Free Recordings of The Mel Blanc Show

September 25, 2009 8:21 PM

The Mel Blanc Show ran on the CBS Radio Network from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. In this show, Mel played himself, the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie. The plot for many episodes saw Mel "impersonating an exotic foreigner or other stranger in town" to either impress his girlfriend's father or, at the very least, avoid angering him. 40 episodes of The Mel Blanc Show can be found here in MP3 format for your listening pleasure.

Bonus Blanc link! A great recording of Mel Blanc singing "Somebody Stole My Gal", a popular song from 1918 written by Leo Wood.

posted by Effigy2000 (14 comments total)

Jack Benny owes a hell of a lot to Mel Blanc. He was with the show since the radio days, and it's cool to see him act alongside Benny, Burns, and Bob Hope.

Grabbed from IMDB -
While in a coma after a cataclysmic automobile accident, doctors unsuccessfully tried to get Mel to talk. Finally, a doctor, who was also a fan of his cartoon characters, asked Mel, "Bugs? Bugs Bunny? Are you there?" Mel responded, in Bugs Bunny's voice, "What's up, Doc?" After talking with several other characters, they eventually led Mel out of his coma. -
posted by chambers at 8:30 PM on September 25, 2009 [2 favorites]

Also - Jack Benny once said of him, "There are only five real people in Hollywood. Everybody else is Mel Blanc.".
posted by chambers at 8:31 PM on September 25, 2009 [3 favorites]

Effigy2000, you saved me from a dismal Friday Night. Thank you. (You should have provided a warning about the presence of Naked Gord on a 1995-style webpage, but the rest of his site is a treasure trove of comedy, new [lots of Bill Maher] and old [here are 358 episodes of Jack Benny's show over 22 years]. If making these goodies available for anyone to download is wrong, I don't want to be right!)
posted by wendell at 8:54 PM on September 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Awesome! I like how fast-paced the dialogue was back then. Almost no pauses between sentences. Impressive for what must have been live recording.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:55 PM on September 25, 2009

True OTR aficionados know that some of his best work was actually on "The Judy Canova Show".
posted by RavinDave at 10:40 PM on September 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ugga ugga boo, ugga boo boo ugga!
posted by Acetylene at 11:43 PM on September 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Archive.org has more episodes of The Mel Blanc Show, but I didn't do the legwork to figure out which are unique episodes. There are also a bunch of Judy Canova Show episodes over at Archive.org
posted by filthy light thief at 12:23 AM on September 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thank you. Immense talent. I've always considered Mel Blanc to be right next to Jim Henson as far as sheer talent, and how much their voices shaped me as a kid, and how much they still hold up today. I never knew about this show before. Great find.

As wendell points out, there's more, including Groucho Marx, although a lot of those do link to archive.org.
posted by krinklyfig at 1:22 AM on September 26, 2009

Some people say that Mel Blanc was crazy. But I think he just heard voices in his head.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:41 AM on September 26, 2009

Ugga ugga boo, ugga boo boo ugga!

This cannot be emphasized enough.
posted by metagnathous at 4:09 AM on September 26, 2009

Damn - I need more free time!!!! Thank you.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:51 AM on September 26, 2009

Whoooo! I'm gonna scratch this after I laugh at it!
posted by MNDZ at 7:12 AM on September 26, 2009

hehehehehe that looks funny
posted by MNDZ at 7:12 AM on September 26, 2009

You can't mention Mel Blanc without mentioning June Foray, the other pillar of Hollywood Golden Era voice acting. Amazingly, she still works to this day.
posted by dr_dank at 9:50 PM on September 26, 2009