The reason why i choose Walter Lantz is because he gave my children-hood and of millions of children s around the world a colorful gift, obnoxious, annoying, sometimes goofy-looking gift, i am talking about the Woodpecker
Walter Benjamin Lantz was born in April 27, 1899, before unleashing the world`s most destructive force, Walter worked as auto-mechanic. Interested on arts since his early days Walter did a mail order drawing class when he was still a children.
It`s was a wealth client that saw Walter drawing on the garage bulletin booard, that founded Walter studies, the name of the client is Fred Kafka, he also hepeld Walter land a job.
Lantz married actress Grace Stafford, on the couple honeymoon Walter and his wife were
Interrupted by a annoying little bird pecking on their roof
Grace suggested to Walter to use their new little friend as inspiration.
What happened is that the character simply named Woodpecker didn`t wanted to be a simple co-star to Andy Panda, and simple stole the show, becoming the face of Walter Lantz studio and the face the artist will be remembered forever.
In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered to do Woody's voice; however, Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own anonymous audition tape, and submitted it to the studio. Not knowing who was behind the voice he heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice for Woody Woodpecker.
Grace supplied Woody's voice until the end of production in 1972, and also performed in non-Woody cartoons. At first, Grace voiced Woody without screen credit, thinking that it would disappoint child viewers to know that Woody Woodpecker was voiced by a woman. However, she soon came to enjoy being known as the voice of Woody Woodpecker, and allowed her name to be credited on the screen. Her version of Woody was cuter and friendlier than the manic Woody of the 1940s, and Lantz's artists redesigned the character to suit the new personality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lantz
