From reader Bill Jones (an alias if I ever heard one) come this question:

When I was a kid growing up in the 60’s, one of my favorite cartoons was Beany and Cecil the sea serpent. What can you tell me about them?

Well, there’s not much I can tell you that hasn’t already been written by Wikipedia. But I can correct a little misinformation I’ve seen on other sites and add a few things.

Daws Butler and Stan Freberg, who originated the characters on the puppet show in the early 50’s, weren’t big fans of the creator, Bob Clampett. They feel that they were mistreated by him. Bob was one of the greatest cartoon directors of all time, but his ego was too big to fit in the same room with Daws and Stan. For some reason, Clampett felt compelled to take credit for things he didn’t do, when there were plenty of accomplishments that he rightly could take credit for. Anyway, when it came time to turn Beany and Cecil into cartoons in the early 60’s, Clampett asked the boys to reprise their roles and they both turned him down. Neither one of them needed the work at the time and they preferred to not have to work for Bob again.

In the cartoons, the voices of Beany and Uncle Captain were assumed by Jim MacGeorge, while Cecil and Dishonest John were taken over by Irv Shoemaker, both of whom had filled in for Stan and Daws on the puppet show, and had actually taken over the roles when they left for good.

Daws’ wife, Myrtis, sewed the first Cecil puppet out of green terry cloth with suction cups for his nose. Some of the other characters, especially Beany, were store-bought puppets that were modified.

A lot of Disney animators free-lanced for Clampett in their off hours.

Daws actually did Cecil’s voice as well as Beany’s for some Mattel talking toys.

And that’s the saga of Beany and Cecil… until I think of more.

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