When drummer/bandleader Phil Harris made his screen debut in the RKO short So This is Harris (1933), his screen image was that of a wavy-haired Lothario, utterly irresistible to women. When Harris became a regular on Jack Benny's radio broadcasts of the 1930s and 1940s, his persona began taking on elements of self-parody, with a reputation for heavy imbibing thrown in for comic effect. Both the womanizing and drinking aspects of the "public" Harris were allowed to lapse on his own radio series, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, in which he co-starred from 1946 to 1954 with his second wife,
… More screen star Alice Faye. Now Harris was depicted as a rumbly-voiced, good-natured schmo, who was easily outclassed intellectually by his wife and his two daughters. During this period, Harris, whose previous song hits included the rapid-fire "That's What I Like About the South," began making such child-oriented recordings as "The Thing" and "I Know an Old Lady." This aspect of Harris' career proved a logical lead-in to his later voiceover assignments in such Disney feature-length cartoons as The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970) and Robin Hood (1973). While Phil Harris' off-screen personality was very much like his laid-back, genial stage character, he was a man of definite likes and dislikes: one of the latter was the Broadway musical The Music Man, which was written for Harris but which he turned down flat, steadfastly refusing to appear even in road-company or revival stagings.What to watch Tuesday, April 12.
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I first heard Phil Harris' voice in his Disney films and loved his folksy style. Later, as I got into collecting old-time radio shows, I heard him as Jack Benny's bandleader, with his Dean Martin-style loveable lush character. If you ever get the chance to check out some of those old shows, you should...they hold up very well today and Harris provides some of the biggest laughs. Some people say Dean Martin lifted his "drunk" act from Phil Harris, and it was an essential part of Harris' "character" on Jack Benny and on his own show with Alice Faye. His legacy will live for as long as people love The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and The AristoCats.
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