DO YOU REMEMBER?

The name might not ring a bell, but rest assured that, at some point in your life, perhaps even hundreds of times, you have heard the booming baritone voice of Thurl Ravenscroft. From 1940-2005, his voice was heard on television almost daily, and his voice work for the Walt Disney Company, on records, films, and at Disneyland, is legendary. Today, we thought we would take a (partial) look at his amazing career. So, where might you have heard his voice? Well, perhaps most famously, he was the voice of Tony the Tiger, mascot of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, for five decades. Ravenscroft also did an enormous amount of work for Disney. His singing quartet, The Mellomen, who had previously worked as background singers for artists such as Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Rosemary Clooney, worked their vocal magic in such animated classics as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Lady and the Tramp. The group is still seen by millions of people every year, in the enormously popular Disneyland attraction, the Haunted Mansion, as the singing busts in the graveyard.Last, but certainly not least, Ravenscroft chastised the Grinch in the classic holiday cartoon, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with his rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”