mmanalysis:ormessociety:From Josie and the Pussycats, meet...

mmanalysis:

ormessociety:

From Josie and the Pussycats, meet Valerie Smith! I’ll let Wikipedia do the work…

A headstrong African-American young lady, Valerie performs back-up vocals (in the comics and the movie) and occasionally sings lead (nearly always in the TV series) for the Pussycats. She is also the group’s main songwriter. In the comics, she plays the bass; in the cartoons, she plays tambourine. She is the character who saves the day the most often, thanks to her street smarts and her mechanical and scientific genius. Valerie is notable as the first African-American cartoon character on a regular animated television series.

Here’s an interesting tidbit about the cartoon version of the character, voiced by the late and great Patrice Holloway…

In 1970, [Patrice Holloway] auditioned for producer Danny Janssen, winning the part of Valerie Brown in Josie and the Pussycats, alongside Cathy Daugher (Josie) and Cheryl Ladd as ditzy drummer Melody. Patrice therefore had the distinction of being the first African-American to voice the first African-American regular series character on cartoon TV. However, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera balked at Patrice’s involvement, demanding she be recast and that Valerie become Caucasian. It’s worth noting that, in the original comic, Valerie was always intended to be African-American.

Janssen refused to back down, resulting in a 3-week standoff between the producer and Hanna-Barbera. H-B finally relented, allowing Janssen to keep Patrice in the show, and keeping her character African-American.

This is another show that needs to be rebooted. As long as Cree Summer doesn’t voice Valerie because hey, there are more black voice actresses besides Cree Summer.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND I didn’t know any of that. Sheesh. What a great story!