Stan Freberg

Biography

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 still remains an active force in radio and satire, and as 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.