Joseph Benson Hardaway was an American storyboard artist, animator, voice actor, gagman, writer and director for several American animation studios during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation.
11 Facts About Ben Hardaway
1.
2.
Ben Hardaway was sometimes credited as J B Hardaway, Ben Hardaway, B Hardaway and Bugs Hardaway.
3.
Ben Hardaway was led in the 129th Field Artillery Regiment by future President of the United States 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.
4.
Ben Hardaway served the last 14 months of his service in France.
5.
Ben 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.
6.
Ben Hardaway later worked for the Walt Disney Animation Studios and the Ub Iwerks Studio, after which Hardaway was hired by the Leon Schlesinger studio as a gagman for the Friz Freleng unit.
7.
Ben Hardaway was promoted to director for seven Buddy animated shorts.
8.
In 1938, Ben Hardaway co-directed Porky's Hare Hunt, the first film to feature a rabbit.
9.
When this unnamed, embryonic rabbit was given a new model sheet for a later short, since, according to Chuck Jones, Ben Hardaway "didn't draw it very well", designer Charlie Thorson inadvertently offered a permanent name by titling the model sheet "Bugs' Bunny" since it was meant for Ben Hardaway's unit.
10.
In 1940, Ben Hardaway joined the staff of Walter Lantz Productions, where he helped Walter Lantz in creating the studio's most famous character, Woody Woodpecker.
11.
Shamus Culhane, the director of most of the Woody cartoons between 1944 and 1946, thought Ben Hardaway's humor was crude and formulaic.