Happy Birthday, Tom Carvel!

Born today, the much-missed ice cream entrepreneur Tom Carvel (Athanasios Karvelas, 1906-1990).

Those of a certain age RELISHED (and I mean ALL of us) Carvel’s voice-overs in his own TV and radio commercials wherein he hustled such frozen treats as Fudgy the Whale and Cookie Puss, many of which were clearly created using the same ice cream molds. I’m taking the unusual step of not telling you much about him today because my friend Heather Quinlan’s podcast documentary about him is due to drop in a few days, and I’ll link to it then for your listening pleasure, not just because I’m a fan of Heather’s because I’m IN it at as voice-over actor. I regret to say I didn’t get to perform my Tom Carvel impression (everyone used to do a Tom Carvel impression 30 years ago), but I do get to do lots of fun “newsreel announcing” in several sections.

I can point out a couple of facts, though, such as (as you see from the name above) Carvel was Greek-American, born in Athens. And he had a face to match that gravelly, halting, mush-mouthed voice. To me he looks like a sort of cross between Jimmy Durante and Keenan Wynn:

I can also divulge that Heather’s doc is not a puff piece — there’s a surprising lot of drama and controversy in the guy’s life, so you’ll want to give that show a listen. You will find Cold Storage: The Life and Death of Tom Carvel here and it it will be dropping on Wednesday, July 19.