Don Messick Travels Across the Pond

I've got one last post to finish off July, and I think I may have saved the best for last. Below is an English newspaper article focused on Don Messick. As his son Tim mentioned in my interview with him, Don made a lot of overseas visits in his later years to children's hospitals and similar locations. During such occasions, Messick shared his many character voices, and entertained children with his ventriloquist abilities. I was never fortunate enough to meet Mr. Messick, but stories like these really show that he was just as sweet and kind as many who worked with him over the years say he was. I hope you enjoy this piece, which ran in the Medway News on November 14th, 1986. And before you say anything, yes, the list of characters the paper claims Messick voices is...let's just say "questionable."

Scooby in the Priory

    Handicapped youngsters in Strood were delighted by a visit from their favorite cartoon characters.
    Fifty children at Ravenswood Priory were able to talk to Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Hong Kong Phooey, Papa Smurf, Penelope Pitstop, Dastardly and Muttley. And they are all the product of one man's voice box. 

    Don Messick, who is the voice behind more than 30 cartoons, was starting a two-week tour of Spastics Society day centres around the country with his children's show.
    He ran through his most famous characters and also did a ventriloquist act with his Papa Smurf puppet.
    The children at the day centre for the handicapped were captivated by Don's ability to switch back and forth between characters.
    Don's visit was organized by Medway Area Care Project, which works under the auspices of The Spastics Society. It holds play days every school holiday for children who are mentally or physically handicapped.

Just as Messick enjoyed entertaining children, it looks like the media in England enjoyed interviewing the voice-acting veteran. In 1984, he appeared on the popular British children's program Blue Peter, as evidenced by this blurb below. He'd appear during a segment on ITV News a decade later. I'd share one of these in this post, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like they're available online. If I had a nickel for every Don Messick TV interview I knew of but couldn't find, I'd be rich! Well, not quite, but you get the picture.