Ben Hardaway

American film director (1895–1957)

Ben Hardaway

Born|

Joseph Benson Hardaway

(1895-05-21)May 21, 1895

Belton, Missouri, U.S.

Died| February 5, 1957(1957-02-05) (aged 61)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Occupations|

* Storyboard artist
* animator
* voice actor
* gagman
* writer
* director

Years active| 1912 - 1917; 1920 - 1956[1][2]
Employer(s)| Kansas City Post (1915–1917; 1920–1923)
Kansas City Film Ad Service (1923–1929)
Walt Disney Productions (1932)
Ub Iwerks Studio (1932–1933)
Leon Schlesinger Productions (1933–1940)
Warner Bros. Cartoons (1948–1949)
Walter Lantz Productions (1940–1949)
Tempe-Toons (1956)
Children| 1[3]
Signature

Joseph Benson Hardaway (May 21, 1895 – February 5, 1957) was an American storyboard artist, animator, voice actor, gagman, writer and director for several American animation studios during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He was sometimes credited as J. B. Hardaway, Ben Hardaway, B. Hardaway and Bugs Hardaway.[4] He fought in World War I in the 129th Field Artillery Regiment, Battery D.[5]

## Army service

[edit]

Hardaway enlisted in World War I on June 4, 1917, and was discharged on April 9, 1919, serving for 26 months in total.[1][6] He was led in the 129th Field Artillery Regiment by future President of the United States Harry S. Truman, in which he attended his reception planned by Forrest Smith at the Shoreham Hotel in 1949 and his inauguration, following him being re-elected.[5][7] Hardaway served the last 14 months of his service in France.[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

[edit]

Hardaway started his career at the Kansas City Post as a cartoonist and in 1921, illustrated a book by James W. Earp called Boomer Jones, a character created in the late 1910s by Earp, before eventually going into the animation business, working for the Kansas City Film Ad Service. He later worked for the Walt Disney Productions animation unit and the Ub Iwerks Studio, after which Hardaway was hired by the Leon Schlesinger studio as a gagman for the Friz Freleng unit. He was promoted to director for seven Buddy animated shorts. Afterwards he resumed working as a gagman and storyman.[8][9][10] He started receiving film credits in 1937. His writing credits include Daffy Duck & Egghead and The Penguin Parade.[8]

While at the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. studio during the late 1930s, Hardaway served as a storyman. He co-directed several Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts with Cal Dalton during Friz Freleng's two-year exodus to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Producer Leon Schlesinger needed a replacement for Freleng, and Hardaway's previous experience in the job resulted in his promotion.[8] In 1938, Hardaway co-directed Porky'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 to Chuck Jones, Hardaway "didn't draw it very well", designer Charlie Thorson inadvertently 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 film A Wild Hare, the name was already being used in relation to the character in studio publicity materials.[4][11][12][13] The name Bugs' Bunny shows up in comics and merchandise as late as 1943.[14]

When Freleng left MGM to return to Warner Bros. in 1939, Hardaway was demoted back to storyman.[6] In 1940, Hardaway joined the staff of Walter Lantz Productions, where he helped Walter Lantz in creating the studio's most famous character, Woody Woodpecker. Hardaway wrote or co-wrote most of the stories for the Woody Woodpecker shorts 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 succeed Mel Blanc as 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 for Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat; in February 1949, Universal withdrew it from reissue due to multiple complaints from the NAACP for its racist stereotypes of African-Americans.[15]

## Death

[edit]

Hardaway died from cancer at 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.[16][9] The last project he worked on was Adventures of Pow Wow, although he only wrote four episodes, which have lost audio.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Tralfaz: The Non-Animated Bugs". February 2, 2019.
2. ^ "The Exposure Sheet #1 & #2".
3. ^ "WWI letters from Bugs brings out tears". Los Angeles Daily News. April 29, 2008.
4. ^ a b "MichaelBarrier.com -- Interviews: Frank Tashlin". www.michaelbarrier.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2022.
5. ^ a b c d "Bugs Hardaway of Battery D |". cartoonresearch.com.
6. ^ a b c Sigall 2005, p. 69.
7. ^ Cline, Ann (January 20, 1949). "Governor, Mrs. Forrest Smith Entertain in Honor of Trumans". The Washington Star. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
8. ^ a b c Sigall 2005, p. 66.
9. ^ a b "Cartoon Creator Dies". The Kingston Daily Freeman. Associated Press. February 6, 1957. p. 23. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
10. ^ The Illustration Work of Animation Giants
11. ^ "MichaelBarrier.com — Interviews: Remodeling the Rabbit". www.michaelbarrier.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2024.
12. ^ Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1941) "CHORTLES THE N.Y. TIMES: "Bugs Bunny...delightful nonsense...laugh provoking tricks...so comical...look sharp for him!""
13. ^ 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\. ISBN 9780679447061.
14. ^ "biryanifan Twitter status". Twitter. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
15. ^ ""Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat" (1941)". Cartoon Research. May 6, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
16. ^ "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. ISBN 978-1-57806-749-7.

## External links

[edit]

* Ben Hardaway at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

Studios|

* Harman-Ising Productions (1930–1933)
* Leon Schlesinger Productions (1933–1944)
* Warner Bros. Cartoons (1944–1964)
* DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (1964–1967, 1979–1980)
* Format Films (1965–1967)
* Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1969)
* Chuck Jones Enterprises (1976–1980, 1994–1997)
* Warner Bros. Animation (1980–present)

Characters|

| Major|

* Bugs Bunny
* Development
* Daffy Duck
* Duck Dodgers
* Elmer Fudd
* Foghorn Leghorn
* Granny
* Lola Bunny
* Marvin the Martian
* Pepé Le Pew
* Porky Pig
* Speedy Gonzales
* Sylvester the Cat
* Tasmanian Devil (Taz)
* Tweety
* Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner
* Yosemite Sam

|

Secondary|

* Babbit and Catstello
* Barnyard Dawg
* Beaky Buzzard
* Beans
* Bosko
* Buddy
* Cecil Turtle
* Charlie Dog
* Claude Cat
* Clyde Bunny
* Colonel Shuffle
* Conrad the Cat
* Cool Cat
* Egghead Jr.
* Foxy
* Goofy Gophers
* Goopy Geer
* Gossamer
* Henery Hawk
* Hippety Hopper
* Hubie and Bertie
* Hugo the Abominable Snowman
* Inki
* Marc Antony and Pussyfoot
* Merlin the Magic Mouse
* Michigan J. Frog
* Miss Prissy
* Nasty Canasta
* Penelope Pussycat
* Petunia Pig
* Piggy
* Quick Brown Fox and Rapid Rabbit
* Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog
* Sniffles
* Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier
* Sylvester Jr.
* The Three Bears
* Willoughby
* Witch Hazel

Shorts|

* 1929–1939
* 1940–1949
* 1950–1959
* 1960–1969
* 1970–present
* Featuring Bugs Bunny
* Featuring Daffy Duck
* Featuring Elmer Fudd
* Featuring Marvin the Martian
* Featuring Porky Pig
* Featuring Speedy Gonzales
* Featuring Sylvester
* Featuring Yosemite Sam
* Blue Ribbon reissues
* Censored Eleven

Feature films|

| Compilations|

* The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
* The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie
* Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales
* Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island
* Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
* The Looney Tunes Hall of Fame

|

Feature-length theatrical animated|

* The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Live-action/animation|

* Space Jam
* Looney Tunes: Back in Action
* Space Jam: A New Legacy
* Coyote vs. Acme

Direct-to-video|

* Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation
* Tweety's High-Flying Adventure
* Baby Looney Tunes' Eggs-traordinary Adventure
* Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas
* Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run
* Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam
* King Tweety
* Taz: Quest for Burger

Documentaries|

* Bugs Bunny: Superstar
* Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons
* Chuck Amuck: The Movie

Television
series|

| Compilations|

* The Bugs Bunny Show
* The Porky Pig Show
* The Road Runner Show
* The Merrie Melodies Show
* Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends
* Bugs 'n' Daffy

|

Originals|

* Tiny Toon Adventures
* Taz-Mania
* The Plucky Duck Show
* Animaniacs
* Pinky and the Brain
* The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
* Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain
* Baby Looney Tunes
* Duck Dodgers
* Loonatics Unleashed
* The Looney Tunes Show
* Wabbit/New Looney Tunes
* Looney Tunes Cartoons
* Animaniacs 2020
* Bugs Bunny Builders
* Tiny Toons Looniversity

Television
specials|

* Meet the Groovie Goolies
* Carnival of the Animals
* Easter Special
* Bugs Bunny in Space
* Howl-oween Special
* King Arthur's Court
* Thanksgiving Diet
* Looney Christmas Tales
* Bustin' Out All Over
* The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special
* Battle of the Music Video Stars
* Overtures to Disaster

Music/songs|

* "Camptown Races"
* "Dance of the Comedians"
* "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)"
* "Merrily We Roll Along"
* "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down"
* "Powerhouse"

Attractions|

* Looney Tunes River Ride
* Road Runner Express (Six Flags Fiesta Texas)
* Road Runner Express (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
* Road Runner Rollercoaster
* Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure!

Other|

* Private Snafu
* A Political Cartoon
* Who Framed Roger Rabbit
* Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
* Video games

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* France
* BnF data

Other|

* Yale LUX

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