Discrepancies in Droopy's Voice

In anticipation of the new Tex Avery's Droopy set coming out in less than 2 weeks, I have been doing some preliminary research for my review in the AW. I started by looking up info on voice-actor/radio personality, Bill Thompson. According to his biography in IMDB and to the cartoon title listings in BCDB, Droopy's voice is credited to Thompson in Northwest Hounded Police (1946). I find this difficult to believe as the voice in this cartoon sounds markedly different from the one in Dumb-Hounded, (1943, which marked Droopy's first appearance), and subsequent cartoons like Out-Foxed (1949), Droopy's Double Trouble and Droopy's Good Deed (both from 1951).

The original Droopy voice in Dumb-Hounded was one that Thompson had used for his "Horace Whipple" character on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show in the 1930's. I recall reading somewhere that Thompson had gotten himself in trouble for using the voice outside of the radio show and had to adopt a variant of that voice; which was subsequently used to voice various characters at MGM and later at Disney. The question is, did Thompson alter the voice significantly for cartoons like Northwest Hounded Police and Chump Champ (1950), or did someone else do the voice because Thompson was unavailable? When I first saw these 2 cartoons I immediately assumed that the voice had been done by someone else; possibly Daws Butler, who was working at MGM around the same time.

Butler can be heard providing Droopy's voice in Deputy Droopy (1955). The most likely reason for this is that Thompson was busy in dialogue recording sessions for Disney's Lady and the Tramp, which was released the same year and for which Thompson voiced at least 3 different supporting characters.

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