Bob Welbaum: A Personal Tribute to Wayne Allwine
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I wish I would�ve known, but I understand why I didn�t.
There is no more helpless feeling that hearing someone you respect and admire is terminally ill, unless it is suddenly hearing you�ve lost them forever. Such was the case with Wayne Allwine, longtime (32 years) official voice of Mickey Mouse and Emmy-winning sound-effects editor. I�ve seen him and his wife, fellow voice artist Russi Taylor (the official voice of Minnie Mouse), at enough conventions that I call them my friends. And I think they know me; they�ve always greeted me as if they did, anyway.
It seems like I always figure it out after it�s too late. I remember seeing Wayne at Disneyland�s 50th Anniversary celebration, making the obligatory rounds to the media tables with Russi, and I realized he was in a mobility cart. Then the last time I�d seen him was at the 2007 NFFC Convention, and I couldn�t help noticing how frail he looked. But I was not overly concerned; I�m aging myself, just like I�d assumed he was.
When I�d heard he had died, I realized how little I actually knew about Wayne. My mind was immediately flooded with questions. He was a diabetic? When was his life in danger? What was being done for him? Did they know there was reason for concern when he appeared in 2007? Then I could have said something to him, anything, at least to alleviate my own feelings of helplessness. I wish I would�ve known�
Of course, it doesn�t work that way. The spotlight is always on Mickey, not the people who bring him to life. Any announcement, any news about a human voice would�ve punctured Mickey�s aura, and Wayne & Russi were too astute, too professional to do that. So as much as I would�ve liked to have known more about Wayne�s health, I also understand why I didn�t know, why I couldn�t know. Besides, Wayne already knew how we all felt about him.
So I�m writing this as a tribute to Wayne in a very personal way, my own contribution to the celebration of a life well led. It�s interspersed with quotations from Wayne himself, taken from his many public appearances that I�ve gleaned from my videos recorded over the years. After all, his own words will tell us more about how he viewed his craft much better than I ever can.
�I was in doing sound effects with Jimmy Macdonald [Mickey�s voice at that time]. Jimmy took off on his boat. They were having open auditions for the role. I had promised Jimmy that I would never go after his work, and I meant that sincerely. Bob Jackman, who was head of the music department, who had also voiced Goofy during the time when Pinto [Colvig] had left, Bob said �Go on down and audition.� We went round and round for about five minutes. And he said �Look, okay, I promise you they�ll never use you. Just go down and audition.� So I could do that.
�And I went downstairs, auditioned from what I remembered Mickey sounding like. What was I, 18? Nineteen? Eighteen, and I�d last seen �The Mickey Mouse Club� like when I was 11, I think? So it had been a few years, but it was all just memory. I don�t recall particularly seeing all the shorts. They weren�t available on videotape or DVD at the time.
�So I went in, from memory, and auditioned and thanked everybody. That was really cool! I figured I could put it on the family tree: �once auditioned for Mickey Mouse�. And a few months later Lou Debney stopped me, on Mickey Avenue, and said �They�re gonna use you, kid, you gotta join SAG� [Screen Actors Guild].�
--2007 NFFC Convention
My first NFFC convention was 1988. I could�ve gone in 1987, but had a heavy business travel schedule and couldn�t get excited about another trip to the West Coast, no matter what the reason. Of course, then I wondered what I had missed for the rest of that year, and in 1988 resolved to go no matter what. One of the highlights was an informal evening get-together with entertainment provided by Wayne and his good friend and fellow voice artist Bill Farmer, the official voice of Goofy and Pluto. They spoke about their careers, and autographed photos. I could tell right away they loved their jobs. Bill has a greater range as a voice artist, with an amazing repertoire of impressions and characters. Wayne just did Mickey. But Wayne had an uncanny resemblance to a unique personality of that era, the gravel-voiced disc jockey Wolfman Jack. So he and Bill worked out a little skit. Wayne provided the facial expressions and gestures while Bill crouched behind him, providing a dead-on impression of the Wolfman�s voice. The complete effect was hilarious. It was about that moment that I said �I�m coming back again next year. And this time I�m bringing my video camera.�
�The most important thing to remember, a lot of people don�t understand this, especially casting directors in town, is voice actors are actors. What we do with our voices most people do on the screen. That�s why you don�t see a lot of voice actors cast in television or films because they consider us �just a voice�. And yet what we do is every bit as strong and requires every bit as many acting skills as any actor on TV.�
-- 1990 NFFC Convention