Cindy Lou Who, who's a lot more than two

[Fairportfan]

Cindy Lou Who, now 96, dishes on fame and Grinch’s old tricks
Joseph Hall/TheStar.com

(With apologies to Dr. Seuss)

Cindy Lou Who is a lot more than two.
The voice of the tot from the classic Grinch story
Well she’s now 96 and her name is June Foray.
And though decades have passed since her Who-ville connection,
She recalls Cindy Lou with undying affection.
“Oh she’s everyone’s favourite,” Foray says via phone
As she talks from her Woodland, Los Angeles, home.
Her shortest of roles, it was easy to make:
“It was only one line. It was done in one take.”

But her plaintive, sweet voicing of the blue-eyed Who girl
Has earned her acclaim from all over the world.
She’s got letters from Poland. She’s got letters from China.
From India, Holland and North Carolina.
She’s got letters from places where people talk Finnish.
“People whom you’d think would never speak English.”

In Foray’s career she’s done dozens of voices,
In cartooning terms they were some of the choicest.
She did Granny for Warner’s old Tweety Bird shows.
She was Jokey the Smurf, and Lord only knows.
She was Witch Hazel, Aunt May, and that isn’t all.
She voiced Chatty Cathy, the string-pulling doll.
She’s done voices she now wracks her puzzler to name.
She was Rocky! Of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame!
Indeed, she’s done Rocky again so we hear,
For a DreamWorks production that’s coming next year.
But ask for her Cindy and she’ll spot-on reply:
“Santy Claus why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?”

That’s it, her whole Grinch role, that question above
Delivered in tones like the coo of a dove.
It’s a line on which untold millions would feast,
Like they would on Who pudding, or slabs of roast beast.
And they’ve done so now, 47 years running,
For the Christmastime staple that just keeps on humming.
Its popularity simply can’t be overstated.
Number One of the Yule shows that TV Guide’s rated.
Her line’s at a point — in the show’s 20 odd minutes —
Where the Grinch’s cold cunning is reaching its limits.

He stole all the Who presents and food he could see,
And when Cindy Lou enters, he’s stealing the tree.
Boris Karloff, the voice of the Grinch — and narrator —
Says he’s fixing the tree . . . and will bring it back later.
Foray knew Karloff, of monster renown,
But when she did the Grinch, he was nowhere around.
“I knew him from radio shows,” Foray mentions.

And it’s that radio work that drew cartoon attention.
On air at age 12, she soon caught the ear
Of someone named Disney, who said come over here.
Her Disney work wowed a guy named Chuck Jones,
Who directed the best Looney Tunes that you’ve known.
Jones’s work with Bugs Bunny and Porky the Pig
Made him first choice for directing the Dr. Seuss gig.
And when Jones went to seeking a little Who girl,
He contacted Foray to give it a whirl.

Her voices, she says, were instinctive concoctions.
She’d think “what the character is” — and just got ’em.
“Is she young, is she old, is she fat, is she thin?”
The voice would come out and then she would begin.
Those instinctive efforts, which so many hold dear,
Won Foray an honorary Emmy this year.

While she loved all the voices she voiced and created
Her career was mistaken, so Foray has stated.
Her beauty was wasted away from the lens.
She should have done movies, the actress contends.
“I was very attractive,” the lady avows.
“Still am, in my old age,” June Foray allows.
But you know when the phone’s down, at interview’s end:
June Foray’s delightful — delightful, times 10.

[Dave]

Oh, that's wonderful.

I've heard it said, "June Foray isn't the female Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc is the male June Foray."

I once had the great pleasure of seeing Ms. Foray, and Bill Scott speak at a special engagement hosted by the UCLA Computer Club. I think the animators had the good sense to model Rocky's facial expressions on hers... quite delightful!

[Fairportfan]

The really scary thing about her Rocky voice?

Because it was a low-budget production, the voice actors would get together and do the dialog live - basically as a radio play.

Foray was Rocky, and she was Natasha. And, remember, it was live - no overdubs, no punching in. Read it from beginning of scene to end, and if the voice director likes it, fine. if not, do the whole thing again.

Rocky and Natasha (like the rest of the cast) step on each others' lines.

She was switching seamlessly from Rocky to Natasha (and back) in mid-sentence.

[Dave]

The really scary thing about her Rocky voice?

Because it was a low-budget production, the voice actors would get together and do the dialog live - basically as a radio play.

Scary-brilliant - the whole lot of them. In addition to doing Bullwinkle, Peabody, and other characters, Bill Scott wrote a good deal of the material, including most of the puns. At least one was so bad that neither Rocky nor Bullwinkle was willing to say it, and insisted that the narrator read the line. I stole it, years later, and incorporated it into the Adventure 550 computer game.

[Jabberwonky]

I completely blame Rocky & Bullwinkle, and all thier cousin shows, for my waped sense of humor.

And have never regretted it...

[Dave]

Me too, on both counts. They shaped a whole generation (and the shape is distinctly non-Euclidian).

[ActionKermit]

(and the shape is distinctly non-Euclidian).

So, crochet?

[Dave]

(and the shape is distinctly non-Euclidian).

So, crochet?

"There are also not that many mathematicians sitting around looking at sea slugs."

Man, that article was reading just for this one pearl of wisdom by itself! and I suppose you have to have a Rocky and Bullwinkle sense of humor to really appreciate it!

[Fairportfan]

(and the shape is distinctly non-Euclidian).

So, crochet?

"There are also not that many mathematicians sitting around looking at sea slugs."

Man, that article was reading just for this one pearl of wisdom by itself! and I suppose you have to have a Rocky and Bullwinkle sense of humor to really appreciate it!

"...and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobechevsky is his name."