Profile: Dayton Allen

[tv star collector]

Long before Robin Williams or Jim Carrey made their marks upon the world of entertainment, there was another rubber-faced, frenetic comedian whose versatility in voice-overs and improvisation helped define the era of children's television in the medium's embryonic stage.

Dayton Allen will probably be remembered most for the roles he played on the groundbreaking children's show HOWDY DOODY in the 1940s and '50s, but cartoon fanatics remember Allen not only as the voices of smart-mouthed, trouble-making magpies Heckle and Jeckle and the slow-witted crime fighter Deputy Dawg in the Terrytoons shorts of the 1960s, but also as MILTON THE MONSTER's eccentric Professor Weirdo.

Dayton Allen Bolke made his first appearance on Sept. 24, 1919, in New York City. In 1939, he got a break when New York radio station WINS hired him to do his own radio show. Hoping to recreate the success of his stint at WINS, Allen began making the rounds, trying to break into a radio series. However, steady work was not easy to come by. Luckily for Allen, a new form of
entertainment was on the horizon. In 1948, the Dumont television network hired Allen to work on a children's puppet show entitled THE OKY DOKY RANCH. Not only did Allen provide the voice for Oky Doky, he was expected to operate the puppet as well. Allen was only with the show for
a few months when the new TV division of NBC lured him away to voice and operate puppets for their children's program, THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW. Allen proved to be an integral part of the show. Not only did he master the art of puppetry, bringing life to such characters as the ever-cantankerous Phineas T. Bluster, his brother Don Jose Bluster, the Inspector, and
Buffalo Bob's ambiguous pet Flub-a-Dub (who possessed the body parts of seven different animals), he also performed several on-camera characters such as Ugly Sam the wrestler, Sir Archibald the explorer, Lanky Lou the cowhand, and Pierre the chef.

He left the series in 1953 and took a job on the first interactive TV series, WINKY DINK AND YOU, in which he worked with veteran cartoon voice-over actress Mae Questel (best known as the voices of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in the Max Fleischer cartoons). WINKY DINK consisted of live-action sketches interspersed with primitive animated segments in which the kids at home could help Winky Dink out of seemingly impossible situations by drawing
escape routes directly onto the television by using a plastic screen. The show ran on CBS for four years.

Allen got what he considered to be his biggest break in 1958 when he co-starred with Steve Allen. Allen is quick to point out, however, that his employment with Steve Allen was not a case of nepotism. He quipped, "As far as my relationship to Steve: we are related, but not to each other."

From THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, Dayton jumped to another popular children's show. His old friend Bob Keeshan, who had played Clarabell the Clown on THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW, had started his own series called CAPTAIN KANGAROO. It was an immediate hit across the nation and when he needed talent to voice cartoon segments on the show, Allen got the call. The 1962 Adventures of Lariat Sam, produced by Terrytoons specifically for the series, featured the title character and his faithful horse Tippy-Toes. Allen voiced all
the characters in the show and, having previously worked for Terrytoons in 1960 as the voice of Deputy Dawg, was a favorite of the producers at the studio, who hired him for subsequent cartoons, including the 1965 ASTRONUT SHOW, aside from their long-running series HECKLE & JECKLE.

In 1965, Allen moved on to work for Hal Seegar Productions on their cartoon series MILTON THE MONSTER. Allen played Professor Weirdo, a mad scientist who, by adding too much tenderness to the mix while creating a monster, ends up with Milton, a creature with a southern accent, more resembling Gomer Pyle than Frankenstein. MILTON lasted until 1967, but by the late 1960s Allen had started to move away from show business; following in his father's footsteps to become a real estate agent.

In 1970, he briefly returned to television, joining the cast of the offbeat live-
action Saturday morning series LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP, a GET SMART
spoof. Allen provided the voice of the title character.

[THE MAGIC BEHIND THE VOICES, by Tim Lawson & Alisa Persons (2004)]

P.S. Dayton Allen died on Nov. 11, 2004, of a stroke, in Hendersonville, N.C.
He was 85.

For further reading, I recommend WHATEVER BECAME OF ...? (9th edition), by Richard Lamparski (1985).

[Trivia note #1: On THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, Dayton once ad-libbed the
response "Whyyyy not?" and it quickly became a popular catch-phrase.
There was a comedy album by Dayton Allen titled WHY NOT? and a book
and a board game. There was even a town named Why Not?]

[Trivia note #2: Among Dayton's TV guest appearances was his role as the
nearsighted doctor examining Eddie's throat in THE MUNSTERS episode
"Operation Herman" (first aired Oct. 28, 1965). Yes, in that episode, Allen
utters his famous catch-phrase "Whyyyy not?"]

[Trivia note #3: Dayton's brother is Bradley Bolke, the voice of Chumley
the Walrus on TENNESSEE TUXEDO.]

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...had very similar vocal patterns. In fact, both worked for Paul Terry's studio at one point {although not at the same time; Dayton was there from 1946 through '51, and again at "CBS Terrytoons" from 1960 through '66. Bradley's voice(s) can be heard in at least one 1954 Mighty Mouse cartoon, "The Reformed Wolf"}.

[tv star collector]

I didn't know that. But, since they were brothers, that isn't too surprising.

Bradley was also heard as The Ghostly Trio on The New Casper Cartoon
Show, which first aired on ABC in 1963.