Joseph Benson Hardaway(May 21, 1895 – February 5, 1957) was an Americanstoryboardartist, animator, voice actor,gagman,writer and director for several Americananimationstudios duringThe Golden Age of Hollywood animation.He was sometimes credited asJ. B. Hardaway,Ben Hardaway,B. HardawayandBugs Hardaway.[4]He fought in World War I in the129th Field Artillery Regiment,Battery D.[5]
Ben Hardaway | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joseph Benson Hardaway May 21, 1895 Belton, Missouri,U.S. |
| Died | February 5, 1957(aged 61) Los Angeles,California,U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1912 – 1917; 1920 – 1951[1][2] |
| Employer(s) | Kansas City Post(1915–1917; 1920–1923) Kansas City Film Ad Service (1923–1929) Walt Disney Productions(1932) Ub IwerksStudio (1932–1933) Leon Schlesinger Productions(1933–1940) Warner Bros. Cartoons(1948–1949) Walter Lantz Productions(1940–1951) Tempe-Toons (1949) |
| Children | 1[3] |
| Signature | |
 | |
Army service
editHardaway enlisted inWorld War Ion June 4, 1917, and was discharged on April 9, 1919, serving for 26 months in total.[1][6]He was led in the129th Field Artillery Regimentby futurePresident of the United StatesHarry S. Truman,in which he attended his reception planned byForrest Smithat the Shoreham Hotel in 1949 andhis inauguration,following him being re-elected.[5][7]Hardaway served the last 14 months of his service inFrance.[6]
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 A Tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman by Betty Phillips and J.B. Hardaway,6:11, Harry S. Truman Library Museum |
Artistic career
editHardaway started his career at theKansas City Postas a cartoonist before eventually going into the animation business, working for the Kansas City Film Ad Service. He later worked for theWalt Disney Animation Studiosand theUb IwerksStudio, after which Hardaway was hired by the Leon Schlesinger studio as a gagman for theFriz Frelengunit. He was promoted to director for sevenBuddyanimated shorts. Afterwards he resumed working as a gagman and storyman.[8][9]He started receiving film credits in 1937. His writing credits includeDaffy Duck & EggheadandThe Penguin Parade.[8]
While at theSchlesinger/Warner Bros. studioduring the late 1930s, Hardaway served as a storyman. He co-directed severalLooney TunesandMerrie Melodiesshorts withCal DaltonduringFriz Freleng's two-year exodus toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.ProducerLeon Schlesingerneeded a replacement for Freleng, and Hardaway's previous experience in the job resulted in his promotion.[8]In 1938, Hardaway co-directedPorky's Hare Hunt,the first film to feature a rabbit. When this unnamed, embryonic rabbit was given a new model sheet for a later short, since, according toChuck Jones,Hardaway "didn't draw it very well", designerCharlie Thorsoninadvertently offered a permanent name by titling the model sheet "Bugs' Bunny"since it was meant for Hardaway's unit. By the time the rabbit was redesigned and refined for the filmA Wild Hare,the name was already being used in relation to the character in studio publicity materials.[4][10][11][12]The name Bugs' Bunny shows up in comics and merchandise as late as 1943.[13]
When Freleng left MGM to return to Warner Bros. in 1939, Hardaway was demoted back to storyman.[6]In 1940, Hardaway joined the staff ofWalter Lantz Productions,where he helpedWalter Lantzin creating the studio's most famous character,Woody Woodpecker.Hardaway wrote or co-wrote most of the stories for theWoody Woodpeckershorts between late 1940 and early 1951, as well as supplying Woody's voice between 1944 and 1949 (sources claiming that Hardaway was the first person to succeedMel Blancas Woody's voice after Blanc signed an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. are incorrect:Danny Webb,Kent Rogers,and Dick Nelson provided the voice of Woody between Blanc and Hardaway).
Shamus Culhane,the director of most of the Woody cartoons between 1944 and 1946, thought Hardaway's humor was crude and formulaic. Nevertheless, the collaboration worked, and many consider this the golden era of Woody cartoons.[5]During his second year at Lantz, he wrote the story forScrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat;in February 1949, Universal withdrew it from reissue due to multiple complaints from theNAACPfor its raciststereotypes of African-Americans.[14]
Death
editHardaway died fromcancerat the age of 61 on February 5, 1957, supposedly as a result of a long-term effect of exposure to chemical weapons during World War I.[5]Most obituaries in newspapers misstated his age as 66, even though he was born in 1895; they noted his creations Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker.[15][9]The last project he worked on wasAdventures of Pow Wow,although he only wrote four episodes, which have lost audio.
References
edit- ^ab"Tralfaz: The Non-Animated Bugs".February 2, 2019.
- ^"The Exposure Sheet #1 & #2".
- ^"WWI letters from Bugs brings out tears".Los Angeles Daily News.April 29, 2008.
- ^ab"MichaelBarrier.com -- Interviews: Frank Tashlin".www.michaelbarrier.com.
- ^abcd"Bugs Hardaway of Battery D |".cartoonresearch.com.
- ^abcSigall 2005,p. 69.
- ^Cline, Ann (January 20, 1949)."Governor, Mrs. Forrest Smith Entertain in Honor of Trumans".The Washington Star.RetrievedMay 2,2022.
- ^abcSigall 2005,p. 66.
- ^ab"Cartoon Creator Dies".The Kingston Daily Freeman.Associated Press.February 6, 1957. p. 23.RetrievedMay 2,2022.
- ^"MichaelBarrier.com — Interviews: Remodeling the Rabbit".www.michaelbarrier.com.
- ^Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1941)"CHORTLES THEN.Y. TIMES:"Bugs Bunny...delightful nonsense...laugh provoking tricks...so comical...look sharp for him!" "
- ^Bogdanovich, Peter(1997).Who the devil made it: conversations with Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh.Alfred A. Knopf.p. 703.ISBN9780679447061.
- ^"biryanifan Twitter status".Twitter.RetrievedJanuary 19,2023.
- ^""Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat" (1941) ".Cartoon Research.May 6, 2019.RetrievedOctober 10,2021.
- ^"Death List of Notables".Leader Herald.Associated Press.1957.
- Sigall, Martha (2005)."The Boys of Termite Terrace".Living Life Inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation.University Press of Mississippi.ISBN978-1-57806-749-7.