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 Americanstoryboard artist, animator, voice actor,gagman, writer and director for several Americananimation studios duringThe Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He was sometimes credited asJ. B. Hardaway,Ben Hardaway,B. Hardaway andBugs Hardaway.^[4] He fought in World War I in the129th Field Artillery Regiment, Battery D.^[5]

Hardaway enlisted inWorld 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 the129th Field Artillery Regiment by futurePresident of the United StatesHarry S. Truman, in which he attended his reception planned byForrest Smith at 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

Hardaway started his career at theKansas 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 theWalt Disney Productions animation unit and theUb Iwerks Studio, after which Hardaway was hired by the Leon Schlesinger studio as a gagman for theFriz Freleng unit. He was promoted to director for sevenBuddy animated shorts. Afterwards he resumed working as a gagman and storyman.^[8][9][10] He started receiving film credits in 1937. His writing credits includeDaffy Duck & Egghead andThe Penguin Parade.^[8]

While at theSchlesinger/Warner Bros. studio during the late 1930s, Hardaway served as a storyman. He co-directed severalLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies shorts withCal Dalton duringFriz Freleng's two-year exodus toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. ProducerLeon Schlesinger needed 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 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 filmA 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 ofWalter Lantz Productions, where he helpedWalter Lantz in creating the studio's most famous character,Woody Woodpecker. Hardaway wrote or co-wrote most of the stories for theWoody 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 succeedMel 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 forScrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat; in February 1949, Universal withdrew it from reissue due to multiple complaints from theNAACP for its raciststereotypes of African-Americans.^[15]

Hardaway died fromcancer 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 wasAdventures of Pow Wow, although he only wrote four episodes, which have lost audio.

• 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.

• Ben Hardaway atIMDb

• 1895 births
• 1957 deaths
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American screenwriters
• American animated film directors
• American male screenwriters
• American male television writers
• American television writers
• American male voice actors
• United States Army personnel of World War I
• American storyboard artists
• Animators from Missouri
• Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
• Deaths from cancer in California
• Film directors from Missouri
• Walt Disney Animation Studios people
• Walter Lantz Productions people
• American character designers

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