Granny vs. Nixon

June Foray was the voice of Granny (the owner of Tweety Bird) in the Looney Tunes cartoons, Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Magica De Spell in Duck Tales. And she was also on Richard Nixon’s Enemies List.

A little background for those not familiar with Nixon: he was perhaps the fourth worst US president of the last fifty years. He kept a list of political enemies, both a short list and an extended “master” list. People on the list included many congresspeople (mainly black congresspeople), actors such as Paul Newman, union figures, and reporters – including Woodward and Bernstein, who would later be instrumental in Nixon’s downfall.

June Foray was a legend in the animation business. Her career spanned more than seventy years, and hundreds of roles in radio, film, television, and video games. In addition to the roles listed above, she also voiced the cat Lucifer in Disney’s Cinderella, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Ma Beagle, and a smurf. The Annie Awards, the premiere award for achievements in animation, was her idea.

So why was she an enemy of Nixon’s? In 1973 she organised a meat boycott in response to a price freeze instituted by Nixon as part of the so-called “Nixon shock.” I cannot find evidence of any other political activities, but evidently this was enough. In any case, Foray outlived Nixon by more than twenty years: she died in 2017 aged 99.

• June Foray
• Master list of Nixon’s political opponents
• Nixon shock