Burl Ives

Burl Ives (1909-1995) was a folk musician, singer, and actor known for his warm delivery of folk songs, beginning on radio in the 1940s as The Wayfaring Stranger (using the titular song as his theme). Later establishing himself as an actor, he originated the role of Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on stage and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, reprising the role in the 1958 film version.
Ives was a prolific recording artist, singing and accompanying himself on guitar, from folk tunes and ballads to children's fare, gospel, and Christmas songs. While his first Christmas album was released in 1952, his association with the holiday was cemented with the Rankin/Bass special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (singing and narrating as an animated caricature of himself, Sam the Snowman). As an actor, Ives appeared in Disney movies (sticking to type as jovial singing family members or neighbors in So Dear to My Heart and Summer Magic) while alternating with dramatic turns in East of Eden and similar fare. He sang the title song in Derek Lamb's 1964 short I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and his distinctive narration was heard in the Hungarian animated feature Hugo the Hippo, and The Ewok Adventure.
==References==
*Ives' recordings were used multiple times by Jim Henson on Sam and Friends and other contemporaneous appearances.
*Joe Snow in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie spoofs Ives' Sam the Snowman role from Rudolph, although there's otherwise no particular visual or vocal connection to Ives himself. A Whatnot director chastises the snowman as a "Burl Ives-wannabe."
===Records used on Sam and Friends===
*August 4, 1955 (transcription date of actual record): "Wayfaring Stranger"/"Woolie Boolie Bee" (1949 single)Shemin, Craig. Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show. p. 247
*October 13, 1955 (transcription date): "The Doughnut Song" (1950 single)ibid. p.260
*March 19, 1959: "Leather-Winged Bat" from Capt. Burl Ives' Ark (1958 album, under title "The Bird Courting Song")/"On Top of Old Smokey" (1951 single)ibid. p. 352-353
*November 19, 1959: "Robin, He Married" from More Folksongs by Burl Ives (1950, album)ibid. p. 408
*January 7, 1960: "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1945 single/specific track reused on albums)ibid. p. 421
*May 3, 1960: "Bonnie Wee Lassie"ibid. p. 454
==Sources==
==External links==
*IMDb
*Discogs.com
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Category:Musical References
Category:Celebrity References