Joseph Benson Hardaway (May 21, 1895 – February 5, 1957) was an American

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

artist, animator, voice actor,

gagman A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience dire ...

, writer and director for several American

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

studios during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He was sometimes credited as J. B. Hardaway, Ben Hardaway, B. Hardaway and Bugs Hardaway. He fought in World War I in the

129th Field Artillery Regiment 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Battery D.Bugs Hardaway of Battery D
/ref>

Army service

Hardaway was enlisted in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

on June 4, 1917, and was discharged on April 9, 1919, a total of 26 months. The Non-Animated Bugs
/ref> He was led in the

by future president 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. The last 14 months of his service were served in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Career

Hardaway started his career at the Kansas City Post as a cartoonist before eventually going into the animation business, working for the Kansas City Film Ad Service. He later worked for the

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fr ...

and the Ub Iwerks Studio, after which Hardaway was hired by the Leon Schlesinger studio as a gagman for the

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ...

unit. He was promoted to director for seven Buddy animated shorts. Afterwards he resumed working as a gagman and storyman. He started receiving film credits in 1937. His writing credits include '' Daffy Duck & Egghead'' and ''The Penguin Parade''. While at the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. studio during the late 1930s, Hardaway served as a storyman, and co-directed several ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

'' and ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the ...

'' shorts with Cal Dalton during

's two-year exodus to MGM.

Leon Schlesinger Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer who founded Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was a distant rel ...

needed a replacement for Freleng, and Hardaway's previous experience in the job resulted in his promotion. 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, 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.Frank Tashlin An Interview by Michael Barrier
/ref> When Freleng returned to Warner Bros. in 1939, Hardaway was demoted back to storyman. 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 1940–1950 ''Woody Woodpecker'' shorts, as well as supplying Woody's voice between 1944 and 1949. Shamus Culhane, the director of the Woody cartoons in the 40's, thought Hardaway's humor was crude and formulaic. Nevertheless, the collaboration worked, and many consider this the golden era of Woody cartoons. During his second year at Lantz, he wrote the story for '' Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat'', whose reissue got withdrawn by Universal in February 1949 due to multiple complaints from the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

for its racist stereotypes of African-Americans. Hardaway died in 1957 from cancer, supposedly a long-term effect of exposure to chemical weapons during World War I. Most obituaries in newspapers said he was 66, despite the fact that he was born in 1895, not 1890, and they noted his creations Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker. The last thing he worked on was '' Adventures of Pow Wow'', although he only wrote four episodes, which have lost audio.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardaway, Ben 1895 births 1957 deaths American male voice actors American male screenwriters American animated film directors Animators from Missouri American television writers Film directors from Missouri American male television writers American storyboard artists Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Warner Bros. Cartoons directors Walt Disney Animation Studios people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters Walter Lantz Productions people American military personnel of World War I