Joe Dougherty, The First Porky Pig.

  We all know the legendary Mel Blanc, the man with 100 voices, voiced Porky Pig. But did you know he had a predecessor?

Joe Doughtery, around the mid-1930s.

    Joe Doughtery was the first Porky Pig. Born with a stutter, Joe Doughtery actually went to medical school before he became an actor. In 1937, he was cast by now-famous late animation director Friz Freleng for their Merry Melodies character, Porky Pig. His first short was 1935's I Haven't Got A Hat which was Porky Pig's introduction as a character. And though it was a big boom in security for the character, the person behind the microphone, not so much.

I Haven't Got A Hat (1935)

    Through doing research, I reached out to current Porky Pig voice-over actor, Bob Bergen, who graciously responded to my email and gave me a great amount of information. Though Mr.Bergen relayed that he hadn't known Doughtery, he explained the difficulty the studio had with Doughtery's stutter and production cost. You see, back in the pre-digital, even pre-tape days, all media was made on actual film which was very expensive. To accommodate Doughtery's stutter they sped up the cartoons, and a lot of the tape was wasted due to the time it took to record. According to Freleng, every time they would say cut, Doughtery would get nervous. Throughout the short tenure, other actors were brought in to cover additional lines because of budgetary and audio length issues, one of the actors was European nobleman and vaudeville actor, Count Tano Cutelli, who sounds fascinating in his own right.

Note: I did watch all of Doughtery's shorts and I obviously recommend them, but I recommend comparing the original speed and the 0.75 speed. It's fascinating since the shorts are already sped up, watching them on a slower speed is a great way to listen to Doughtery's acting as Porky, and I found that his stutter sounds more severe in a sped-up setting than it actually was.

    From 1935 to 1937, Doughtery played Porky for twelve shorts: 1935's I Haven't Got A Hat, 1936's Gold Diggers of '49, Boom Boom, Westward Whoa, Plane Dippy, Fish Tales, Porky's Pet, Porky's Poultry Plant, Milk and Money, Little Beau Porky, Porky in the North Woods, and his last being Porky's Romance in 1937. Porky's Romance would be the last Doughtery would ever play Porky, and the role was given to Mel Blanc exclusively. 

The last short Joe Doughtery
would ever do before his firing.

    Though not much is known about Doughtery's life after his short stint as the Little Pig that could, it is found that he had small roles in other movies like A Star is Born and East of Eden before his retirement and death by a heart attack in 1978. 

    Although more people know Porky to be voiced by people like Mel Blanc, Bob Bergen, and Eric Bauza, none of these men or those who played Porky once or twice in their resume would have had a job without the unsung stuttering actor who started it all, Joe Doughtery. To that not only do I thank Friz Freleng for creating Porky, I thank Joe Doughtery for vocally creating Porky and giving all stutterers representation forever. 

(Also, Thank you Mr.Bergen for responding to my email. I owe this article to you.)