When hinges creek in doorless chambers.
When strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls.
Whenever candle lights flicker, where the air is deathly still…
That is the time when ghosts are present,
practicing their terror with ghoulish delight …
I’m certain that there isn’t a Disney dweeb out there who can’t identify the above couplet. These are the very first lines that you hear when you enter “The Haunted Mansion” at Disneyland & Walt Disney World.
And I’m sure that you hard-core Disneyana fans can also probably name the character who actually utters these phrases (The Ghost Host) as well as identify the actor who originally recorded this dialogue ‘way back in the 1960s (Voice actor extraordinaire Paul Frees).
But — beyond that — what do you know about the life & career of Paul Frees? Oh, I’m sure that some of you can probably rattle off a few of Mr. Frees’ credits:
- Paul provided the vocals for Boris Badenov, Captain Peter Peachfuzz and Inspector Fenwick on “Rocky and his Friends.”
- Frees also did the voice for Donald Duck’s know-it-all uncle, Professor Ludwig von Drake.
- Paul also did lots of other work for the Disney theme parks. He was the voice of the narrator in “Adventures Through Inner Space” as well as the ship’s captain (“Avast, ye scurvy scum!”) & the auctioneer (“I’m not sponging for rum. It be gold I’m after.”) in “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
- Frees also voiced key roles in several Rankin-Bass Christmas specials, including Santa Claus in “Frosty the Snowman” as well as Burgermeister Meisterbuger in “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.”
- Paul also appeared on camera in two classic sci-fi films from the 1950s, George Pal’s “War of the Worlds” and Howard Hawk’s “The Thing from Another World.”
But what else do you know about this multitalented performer? For example: Do you know where Frees was born? Or where he got his start doing voice work? Or — better yet — what his fellow vocal performers thought of Paul?
Well, before you all scurry off to Google to try & find answers to the above questions, I say “Belay that, you focsle swab.” Ben Ohmart has already got you covered. So there’s ” … no need to exposure your superstructure.”
Yep, Ben’s just written “Welcome, Foolish Mortals … The Life and Voices of Paul Frees” (Bear Manor Media, March 2004), the book that appears to be the definitive work on Frees’ life & career. By that I mean: Ohmart has does an absolutely amazing job with the research portion of “Welcome, Foolish Mortals …,” compiling the most complete listing of Paul’s credits to date. Listing virtually every one of the movies, TV programs and radio shows that Frees performed on. Not to mention the hundreds of television commercials, movie trailers & record albums that Paul also recorded over the years.
But it’s all the stories that Ohmart has collected about Frees’ interaction with famous film stars and other great vocal performers of the days that truly makes “The Life and Voices of Paul Frees” such a fascinating read. I mean, who knew that Frees was so friendly with Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall? These two were so chummy in fact that — when Bogie was feeling under the weather — he used to send his pal, Paul, into the radio station to perform in his place. So that Frees could fill in for the film star, doing the voice of Humphrey Bogart so well that no one at home ever realized that it wasn’t really Bogie that they were listening to on the “Humphrey Bogart” show.
Or that Peter Lorre — who Paul imitated on the classic Spike Jones recordings of “Laura” & “My Old Flame” — flat-out refused to follow Frees at personal appearances. Insisting that the popular vocal performer actually did a better Peter Lorre impression than Lorre himself did.
Ohmart also shines a spotlight on a lot of the previously unaccredited voice-over work that Paul did on major motion pictures of the 1940s, 1950s & 1960s. So — if you listen carefully to “The Lady from Shanghai” — you can actually hear dialogue that Frees dubbed for Orson Welles. Paul also performed brief vocal “cameos” in in such cinema classics as “Spartacus, “Someone Like It Hot” and “The Manchurian Candidate.”
And (me personally) I had thought that I already knew an awful lot about Paul Frees’ work for Walt Disney Studios. But who knew that Paul did voice work for the original version of Disney’s “The Shaggy Dog,” “The Absent Minded Professor,” “101 Dalmatians” and “Mary Poppins”? The list goes on and on …
Yes, Paul Frees was a huge talent & a wonderful performer. But — as part of this bio — Ben also allows us to get a glimpse of Paul Frees, the man. A guy who got married a few too many times. A father who had some real difficulty connecting with his kids. A performer who could seem extremely sure of himself, downright egotistical when you first met him … But then — once Frees got to know you & really let down his guard — he would reveal himself to be a very sweet, even kind of shy guy.
Yeah, Ben Ohmart’s “Welcome Foolish Mortals …” is an extremely fun read. Complete with a forward by June Foray (AKA the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel) and an afterword by Keith Scott (AKA The man who replaced Bill Scott as the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose. Keith’s also the author of the highly recommended “The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, A Flying Squirrel and a Talking Moose”), Ohmart’s “Life and Voices of Paul Frees” is a must-own for anyone who has ever said (I’m quoting from Rocky now) “That voice. Where Have I heard that voice before?”
So don’t be “Foolish,” mortals. Go pick up a copy of Ben Ohmart’s “Welcome, Foolish Mortals … The Life and Voice of Paul Frees” today.