Stan Freberg was a very funny man. I first wrote about him in 2003.
He was part of the original Time for Beany, a local Los Angeles TV hand puppet show, which was immensely popular locally in 1949, and then went national from 1950 to 1955. Albert Einstein loved it. So did Groucho Marx.
He did comedy skits on records, beginning with John and Marsha in 1951.
He did some of the most clever TV ads for half a century. He ran his own ad agency, Freberg, Ltd. (But Not Very). The company’s motto was “Ars Gratia Pecuniae” (Latin for “art for money’s sake”).
In 1961, he produced the classic comedy album, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume 1. It was a musical. The ensemble included Jesse White, who five years later became the original lonely Maytag repairman, and the great June Foray, the voice of Rocky the flying squirrel. She died at age 99 this year. Freberg died in 2015.
This is his version of the first Thanksgiving. It was all about politics and token diversity.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
