Passing The Baton

This newly created commemorative lithograph, which celebrates the life of world-renowned character voice artist Mel Blanc and his son Noel, is a limited production piece available exclusively at Great American Ink® Animation Fine Art Gallery.

Each lithograph measures 30 inches wide by 27 inches high and is numbered. The release price for the limited edition lithograph is $495.00 framed.

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Clampett Studio Collection, home of the Warner Bros. Art Program, has done it again by creating this special limited edition, destined to become a part of animation art history. "Passing the Baton" was designed as a companion piece to the 1989 lithograph "Speechless," produced as a memorial to Mel Blanc. "Speechless" remains the largest selling and most popular piece of animation art Warner Bros. has produced to date. "Passing the Baton" is an equally important piece only available to 500 collectors.

As Noel said: "This companion lithograph is very special because it represents my father's dedicated commitment to 'passing on' his unique legacy. He wanted me to be the only one who could accurately replicate his famous character voices. We used to sit on the porch and do the voices for hours, entertaining the neighborhood kids. Once I perfected some of them, I used to answer the phone using a character voice to see if the caller could tell me from my father."

"Dad was constantly making me audition my voices for his friends - celebrities like Lucille Ball, Roy Rogers, Sheldon Leonard, Andy Devine and Jack Benny," continues Blanc. "Whenever they would visit our cabin, I would have to perform, always perfecting my voices and technique. In fact, in interviews my father would always state that I was the only one he felt could imitate his character voices accurately."

Even today, almost 15 years after his passing, Mel Blanc's voice is heard daily by more people than anyone else's in the world and his headstone remains one of the most famous - and apropos - in the world, bearing his signature phrase "That's All Folks..."