Hall Of Presidents Voice


The Paul Frees thread cleared up for me at last that Dal MacKennon did the voice of Andrew Jackson in the original 1971-1993 program. Does anyone know who did the voice of Benjamin Franklin in the Constitutional Convention segment?
 
If I had a recording of the Hall of Presidents here with me, I could tell you who played Franklin.. but I am sure Greg Ehrbar or someone who has memorized the audio will tell you. I will say, however, that the ubiquitous Dal McKennon is the Ben Franklin voice in The American Adventure at EPCOT.

And incidentally, for anyone in that part of Florida, Dal McKennon himself is to visit the park and make various appearances during the week of June 23-27. He is to lecture at Disney University on Wednesday the 25th about his work in the Country Bear Jamboree, the Haunted Mansion, the American Adventure, Big Thunder Mtn, and the departed Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland at Disneyland. If more info about Dal's schedule is needed, e-mail Greg Ehrbar at wondergreg@hotmail.com. For those in other parts of the country, Dal will be at the Memphis Film Festival (www.memphisfilmfestival.com) in Tennessee on June 12-14, and at the National Lum & Abner Society old-time radio convention in Arkansas on June 20 & 21 (e-mail Hollis1963@aol.com).

Dal is now 84 years old, and his natural speaking voice still sounds like a teenager. If you have ever wondered what he looks like, he greatly resembles a tall, lanky Santa Claus with an enormous white beard, of which he is very proud. Everyone should meet him at least once, as the term "animated character" could have been invented to describe him.
 
Thank you for the information about Dal, Tim--I didn't realize his significance in Disney history! He does a wonderful Uncle Remus on the Songs and Stories of Uncle Remus LP, which I just happened to transfer to CD just a few days ago(a toss up whose rendition is better, his or Danny Glover's treatment on a much more recent Rabbit Ears production of the tar baby story).

I just opened a sealed copy I just received of the Hall of Presidents LP(always difficult to do--haven't even listened to it yet!); the only credited voices are that of Lawrence Dobkin as the narrator, and Royal Dano as Lincoln--so, Dal does the voice of Andrew Jackson on the LP? Any other uncredited voices? Apparently Paul Frees is another, from the recent thread about him--thanks, Mike.
 
Paul Frees and the unknown voice of Benjamin Franklin are the only two uncredited voices in the original Hall program.

Frees can be heard as the following characters:
-George Washington
Governor Mifflin (Whiskey Rebellion)
South Carolina Legislator (Nullification)
Stephen Douglas
Crowd voices (Lincoln-Douglas debates)

There may be one other voice in the Lincoln-Douglas debate crowd, but the Ben Franklin voice is the one I'm most anxious to nail down.
 
I listened to my own copy of this again, and I'm beginning to think that Lawrence Dobkin did double duty by doing the small Franklin part. If it isn't him, then I haven't a clue as to who else might have done it but given how Paul Frees was used for so many different voices on the same project, it's not surprising that Dobkin might have done likewise.
 
Thanks for your help, Eric.....so we have Paul Frees and Dal McKennon as uncredited voices on the Hall of Presidents LP.

I have to agree--I just made a CD-R of the LP this morning, and just now went back to listen to Franklin's voice and Dobkin's repeatedly--they certainly sound
quite similar, the best I can tell!

Mike.
 
I just remembered there's one other uncredited voice that I know can not be Frees, MacKennon or Dobkin, and that's the voice doing the roll call of the states during the Constitutional Convention vote. I'm pretty sure that's Dick Wesson.
 

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