Waterlogg Productions Presents Rare Radio Christmas Classic By Daws Butler, the Voice of Yogi Bear

Dec. 22, 2007 - PRLog -- Waterlogg Productions' Announces "The Christmas That Almost Never Was"--a rare radio classic--will air Christmas Eve, December 24, at 5:30 pm on XM Satellite Radio Sonic Theater Channel 163.

Producer Joe Bevilacqua has unearthed a vintage recording of this 1940s radio play, written and starring the late voice actor Daws Butler, the voice and Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and most of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters.

Also heard in the play is the late Don Messick, who voiced Boo Boo and Ranger Smith to Butler's Yogi. Messick also was the voice of Scooby Doo and many other cartoon characters.

Joe Bevilacqua first wrote Daws Butler (the voice of Yogi Bear) when he was 16 years old in 1975. Soon after, Daws appointed himself Joe's personal mentor and thus began a whirlwind 13-year apprenticeship. Bevilacqua has gone on to become a veteran award-winning voice actor, radio producer, dramatist, humorist and documentarian.

Bevilacqua is also a historian and the keeper of the Daws Butler flame. Not only does the 35-year veteran broadcaster host the official Daws website (www.dawsbutler.com) but he is archival several hundred hours of rare recordings the voice magician made between 1959 and 1988 when he died.

"Most of these tapes have never been heard and some of them feature Daws doing his famous characters," says Bevilacqua.

"The Christmas That Almost Never Was" tells the story of a boy who travels to the North Pole to save Christmas, with the help of the elves, when Santa loses his memory.

The half-hour 1940s radio play airs immediately after another Joe Bevilacqua creation: "Sherlock Holmes' Creepy Christmas," a half-hour radio play in which Holmes, Watson and Watson's wife, Mary Morstan, visit Scotland and the castle of Lord Tavis Mac Millian, only to become entangled in the curse of the Loch Alsh monster and the ghost of Macbeth.

The hour is just one of six different Christmas specials produced by Bevilacqua airing on public radio stations across the county and XM Radio through December 25.

“These stories are for the entire family,” beams Bevilacqua. “I created them so that radio listeners could have a respite, this holiday season, from all the depressing news and trite record spinning.”

Bevilacqua has edited and written several books, including Daws Butler: Characters Actor, the authorized biography of the voice of Yogi Bear. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio, He has won many awards, including a Silver Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for A Guy Named Joe Bevilacqua. His radio documentary Lady Bird Johnson: Legacy of a First Lady won best radio documentary at the 2001 New York Festivals. Most recently, Bevilacqua won a New York Festivals for his 2006 All Things Considered tribute to cartoon legend Joe Barbera. Bevilacqua has also written, directed and acting in hundreds of radio dramas for NPR and XM Satellite Radio. In addition, he writes three to five articles per week for The Ellenville Journal in Ellenville, NY. He also contributed a number of articles, essays and cartoons to the premiere issue of Orange Magazine. “Joe Bev” and his wife and co-creator, Lorie Kellogg, live in their uniquely cartoonish home in the woods of Napanoch, NY, with their three dogs, George, Gracie and Zasu, and their two cats, Offica Pup and Krazy Kat.

More "Joe Bev" holiday programming can be heard on NPR stations nationwide, through December 25, and online at: The Public Radio Exchange: http://www.prx.org/series/22441.

For a station carriage list, e-mail joebev@joebev.com.

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Waterlogg Productions is a multimedia company specializing in radio, print and web, founded by Joe Bevilacqua.

Website: www.joebev.com