Allen Swift (1924-2010)

[tv star collector]

Word has reached us that the legendary voice actor and kids' show host Allen Swift has died at the age of 86. A whole generation of children who grew up in New York knew him as Captain Allen Swift, host of the Popeye cartoons (and others) on WPIX in late fifties, and for years, he was probably the most prolific mimic and performer of funny voices in that part of the country. His cartoon credits included Underdog (he was the villainous Simon Bar-Sinister), King Leonardo (he was Odie Cologne, Itchy Brother and Tooter Turtle) and the movie, Mad Monster Party. He did hundreds of commercials, cartoons, on-camera appearances and even a few jobs on Broadway...but some will always hail him as the man who saved Howdy Doody.

He did that twice. In 1952, the host "Buffalo" Bob Smith fired several of the performers in a salary dispute, thereby rendering many of the show's recurring characters speechless since the actors who played them were gone. Allen Swift came to the rescue, assuming those roles and he was soon dubbing most of the key players of Doodyville...all except for Howdy. Bob Smith himself would pre-record the voice of Howdy. Smith had done it himself in the show's earliest days when the budget wouldn't allow for another actor. He kept doing it after that because the voice was established and they were convinced no one could replicate it.

Then in 1954, Smith had a heart attack and was off the show for many months. Again, it was Swift to the rescue. Allen took records home over a weekend, learned to do the voice and thereafter supplied it so Howdy could continue to appear on Howdy Doody. In fact, Swift did it so well that when Buffalo Bob returned to the program, Swift continued to speak for the star of the show.

These are just a few of the staggering number of credits in the career of Allen Swift. He leaves behind an amazing legacy of work...and a lineage that is carried on by his gifted son, Broadway star Lewis J. Stadlen. Talent sure ran in that family.

• Posted by Mark Evanier Sunday, April 18, 20

[I must make one correction to Mark's post. As Buffalo Bob Smith points out, in his autobiography
Howdy and Me, he never "fired" anyone: " ... I couldn't have fired them---inasmuch as their employer was NBC, not Bob Smith ..."]

[catlover79]

[howilu]

I remember Allen Swift as a prolific voice artist, including Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff in the Underdog cartoons and Odie Cologne and Tooter Turtle on King Leonardo. May he rest in peace.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

....he took the name "Allen Swift" when he went into radio and TV in the early '50s. He did record a lot of radio and TV commercials. One of them was a famous "Beech-Nut Gum" radio spot announcement in the early '60s, where he was a crew member to "Christopher Columbus":

CREW MEMBER: Hey, Columbus, we can't turn back without an order from you!
COLUMBUS: I'm not talking while the flavor lasts!
CREW MEMBER: What're you chewin'?
COLUMBUS: Beech-Nut Gum!
CREW MEMBER: We could be in for a long voyage....

He also provided voices for Gene Deitch's "Terrytoons" in the late '50s (including the "Clint Clobber" series), and some of his "Tom & Jerry" cartoons for MGM in 1961-'62 [recording his voice tracks while visiting his old friend Gene in Czechoslovakia], the most famous being his narration for "The Tom & Jerry Cartoon Kit" {"The results may not make sense, but will allow you to be comfortably seated before the feature begins"}.

[70s show watcher]

i remember him as the talking sink in the drano ads of the 70s and 80s r i p

[tv star collector]

Here's the seldom-seen face behind all those voices ...