HOLLYWOOD -- It makes 74-year-old show business veteran Jean VanderPyl happy when people recognize her voice, but not her face.
VanderPyl has been the voice of TV's Wilma Flintstone for 33 years, among other Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon figures.
'But Wilma is my favorite,' VanderPyl says. 'I feel a lot of love coming from fans everywhere. People all around the world tell me they thought of Wilma as a second mother while they were growing up. That makes me real proud of her.
'Friends have told me I'm part Wilma. Maybe so. I feel right at home with her.
'I also play Baby Pebbles on 'The Flinstones,' but I don't use any of my voices except when I'm working.'
Before TV became a household entertainment center, VanderPyl enjoyeda 20-year radio career, playing characters on 'Amos 'n' Andy' and 'Fibber McGee and Molly' among a host of others.
'In the '30s during the depression we were paid only $5 per show,' she said. 'But we got as much as $7.50 for big ones like 'Calling All Cars!' The best deal was 'Hollywood Hotel,' which paid $25 a week.'
She worked anonymously with some of Hollywood's biggest stars on the old 'Lux Radio Theater' and other dramatic series.
VanderPyl was known as the soap queen of radio for the number of commercials she did for hand care and laundry proucts for such labels as Palm-Olive, White King and Lux.
She said, 'On radio I was Mary Aldrich in 'The Aldrich Family;' Fanny Brice's school teacher on 'Baby Snooks;' and several characters on 'The Joan Davis Show' with Jim Backus.
'For three years I played one of Andy's girlfriends on 'Amos and Andy.' The one I liked most was Margaret Anderson opposite Robert Young in 'Father Knows Best.' When it became a TV series they hired Jane Wyatt for the role.'
It was Hanna-Barbera in 1957 who discovered VanderPyl's versatility for TV's animated shows.
'My first job for them was Mrs. Creeply on 'The Snooper and Blabbermouth' cartoon,' she recalled the other day. 'I made her sound like a combination of Katharine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead.
'In the early days Joe (Barbera) would call and say, 'I've got this fussy little character, what voice would you do for her?' I'd give it a try and he'd tell me to come in to work.
'I played Ma Bear in a cartoon takeoff of 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' I was the voice for Winnie the Winsome Witch in 'Magilla Gorilla.' There was 'Scooby Doo' and 'Yogi Bear.' I can't remember them all.
'I did voices for 'Huckleberry Hound,' and I was Blutessa -- Bluto's sister -- on 'Popeye.'
'The closest group was on 'The Flintstones.' I'm the only surviving member of the original cast that included Alan Reed as Fred Flintstone. Mel Blanc played Barney Rubble and Bea Benaderet, my friend, was the voice of Betty Rubble.
'I played Wilma again earlier this month in 'A Flintstone's Family Christmas' and 'Hollyrock-A-Bye Baby.''NEWLN: more
As the years roll by VanderPyl finds it a little more difficult to hit the high registers for childish voices such as Baby Pebbles, but she has no trouble with middle and lower registers.
'My voice has grown deeper with the years,' she said, laughing. 'But I can still do Rosie, the robot maid on 'The Jetsons.' Rosie is probably the most fun voice I do. She's kind of a mechanical 'Hazel' -- remember that show?'
VanderPyl has appeared on camera in several feature movies and on TV from time to time, but she failed to establish the sort of career she enjoyed in radio and animation.
She says the one important advantage in being heard but not seen is working with script in hand and speaking into a microphone, eliminating the necessity of memorizing lines.
'It's a funny thing,' she said, 'in animation if you work for one studio you seldom work for another. That's why I stayed with Hanna- Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. and the others wouldn't hire me.
'But I did audition to play Bambi's mother at Disney in 1937. I was just 17 and they told me I sounded too young. I had just graduated from Beverly Hills High School. The director told me, 'You're good, but you don't have the maternal quality. You should go home and have a baby.
'Animation was a long, slow process. By the time they finished 'Bambi' I had three children.
'I've loved working with interesting and famous people. It's gratifying in my mature years to continue working. And it's nice to know that Wilma and 'The Flintstones' are known all over the world.
'I hope my health holds up and I can continue to use my voice. I've done little babies and old grandmothers and everything in between. Hundreds of voices in all.
'It's a amusing to become my age and have people recognize Wilma's voice but not Jean VanderPyl's.'NEWLN:
It makes 74-year-old show business veteran Jean VanderPyl happy when people recognize her voice, but not her face.
VanderPyl has been the voice of TV's Wilma Flintstone for 33 years, among other Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon figures.
'But Wilma is my favorite,' VanderPyl says. 'I feel a lot of love coming from fans everywhere. People all around the world tell me they thought of Wilma as a second mother while they were growing up. That makes me real proud of her.
'Friends have told me I'm part Wilma. Maybe so. I feel right at home with her.
'I also play Baby Pebbles on 'The Flinstones,' but I don't use any of my voices except when I'm working.'
Before TV became a household entertainment center, VanderPyl enjoyed a 20-year radio career, playing characters on 'Amos 'n' Andy' and 'Fibber McGee and Molly' among a host of others.
'In the '30s during the depression we were paid only $5 per show,' she said. 'But we got as much as $7.50 for big ones like 'Calling All Cars!' The best deal was 'Hollywood Hotel,' which paid $25 a week.'
She worked anonymously with some of Hollywood's biggest stars on the old 'Lux Radio Theater' and other dramatic series.
VanderPyl was known as the soap queen of radio for the number of commercials she did for hand care and laundry proucts for such labels as Palm-Olive, White King and Lux.
She said, 'On radio I was Mary Aldrich in 'The Aldrich Family;' Fanny Brice's school teacher on 'Baby Snooks;' and several characters on 'The Joan Davis Show' with Jim Backus.
'For three years I played one of Andy's girlfriends on 'Amos and Andy.' The one I liked most was Margaret Anderson opposite Robert Young in 'Father Knows Best.' When it became a TV series they hired Jane Wyatt for the role.'
It was Hanna-Barbera in 1957 who discovered VanderPyl's versatility for TV's animated shows.
'My first job for them was Mrs. Creeply on 'The Snooper and Blabbermouth' cartoon,' she recalled the other day. 'I made her sound like a combination of Katharine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead.
'In the early days Joe (Barbera) would call and say, 'I've got this fussy little character, what voice would you do for her?' I'd give it a try and he'd tell me to come in to work.
'I played Ma Bear in a cartoon takeoff of 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' I was the voice for Winnie the Winsome Witch in 'Magilla Gorilla.' There was 'Scooby Doo' and 'Yogi Bear.' I can't remember them all.
'I did voices for 'Huckleberry Hound,' and I was Blutessa -- Bluto's sister -- on 'Popeye.'
'The closest group was on 'The Flintstones.' I'm the only surviving member of the original cast that included Alan Reed as Fred Flintstone. Mel Blanc played Barney Rubble and Bea Benaderet, my friend, was the voice of Betty Rubble.
'I played Wilma again earlier this month in 'A Flintstone's Family Christmas' and 'Hollyrock-A-Bye Baby.''
As the years roll by VanderPyl finds it a little more difficult to hit the high registers for childish voices such as Baby Pebbles, but she has no trouble with middle and lower registers.
'My voice has grown deeper with the years,' she said, laughing. 'But I can still do Rosie, the robot maid on 'TheJetsons.' Rosie is probably the most fun voice I do. She's kind of a mechanical 'Hazel' -- remember that show?'
VanderPyl has appeared on camera in several feature movies and on TV from time to time, but she failed to establish the sort of career she enjoyed in radio and animation.
She says the one important advantage in being heard but not seen is working with script in hand and speaking into a microphone, eliminating the necessity of memorizing lines.
'It's a funny thing,' she said, 'in animation if you work for one studio you seldom work for another. That's why I stayed with Hanna- Barbera. Disney and Warner Bros. and the others wouldn't hire me.
'But I did audition to play Bambi's mother at Disney in 1937. I was just 17 and they told me I sounded too young. I had just graduated from Beverly Hills High School. The director told me, 'You're good, but you don't have the maternal quality. You should go home and have a baby.
'Animation was a long, slow process. By the time they finished 'Bambi' I had three children.
'I've loved working with interesting and famous people. It's gratifying in my mature years to continue working. And it's nice to know that Wilma and 'The Flintstones' are known all over the world.
'I hope my health holds up and I can continue to use my voice. I've done little babies and old grandmothers and everything in between. Hundreds of voices in all.
'It's a amusing to become my age and have people recognize Wilma's voice but not Jean VanderPyl's.'NEWLN:
