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 (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. 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