Editing Thurl Ravenscroft (section)

==Early life and career==
Ravenscroft left his native [[Norfolk, Nebraska]], in 1933 for [[California]], where he studied at Otis Art Institute. In 1939, he joined a singing group formed by tenor Bill Days called The Sportsmen: Days, Johnny Rarig, Max Smith, and Ravenscroft. They served as backup singers to vocalist Marie Greene on the [[Okeh Records|Okeh]] record label (credited as "Marie Greene and Her Merry Men"). The quartet also contributed to a Disney feature, ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' (1940), singing "Honest John". This was deleted from the film, but can still be heard in the supplements on the 2009 DVD. 

The group, billed as The Four Merry Men, appeared in three-minute musical films, produced in 1941 by the Featurettes company, for coin-operated jukeboxes.<ref> [[Scott MacGillivray]] and [[Ted Okuda]], ''The Soundies Book'', iUniverse, 2007, p. 380.</ref> That same year the Four Merry Men left Featurettes for the more successful [[Soundies]] company, and made more jukebox musicals; they were now billing themselves as "The Four Sportsmen".<ref> MacGillivray and Okuda, p. 95.</ref> They were also very popular on radio and in live nightclub appearances. 

In 1942, Thurl Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen quartet to serve in the armed forces. He served as a keeper [[flight officer|navigator]] contracted to the [[Air Transport Command (United States Air Force)|U.S. Air Transport Command]], spending five years flying [[courier]] missions across the north and south [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]. Among the notables carried on board his flights were [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Bob Hope]]. As he told an interviewer: "I flew Winston Churchill to a conference in Algiers and flew Bob Hope to the troops a couple of times. So it was fun."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Heintjes |first1=Tom |url=http://cartoonician.com/hes-grrrrreat-the-thurl-ravenscroft-interview/ |title=He's Grrrrreat! The Thurl Ravenscroft Interview |website=Hogan's Alley |access-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405052421/http://cartoonician.com/hes-grrrrreat-the-thurl-ravenscroft-interview/ |archive-date=April 5, 2013 |date=November 14, 2012}}</ref>

When he returned from the service, he found that his place in The Sportsmen had been taken by bass singer Gurney Bell, and Bell was unwilling to relinquish the job to Ravenscroft. Undaunted, Ravenscroft formed his own quartet, [[The Mellomen]].<ref> Thurl Ravenscroft to Mark Voger, ''Asbury Park Press'', Nov. 12, 2002, p. 153.</ref> The Mellomen contributed to other Disney films, such as ''[[Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'' and ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]''. The group appeared on camera in a few episodes of the [[Disney anthology television series]]; in one instance recording a canine chorus for ''Lady and the Tramp'' and in another as a [[barbershop quartet]] that reminds [[Walt Disney]] of the name of the young newspaper reporter ''Gallagher''. Ravenscroft sang bass on [[Rosemary Clooney]]'s "[[This Ole House]]", which went to No.&nbsp;1 in both the United States and Britain in 1954, as well as [[Stuart Hamblen]]'s original version of that same song. He sang on the soundtrack for [[Ken Clark (actor)|Ken Clark]] as "Stewpot" in ''[[South Pacific (1958 film)|South Pacific]]'', one of the top-selling albums of the 1950s. He also backed [[The DeCastro Sisters]] on their 1955 top 20 hit, "Boom Boom Boomerang."<ref>{{Cite web |title=1955 HITS ARCHIVE: Boom Boom Boomerang - De Castro Sisters |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERA1G8jlGiI |website=[[YouTube]]| date=June 16, 2019 }}</ref> He sang "King of the River," as the character Mike Fink, on a Golden Record released in 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://disneylandrecords.com/davy-crockett/440568-p/|title=King Of The River / Yaller Yaller Gold|website=Disneyland Records}}</ref> Singing with the [[Johnny Mann]] Singers,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bayarearadio.org/audio/ksfo/ksfo_sound-of-the-city.shtml |title=560 KSFO Radio - the Sound of the City |access-date=December 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117220824/http://bayarearadio.org/audio/ksfo/ksfo_sound-of-the-city.shtml |archive-date=January 17, 2014 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> his distinctive bass can also be heard as part of the chorus on 28 of their albums that were released during the 1960s and 1970s. He was also the bass singer on [[Bobby Vee]]'s 1960 Liberty hit record "[[Devil or Angel]]". [[Andy Williams]]' recording of "The 12 Days of Christmas" features him as well. His work with [[Spike Jones]] included singing "(I Was a) Teenage Brain Surgeon" for the 1959 album ''[[Spike Jones in Stereo]]''. 

He sang the opening songs for the two Disney serials used on ''The Mickey Mouse Club'', ''Boys of the Western Sea'' and ''The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure''.

He sang the "Twitterpatter Song" and "Thumper's Song" on the Disneyland record ''Peter Cottontail and other Funny Bunnies''.

On the Disneyland record ''All About Dragons'', he both provided the narration and sang the songs "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Loch Ness Monster".<ref>Disneyland Record "All About Dragons", DQ-1301.</ref>

His voice was heard during the [[Pirates of the Caribbean (attraction)|Pirates of the Caribbean]] ride as well as [[The Haunted Mansion]] at [[Disneyland]] as Uncle Theodore, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the cemetery near the end of the ride.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://365daysofmagic.com/history/listen-to-the-unmistakable-voice-of-thurl-ravenscroft |title=Listen to the Unmistakable Voice of Thurl Ravenscroft |website=365 Days of Magic |access-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104122100/http://365daysofmagic.com/history/listen-to-the-unmistakable-voice-of-thurl-ravenscroft |archive-date=November 4, 2013 |date=June 6, 2013}}</ref> He also played the Narrator in ''[[A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion|The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion]]''. Ravenscroft is also heard in the [[Enchanted Tiki Room]] as the voice of Fritz the [[Animatronics]] parrot, as well as the tree-like Tangaroa tiki god in the pre-show outside the attraction. He was also the voice of the Disneyland Railroad in the 1990s. Further roles include that of The First Mate on The Mark Twain Riverboat, a spokesalien for Tokyo Disneyland's Pan Galactic Pizza Port restaurant, and the American bison head named Buff at The Country Bear Jamboree.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://disney.go.com/disneyinsider/history/legends/thurl-ravenscroft|title=Insider - Oh My Disney|website=Oh My Disney}}</ref>