Stan Freberg Biography

Fast Facts

• Won the Clio Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the advertising industry, 21 times
• In 1944, he got on a bus, told the driver to let him off in Hollywood, then walked into a talent agency and arranged an audition for Warner Brothers cartoons
• A pioneer in using humor as a way to successfully market products and services, he was the first to professionally satirize songs rather than simply parodying them
• Continued doing cartoon voice-over work for most of his career, including playing a beaver in the 1955 Disney film "Lady and the Tramp․"
• Was the last network-radio comedian in America, and attributed the eventual end of his show to the fact that he refused to be sponsored by tobacco companies
• Was scheduled to do a puppet show to fill the time between the first moon landing and when the astronauts took their first steps, as they were supposed to take a four hour nap between the two events that they decided to forgo
• Once caused a stir at the American Association of Advertising Agencies when he suggested that there should be a moratorium on advertising for a year so that people could find out which products they actually liked on their own
• When comedy musician Weird Al Yankovic met him for the first time, Yankovic took a knee and kissed the hem of Freberg's sport coat