STAN FREBERG

Born August 7, 1926, in Los Angeles, Stan Freberg grew up listening to Fred Allen, Jack Benny and Vic and Sade. As a young man, he provided voices for Warner Brothers cartoons and appeared on radio in support of Benny, Phil Harris and Henry Morgan.

He rose to prominence in 1950 with the record “John & Marsha,” which spoofed radio soap operas. More hit records followed, including the Dragnet parody “St. George and the Dragonet” and “Green Chri$tma$,” an attack on holiday commercialism.

In 1954 Freberg starred in the short-lived situation comedy That’s Rich, but it was his 1957 Stan Freberg Show for CBS that made him “the last network radio comedian in America.” Here he demonstrated his satirical nature by poking fun at everything from censorship to advertising to the excesses of Las Vegas.

When The Stan Freberg Show ended after 15 weeks, Freberg found a new outlet for his humor in advertising, with award-winning campaigns for Sunsweet Prunes, Jeno’s Pizza Rolls, Terminix and many other clients.

In the 1990s, Freberg produced a daily series of commentaries, Stan Freberg Here.

He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.

Stan Freberg died on April 7, 2015.