July 14 - Dallas McKennon

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On this day, in 2009, Dallas Raymond McKennon passed away in Raymond, Washington. Born on July 19, 1919 in La Grande, Oregon, Dallas was sent to live with an aunt and uncle on their farm following the sudden death of his mother when he was still pre-school aged. He fell in love with the animals and began trying to imitate them, starting with the dogs and moving on to horses, chickens, mules, any and every animal he could find. In high school, he not only took theater classes but took his mimicry skills to the local radio station, earning pocket money by recording commercials. Dallas enrolled in classes at the University of Washington, but wasn't there long before World War II reared its ugly head. He joined the United States Army Signal Corps and spent most of the war stationed in Alaska.

Following his discharge from the Army, Dallas returned to Oregon and got a job as Mr. Buttons, the host of a children's show on Portland radio station KGW. After several years of doing live radio, Dallas managed to get a bit part in a Jimmy Stewart movie that was filming nearby, Bend of the River. Looking for something new, he decided to move to Los Angeles and try his luck there. With his wide range of vocal talents, Dallas would find plenty of work but would also quickly become one of those actors you recognize but don't know their name. Honestly, he was okay with that.

Image courtesy metv.com

One of the first gigs, Dallas got in Los Angeles was hosting another kid's show, this time on television station KNXT in Hollywood. He played Captain Jet, introducing Little Rascal and Laurel and Hardy reruns on a show called Space Funnies weekday mornings. When the character of Gumby was spun off from Howdy Doody onto his own show in 1957, Dallas was hired to play the little green guy, a role he would perform off and on for three decades. Not only did he provide the voice for the title character but over the years he would also do Pokey, Gumbo, Prickle, Professor Kapp, Denali, Nopey, Henry and Rodgy for the series. During the same time period, Dallas had a string of guest appearances on Western shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, mostly as villains. He quipped in an interview once that his specialty on those shows was burning down barns.

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Dallas stayed quite busy throughout the Sixties. In addition to The Gumby Show, he provided the voice for Woody Woodpecker's nemesis Buzz Buzzard, the title character in Q.T. Hush, Archie Andrews and Mr. Weatherbee for The Archie Show, Courageous Cat in Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse and Frank Hardy and Chubby Morton on The Hardy Boys. Just for kicks, he also did live action work, most notably as Cincinnatus, the innkeeper on Fess Parker's Daniel Boone series. By the end of the decade, Dallas, his wife Betty and their eight children decided to move back to Oregon. For the rest of his career, he commuted to LA whenever he had work to do.

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Early in his career, Dallas became part of the Disney family and his voice is still with us in many ways now. Let's tackle the movies first. It started in 1955 with several roles in Lady and the Tramp: Toughy, Pedro, Professor and the laughing Hyena (that distinctive hyena laugh would actually take on a life of its own; you can hear that same recording being used in it's a small world, the Crash Badicoot video games, several other video games and the movie Elf). In 1958, he voiced Cal MacNab for the Paul Bunyan short, followed by Maleficent's raven and Vernon the Owl in Sleeping Beauty, additional voices in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the merry go round operator and some horses in Mary Poppins, the bees in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Bear in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and an episode of the Goof Troop television series. He also made live action appearances as Charlie Cooney in The Cat From Outer Space, a Saloon Man in Hot Lead and Cold Feet, a juror in Son of Flubber and Detective Hutchins in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. An impressive list of credits indeed and yet you would probably recognize him even more for the work he's recorded for Disney attractions.

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In the late Fifties, when the Living Desert area of Disneyland's Frontierland was being upgraded to include more ecosystems and renamed Nature's Wonderland, the Mine Train attraction was also upgraded and the new version included a narration done by Dallas. This would eventually lead to one of Dallas' most famous recordings ever. When the Mine Train gave way to the more thrilling Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, he was brought in to record the ride's safety spiel. Every few minutes, from 1979 right up to this very moment, guests hear him warn people that they are about to experience one of the wildest rides in the West. There are several other attractions you can hear Dallas' voice on, too. He plays Zeke in The Country Bear Jamboree, Andrew Jackson in the Hall of Presidents, a deaf old man in the Haunted Mansion and gives a virtuoso performance as Benjamin Franklin for the American Adventure in Epcot.

Outside of performing, Dallas became interested in and a master of the history of the Oregon Trail (the actual trail, not the video game). He would regularly give talks at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and even helped gather historical documents and songs in preparation of the Trail's 150th anniversary celebration. Dallas also helped Oregon's Public Broadcasting stations develop a series to help children learn to speak German. His final years were spent in his beloved Oregon, enjoying his 21 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. He passed away in a nursing home from natural causes just five days short of his 90th birthday.