Mel Blanc is such an essential part of the great Warner Brothers Cartoons that we might think people knew right away what an enormous benefit his presence would be.
We would be wrong.
Blanc tried many times to get into the animation unit. Each time the dragon at the gate told him, “We are not interested. Get lost.”
Blanc kept knocking.
Finally he got lucky. The guy on the door died.
It was the studio Christmas Party.
Tedd Pierce, one of the writers, was at the door when Mel came knocking.
“Hey, Tex, we got a guy here who does voices,” Pierce told director Tex Avery.
“Can you do a drunken bull?” said Tex.
“Burp,” said Mel.
“You are in,” said Tex.
And that was how it began.
Don’t let the dragon at the gate keep YOU out.