Colvig was born Vance DeBar Colvig in Jacksonville, Oregon, one of seven children of William Mason "Judge" Colvig (1845–1936)[1] and his wife, Adelaide (née Birdseye) Colvig (1856–1912).[2]
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,[3]Oregon State University, in Corvallis,[4] where he took art classes and played clarinet in the band.[5][6] He drew cartoons for the Oregon Agricultural College Barometer newspaper, and the yearbook.[7]
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.[8]
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.[5] In 1914 he was a newspaper cartoonist in Reno, Nevada and then in Carson City, then again clarinetist in the Al G. Barnes Circus band for part of the 1915 season.[5]
I didn't know when I was going to school whether I wanted to be a clown, draw cartoons, write, hobo, or be a musician. So I wrapped it all up and made stew out of it. — Pinto Colvig[10]
In 1916, Colvig worked at the Animated Film Corporation in San Francisco with Byington Ford and Benjamin Thackston Knight (1895–1977), aka "Tack" Knight[11] at the Animated Film Corporation, which produced animated cartoons years prior to Walt Disney.[5] The company was the oldest known studio of its kind established on the West Coast. That year Colvig at Animated Film Corporation produced "Creation," reported to be the world's first feature-length cartoon.[5] Only five 35 mm frames survive, housed at the Southern Oregon Historical Society.[10]
In 1919, Pinto produced "Pinto's Prizma Comedy Review," the first color cartoon, it is now considered a lost film,[5][10] and published in the San Francisco Bulletin (May 1919—February 1920), the "Bulletin Boob" column, and photographs.[12]
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,[13] and lasted six months.[14] In 1922, Colvig and his family moved to Hollywood, working as an animator, title writer and comedian in silent comedies and on sound cartoons,[5] working first for Mack Sennett.[10]
By the late 1920s, Colvig became associated with Walter Lantz, with whom he attempted to establish a cartoon studio, creating a character called "Bolivar, the Talking Ostrich", which would have appeared in sound shorts[citation needed]. When Lantz became producer of Universal's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons in 1929, Colvig was hired as an animator, also working as a storyman and voice artist, briefly voicing Oswald.[15]
In 1930, Colvig signed an eight-year contract[5] with Walt Disney Productions as a writer, also providing sound effects, including the barks for Pluto the Pup. The following year he began voicing Goofy, originally known as Dippy Dawg.[16] 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.[citation needed]
Between 1937 and 1940, Colvig did not work for the Disney studio, after falling out with Walt Disney. 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, moving to Miami in early 1938. For Fleischer, he 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. 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 impersonator Danny Webb, who also did the voice of Egghead in Looney Tunes.[17] He began working on radio, providing voices and sound effects, including the sounds of Jack Benny's Maxwell on The Jack Benny Program, later performed by Mel Blanc.[3][18]
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.[3][20][21][22] 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.[citation needed]
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.[23]
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. Later, their last son was born in Los Angeles.[24]
Colvig was the father of the character and voice actor Vance Colvig, who also later portrayed Bozo the Clown on a live TV program.[citation needed]
A lifelong smoker, Colvig was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages in the United States.[25]
^Canemaker, John (October 21, 1999). "Four: Ted and the Boys: Animation's First Story Department". Paper Dreams: The Art & Artists of Disney Storyboards (1st ed.). Disney Press. p. 86. ISBN978-0-7868-6307-5.
^Curler, Dawna (September 19, 2022). "Vance DeBar (Pinto) Colvig (1892-1967)". Oregon Encyclopedia. Oregon Historical Society. Retrieved September 3, 2023. A lifelong smoker, Colvig died of lung cancer in 1967, but not before helping promote awareness of smoking health hazards and supporting Oregon Senator Maurine Neuberger's bill requiring cigarette package warning labels.
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