William Hanna

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William Hanna
Born(1910-07-14)July 14, 1910
DiedMarch 22, 2001(2001-03-22) (aged 90)

William Denby "Bill" Hanna (July 14 1910March 22 2001) was an influential American animator, director, producer, cartoon artist, and co-founder, together with Joseph Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera. He is especially noted for Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, and innovations in television animation. The studio produced well-known cartoons such as The Huckleberry Hound Show, series, The Jetsons, the Scooby-Doo series, The Smurfs, for MGM until 1957, and the Yogi Bear series; as well as the musical film, Charlotte's Web.

Personal life

Hanna was born to William John and Avice Joyce (Denby) Hanna in Melrose, New Mexico,[1] but the family moved a lot because his father was a railroad construction superintendent.[2] Eventually the family settled in California in 1919, which is also the year he joined Scouting. He attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928, where he showed a creative flair he got from his mother, including playing the saxaphone in a dance band.[2] Hanna became an Eagle Scout as a youth and remained active in Scouting throughout his life.[3][4] As an adult was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 1985.[5] Despite his numerous career-related awards, Hanna was most proud of this Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[2] Hanna studied to become a structural engineer at Compton City College, where he also studied journalism,[2] but had to drop out of college with the onset of the Great Depression.[6] Hanna married Violet Blanch Wogatzke on August 7 1936 and they had two children: David William and Bonnie Jean.[1] Hanna died of throat cancer on March 22 2001 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.[1] He is buried in Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California.[7]

Career

After dropping out of college, Hanna briefly worked as a construction engineer before losing that job, also due to the Great Depression. He worked at a cartoon studio, Pacific Art and Title,[8] before his talent for drawing led him to join the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930, the home of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.[6] Leon Schlesinger, of Leon Schlesinger Productions, paired Harman and Ising with Warner Bros. He gained his employment without any formal training and soon became head of their Ink and Paint Department. When producer-directors Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising left Schlesinger and Warners in 1933 to become independent and produce cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna was one of the employees who followed them.[8]

In 1936, Hanna directed his first cartoon, To Spring, one of the Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies series entries.[3] In 1937, MGM made a business decision to stop outsourcing to Harman-Ising and bring production in-house. Hanna was among those first hired away from Harman-Ising, and he became a senior director on MGM's Captain and the Kids series.[9] Besides inking and painting, Hanna also wrote songs and lyrics.[6] The same year, they hired storyman Joseph Barbera from Terrytoons, and in 1939 the two began what was to be a winning partnership as co-directors for more than 50 years.[6][8]

When the MGM animation unit was established in 1937, Hanna became one of its first staff members and directed many of the Captain and the Kids cartoons in 1938-39, together with William Allen. In 1938 he and Joe Barbera were teamed for the first time on a short titled Gallopin' Gals; the association became permanent the next year when the duo directed the first of the Tom and Jerry cartons, "Puss Gets the Boot." Over the next 17 years Hanna and Barbera worked exclusively on Tom and Jerry,[10] directing more than cartoon shorts, winning great popularity and a number of Oscars along the way.[9] For a brief period following Fred Quimby's retirement in 1956, they were also in charge of production.[8]

The first cartoon directed by Hanna and Barbera together was Puss Gets the Boot (1940), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject and introduced their most famous creation from this period, the cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry.[6] Hanna supplied all the screams and yelps of Tom in the shorts without credit.

Hanna and Barbera's 17-year partnership on the Tom and Jerry series resulted in 7 Academy Awards for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject,[6] and 14 total nominations, more than any other character-based theatrical animated series.[8] Tom and Jerry was also ground breaking by being mixed with live action stars such as Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Invitation to the Dance (1956), and Esther Williams in Dangerous When Wet (1953).[11][12] Hanna and Barbera were placed in charge of MGM's animation division in late 1955; this was short-lived, as MGM closed the division in 1957.[6] From here, Hanna branched out into television, forming the short-lived company Shield Productions to partner with animator Jay Ward,[3] who had created the series Crusader Rabbit. This fizzled, and in 1957 he reteamed up with his old partner Joseph Barbera to produce the series The Ruff & Reddy Show, about a dog and cat that are pals,[4] under the company name H-B Enterprises, soon changed to Hanna-Barbera Productions.[6]

In 1957 Hanna and Barbera struck out on their own and formed Hanna-Barbera Productions with a view to producing cartoon films for television as well as for theatrical release. The success of their early television series, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, helped establish them in the field, but their theatrical venture, Loopy De Loop, fizzled out. The Flintstones was created as a result of a 1960 survey that showed that half of Huckleberry Hound's viewers were adults and parodied The Honeymooners.[13] Its premise of a typical Stone Age family with home appliances, talking animals, and celebrity guests enable The Flintstones to attract both children and adults.[4][14] The Flintstones became a phenomenal success and was the first animated prime-time show to become a hit.[12] Fred Flintstone's yabba dabba doo soon entered everyday usage, and the show boosted the studio to the top of the TV cartoon field.[11] The Jetsons was a space-age version of The Flintstones, though it was not as successful. Both shows reappeared in many forms in the 1970s and 1980s.[4] Hanna-Barbera Productions was sold to Taft Communications in 1966 for a reported $26 million, with Hanna and Barbera remaining at the head of the company.[8]

Hanna-Barbera Productions became by the late-1960s the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing hit programs such as The Jetsons and Jonny Quest by the end of the decade. Among the more than 100 cartoon series and specials produced by Hanna-Barbera are: Atom Ant, Magilla Gorilla Quickdraw McGraw, Ruff and Ready, Auggie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (an imitation of the earlier Spike and Tyke MGM cartoons).The specials include Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cyrano de Bergerac and Charlotte's Web.[15] The Hanna-Barbera studio produced over 3000 animated half-hour television shows.[12] As popular as their cartoons were with 1960s audiences, they were despised by artists on artistic grounds. The Hanna-Barbera team had to sacrifice artistic quality due to budgetary limitations of the television medium. However, by reducing the number of drawings for a seven-minute cartoon from 14,000 to nearly 2,000, many people in the industry were put back to work.[13]

Hanna-Barbera had been a subsidiary of Taft Broadcasting (later Great American Communications) since 1967. The studio thrived until 1991, when it was sold to Turner Broadcasting (which itself merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros., in 1996).[4] Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors and periodically worked on new Hanna-Barbera shows, including the What-a-Cartoon! series and the 1994 The Flintstones film from Universal Pictures.[12]

Legacy

The strengths and weaknesses of Hanna and Barbera—Barbera's skill as a gag writer and sketch artist blended well with Hanna's gift for timing and story construction–and their personalites meshed perfectly.[8][11] In their partnership of about 60 years, they worked with over 2000 animated characters. Hanna was one of the first animators to see the enormous potential of television.[3] Leonard Maltin says the Hanna-Barbera team "...held a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year - without a break or change in routine ... their characters are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture."[16] Hanna is considered one of the all-time great animators and on a par with Tex Avery.[14] Barbera said: "We understood each other perfectly, and each of us had deep respect for the other's work."[10]

File:Bill-hanna-and-joe-barbera.jpg
Hanna-Barbera founders William Hanna and Joseph Barbera pose with several of the Emmy awards the Hanna-Barbera studio has won.

The Hanna-Barbera team won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards,[17][18] including the 1960 award for The Huckleberry Hound Show, which was the first Emmy awarded to an animated series.[12][4] They also won these awards: Golden Globe for Television Achievement (1960),[17] Golden IKE Award - Pacific Pioneers in Broadcasting (1983), Pioneer Award - Broadcast Music Incorporated (1987), Iris Award-NATPE Men of the Year (1988), Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association ward for Lifetime Achievement (1988), Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1988), Jackie Coogan Award for Outstanding Contribution to Youth through Entertainment Youth in Film (1988), Frederic W. Ziv Award for Outstanding Achievement in Telecommunications - Broadcasting Division College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati (1989), stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1976), several environmental awards (for various series episodes), and were recipients of numerous other accolades on their way to being inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1993.[6][12][4] They had an influential and lasting impact on television animation. Many of their characters have also appeared in film, books, toys, and other media. Some even becoming cultural icons.[4] Their shows had a global audience of over 300 million people and have been translated into more than 20 languages.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "William Hanna Biography (1910-2001)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  2. ^ a b c d Erickson, Hal. "William Hanna - Biography". All Movie. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  3. ^ a b c d Evans, Noell Wolfgram. "William Hanna: The Story of a Legend". Digital Media FX. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Mullen, Megan. "Hanna, William, and Joseph Barbera: U.S. Television Animators". Museum TV. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  5. ^ "Distinguished Eagle Scouts". Troop & Pack 179. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i "William Hanna: American animator". Britannica Online. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  7. ^ "William Hanna". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Vallance, Tom (2001-03-24). "William Hanna". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  9. ^ a b "William Hanna". TV.com. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  10. ^ a b "The cartoon dream team". BBC News. 2001-03-21. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  11. ^ a b c "William Hanna Dies at 90; Created Cartoon Characters". New York Times. 2001-03-23. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Animation legend William Hanna dies at 90". CNN.com/Entertainment. 2001-03-23. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  13. ^ a b c Savage, Mark (2006-12-19). "Hanna Barbera's golden age of animation". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  14. ^ a b "Legendary American cartoonist dies". BBC News. 2001-03-21. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  15. ^ "William Denby Hanna". Tom and Jerry Online. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  16. ^ Glendinning, Lee (2006-12-19). "Joe Barbera, creator of cartoon classics, dies at 95". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  17. ^ a b "William Hanna - Awards". All Movie. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  18. ^ Gostanian, Martin A. "William HANNA and Joseph Barbera". Film Reference. Retrieved 2008-08-12.

Further reading

  • Barbera, Joseph (1994). My Life in "Toons": From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing. ISBN 1-57036-042-1.
  • Cawley, John (1990). The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars: From a to (Almost Z). Las Vegas, NV: Pioneer. ISBN 1-55698-269-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Erickson, Hal (1987). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949-1993. Jefferson City, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-78640-029-3.
  • Hanna, William (1989). The Art of Hanna-Barbera: Fifty Years of Creativity. New York, NY: Viking Studio Books. ISBN 0-67082-978-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Mallory, Michael (1987). Hanna Barbera Cartoons. Englewood, NJ: Universe. ISBN 0-88363-108-3.
  • Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York, NY: New American Library. ISBN 0-45225-993-2.

External links

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