On Purv Pullen, a.k.a. Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath

Purv Pullen (Almy Purves Pullen, 1909-1992) was a voice-over artist for animated films, radio and records, a comedian, ventriloquist, and puppeteer. His specialty was bird calls, which had been an entire specialty in vaudeville. He also performed other animal sounds, said to have been diligently studied by the performer as a farmboy. His repertoire included cats, roosters, dogs, gorillas, chimps, goats, ducks, bees, and numerous species of songbirds.

Pullen was only 21 when he began working for Walt Disney and the Fleischer Brothers on animated shorts starring Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, and Popeye. (Coincidentally today is also the birthday of Red Pepper Sam, one of the guys who played Popeye). Pullen’s resume includes scores of classic shorts throughout the 1930s, 40s, and early ’50s. He’s also credited in animated features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He was the voice of Cheeta in some Tarzan films, and Bonzo in those comedies with Ronald Reagan. You can hear his voice in The Naughty Nineties (1945) with Abbott and Costello.

He was probably best known for his performances on radio and recordings with Ben Bernie and the Spike Jones band. The “Q” in his comedy handle Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath was said to stand for “quinine”, because he was “hard to take”. In live performance he sometimes worked with a ventriloquist dummy named “Johnny”, or did a bit with an “invisible dog” leash from the joke shop. In his later years he worked in local San Francisco radio and entertained children at a toy shop. Nowadays, opportunities for such employment are undoubtedly more limited for men named “Purv”.

For more on show biz history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.