William Hanna and Joseph Barbera: The Sultans of Saturday Morning (Legends of Animation)

169 Pages·2011·6.32 MB·English

by  Jeff Lenburg

Legends
of
William
Hanna

& Joseph
Barbera
Legends of Animation
Tex Avery:
Hollywood’s Master of Screwball Cartoons
Walt Disney:
The Mouse that Roared
Matt Groening:
From Spitballs to Springfield
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera:
The Sultans of Saturday Morning
Legends
of
William

Hanna
& Joseph
Barbera
The Sultans of Saturday Morning
Jeff Lenburg
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera: The Sultans of Saturday Morning
Copyright © 2011 by Jeff Lenburg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information contact:

Chelsea House
An Infobase Learning Company
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lenburg, Jeff.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera : the sultans of Saturday morning/Jeff Lenburg.
— 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Legends of animation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60413-837-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-60413-837-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4381-3754-4 (e-book) 1. Hanna, William, 1910–2001—Juvenile
literature. 2. Barbera, Joseph—Juvenile literature. 3. Animators—United States—
Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Title: Sultans of Saturday morning. III.
Series.
NC1766.U52H36355 2011
741.5’80922—dc22
[B] 2010051582
Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call
our Special Sales Department in New York at [phone] or [phone].
You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at
http://www.chelseahouse.com
Text design by Kerry Casey
Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi
Composition by EJB Publishing Services
Cover printed by Yurchak Printing, Landisville, Penn.
Book printed and bound by Yurchak Printing, Landisville, Penn.
Date printed: May 2011
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.

All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of
publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links
may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
To my dear friend, spiritual mentor,
and a pretty decent racquetball player,
Carolyn Lygo, for your love, support, and inspiration over the years.

CONTENTS
Y
Acknowledgments 9
1 The Accidental Artist 11
2 The Incessant Doodler and Dreamer 21
3 Chasing Their Cartoon Dreams 32
4 Fathering Filmdom’s Most Famous 47
Cat and Mouse
5 Blazing a New Path 73
6 Conquering Prime-time with America’s 93
Favorite Prehistoric Family
7 Changing the Face of Saturday 110
Morning Television
8 New Beginnings 131
Selected Resources 153
Selected Bibliography 157
Index 159
About the Author 167

ACkNOwlEdgmENTS
Y
F
irst and foremost, my sincere thanks to two legends of animation
and friends—the late William Hanna and Joseph Barbera—for
sharing their recollections with me originally for my formative chapter
on their careers in my book The Great Cartoon Directors, the foundation
for this book, and for subsequent chats with them without whom this
project would not have been possible.
Many thanks to the staffs of the Margaret Herrick Library of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Archives of Per-
forming Arts and the Regional History Collections at the University of
Southern California, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive of
the University of California, Los Angeles Public Library, the Museum of
Modern Art, and Arizona State University West Fletcher Library for their
personal assistance and contributions of additional research necessary
for the successful completion of this project.
Also, my profuse gratitude to the following newspapers, trade
publications, and journals: The Guardian (London), Hartford Courant,
Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Observer (London), Washington
Post, Box Office, Hollywood Reporter, Film Daily, Motion Picture Herald,
Variety, Animation Magazine, Film Comment, Funnyworld, Griffithiana,
and Mindrot, for their extensive coverage of noteworthy facts and
information, which I found of great value in writing and researching
this biography.
Lastly, my thanks to many others personally involved throughout
the various stages of this project over the years, namely Hanna-Barbera
9