Pinto Colvig

Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), known professionally as Pinto Colvig, was an American actor, animator, cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer. He was best known for being the original performer of the Disney characters Goofy and Pluto, as well as Bozo the Clown and Bluto in Popeye. In 1993, he was posthumously made a Disney Legend for his contributions to Walt Disney Films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fun and Fancy Free. His schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging.

Early life Vance DeBar Colvig was born on September 11, 1892, in Jacksonville, Oregon. His father was William Mason "Judge" Colvig (1845–1936) and his mother was Adelaide ( Birdseye) Colvig (1856–1912). He was the youngest of their seven children.

William Colvig was a pioneer, an attorney and a distinguished Oregonian; he was never actually a judge. Pinto attended but did not graduate from Medford High School. Pinto was accepted and attended, sporadically from 1910 to 1913, Oregon State University, in Corvallis, where he took art classes and played clarinet in the band. He drew cartoons for the Oregon Agricultural College Barometer newspaper, and the yearbook.

I was born in Jacksonville and named Vance DeBar Colvig. At age 7 (because of too many freckles, and goony antics) I was nicknamed 'Pinto the Village Clown' (which I have used professionally during my circus and other show business activities, besides occasional jobs as a newspaper cartoonist.— "'Pinto' Colvig Writes About Names, History of Clowning", Medford Mail Tribune, July 12, 1961.

Career

In 1913, Colvig worked the Pantages Theatre Circuit, briefly, before leaving for clarinetist in the Al G. Barnes Circus band for part of a season.

Colvig performed chalk talks in vaudeville.

In 1919, Pinto produced "Pinto's Prizma Comedy Review," the first color cartoon. It is now considered a lost film.

In 1922, Colvig created a newspaper cartoon panel titled "Life on the Radio Wave" for the San Francisco Chronicle. The feature ran three or four times per week on the newspaper's radio page, was syndicated nationally, and lasted six months. In 1922, Colvig and his family moved to Hollywood, working as an animator, title writer and comedian in silent comedies and on sound cartoons,

In 1930, Colvig signed an eight-year contract Other notable characters he voiced include Practical Pig, the pig that built the "house of bricks" in the Disney short "Three Little Pigs", and both Grumpy and Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He directed (along with Erdman Penner and Walt Pfeiffer) the 1937 Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Amateurs. Colvig was associated with Disney for most of his career.

After a falling out with Walt Disney, Colvig did not work for the Disney studio between 1939 and 1943. He was offered a job with Fleischer Studios, then planning to produce a competing feature-length animated film in the wake of Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He moved to Miami, then Fleischer's location, in early 1938.

For Fleischer, Colvig worked on 1939's Gulliver's Travels, for which he voiced town crier Gabby, who was spun off into his own short-lived series. He also voiced Bluto for the studio's Popeye the Sailor cartoons, replacing Gus Wickie, who elected to remain in New York rather than move to Miami when the studio relocated. Colvig's departure from Disney meant that the increasingly popular Goofy went voiceless for several years. A select few shorts during the interim period of leave featured a soundalike voice for Goofy provided by Jack Bailey.

Colvig began working in radio, providing voices and sound effects, including the sounds of Jack Benny's Maxwell car for The Jack Benny Program, later performed by Mel Blanc.

In 1939, Colvig returned to California, and began to devote himself to acting and doing voices in several cartoons for the Warner Bros. animation studio and for MGM, where he voiced a Munchkin in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

In 1946, Colvig was cast as Bozo the Clown for Capitol Records. He played the role for a decade, which also included portraying the character on television. During this period, Colvig also recorded the "Filbert the Frog" song, which featured Colvig's virtuoso use of the glottal stop as a musical instrument in itself.

In 1967, Colvig's last known performance, as Goofy, was for the Telephone Pavilion at Expo 67. Colvig's dialogue for this exhibit was recorded six months before his death.

Personal life Colvig married Margaret Bourke Slavin (1892–1950) in 1916, and settled with her in San Francisco, where four of their five boys were born. After Margaret died in 1950, Colvig married his second wife Peggy Bernice Allaire in January 1952, they remained married until Colvig's death in 1967.

Colvig was the father of the character and voice actor Vance Colvig, who also later portrayed Bozo the Clown on a live TV program.

A lifelong smoker, Colvig was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages in the United States.

Death Colvig died of lung cancer on October 3, 1967, at Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, at age 75. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. His grave remained unmarked for years until Colvig's descendants, his great-granddaughter and Arthur Dark, designed his marker and placed his headstone respectively in 2020.

Filmography

Discography Bozo At The Circus (Capitol, 1946) as Bozo the Clown Mickey and the Beanstalk (Capitol, 1947) as Goofy Here Comes...Colonna's Trolley (Capitol, 1947) as Bozo the Clown The Grasshopper And The Ants (Capitol, 1949) as The Grasshopper Bozo on The Farm (Capitol, 1950) as Goofy Bozo At The Dog Show (Capitol, 1954) as Goofy, Pluto, Grumpy, Practical Pig, Cleo Walt Disney's Song Parade from Disneyland (Golden, 1956) as Goofy Mickey and the Beanstalk (Disneyland, 1963) as Goofy Children's Riddles and Game Songs (Disneyland, 1964) as Goofy (speaking voice only)