Paul Winchell

## Paul Winhcell

**Paul Winchell** (*né* **Wilchinsky**; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, voice artist, humanitarian inventor and voice director whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted *The Paul Winchell Show*, which also used two other titles during its prime time run on NBC: *The Speidel Show*, and *What's My Name?*. From 1965–1968, Winchell hosted the children's television series *Winchell-Mahoney Time*.

Winchell made guest appearances on Emmy Award-winning television series from the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, such as *Perry Mason*, *The Dick Van Dyke Show*, *McMillan & Wife*, *The Donna Reed Show*, and appearances as Homer Winch on *The Beverly Hillbillies*. In animation, he was the original voice of Tigger, Dick Dastardly, Gargamel, and other characters.

Winchell, who had medical training, was also an inventor, becoming the first person to build and patent a mechanical artificial heart, implantable in the chest cavity (US Patent #3097366 of 1963). He has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.

## Biography

### Early Life

Winchell was born **Paul Wilchinsky** in New York City on December 21, 1922, to Solomon Wilchinsky and Clara Fuchs. His father was a tailor; his grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland and Austria-Hungary. Winchell's initial ambition was to become a doctor, but the Depression wiped out any chance of his family's ability to afford medical school tuition. At age 13, he contracted polio; while recovering, he happened upon a magazine advertisement offering a ventriloquism kit for ten cents. Back at school, he asked his art teacher, Jero Magon, if he could receive class credit for creating a ventriloquist's dummy. Mr. Magon was agreeable, and Winchell named his creation Jerry Mahoney, by way of thanks. Winchell went back to reading magazines, gathering jokes from them and putting together a comedy routine, which he then took to the *Major Bowes Amateur Hour* in 1938, winning first prize. A touring offer, playing various theaters with the Major Bowes Review, was part of the prize. Bandleader Ted Weems saw the young Winchell while on tour; he visited Winchell and made him an offer of employment. Winchell accepted and became a professional at age 14.

### Entertainment Career

#### Ventriloquist Work

Winchell's best-known ventriloquist dummies were **Jerry Mahoney** and **Knucklehead Smiff**. Mahoney was carved by Chicago-based figure maker Frank Marshall. Sometime later Winchell had basswood copies of Jerry's head made by a commercial duplicating service. One became the upgraded Jerry Mahoney that is seen primarily throughout Winchell's television career. The television versions of Jerry and Knucklehead also featured Winchell's innovation of actors slipping their hands into the sleeves of the dummies, giving the visual effect of gesturing with their hands while "conversing" with each other. He modified two other copies to create Knucklehead Smiff. The original Marshall Jerry Mahoney and one copy of Knucklehead Smiff are in storage at the Smithsonian Institution. The other two figures are in the collection of illusionist David Copperfield.

Winchell's first show as a ventriloquist was on radio with Jerry Mahoney in 1943. The program was short-lived, however, as he was overshadowed by Edgar Bergen. Winchell also created **Ozwald**, a character that resembled Humpty Dumpty. The effect was accomplished by painting eyes and a nose on his chin, then adding a "body" covering the rest of his face, and finally electronically turning the camera image upside down. In 1961, Berwin Novelties introduced a home version of the character that included an Ozwald body, creative pencils to draw the eyes and nose and a "magic mirror" that automatically turned a reflection upside down.

In 1948, Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on *Floor Show* on NBC. Recorded via kinescope and replayed on WNBQ-TV in Chicago, the 8:30-9 p.m. Central Time show on Thursdays was the station's first mid-week program.

During the 1950s, Winchell hosted children's (*The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show*) and adult programs with his figures for NBC Television, and later for syndication. The NBC Saturday morning program, sponsored by Tootsie Roll, featured a clubhouse motif and a theme song co-written by Winchell and his longtime bandleader and on-air sidekick, Milton DeLugg. The theme song was entitled "HOORAY, HOORAH" which featured the secret password "SCOTTY WOTTY DOO DOO". An ending song entitled "Friends, Friends, Friends" was sung by the children in the audience. In October 1956, Winchell moved to ABC, hosting *Circus Time* on Thursday evening for one season before returning to *Winchell-Mahoney* on Sunday afternoons. On one episode, The Three Stooges appeared on the show to promote their joint feature film venture, *Stop, Look and Laugh*, in late 1959. He made an appearance on *Nanny and the Professor* (Season 2, Episode 13) as a "mean old man" (a puppeteer who had retired into seclusion after losing his wife in an accident). In 1996, Winchell contracted with figure maker Tim Selberg to construct a more contemporary version of Jerry Mahoney, which Winch described as "Disney-esque". Winchell used the new figure version to pitch a new TV series idea to Michael Eisner. In 2009, Winchell was featured in the comedy documentary *I'm No Dummy*, directed by Bryan W. Simon.

#### Voice acting

The first show Winchell did voice acting for was *The Adventures of Hoppity Hooper* (which was also the first acting job of Frank Welker), to which he also executive produced and voiced directed, not unlike the shows he would create for Nickelodeon. There, he was the show's narrator, though he said in interviews that he was the original choice for Fillmore Bear before Alan Reed, the original voice of Fred Flintstone, rightfully took over.

Winchell's career after the show's end in 1968 included various voice roles for other animated television series. For Hanna-Barbera, he played the character Dick Dastardly in multiple series (including *Wacky Races* and *Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines*); Clyde and Softy on *Wacky Races* and *The Perils of Penelope Pitstop*; and Fleegle on *The Banana Splits Adventure Hour*, and Gargamel on *The Smurfs*.

He also provided the voice of Bubi Bear in *Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!* in 1971, Revs on *Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch*, Moe on *The Robonic Stooges* (a role he previously played on *The New Scooby Doo Movies*), and Shake on *The CB Bears*. In 1973, he did the voice of Goober the Dog on the H-B show *Goober and the Ghost Chasers* and also guest starred as the rain-making villain on an episode of *Hong Kong Phooey*. For Disney, Winchell voiced Tigger in Disney's *Winnie-the-Pooh* featurettes, and won a Grammy Award for his performance in *Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too*.

Beginning with the television series *The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh*, he alternated in the role with Jim Cummings, the current voice of Pooh. Winchell's final performances as Tigger were in 1999 for *Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You* and *The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh* attraction at Walt Disney World, 2000 for *The Tigger Movie* and from 2001 to 2004 for *The Book of Pooh* and its direct-to-video spin-off film *The Book of Pooh: The Stories from the Heart*. Following his retirement from the role, Cummings permanently took over starting with *Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo* in 2004. Other Disney roles included parts in *The Aristocats* as a Siamese cat named Shun Gon, and *The Fox and the Hound* as Boomer the woodpecker. He was also the voice of Zummi Gummi on the TV series *Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears* and Mayor Jeff in *PB&J Otter*, which he created along with *Doug* creator Jim Jinkins.

Winchell provided the voices of Sam-I-Am and the unnamed character Sam pesters in *Green Eggs and Ham* from the animated television special *Dr. Seuss on the Loose* in 1973. He played Fleabag on *The Oddball Couple*, Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter on the *Pink Panther* spin-off *Misterjaw* in 1976, as well as a number of one-shot characters in *The Blue Racer* series. In commercials, he voiced the character of Burger Chef for the fast food chain of the same name, the Scrubbing Bubbles for Dow Chemicals and Mr. Owl for Tootsie Roll Pops.

From 1981–89, Winchell voiced Gargamel on *The Smurfs* as well as on several Smurfs television movies. During the 1980s, he was called upon by Hanna-Barbera to reprise his role of Dick Dastardly on *Yogi's Treasure Hunt* (which was a tour-de-force featuring all of the H-B characters) and later on *Wake, Rattle and Roll* (which was a *Wacky Races* spin-off). Also on the animated movie *Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose*, he did the voice of the Dread Baron, who was previously voiced by John Stephenson on the *Laff-a-Lympics*.

From 1990 until his death in 2005, Winchell voiced Rocko Marsupialan, Lincoln Loud, and SpongeBob SquarePants in *Rocko’s Modern Life*, *The Loud House* and *The Casagrandes*, and the show of the same name, respectively, as well as a few other characters from said shows. These include Frank Hutchinson for *Rocko*, Sarge the dragon and Bernie for *The Loud House*, and 9 other roles for *SpongeBob*.

#### Live action work

Winchell (often with Jerry Mahoney) was a frequent guest panelist on *What's My Line?* in 1956. Other work included on-camera guest appearances on such series as *The Polly Bergen Show*, as Homer Winch on *The Beverly Hillbillies*, *The Virginian*, *The Lucy Show*, *The Donna Reed Show*, Claude Wilbur on *The Dick Van Dyke Show*, *Dan Raven*, and *The Brady Bunch*, as well as a 1960 movie that included a compilation of Three Stooges shorts (*Stop!, Look and Laugh*), and a part in the Jerry Lewis movie *Which Way to the Front?*.

Winchell appeared as himself in 1963 in the NBC game show *Your First Impression*. He appeared in the late 1960s in a sketch on *Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in* as a French ventriloquist named *Lucky Pierre*, who has the misfortune of having his elderly dummy die of a heart attack in the middle of his act. On *Love, American Style*, he appeared with fellow ventriloquist Shari Lewis in a sketch about two shy people in a waiting room who choose to introduce themselves to each other through their dummies.

### *Winchell-Mahoney Time*

Winchell's most successful TV show was *Winchell-Mahoney Time* (1965–1968), a children's show written by his then wife, actress Nina Russel. Winchell played several onscreen characters, including Knucklehead Smiff's father, Bonehead Smiff. He also played himself as friend and adult advisor to Mahoney and Smiff. He also created "Mr. Goody-good," a surreal character, by painting eyes and a nose on his chin, covering his face with a small costume, then having the camera image inverted. The resulting pinheaded character seemed to have an immensely wide mouth and a highly mobile head. Winchell created this illusion by moving his chin back and forth. The show was produced at KTTV in Los Angeles, which was owned by Metromedia.

Winchell started "negotiating with Metromedia in 1970 to syndicate the 305 color segments of the show" but nothing came of it. Finally, "Winchell offered to purchase the tapes outright for $100,000. Metromedia responded with an ultimatum...: Agree on a syndication plan or the tapes will be destroyed." When Winchell did not agree, Metromedia carried out with its threat and the tapes were erased and destroyed. Winchell sued Metromedia and in 1986 a jury awarded him "$3.8 million for the value of the tapes and $14 million in punitive damages against Metromedia." Metromedia appealed the award all the way to the Supreme Court but was unsuccessful.

Winchell's last regular on-camera TV appearances working with his puppets were *Storybook Squares*, a children's version of the adult celebrity game show *Hollywood Squares* which was seen Saturday mornings on NBC during the 1969 TV season, and *Runaround*, another children's TV game show seen Saturday mornings on NBC from September 1972 to September 1973.

## Roles (seasons 1 – 3; some of 4 – 12)

* SpongeBob SquarePants
* Dappermane Puff
* Fearless Freddy
* Bikini Bottom Sheriff
* SpongeBuck SquarePants
* Custard Puff Sr.
* Clever Visual Metaphor for the Abstract Concept of Thought (the "boss" only)
* Doe
* Old Man Walker (The Algae's Always Greener, Toy Store of Doom)
* Merlock Dappermane

## Trivia

* In total, Paul Winchell did the voice direction for 125 projects (85 television shows, 20 animated films, 12 video games, and 8 theme park attractions).
* Most Nickelodeon projects featuring one of his roles from the aforementioned Nickelodeon shows starting with "Nicktoons Unite!" are considered his posthumous roles.
* There is a quote from Winchell that is rumored to be "Frank Welker can be funny, even when he's not trying to be." This is not right, as the quote was actually "Frank Welker can be funny, *but not* when he's not trying to be."
* Due to Winchell being absent for most of seasons 4 through 12, Rob Paulsen and Frank Welker are the only cast members to be credited and do a voice in every episode of the show.
* All of these were the last *SpongeBob* projects that, during Winchell's lifetime, were made or released:
	+ "The Sponge Who Could Fly" was the last episode Winchell worked on and fully completed during his lifetime. He would later go on to work on the TV movie *Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling*.
		- "Dunces and Dragons," the last episode featuring Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter, was the second-last episode Winchell worked on.
	+ "Krabs vs. Plankton" was the last episode to air during Winchell's lifetime.
	+ "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" was the only *SpongeBob* movie to be released during his lifetime.
	+ "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" was the last *SpongeBob*-themed console game to be released during his lifetime.
		- "Double Pack Volume 2" was the last *SpongeBob*-themed game overall to be released during his lifetime.
* Winchell Apartments was named after Paul Winchell as a way to pay tribute to him.
* There are numerous stories from Nickelodeon employees who worked with Winchell during his term saying that working with him was “the most fun I/we have ever had in my/our entire career,” with some even calling him “the resurrected Walt Disney or Jim Henson.” The most famous stories are from Ralph Bakshi, Stephen Hillenburg, Joe Murray, Frank Welker, and Vincent Price.
* Paul had pets in his office while he was Nickelodeon’s president, just like how most U.S. presidents have a least one or two pets while in office. They were:
	+ Jack the rock wallaby (1978–1991)
	+ Alex the Labrador (1982–1995)
	+ A family of red-spotted newts (various births and deaths)
	+ A green macaw (b. 1989)