Hugh Harman | |
|---|---|
 Harman, c. 1923 | |
| Born | (1903-08-31)August 31, 1903 Pagosa Springs, Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | November 25, 1982(1982-11-25) (aged 79) Chatsworth, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Animator |
| Years active | 1922–1963 |
| Employer(s) | Laugh-O-Gram Cartoons (1922) Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio/Walt Disney Studio (1923–1928) Winkler Pictures (1928–1929) Harman-Ising (1929–1950s) MGM (1938–1941) Hugh Harman Productions (1941–1960s) Walter Lantz Productions (1954) |
| Known for | Harman-Ising Productions |
| Children | 1 |
| Family | Fred Harman (brother) Walker Harman (brother) |
| Signature | |
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Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator, film producer, and film director. A veteran of the earlyWalt Disney studio and a key figure in theGolden Age of American animation, Harman and his longtime collaboratorRudolf Ising foundedHarman-Ising Pictures in 1929, through which they created theLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies cartoon series and set the foundation for what would later become theWarner Bros. Cartoons studio.[1]
Moving the distribution of their cartoons toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934, Harman and Ising started theHappy Harmonies series, which led to the creation of theMGM cartoon studio, where Harman and Ising would both work as producer/directors.[1]
A native ofPagosa Springs, Colorado, Hugh Harman began his animation career inKansas City, Missouri in 1922, when he and his older brother Fred Harman began working forWalt Disney on Disney's earlyLaugh-O-Gram Cartoons.[2][3] When that company went bankrupt, Harman and partnerRudolf Ising tried to start a new series based on theArabian Nights, but were unable to obtain funding.[4] Disney called them back when he began work forCharles Mintz, producing theAlice Comedies live-action/animation hybrid shorts and theOswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons.
After a dispute over money, Mintz forced out Disney in 1928 and lured most of his animators, Harman and Ising included, to join him. AfterCarl Laemmle replaced Mintz with a youngWalter Lantz[5] in early 1929, Harman and Ising, alongside a number of former Oswald animators put together a pilot short, "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid", featuring acharacter Harman created in 1928 assound films were becoming popular. The short gained them a contract with Warner Brothers studios to produce animated cartoons withLeon Schlesinger as manager. Harman and Ising started theLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies cartoons in 1930 and 1931, respectively (Harman would direct the Looney Tune shorts), and produced them until 1933. Following a number of clashes with Schlesinger over budgets, they decided to leave WB and look for another distributor.[6] Harman and Ising took Bosko with them, having previously copyrighted him to avoid facing the same situation Disney had with Oswald. In the meantime, Harman-Ising Pictures outsourced a number of Cubby Bear cartoons forThe Van Beuren Corporation.[7]
In early 1934, Harman and Ising were hired byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which launched the "Happy Harmonies" series in color (incidentally replacing fellow 1920s-era Disney veteranUb Iwerks), in which Harman redeveloped Bosko into a realistic black kid. After yet another money-related quarrel, Harman and Ising were fired by MGM in 1937, being replaced by an in-house cartoon studio headed byFred Quimby.[8][9][10] That same year, Disney borrowed the Harman-Ising Ink and Paint unit forSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the studio also outsourced a number of cartoons for theSilly Symphonies series, although Disney ultimately only acceptedMerbabies, the other shorts being released by MGM in early 1938, which after a rocky start with the in-house studio, decided to take Harman and Ising back some time later as production supervisors.[11]
After leaving Metro in 1941, Harman founded a new studio with Disney veteran Mel Shaw.[9][12] In 1943, the duo signed a deal withOrson Welles to adaptThe Little Prince, in which Welles would play the role of the aviator while a random child actor would portray the prince. A few months later, Welles fell ill withhepatitis, nearly dying while recovering in Florida. After this, the deal fell through and the film was scrapped.[1][11]
From 1945 to 1947, Harman's production company would produce various cartoons for the army and for educational films.[13][14] After a two year hiatus, Harman returned to the animation industry withThe Littlest Angel, a collaboration between his company andCoronet Films.[15] He also wrote theWoody Woodpecker shortConvict Concerto.[16] Harman's final film (albeit incomplete and entirely shipped to Coronet, completed byGordon A. Sheehan) was Tom Thumb in King Arthur's Court. Harman worked on the film extensively withMel Shaw, but ultimately gave production to Coronet because he couldn't complete it.[17][11] The film had been in production since the 1940s, under the working title "King Arthur's Knights".[18]
After Harman-Ising Studios closed in 1960, Harman fell in a state of abject poverty. He lived in a ramshackle house, no longer being able to afford a car, although he often disguised his precarious state by frequently having breakfast at a Beverly Hills restaurant. He had to constantly borrow money from Ising, as well as colleaguesFriz Freleng andRoy O. Disney in the 1970s to keep afloat. He also received a monthly allowance from his brother Fred, until Fred's death in January 1982. After that point, Harman was moved into a house on Chatsworth, the rent being paid by his friends, among them animator Mark Kausler and historian Jim Korkis, who had both met Harman throughBob Clampett in 1973.[19][11]
On November 25, 1982, Harman died after a long illness in his home.[2] He was survived by his son Michael. Harman was married twice, both times ending in divorce. His second wife was a Greek woman named Katia who married him in 1980 but left him soon after gaining her citizenship.[2][19]
Many years ago, I wrote about Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising for Millimeter magazine: "Harman and Ising did not so much create characters as they created studios. The Warner Bros. and MGM studios owed their existence to Harman and Ising. In both cases, Harman and Ising produced cartoons on their own, for distribution by the parent company, but they set patterns that were perpetuated when the releasing companies established their own cartoon units." Throughout the 1930s, it was the Harman-Ising cartoons—first their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros., then their Happy Harmonies for MGM—that invited the most serious comparisons with Walt Disney's cartoons.
