"The Disney Characters" - Eddie Carroll AKA Jiminy Cricket

"The Disney Characters" - Eddie Carroll AKA Jiminy Cricket
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by Scarlett Stahl
January 28, 2008
Scarlett talks to the voice of Jiminy Cricket Eddie Carroll about his life and long career.

"The Disney Characters"
Eddie Carroll AKA Jiminy Cricket

by
Scarlett Stahl

After meeting Eddie Carroll at his home in the San Fernando Valley in a suburb of Los Angeles, it was soon apparent that this witty man could and did practically do the interview by himself with me occasionally interrupting with a question. He looks a great deal like the legendary comedian Jack Benny and indeed alternates between doing a one-man show as Jack Benny, entitled "Laughter in Bloom," and voicing Jiminy Cricket, which he has done as the "official Voice of Jiminy Cricket" for 34 years.
 
Eddie Carroll was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada into a very large and warm family on September 5, 1933. He was the oldest of four living children, with two older children having passed away. His family name is Eleniak. His grandfather and two grand uncles immigrated from the Ukraine to Edmonton, where the government was giving away homesteads for next to nothing in an attempt to attract settlers. Those three brothers now have over 600 inter- related descendents today. In 1992 there was a family reunion and a hundred year centennial celebration. Before his granduncle Wasyl passed away the government flew him to the Canadian capitol of Ottawa and the prime minister presented him with the Medal of Honor. There is a huge bronze statue of him in a little park on the outskirts of Edmonton and the first little house they had built. There are streets named after the family. His father worked for the railroad and later became a contractor. He learned to design buildings and build them from the ground up. As a hobby he taught himself to handcraft violins and also taught himself how to play them. His mother was also of Ukrainian descent and was a housewife.

Eddie's father handcrafted Eddie's first guitar, which Eddie taught himself how to play. While in first grade, his teacher decided to have a little show with the students performing for their parents after the PTA meeting. When she asked for volunteers, Eddie offered to play his guitar and sing a song. This event created the foundation for the rest of his life. At his school there was a large blackboard on the wall with doors on either side of it, which led to the coat room. The children were to wait in the coatroom and then come out in front of the blackboard to perform. They heard the teacher tell the parents that there would be a performance by the children. Naturally Eddie's parents knew that he was going to perform as they had heard him practicing for weeks at home. The show began and several children performed and then she said Eddie is going to play his guitar and sing a song for you. All of a sudden he was frozen with stage fright and could not move. He heard her introduce him a second and a third time and he could hear little titters of laughter, while he stood there paralyzed. He was in agony knowing his mother and father were out there, but he couldn't move. Finally, with tears streaming down his face he began to play and sing while hidden behind the wall in the coatroom. After his unseen performance, it was followed by applause and a hug from understanding parents. That night he vowed it would never happen again and from that day on, he made himself get into every school play, variety show, every production, anything where there was a chance to go on stage to overcome his stage fright. One day he realized the fear was gone and that he loved performing. He seriously began to learn everything he could about acting and in the tenth grade he began doing a lot of theater productions and musicals with a fellow student, Robert Goulet..

 
They went to Toronto after graduation and while Robert studied voice at the Conservatory of Music, Eddie studied Theatre Arts. One class he took was electronics, which made him a lot of money that he needed for his plan on going to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. He took a job in the oil fields in the northern section of Canada, repairing electronic equipment necessary for drilling. They were miles from civilization and Eddie worked 16 hours a day for 6 months without a break and when he finally got back to Edmonton, he became ill as his resistance was low. He passed out with a raging fever and woke up days later in the hospital to learn that he had polio. From paralysis, the muscles in his leg had shrunk in size and after months of physical therapy, the doctor advised him to take ballet lessons to strengthen it. After first laughing at the idea, he took the advice seriously and took ballet lessons and tap lessons to strengthen his leg. He worked at a local radio station in Edmonton but the dance training got him a lead role in a musical that won him an acting scholarship that brought him to NBC in Los Angeles.
 
At the time he came to Hollywood, it was the custom for actors to change their names that sounded more Anglo-saxon. Eddie was proud of his heritage and his name, but his first agent said that his family name Eleniak sounded like Hawaiian food so he changed it to Carroll. Soon after Eddie moved to California, his two brothers followed him, repeating the pattern of his grandfather and two grand uncles. One niece, Erika Eleniak, has been a very successful actress, having appeared on the TV series Baywatch, plus numerous feature films.
 
Shortly after arrival, even though he was a Canadian citizen, he was drafted into the US Army. Because of his theatre background and having been at NBC, he was immediately transferred to Armed Forces Radio, then to the Motion Picture Department, and then into the 6th Army Soldiers Chorus. An incredible 24 voice choral group composed of professional singers that performed all over the country.
 
After the Army he came back into L.A. and resumed his career again. He worked as an actor in numerous TV shows including Gomer Pyle and the Andy Griffith Show, along with countless commercials and voice-overs. After being seen in a stage production by two theater producers, they told him that they were taking a lavish production on tour across the country, said they liked his comedy routine and wanted him to headline their show. It was a six month contract, which was wonderful for an actor back then. The assistant director was a young, very talented dancer and singer by the name of Carol Springer, whom he later married, making her married name Carol Carroll. At the same time Eddie had written a song called "How is Julie", which was going to be recorded by the singing group "The Lettermen". What made this awkward was that Carol had been going with Tony Butella of "The Lettermen" before she went on tour and now she was seriously seeing Eddie. She had to tell Tony this at the recording session but luckily it worked out all right. .

Eddie and Carol (also called Carolyn) have been married 44 years and have two children. Their daughter Tina Monti is an actress and their son Leland has a successfull practice as a Doctor of Kinesiology and Chiropractic. 

 
Eddie formed a company with friend, Jamie Farr (the actor from Mash), called Carroll Farr Productions, while they were still working as actors. They created numerous shows for ABC, CBS , an animation show for Hanna Barbera called "Charlie and the Chan Clan" and wrote and produced a TV series called "Man to Man".. In 1973 his voice over agent called him and said that Cliff Edwards, who had been the Voice of Jiminy Cricket, had passed away. He said it's been months now and Disney is desperate to find someone to do the Voice of Jiminy Cricket. However they wanted someone to do it exactly as Cliff Edwards did it so that the character is always the same. Eddie managed to get a copy of an album from the movie "Pinocchio" and listened to Cliff's Midwest accent, dropping the G's and the timbre and such. This landed him the role of the official Jiminy Cricket for life! His first official job as Jiminy Cricket was to record the song "When You Wish Upon A Star", which is the third most popular song ever written after "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and the song from "Casablanca" called "As Time Goes By." At the recording session with the full orchestra playing, he began to sing the song and felt a tear roll down his cheek. He didn't understand why and stopped singing. He thought that was rather weird as he didn't feel bad or sad. He began the song again with the same result. The orchestra leader thinking Eddie might be nervous with his first job as Jiminy, suggested he get a cup of coffee and take a break to collect him self. Eddie found a quiet place to gather his thoughts and try to understand the source of the tears. And then in a flash it came to him. He remembered when he was five years old, the first movie he ever saw was the animated classic film "Pinocchio". The film had fired his imagination. Even more, he fell in love with the character of Jiminy Cricket and couldn't stop talking about him. His mother, unable to hear any more, told him to stop as he was driving everyone crazy with talk about the Cricket. Reluctantly, the five year old Eddie said "okay, but one day I'll meet Jiminy Cricket and he will be my friend." On this day at the recording session, Eddie had not only met Jiminy, but had literally BECOME his childhood hero and the little tears that had rolled down his cheek were a subconscious recognition of his dream come true!
 
Eddie says "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are�.Find something that turns you on. that gives you joy in life�.believe that if you're meant to have it, your dreams will come true. I know this for a fact because I'm a living example! "

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-- Posted January 28, 2008