From 1947-1953, Mighty Mouse, Pearl Pureheart, and Oil Can Harry co-starred in a series of operatic “mellerdramas” with Mighty as the hero, Harry as the villain, and Pearl as the damsel in distress. Many of these now-famous shorts were performed in song from beginning to end. We know that Royal (Roy) Halee Sr., who sang in a hearty tenor voice, played Mighty Mouse.

Due to the poor record of production credits (a routine characteristic of Terry’s cartoons), Oil Can Harry’s bass/baritone singing is sometimes attributed to Tom Morrison, but Ken Schoen is also credited. At other times, Halee gets credit for all the male vocals, which, considering his talent, may be possible. Except for prominent Terry staffers (and not always then), credits do not always exist. With virtually all the performers from that era now deceased, no one may ever find definitive answers.

Pearl Pureheart’s soprano singing is completely uncredited. The female voice artist remains a mystery to this day. There are two possibilities. The first is a singer/actress named Betty Jaynes. She has the requisite soprano voice and previously portrayed Pearl Pureheart in the 1945 Mighty Mouse Ocsar-nominated short Mighty Mouse in the Gypsy Life. Jaynes is uncredited in that cartoon (and who knows how many others). Since the “mellerdramas” began in 1947, it is very possible that Jaynes continued as Pearl Pureheart.

The second, equally likely possibility can be found in an interview with Terrytoons storyhead Tom Morrison conducted by Harvey Deneroff. Author W. Gerald Hamonic references the June 15, 1970 interview in his 2018 book Terry-Toons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory. Morrison recalled that Roy Halee was a member of a singing quartet called The Rondoliers. Halee was no stranger to cartoons; he began his voice work at the J.R. Bray studio. Paul Terry later hired Halee to voice Farmer Al Falfa. Halee also occasionally voiced both Heckle and Jeckle.

The Rondoliers started with four males but soon expanded to include a female performer. The Rondoliers enjoyed some popularity and even made a few “soundies” shown on the film jukeboxes that were popular during the 1940s (These were short films featuring footage of singers, bands, and musicians; Soundies could be considered a precursor to the music videos of the 1980s).

After the Rondoliers expanded, Morrison recalled, Halee and his quartet performed all the voices for the operatic Mighty Mouse cartoons. We must trust Morrison’s recollection here since credits were virtually non-existent at Terry.

To give Morrison’s story a bit more credence, Ken Schoen, also a Rondolier, is also credited (or uncredited, as it went at Terry) with the singing voice of Oil Can Harry in a number of the operatic cartoons.

Included in The Rondoliers lineup was a female performer named Mimi Walthers (not to be confused with singer/actress Mimi Walters). If, as Morrison remembers, the group recorded the voices for the Mighty Mouse operatic shorts, could it be possible that Mimi Walthers might be the long-uncredited singing voice of Pearl Pureheart? Walthers had three Broadway appearances to her career credits, although there is not much further information about her.

The case for Jaynes is strong, considering that she sang Pearl Pureheart’s voice parts in 1945, even if uncredited. But considering that Morrison recalling that The Rondoliers recorded the vocals for the operettas, the fact that Both Halee and Schoen were members of that group, and the presence of Mimi Walthers in The Rondoliers make Walthers a stronger candidate as the “lost voice” of Pearl Pureheart. Add in Terry’s capricious assigning (or not) of credits, and that may be enough to close the case.