. She learned piano and had voice training at the convent and was discovered before she’d even graduated from high school. In 1926, she started on local radio. Among other things, she was one of the first female announcers in the country. Despite an initial interest in drama, she made the switch to comedy and worked on a variety show, where she used a variety of dialects, which would come in handy later in her career. She was heard by Orson Welles and brought into the Mercury Theatre on the Air.
From there, she was an extraordinarily busy woman. She did so many shows that she didn’t have time to rehearse her Jack Benny character and read her scripts live. She did practically every big-name radio show in the business. Her only lead role, however, was in a show called Granby’s Green Acres, a summer fill-in for Lux Radio Theatre that flopped. Still, it’s perceived as probably being the inspiration for TV’s Green Acres, which makes her own recurring role in later years on Petticoat Junction even more appropriate.
From 1943 to 1955, she worked for Warners as the primary female voice actress. She was the original Granny, the original Witch Hazel. She was Red in “Little Red Riding Rabbit.” She was Mama Bear in the wildly funny Chuck Jones shorts about the Three Bears. She was the hen who’s chasing Foghorn Leghorn. Those were golden years for the studio, and she was an integral part in what made those cartoons work. Because she was freelance, she would remain uncredited, but it’s important to discuss her here, and not just because of the June Foray thing.
She would also do a ton of TV. Lucille Ball wanted her for Ethel Mertz, but she was already committed to doing The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Unlike with radio, she had to choose. She spent four years as Betty Rubble. She was Jethro Bodine’s mother on The Beverly Hillbillies. She was on Petticoat Junction until she died—my sources are conflicting about what exactly killed her, except that it was definitely smoking-related. As if we needed another reason not to smoke.
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