Paul Winchell

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Paul Winchell
A smiling man holding a puppet
Winchell in 1951
Born
Paul Wilchinsky

(1922-12-21)December 21, 1922
New York City, U.S.
DiedJune 24, 2005(2005-06-24) (aged 82)
Moorpark, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Ventriloquist
  • comedian
  • actor
  • humanitarian
  • inventor
Years active1938–1999
Spouse(s)Dorothy Movitz (divorced)
Nina Russel
​
​
(m. 1961; div. 1972)​

Jean Freeman
​
(m. 1974)​
Children3, including April Winchell

Paul Winchell (

NBC: The Speidel Show, and What's My Name?
From 1965 to 1968, Winchell hosted the children's television series Winchell-Mahoney Time.

He made guest appearances on Emmy Award-winning television series from the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, such as Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, McMillan & Wife, The Brady Bunch, The Donna Reed Show, and appearances as Homer Winch on The Beverly Hillbillies. In animation, Winchell was the original voice of Tigger, Dick Dastardly, Gargamel, Scrubbing Bubbles, and other characters.

He also had medical training and became the first person to build and patent a mechanical artificial heart, implantable in the chest cavity (US Patent #3097366 of 1963).[1] Winchell has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.

Early life

Winchell was born Paul Wilchinsky in

Jewish immigrants from Congress Poland and Austria-Hungary.[2][3][4] Winchell's initial ambition was to become a physician, but the Great Depression wiped out any chance of his family's ability to afford medical school tuition. At age 6, his legs atrophied after contracting polio
.

When Winchell was 12 or 13, he came across a magazine advertisement offering a

school, he asked his art teacher, Jero Magon, if he could receive class credit for creating a ventriloquist's dummy. Magon was agreeable, and Winchell thanked him by naming his creation Jerry Mahoney.[5] Winchell went back to reading magazines, gathering jokes from them and putting together a comedy routine, which he then took to the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in 1938, winning first prize.[6] A touring offer, playing various theaters with the Major Bowes Review, was part of the prize. Bandleader Ted Weems saw the young Winchell while on tour; he visited Winchell and made him an offer of employment. Winchell accepted and became a professional at age 14.[5][7][8]

Career

Ventriloquist work

Winchell with Jerry Mahoney (left) and Knucklehead Smiff (right) in 1958.

Winchell's best-known

basswood copies of Jerry's head made by a commercial duplicating service. One became the upgraded Jerry Mahoney that is seen primarily throughout Winchell's television career. The television versions of Jerry and Knucklehead also featured Winchell's innovation of actors slipping their hands into the sleeves of the dummies, giving the visual effect of gesturing with their hands while "conversing" with each other. He modified two other copies to create Knucklehead Smiff. The original Marshall Jerry Mahoney and one copy of Knucklehead Smiff are in storage at the Smithsonian Institution. The other two figures are in the collection of illusionist David Copperfield.[citation needed
]

Winchell's first show as a ventriloquist was on radio with Jerry Mahoney in 1943. The program was short-lived, however, as he was overshadowed by Edgar Bergen. Winchell also created Ozwald, a character that resembled Humpty Dumpty. The effect was accomplished by painting eyes and a nose on his chin, then adding a "body" covering the rest of his face, and finally electronically turning the camera image upside down. In 1961, Berwin Novelties introduced a home version of the character that included an Ozwald body, creative pencils to draw the eyes and nose, and a "magic mirror" that automatically turned a reflection upside down.[citation needed]

In 1948, Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on Floor Show on NBC. Recorded via kinescope and replayed on WNBQ-TV in Chicago, the 8:30–9 p.m. Central Time show on Thursdays was the station's first midweekly program.[9]

During the 1950s, Winchell hosted children's (The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show)

Stop, Look and Laugh. Winchell made an appearance on Nanny and the Professor (Season 2, Episode 13) as a "mean old man" (a puppeteer who had retired into seclusion after losing his wife in an accident). In 1996, Winchell contracted with figure maker Tim Selberg to construct a more contemporary version of Jerry Mahoney, which Winchell described as "Disney-esque". Winchell used the new figure version to pitch a new TV series idea to Michael Eisner. In 2009, Winchell was featured in the comedy documentary I'm No Dummy, directed by Bryan W. Simon.[12][13]

Voice acting

Winchell's career after 1968 included various voice roles for animated television series. For

The Smurfs. He alternated the Voice of Mickey Mouse in Linus the Lionhearted
.

He also provided the voice of Bubi Bear in

Grammy Award for his performance in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.[4]

Beginning with the television series

Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
for seasons 1–5; Jim Cummings took over for the final season in 1990.

Winchell provided the voices of Sam-I-Am and the unnamed character Sam pesters in

Tootsie Roll Pops.[14][15]

From 1981 to 1989, Winchell voiced

Laff-a-Lympics
.

Live-action work

Winchell (often with Jerry Mahoney) was a frequent guest panelist on

Stop!, Look and Laugh), and also in the Jerry Lewis movie Which Way to the Front?.[citation needed
]

Winchell appeared as himself in 1963 in the NBC game show

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in as a French ventriloquist named Lucky Pierre, who has the misfortune of having his elderly dummy die of a heart attack in the middle of his act. On Love, American Style, he appeared with fellow ventriloquist Shari Lewis in a sketch about two shy people in a waiting room who choose to introduce themselves to each other through their dummies.[citation needed
]

Winchell-Mahoney Time

Winchell's most successful TV show was Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965–1968), a children's show written by his wife, actress Nina Russel.[10] Winchell played several onscreen characters, including Knucklehead Smiff's father, Bonehead Smiff. He also played himself as friend and adult adviser to Mahoney and Smiff. He also created "Mr. Goody-good," a surreal character, by painting eyes and a nose on his chin, covering his face with a small costume, then having the camera image inverted. The resulting pinheaded character seemed to have an immensely wide mouth and a highly mobile head. Winchell created this illusion by moving his chin back and forth. The show was produced at KTTV in Los Angeles, which was owned by Metromedia.[citation needed]

Winchell started "negotiating with Metromedia in 1970 to syndicate the 305 color segments of the show", but nothing came of it. Finally, "Winchell offered to purchase the tapes outright for $100,000. Metromedia responded with an ultimatum...: Agree on a syndication plan or the tapes will be destroyed." When Winchell did not agree, Metromedia carried out with its threat and the tapes were erased and destroyed. Winchell sued Metromedia and in 1986 a jury awarded him "$3.8 million for the value of the tapes and $14 million in punitive damages against Metromedia."[17] Metromedia appealed the award all the way to the Supreme Court but was unsuccessful.[18][19]

Winchell's last regular on-camera TV appearances working with his puppets were Storybook Squares, a children's version of the adult celebrity game show Hollywood Squares, which was seen Saturday mornings on NBC during the 1969 TV season, and Runaround, another children's TV game show seen Saturday mornings on NBC from September 1972 to September 1973.[citation needed]

Other pursuits

Medical and patents

Winchell was a pre-med student at

hypnotist at the Gibbs Institute in Hollywood.[1] He owned more than 30 patents in his lifetime.[20] He invented an artificial heart with the assistance of Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, and held an early U.S. patent for such a device. The University of Utah developed a similar apparatus around the same time, but when they tried to patent it, Winchell's patents were cited as prior art. Eventually, Winchell donated his heart patents to the university.[21]

There is some debate as to how much of Winchell's design Robert Jarvik used in creating the Jarvik-7. Dr. Heimlich stated, "I saw the heart, I saw the patent and I saw the letters. The basic principle used in Winchell's heart and Jarvik's heart is exactly the same."[22] Jarvik denied that any of Winchell's design elements were incorporated into his device, which was first successfully implanted in Barney Clark in 1982.[1][23][24]

Winchell established more medical patents while working on projects for the Leukemia Society (now known as the

garter belt with no outwardly visible lines, a fountain pen with a retractable tip, and battery-heated gloves.[1]

As a philanthropist

In the 1980s, Winchell's concern about starvation in Africa led him to develop a method to cultivate tilapia in tribal villages and small communities. The fish thrives in brackish waters, which made it particularly well suited for sub-Saharan Africa. Winchell appeared before a Congressional committee with several other celebrities, including actors Richard Dreyfuss and Ed Asner, and Dr. Heimlich. The committee declined to finance a pilot program for the tilapia aquaculture project in Africa because it required digging wells into non-potable water.[4]

Personal life

Winchell with his older daughter and Jerry Mahoney in the Howdy Doody studio audience, c. 1948

Winchell had three children: a son, Stacy Paul Winchell; a daughter, Stephanie, from his first marriage to Dorothy "Dottie" Movitz; and a daughter, April Winchell (the current voice of Clarabelle Cow), who is a comedian and voice actress, from his second marriage to actress Nina Russel. His third wife was the former Jean Freeman.[4]

Winchell's autobiography, Winch (2004), exposed many details of Winchell's life that had previously been kept private, including early stories of an abused childhood, a long history of depression, and at least one mental breakdown which resulted in a short stint in an institution.[25] The book revealed the bad treatment Winchell had received from his mother for a considerable period, and the mental impact that continued to negatively affect him for decades after his mother's death (Clara Wilchinski died in 1953 when she was only 58 years old, and Paul was 30). The autobiography caused a major estrangement between Winchell and his children, prompting daughter April to publicly defend her mother, who was negatively portrayed in the book.

After writing in God 2000: Religion Without the Bible (1982) that religion brought more chaos to humanity than any "other invention of man", Winchell expressed deist opinions within his 2004 book Protect God.[26]

Death

Winchell died on June 24, 2005, at the age of 82, from

natural causes in his sleep at his home in Moorpark, California
.

Winchell was survived by his wife, his children, and three grandchildren. His remains were

cremated, and his ashes scattered over his home property.[27]

Winchell was estranged from his children, and they were not immediately informed of his death. Upon learning of it, April posted an entry on her website:

I got a phone call a few minutes ago, telling me that my father passed away yesterday. A source close to my dad, or at least, closer than I was, decided to tell me himself, instead of letting me find out on the news, which I appreciate. Apparently a decision had been made not to tell me, or my father's other children. My father was a very troubled and unhappy man. If there is another place after this one, it is my hope that he now has the peace that eluded him on earth.[28]

Jim Cummings took on the role of Tigger full-time starting with The Tigger Movie (2000) after Winchell was rejected by the studio as they thought at that time that his voice and energy sounded and felt too old for the role of the character (at the time of the production of this movie Winchell was 75 years old). Tom Kenny and Peter Woodward took on the role of Dick Dastardly and Hank Azaria, Rainn Wilson, and Mark Irons took on the role of Gargamel.[29]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1960
Stop! Look! and Laugh
 		Himself – The Ventriloquist Live action
1968 Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day Tigger Took over for Wally Boag after the featurette was aired
1970 The Aristocats Shun Gon
1970 Which Way to the Front? Schroeder Live action
1974 Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too Tigger
1977 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Tigger
1981 The Fox and the Hound Boomer
1983 Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore Tigger
1997 Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin Tigger Direct-to-Video, Nominated-
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production
1999 Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving Tigger Direct-To-Video; Archive footage
2002 Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Tigger Direct-To-Video; Archive footage
2002 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece Himself Video documentary short
2009 I'm No Dummy Himself Archival Footage

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1950–1961 The Paul Winchell Show Host, Jerry Mahoney Live action
1953 Season's Greetings Himself TV special
1956 What's My Line? Himself – Panelist
1956–1957 Circus Time Host, Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Smiff Live action
1962 Saints and Sinners The Promoter Live action, "Dear George, The Siamese Cat is Missing"
1962 The Beverly Hillbillies Grandpa Winch Live action
1963 77 Sunset Strip Skeets Riley Live action, "Falling Stars"
1964 Perry Mason Henry Clement Live action, "The Case of the Nervous Neighbor"
1965–1968 Winchell-Mahoney Time Himself, Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Smiff, Bonehead Smiff, Mr. Goody-good Live action
1966 Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles Diabolical Dauber, Aquator, Devilish Dragster The Impossibles segments
1966 The Dick Van Dyke Show Claude Wilbur Live action, "Talk to the Snail"
1967 The Lucy Show Himself, Doc Putman Live action, "Lucy and Paul Winchell"
1967 The Dean Martin Show Himself "Episode #2.29"
1968 The Virginian Jingo Live action, "Dark Corridor"
1968–1969
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
 		Lucky Pierre Live-Action
1968–1970 Wacky Races Dick Dastardly, Clyde, Private Meekly, Sawtooth
1968–1970 The Banana Splits Fleegle, Cuckoo, Goofy Gopher
1969 The Flying Nun Claudio Live action, "My Sister the Star"
1969–1970 Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines Dick Dastardly, The General, Additional voices
1969–1970 The Perils of Penelope Pitstop Clyde, Softy, Additional voices
1969–1970 Here's Lucy French Knife Thrower, Jeweler, Carlo, The Tailor Live action, "Lucy, the Cement Worker", "Lucy and Liberace"
1970 Nanny and the Professor Herbert T. Peabody Live action, "The Humanization of Herbert T. Peabody"
1971 The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show Rockhead, Father "Mayor May Not"
1971 The Brady Bunch Skip Farnum Live action, "And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor"
1971 Curiosity Shop The King of Id Episode: "How Do You Fix a Broken Funnybone?" [30]
1971–1972 Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! Bubi Bear, Furface the Lion, Slicks the Fox, Tiptoes the Ostrich, Gabby the Parrot, Specs the Mole, Pipsqueak the Mouse He did the voice of Slicks in the first episode, but from then on the character was voiced by Daws Butler, who also voiced Furface in some episodes. Also, Winchell did the voice of Pipsqueak in "Bridal Boo Boo" while in "Love Bug Bungle", the character was voiced by Janet Waldo.
1972 McMillan & Wife TV Interviewer Live action, "Cop of the Year"
1972 A Christmas Story Goober TV special
1972 Why We Have Elections, or The Kings of Snark The Narrator TV short
1972 The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie Fleegle, additional voices "
Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family
"
1972–1973 The New Scooby-Doo Movies Additional voices
1972–1973 Runaround (game show) Host Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff made frequent appearances
1973
Circle of Fear
 		Mr. Carlson Live action, "The Ghost of Potter's Field"
1973 Yogi's Gang Sheik of Selfishness "The Sheik of Selfishness"
1973 Dr. Seuss on the Loose Sam-I-Am, Guy-Am-I, Sneetches TV short
1973–1975 Goober and the Ghost Chasers Goober, Additional voices
1974 Hong Kong Phooey Mr. Shrink, The Mayor "Dr. Disguiso & The Incredible Mr. Shrink"
1974–1975 These Are the Days Additional voices
1974–1975 Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch Revs, Captain Tough, Mailman, Lifeguard
1975 Adams of Eagle Lake Monty Live action, "Treasure Chest Murder"
1975 The Tiny Tree Turtle TV short
1975 The Oddball Couple Fleabag
1976–1977 The Pink Panther Show Fearless Freddy
1976–1977 Clue Club Woofer, Additional voices
1977 CB Bears Shake Shake, Rattle & Roll segment
1977–1978 The Skatebirds Moe, The Amazing Bordoni, Professor Octane, Blob Leader, Woofer The Robonic Stooges and Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives segments
1977–1978 Fred Flintstone and Friends Goober, Additional Voices
1978 To Catch a Halibut Fearless Freddy TV short
1978 Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue Bubi Bear/Fleegle TV special
1979 Casper and the Angels Additional voices
1979 The Super Globetrotters Bad Blue Bart, The Phantom Cowboy
1980–1982
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
 		Additional voices
1980–1982 Heathcliff Marmaduke, Phil Winslow, Additional voices
1981 Trollkins Mayor Lumpkin
1981 The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma Umpire, Thief, Reporter TV film
1981–1989 The Smurfs Gargamel
1982
My Smurfy Valentine
 		Gargamel TV special
1982
The Smurfs Christmas Special
 		Gargamel TV special
1982
The Smurfs' Springtime Special
 		Gargamel TV special
1982 Spider-Man Uncle Ben, Silvermane 2 episodes
1982–1983 Meatballs & Spaghetti Additional voices
1983
The Smurfic Games
 		Gargamel TV special
1984 Here are the Smurfs Gargamel TV movie
1985 The Jetsons Dr. Input "S'No Relative"
1985 The Disney Family Album Himself "Voice Actors"
1985–1988 Yogi's Treasure Hunt Dick Dastardly, Additional voices
1985–1990
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Zummi
Gummi 		(Seasons 1–5)
1986 The Kingdom Chums: Little David's Adventure King Saul TV film
1986 Smurfquest Gargamel TV movie
1987 Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose Dread Baron TV film
1988–1990 The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Tigger, Additional voices Seasons 1–3
1990–1991
Wake, Rattle and Roll
 		Dick Dastardly Fender Bender 500 segment
1991 Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too Tigger TV special
1991–1994 Garfield and Friends Additional voices Joined the cast in season 4
1993 Droopy, Master Detective Rumpley's Dad "A Chip off the old Block Head"
1998 A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving Tigger TV special
1999 A Valentine for You Tigger TV special

Video games

Year Title Role
1998 My Interactive Pooh Tigger[31]

Theme parks

Year Title Role
1999 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Tigger (Walt Disney World version)

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Inventor of the Week Archive". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. September 2005. Archived from the original on January 27, 2006. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
  2. ^ 1930 US Census, Brooklyn, NY, enumerators district 24-1447, sheet 19A
  3. ^ "Paul Winchell Biography". Film Reference.
  4. ^ a b c d Salamon, Julie (June 27, 2005). "Paul Winchell, 82, TV Host and Film Voice of Pooh's Tigger, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1578066964
    . Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  6. School of Industrial Art
    in Manhattan. just about at that time, Edgar Bergan hit the scene. Rudy Valee presented him on his show, the Vallee show, and the rest was history. he became absolutely a rage. [.....] And three months later—it was only three months later—I appeared on the Major Bowes Original Amateur hour on CBS Radio in 1938. [.....] I asked my teacher if I would get credit if I built a ventriloquist figure, would that qualify for credit? And he says "well of course [.....] it requires sculptoring [sic], it requires casting, it requires molding, it requires all of the things that we're studying [.....] I kind of 'Mickey Moused the whole thing."
  7. ^ Herzog, Buck (October 15, 1962). "Along Amusement Row". The Milwaukee Journal.
  8. ^ "On the Stage". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. October 21, 1939. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  9. ^ "NBC Chicago Adds Three TV Shows" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 15, 1948. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0307483201
    . Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  11. ISBN 978-0823083152
    . Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  12. ^ "I'm No Dummy". Internet Movie Database. July 21, 2016.
  13. ^ Dager, Nick (June 6, 2009). "Hollywood's Corporate Delusion". Digital Cinema Report.
  14. ^ Joan L. Feder, "I’ve Heard That Voice Before: Paul Winchell", All Ears 977 (12 June 2018); ISSN: 1533-0753; https://allears.net/ive-heard-that-voice-before-paul-winchell/
  15. ^ Lileks, James (May 5, 2014). "Puzzling Pickles, what's a fun burger?". Star Tribune. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  16. ^ "What's My Line? - Marguerite Higgins; Edgar Bergen; Paul Winchell [panel] (Apr 29, 1956)". YouTube.
  17. ^ Murphy, Kim (July 3, 1986). "Paul Winchell Gets Last Word and $17.8 Million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  18. ^ "Justices Won't Review Punitive-Damage Cases". Los Angeles Times. July 4, 1989. Retrieved October 16, 2014. Without comment, the justices turned away the case of a $17.8-million award won by ventriloquist Paul Winchell over the destruction of all videotapes of his popular children's television show of the 1960s.
  19. ^ Murphy, Kim (July 3, 1986). "Paul Winchell Gets Last Word and $17.8 Million". Los Angeles Times.
  20. ^ "Paul Winchell". Variety. June 26, 2005. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  21. ^ Mueller, Jim (August 18, 1999). "One Thing for Sure, He's No Dummy". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  22. ^ "The Most Wonderful Thing about Tigger..." Wealth of Ideas. July 2005. Archived from the original on February 12, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  23. ^ "Paul Winchell – Erroneous Claims". Jarvikheart.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  24. ^ "US3097366A". Google Patents. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  25. ISBN 978-1414068978
    .
  26. ^ Gaylor, Sabrina. "Paul Winchell". Freedom From Religion. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  27. ^ Oliver, Myrna (June 25, 2005). "Paul Winchell, 82; the Voice of Tigger Gained Fame as Ventriloquist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  28. ^ Winchell, April (June 25, 2005). "T.T.F.N." Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  29. ^ Winchell, April (June 25, 2005). "T.T.F.N." Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  30. ^ "The Wizard of Id". YouTube.
  31. ^ "My Interactive Pooh Voice Credits". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved August 12, 2020.

External links

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