On September 12, 1970, Josie & the Pussycats made its transition from comic book to CBS Saturday morning cartoon. One of the characters making the transition (Valerie) is significant because she became the first female African-American cast member on a regular Saturday-morning cartoon. The first African-American Saturday morning cartoon character overall was Pete Jones, who appeared on The Hardy Boys (which debuted on September 6, 1969).
Valerie almost didn't make her historic appearance on Josie & the Pussycats. In preparation for the cartoon, Hanna-Barbera Productions decided to assemble a real-life Josie & the Pussycats group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons and also record an album (other actresses provided the speaking voices for the characters on the series). The company who would be in charge of the recordings (La La Productions) held a talent search to find three females who would match Josie & the Pussycats in the comic book in both looks and singing ability. The trio chosen to be "Josie & the Pussycats" were: Cathy Douglas (Josie), Patrice Holloway (Valerie) and Cherie Moor (Melody). Side note: after Josie & the Pussycats disbanded, Moor got married, took her husband's surname and gained fame as Cheryl Ladd.
When one member of La La Productions (Danny Janssen) presented the newly formed trio to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, he learned that they wanted to recast Patrice Holloway because they had decided to portray Josie & the Pussycats as all-white (even though Valerie was an African-American in the comic book). Janssen refused to recast Holloway and threatened to walk away from the project. After a nearly month-long stalemate between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera conceded and allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being African-American. Ironically, Holloway became the most prominent voice of the trio. In addition to singing lead on many of the tracks on their self-titled album, Holloway also provided lead vocals to the cartoon's iconic theme song.
Although it often gets overlooked, I think it's important to recognize the significance of the appearance of Valerie on the cartoon version of Josie & the Pussycats. Her inclusion on the series opened the doors to black female cartoon characters on TV and helped lead to others such as Dee Dee (Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels), Susie Carmichael (Rugrats and All Grown Up), and Vixen (Justice League Unlimited).
Below is the first single (Every Beat of My Heart) from the only album Patrice Holloway, Cherie Moor, and Cathy Douglas recorded as Josie & the Pussycats. Although the player below doesn't contain any performance footage, there are stills from the cartoon series and of Holloway, Moor, and Douglas recording in the studio.
9 comments:
Interesting bit of history Malcolm. Even more interesting is this happened in the 70's with racial problems that we still face today. Good for Danny Janssen!
Sue: Thanks! According to the Wiki page on Josie and the Pussycats, a number of the most notable soul session players in L.A. showed their gratitude for Danny Janssen's stance by offering their services to La La Productions and the Josie album at a fraction of their regular fees.
wow, awesome post! this was hands down my favorite cartoon growing up! great piece of history information.
Regina: Thank you very much! I wish my cable provider had Boomerang so I could see "Josie and the Pussycats".
For a pop culture geek like myself, finding out this backstory about Josie and the Pussycats was beyond awesome!
Glad I reread it before I spoke out. I was going to say that the Hardy Boys cartoon had the first positive black portrayal in Pete, but then I saw you said "female" (and I don't think Pete was ever in drag).
Of course, the biggest difference between the two (outside of plumbing issues, I guess) would be that Valerie had something like a personality - not much, but something. Pete was pretty much just a place marker.
Nameless Cynic: Thanks for stopping by. I learned about Pete being the first positive black regular cartoon character at the same time I found out about Valerie being the first female. I should have mentioned Pete's place in cartoon history when I first posted this, but it slipped my mind.
I didn't even know that the "Hardy Boys" cartoon existed until I purchased the book "Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth" in the early 2000s. It's a really fascinating book. Here is the link in case you are interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Bubblegum-Music-Naked-Truth-Prepubescent/dp/0922915695
If Pete from "The Hardy Boys" had been in drag, that would've been a different cartoon entirely.
that was hot...thanks
Michael: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for visiting.
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