- Born
- Died
- Birth nameStanley Victor Friberg
- Nickname
- Father of the Funny Commercial
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Stan Freberg grew up in Los Angeles, California. From an early age he was a big fan of radio and sound. He was blessed with the double abilities of being an amazing mimic and possessing a razor-sharp satirical mind. In the early 1940s he began to do voice work for both the Warner Brothers' cartoons (some of his characters included Junyer Bear and one half of the Goofy Gophers) and radio (he worked on both "The Jack Benny Show" and "Suspense"). When Robert Clampett left Warners, he worked with Freberg to co-create the puppet show Time for Beany (1949). In the early 1950s Freberg began making a series of satirical records, mostly aimed at the still-new genre of rock and roll. He became one of the first comedians to produce an album.
As non-music radio began dying off in popularity at the end of the 1950s, Freberg found a new niche in the world of advertising. He wrote, performed and produced a series of radio spots that are still talked about today; several of his commercials have been enshrined in both the Museum of Radio & Television and the Smithsonian.
Freberg continued being an active force in radio and satire, and was a living inspiration to many modern comics ('Weird Al' Yankovic credits Freberg as the main reason he got into comedy). For example, Freberg was the voice of the syndicated radio program "When Radio Was" from 1995 until October 6, 2006 when Chuck Schaden took over as host.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike Konczewski - Composer, singer, actor, author, comedian and advertising executive. He joined the Special Services during World War II, and was attached to the Medical Corps. In 1949 he developed the "Time for Beany" puppet series for KTLA in Los Angeles, California, and did voices for UPA cartoon characters and Walt Disney films. In the waning days of network radio, he produced "The Stan Freberg Show", and also wrote radio and television commercials, including one for Butternut Coffee (in 1959) that was performed by the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. His memberships include ASCAP (1959) and the National Society of Art Directors, where he won the Gold Medal. Also, he has won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival. His advertising firm is Freberg, Ltd. in Hollywood. His popular-song compositions include "John and Marsha" (he did both voices), "St. George and the Dragonet", "Little Blue Riding Hood", "Omaha", "Incident at Los Voraces" (Writer's Guild of America award, Comedy Radio Script, 1957-1958), "Green Christmas" and "The United States of America" (Volumes One and Two)".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
- SpousesBetty Hunter(2001 - April 7, 2015) (his death)Donna Freberg(January 24, 1959 - May 12, 2000) (her death, 2 children)
- Children
- Was the first person, besides Mel Blanc, to get a voice credit on a Looney Tunes cartoon, "The Three Little Bops". Before that, all Looney Tunes cartoons ended with the credit, "Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc", even though other voice actors often were used in addition to Blanc. However, in this particular case, Freberg did all the voices in the "Bops" cartoon and successfully argued that it was ridiculous for Blanc to take credit for work he had no part in.
- He's the one who popularized the phrase "We just want to get the facts, ma'am." on his parody album of Dragnet (1951), "St. George and the Dragonet".
- Got the idea for his classic, controversial satire on holiday commercialism, "Green Chri$tma$" (Capitol: 1958), from seeing an advertisement around Christmastime, 1957, of a family gathered around the tree, ecstatic at the sight of...four brand new snow tires. For Freberg, a Baptist minister's son, it was all too much, and he wrote the outline for the sketch that very afternoon.
- Founded advertising agency "Freberg, Ltd. (but not very)" in 1957. The company motto is "Ars gratia pecuniae" (Latin for "art for money's sake"). The seal for the company was designed by Saul Bass and pictures a real seal, wearing sunglasses.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6145 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- (on his parody of "The Great Pretender") In addition to coming out fairly funny it lampoons a musical trend that I personally loathe.
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