1961: Professionally, times seem to have improved dramatically, as Maurice is offered the role of the voice of Benny the Ball in Hanna-Barbera's new cartoon series, Top Cat - this show transformed the lovable layabouts of the military motor pool in The Phil Silvers Show into alley cats. T.C., as he is known to his intellectual close friends, took the Sergeant Bilko role as the swindling leader. Of his new role Maurice said it was "a licence to steal."
Maurice said that Top Cat, "makes his residence maybe somwhere between Eighth and Ninth Avenues on 44th Street because it's not too far away from Broadway but still the right area for a policeman like Officer Dibble."
Like several other cartoon series, Top Cat is more of a radio show with pictures than it is a television programme. The voices make it. The pictures while often inventive, are supplemental. As with other Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, the tones of thecharacters are very familiar. There is more than just a casual touch of Phil Silver's Bilko to the jaunty tones of TC. With an upsurge in popularity because of cartoons, voice actors were suddenly enjoying a new lease of life not seen since their radio heydays. This medium was a godsend to these people who specialized in animation techniques. Apart from the inimitable, Maurice - here are the other people - who provided the voices for the show.
December 1961: An appearance on the Red Skelton Show in the show called San Fernando and the Kaaka Maami Island - Red and Amanda Blake are partners in a sucker-fleecing, real estate promotion and Maurice plays the patsy falling for worthless South Sea Islands property.
In 1962, whilst still in Hollywood, Maury had a nasty encounter with an LA police officer. In fact, it was one of those incidents that only affects a hapless few. Let Maurice describe it for you, "I was driving my convertible down the street when this cop stopped me. He asked to see my driver's licence. Then instead of putting my car's shift gear in park. I put it in reverse. The car shot back and knocked over the cop's motorcycle. The cop gave me an Edgar Kennedy slow burn. I just knocked a little chrome off it. I offered to pay for it, but didn't hand him any money because I was afraid he might think I was trying to bribe him."
1963: "Movies are a very funny business. They sez to me, 'How'd you like to do a nice role in
The Thrill of it All? I sez back to my agent, 'fine --- it's about time I got me a real part in a picture.'
I called up my agent and enquired, 'You mean they'll pay all that moolah for me to do a bit part?'
his agent responded ----'Maury that's no bit part, that's a cameo.'...............Maury exclaimed, 'cameo,
smameo, money is money!"
This was Maurice talking about his new film part as a dump truck driver. Also in this movie were
some of his old Bilko friends, Herbie Faye (Corporal Sam Fender), Karl Lukas (Stash Kadowski) and
Edward Andrews (Major Lukens). At the time Maurice said this, "This is my first movie and in the cameo
me and the other guys have to shovel gigantic soap bubbles from the Doris Day/James Garner
swimming pool. Lucky thing I ain't allergic to the stuff cause I hate to get detergent on my hands. I've got
to keep myself looking in top shape just in case Cary Grant or some other of those guys should suddenly
get sick...............You go where the work is. Besides to tell you the truth, I'm not a good New Yorker.
In all the years I lived there I only went to Brooklyn five times --- and then only to go for a hot dog at
Coney Island."
Plot outline: Beverly Boyer is a thrifty housewife living contentedly with her gynecologist husband,
Gerald, and their two small children. One evening while dining at the home of Mrs. Evelyn Fraleigh, one
of Gerald's patients, Beverly comments on the fine qualities of Happy Soap, a product manufactured
by Evelyn's father-in-law, Tom Fraleigh. The old man is so impressed by Beverly's enthusiasm that he
hires her to do soap commercials on his television show. After an unfortunate start, Beverly's honesty and sincerity wins praise from both viewers and critics. Elated, old Fraleigh signs her to an $80,000 contract. Now a public celebrity, Beverly is forced to spend more and more time away from home; and trouble erupts at the Boyer household. The final blowup comes when Gerald accidentally drives his car into a swimming pool that had been installed in his backyard that afternoon. Outraged, he kicks cartons of "Happy Soap" into the pool and by morning the house is surrounded by soapsuds. After consulting a psychiatrist, he decides to get even with Beverly by pretending also to be too busy to spend time at home. His scheme works, and Beverly becomes so frantic that she forgets the name of the soap she advertises. The couple are reunited in the back seat of the Fraleighs' Rolls-Royce, and there Gerald delivers Evelyn's baby during a traffic jam. Beverly decides to quit her job and return to her role as wife and mother.
1964 saw Maury wanted by the ABC television network. They wanted him to play Uncle Fester in their new comedy show, The Addams Family.
Click Here to see Maurice in the screen test
Maurice became ill and was promptly sent to the Lenox Hill Hospital, New York. He had very high blood pressure and diabetes and what he thought was temporary blindness. The staff discharged him to a new place, the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, Saranac Lake, New York, an institution that has treated show biz people, with diseases, without charge, since the 1920s.
After a lengthy illness, Maury passed away on October 19, 1964 at the relatively young age of just 51. When taken to the memorial home in the summer of 64 the doctors didn't expect him to live as long as he did. He had diabetes, heart trouble and other complications.
Duane Doberman Calypso (press the play button to listen)
Benny (Maurice) gives us an Hawaiian ditty
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Arnold Stang - Voice of TC (Top Cat)
Ever since he mailed a penny postcard from his home in Chelsea, Massachusetts to the 'Horn and Hardart Radio Hour' on a New York radio station, seeking an audition he has been in show business ever since.
The audition was given and he recited Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.
He hadn't even got past "Once upon a midnight dreary....................." before the producers knew they had unearthed a rare radio voice.
Afterwards he seemed to be on virtually every big radio hour and also in a number of Broadway shows.
Arnold starred as Sparrow in the Frank Sinatra movie, Man With the Golden Arm and in 1963 he went on to star alongside Phil Silvers in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
He met his wife, JoAnne, when she was interviewing him for the now defunct and sadly missed Brooklyn Eagle, for which she was a roving reporter.
Marvin Kaplan - Voice of Choo Choo
He was a protege of Katherine Hepburn, who's act she loved as soon as she caught him performing at the community theatre of Los Angeles. She got him a part in the film, Adam's Rib.
Marvin played the other garage mechanic, alongside Arnold Stang in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He also starred on television in the Meet Millie series.
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Arnold Stang and TC
Allen Jenkins and Officer Dibble
Allen Jenkins - Voice of Officer Dibble
He travelled widely as a youth from Staten Island, where he was born, to Brooklyn, to Nyack and lastly into Manhattan. This probably explains his ripe New York Yorkese that he brought to his numerous television and movie roles.
Allen made a career out of playing comic henchmen, stooges, policemen and other "tough guys" in numerous films of the 1930s and 1940s. He was labelled the "greatest scene-stealer of the 1930s" by the New York Times.
His involvement in a show about cats is quite amusing as he was a devoted cat lover. At the time of the show he lived alone at Malibu Beach, California, his only housemate being a 23 pound cat called Smiley.
Leo DeLyon - Voice of Brain and Spook
His music teacher in New Jersey discovered in his early years that he had perfect pitch. He went on to study music but his career was halted due to the outbreak of World War II. During this conflict he served with the submarine service. When the fighting ceased he worked as a vocal act - he could sing as a high soprano or a baritone. It is also known that he could hum one tune whilst at the same time whistling a completely different one. (If you think that is easy just give it a whirl!)
Hanna Barbera's Top Cat made it's debut in 1961 and ran for 30 episodes. It is still revered even today as a cartoon classic.
The Brain, Spook, Choo Choo, Fancy Fancy, Officer Dibble, TC (voiced by Arnold Stang seated behind) and Benny (voiced by Maury seated behind)
'The Thrill of It All'
A short clip featuring Maury and Doris Day
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Will Rogers Memorial Hospital
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