Celebrating Carl Ballantine

HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to the late CARL BALLANTINE, father of the incredible Saratoga Ballantine who was the voice of "Mary Jane Watson" in my SPIDER-MAN animated series. CARL BALLANTINE was a comic genius who portrayed "The Great Ballantine", a wacky magician for whom everything went wrong. On TV, he was a member of the cast of the hit show McHALE'S NAVY, starring opposite ERNEST BORGNINE and TIM CONWAY. And because I very much wanted to meet him, I wrote a part for him as the voice of a con man named "Lenny Luntz" in SPIDER-MAN!