How Being Bugs Bunny Helped This Voice Actor Out of Coma

The Big Picture

• Looney Tunes debuted in 1930 with Sinkin' in the Bathtub , followed by Merrie Melodies , each with their unique storytelling style.
• Mel Blanc, the iconic voice behind many beloved Looney Tunes characters, was once in a serious car accident but recovered with a unique intervention.
• Despite the accident in 1961, Mel Blanc continued working on his vast array of cartoon characters until his passing in 1989.

Those with an affinity for the golden age of animation will know that Looney Tunes has a storied history debuting in 1930 with Sinkin' in the Bathtub. It gets a little trickier to find those who know that the short was followed by a second series of shorts called Merrie Melodies. Fewer still would know that Looney Tunes was more story-driven, while Merrie Melodies leaned towards WB's musical properties. But you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't know the name Mel Blanc, the revered voice actor whose name became synonymous with the brand upon starting in 1937.

That voice was almost lost, however, in January 1961, when Blanc was involved in a car accident that sent him to the hospital. He was in such bad condition that one source out of Honolulu even claimed he had died. News of the accident and Blanc's comatose state deeply upset fans of Blanc, the voice that brought so many of their beloved Looney Tunes characters to life. Ironically, one of those characters he brought to life would end up returning the favor, bringing him out of his coma and back to life: Bugs Bunny. Um, what? Relax, dear reader, all will be revealed faster than you can say rabbit season duck season.

Looney Tunes

Mel Blanc Joins Warner Bros. in 1937

Melvin Jerome Blank was born on May 30, 1908, in San Francisco, California and moved to Portland, Oregon, when he was six. Young Blank took an interest in music and learned to play bass, violin, and sousaphone, among others. He had a penchant for creating voices, which delighted his peers and irritated his teachers. At 16-years-old, one teacher said to Blank, "You'll never amount to anything. You're just like your last name: blank." The incident pushed Blank to change the spelling of his last name to "Blanc." After graduation, Blanc was hired by KGW, a radio station out of Oregon, for The Hoot Owls, a late-night variety show that he wrote for and performed on. On March 26, 1931, the RKO Orpheum Theater in Portland named Blanc musical director, the youngest in the country (as noted in the previously cited Encyclopedia). Blanc's radio work allowed him to hone his skills at creating a variety of voices, partly to cover up the absence of any supporting actors. In May 1931, NBC affiliate KGO in San Francisco hired Blanc to emcee The Road Show, but when the show failed, he made his way to Los Angeles, where he met and married Estelle Rosenbaum in 1933.

Blanc and his wife returned to Portland and began a new late-night show, Cobwebs and Nuts, for KEX. When that show ended in 1935, the Blancs moved back to Los Angeles, and by 1936 Blanc found work doing impressions on NBC Blue Networks' The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny, and other radio work around the area. At that time, Blanc had repeatedly tried to get an audition with Warner Bros. as a voice actor, but to no success. Then fate stepped in, and when the manager who kept shutting the door on Blanc passed away in 1936, his replacement gave Blanc a chance and ended up hiring him. His first project for Warner Bros., Picador Porky, saw Blanc voice a drunken bull and was then approached to replace the actor who had provided Porky Pig's voice (per Encyclopedia). Picador Porky, released in 1937, was not only Blanc's first cartoon for Warner but is where he improvised and originated the iconic "Th-uh-th-uh-th-that's all, folks!" Daffy Duck would appear the same year, and in 1940, Blanc helped create Bugs Bunny, the character he would be the most closely associated with throughout his career.

Bugs Bunny Saves Mel Blanc After a Serious Car Accident

The rest, as they say, is history. Britannica cites that Blanc created voices for an estimated 90 percent of the Looney Tunes characters, propelling Blanc to worldwide adulation. Then came January 1961, and the fateful accident that sent Blanc to the hospital. Blanc had finished a recording session in San Francisco and was driving home in his sports car, heading eastbound on Sunset Boulevard, when a college kid smashed into him directly at the infamous "Dead Man's Curve." Blanc was unconscious when he was eventually pried from the wreckage, and the news wasn't good. Blanc had suffered head injuries, a broken pelvis, two broken legs, and a host of other broken bones. Blanc was in a coma for 14 days. Dr. Louis Conway, the neurosurgeon attending to Blanc, and Blanc's family, would try calling out his name, but to no avail. They feared the worst, as did Blanc's fans around the world.

Interestingly, this is where Bugs Bunny cartoons link to the story. The television in Blanc's hospital room was on and happened to be playing a Bugs Bunny cartoon when Dr. Conway came into the room. Whether by coincidence or divine intervention, the timing gave the doctor an idea. A loony idea, one might say. Noel Blanc, Blanc's son, recounts what happened next in an interview with Fox News: "So finally, he [the doctor] said, 'Bugs, can you hear me?' Believe it or not – and I was there with my mom – he responds in character, 'Yeah, what’s up doc?' I was stunned. He recuperated and even took on jobs while wearing a full-body cast"

Mel Blanc Continued Working to the End

In the years following his accident, Blanc continued providing voices for his vast array of cartoon characters, among other endeavors. Blanc's son joined Mel Blanc Associates at the age of 22, an advertising agency Blanc had started just before his accident with former Warner Bros. executive producer John Burton (as per the previously cited Encyclopedia). In 1972, Blanc opened the Mel Blanc School of Commercials, where students could take courses on radio and television voiceovers, commercial acting principles, and more. The school, however, shut down after two years due to costs. In 1988, Blanc lent his voice to the Looney Tunes characters that appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the highly successful live-action/animation hybrid film. That would be the last film Blanc worked on that was released while he was still alive, with Blanc passing away at 81 years old on July 10, 1989.

The legacy Blanc left behind is astounding in scope. He helped develop many Looney Tunes characters. And engraved on his tombstone are the words that Blanc first uttered in 1937, and the "last words he ever said on-camera or off-camera": "That's All, Folks."

Looney Tunes is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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