Ben Hardaway: Cornball Visionary?

[lonesome-lenny]

Ben Hardaway is, to me, one of the more troublesome figures in animation history.

It seems pretty clear to me that he is the creator of the "daffy" screwball character, as we know it, in classic Hollywood cartoons. He had a strong hand in creating Bugs Bunny, and it's evident that he played an equally strong role in creating Woody Woodpecker. I'm uncertain if he contributed to any of Daffy Duck's early appearances, but I'd guess it's likely he did.

Hardaway was truly onto something with this notion of the anti-social, screwball character. It was a fresh wind of influence in animation. It helped others give up trying to create an imitation Mickey Mouse, and fanned the flames of the brash, lively spirit of 1940s animation.

Hardaway had a great idea, but I don't think he really knew what to do with it. He had a definite format embedded into his "screwball" cartoons. Both his early versions of Bugs and Woody announce themselves via a song-and-dance routine. Via a peppy signature tune, the characters tout their own wackiness.

Woody's "Knock On Wood," which appears to be vocalized by Mel Blanc in a couple of the early WW cartoons, was soon abandoned in the Lantz cartoons. It typifies the Hardaway approach to a zany-type cartoon character.

It doesn't appear that anyone else followed this musical approach. Other screwball characters simply show up and establish themselves, via their actions, as non-conformist nutjobs.

Hardaway deserves credit for creating, in its rawest form, this cartoon archetype. But he was felled by his own ponderous sense of humor.

Time and again, Hardaway weighs down even the best Lantz cartoons with his lumbering verbal/visual puns. "The Barber of Seville" and "The Greatest Man In Siam" both suffer slow, uncertain beginnings due to Hardaway's pace-killing pun-fests.

It would seem that the awkwardly literal sight-gags that plague most of Dick Lundy's Lantz cartoons are Hardaway's work. These gags are creative--even genuinely "out there," as in the inexpicable visual nightmare that closes "The Coo-Coo Bird," from 1947. But they don't serve the storylines or the characters. They just kinda sit there, like some freakish accident. They also tend to pile up like shrapnel. They don't build on one another--they seem to fall all over themselves, especially in the Lundy Lantz cartoons.

James Culhane somehow managed Hardaway's sense of humor by making certain the pace of his cartoons was fast and furious. Dick Lundy's more relaxed, lyrical style allowed the weird Hardaway gags and puns to interfere with the success of the finished cartoons.

Hardaway had a raw, unpolished gift for wild comedic ideas and characters. Unlike Tex Avery, Michael Maltese, or other top-flight writers, he had no way to make them work coherently. In the WB cartoons he co-directed with Cal Dalton, this same problem surfaces. There is always terrific potential, but it never quite hits the mark.

Hardaway is a fascinating figure in classic animation--half visionary, half cornball. Unfortunately, the cornball part of his creative persona dominated his work.

Watching these Lantz cartoons again, for the first time in decades, I'm struck by these aspects of Hardaway's comedic sense.

I'd be interested to know what other TTTPers think of Hardaway, or of my ideas about him. Like Woody, Hardaway is an odd bird.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

That's an interesting essay on Hardaway, Lonesome Lenny. However, I wouldn't credit Hardaway with the creation of the "daffy" screwball character. I give that credit to Tex Avery, with Porky's Duck Hunt (the writing is credited to Rich Hogan for that cartoon. Though sometimes the credits on the Schlesinger cartoons are wrong). From the interviews I've read it seems that Hardaway decided to imitate Porky's Duck Hunt with Porky's Hare Hunt, by putting Daffy in a rabbit suit. The "daffy" hare eventually evolved into Bugs Bunny thanks again to Tex Avery. Woody Woodpecker is also based on Avery's version of Daffy Duck.

Hardaway's entire style -- from writing, drawing, and directing -- was crude and unsophisticated. Avery might not have been a great draftsman himself, but he was a terrific gagman and director. Shamus Culhane wrote that to Hardaway a joke was a joke, and it didn't matter if it fit the character or not.

[Matt the Y]

Shamus Culhane wrote that to Hardaway a joke was a joke, and it didn't matter if it fit the character or not.

Then perhaps Hardaway was as much to blame as Dick Lundy for those poorly characterized Woody cartoons such as "The Coo-Coo Bird", "Solid Ivory", and "The Mad Hatter". In all three of these, Woody plays fall guy and ends up losing!

I find all three of those quite hard to watch since it just doesn't seem right for Woody to be going through such tribulations. Dick Lundy was probably primarily responsible since he was mostly directing Donald Duck shorts prior to coming to Lantz as a director (don't those Woody roles in "Coo-Coo", "Ivory", and "Hatter" seem more akin to Donald roles to you too?) but since Hardaway could write ANY gags regardless of whether they seemed appropriate to the character he was writing for or not, it's possible Hardaway should accept some of the blame for these cartoons "failing" as well.

[lonesome-lenny]

Then perhaps Hardaway was as much to blame as Dick Lundy for those poorly characterized Woody cartoons such as "The Coo-Coo Bird", "Solid Ivory", and "The Mad Hatter". In all three of these, Woody plays fall guy and ends up losing!

I find all three of those quite hard to watch since it just doesn't seem right for Woody to be going through such tribulations. Dick Lundy was probably primarily responsible since he was mostly directing Donald Duck shorts prior to coming to Lantz as a director (don't those Woody roles in "Coo-Coo", "Ivory", and "Hatter" seem more akin to Donald roles to you too?) but since Hardaway could write ANY gags regardless of whether they seemed appropriate to the character he was writing for or not, it's possible Hardaway should accept some of the blame for these cartoons "failing" as well.

Very well put. You summed up exactly what I feel is off-base in many of the Lundy Lantz cartoons.

It's quite striking if you watch some Lundys and some Culhanes in the same viewing. Culhane's Woody is never a total loser. True, he's 100% sociopathic. Many of his victims don't do anything to merit the torment he brings to their lives... the poor cement-layer in "The Loose Nut" being my favorite example. Or his barber-shop victims in "Barber of Seville."

Culhane's Woody is not a sympathetic character at all. Yet he's interesting. You never really know what he's going to do next. And, via Culhane's razor-sharp timing, he is amusing.

Lundy did one Culhane-styled Woody, "Bathing Buddies." It's so much like a Culhane short that I wonder if Culhane's crew had worked up the storyboard and handed the short over to Lundy to complete.

Lundy had some obvious skill as a director. "Musical Moments From Chopin" is a superb cartoon, and other shorts such as "Woody the Giant Killer" have enough visual excitement and energy to put themselves over pretty well.

In the shorts where Woody becomes Loser #1, perhaps Lundy was trying to make Woody into a more sympathetic, audience-friendly figure. In any event, Hardaway's wacked-out sight gags, plastered all over these cartoons, did nothing to help the cause.

They are gorgeous-looking cartoons, with lyrical, flowing animation and some of the best key poses in Hollywood cartoons.

Footnote to J.J.: I do agree that Avery deserves the credit for the basic creation and refinement of the screwball character in animation. Hardaway had his own formula, which he tried out at WB, in competition with Avery's (and Clampett's) and ran amok with at Lantz.

What fascinates me is that Hardaway kept pursuing his heavy-handed path, while other writers and directors continued to refine the zany character in animated cartoons.

I re-read portions of Culhane's memoirs last night, and refreshed my memory of how much the director disliked Hardaway's writing. So did co-storyman Milt Schaffer. Culhane describes story meetings in which Hardaway kills himself with his lengthy puns, while Schaffer just rolls his eyes toward the ceiling...

I really wonder how Hardaway was able to have such influence in the animation world when his work was so checkered. Perhaps Lantz liked him personally, and wanted to give him steady work?

Anyway, thanks for responding to my mini-essay. As I said earlier, Hardaway is a troubling figure in animation history--yet he played a fairly influential role in it.

[Matt the Y]

Lundy did one Culhane-styled Woody, "Bathing Buddies." It's so much like a Culhane short that I wonder if Culhane's crew had worked up the storyboard and handed the short over to Lundy to complete.

I re-read portions of Culhane's memoirs last night, and refreshed my memory of how much the director disliked Hardaway's writing. So did co-storyman Milt Schaffer. Culhane describes story meetings in which Hardaway kills himself with his lengthy puns, while Schaffer just rolls his eyes toward the ceiling...


I always thought Lundy's "Smoked Hams" was quite akin to a Culhane short. In that cartoon, Wally does nothing to provoke Woody's hostility; Woody just dishes it out to him being especially nasty when he proves to Wally that he can "possibly make any more noise"! He does receive his comeuppance in the end, though, which possibly does show more of Lundy's stamp but the overall set-up and madcap pacing of the gags reminds me more of a Culhane short. In fact, I honestly think "Smoked Hams" is probably Dick Lundy's best Lantz short as a director.

In regards to personal opinion of Hardaway's skills as a writer around the Lantz studio, I knew for a while now that Culhane didn't particularly like Ben Hardaway as a writer but I never knew Hardaway's longtime co-writer Milt Schaffer didn't like his writing abilities either. Was there anything else about his writing talent they disliked other than his bad puns? He didn't use outrageous puns that often in all of his cartoons (tho, admittedly, some like "Salt Water Daffy" badly suffer from WAY too many of them!). I always kind of like Ben Hardaway's writing abilities; he was kind of hit-and-miss but his stories could be hysterically funny at times.

[Sean Gaffney]

But what of Ben Hardaway, the voice artist? :D Clearly it's not him singing the opera in Barber of Seville, but I do wonder who sang the folk song in Ski for Two as Woody skis along.

[Matt the Y]

But what of Ben Hardaway, the voice artist? :D Clearly it's not him singing the opera in Barber of Seville, but I do wonder who sang the folk song in Ski for Two as Woody skis along.

That's not Hardaway either. In both cases, it's Lee Sweetland (albeit sped-up, like Ben Hardaway's speaking Woody voice), famous baritone singer who also sings in Lantz Swing Symphony, "The Sliphorn King of Polaroo". He also sings Woody's rendition of "Dark Eyes" when he impersonates Ivan Awfulitch in "The Dippy Diplomat" as well.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

In regards to personal opinion of Hardaway's skills as a writer around the Lantz studio, I knew for a while now that Culhane didn't particularly like Ben Hardaway as a writer but I never knew Hardaway's longtime co-writer Milt Schaffer didn't like his writing abilities either. Was there anything else about his writing talent they disliked other than his bad puns? He didn't use outrageous puns that often in all of his cartoons (tho, admittedly, some like "Salt Water Daffy" badly suffer from WAY too many of them!). I always kind of like Ben Hardaway's writing abilities; he was kind of hit-and-miss but his stories could be hysterically funny at times.
The reason that there weren't a larger amount of bad puns in the Hardaway written cartoons is because Culhane would trim them from the storyboard, according to Culhane's biography. He had to leave a certain amount in place, since Lantz like them 'cause they cut down on costs, but the director had the final say on story and Culhane would edit them over Hardaway's protestations.

[Sogturtle]

Very well put. You summed up exactly what I feel is off-base in many of the Lundy Lantz cartoons.

It's quite striking if you watch some Lundys and some Culhanes in the same viewing. Culhane's Woody is never a total loser. True, he's 100% sociopathic. Many of his victims don't do anything to merit the torment he brings to their lives... the poor cement-layer in "The Loose Nut" being my favorite example. Or his barber-shop victims in "Barber of Seville."

Culhane's Woody is not a sympathetic character at all. Yet he's interesting. You never really know what he's going to do next. And, via Culhane's razor-sharp timing, he is amusing.

Lundy did one Culhane-styled Woody, "Bathing Buddies." It's so much like a Culhane short that I wonder if Culhane's crew had worked up the storyboard and handed the short over to Lundy to complete.

Lundy had some obvious skill as a director. "Musical Moments From Chopin" is a superb cartoon, and other shorts such as "Woody the Giant Killer" have enough visual excitement and energy to put themselves over pretty well.

In the shorts where Woody becomes Loser #1, perhaps Lundy was trying to make Woody into a more sympathetic, audience-friendly figure. In any event, Hardaway's wacked-out sight gags, plastered all over these cartoons, did nothing to help the cause.

They are gorgeous-looking cartoons, with lyrical, flowing animation and some of the best key poses in Hollywood cartoons.

Footnote to J.J.: I do agree that Avery deserves the credit for the basic creation and refinement of the screwball character in animation. Hardaway had his own formula, which he tried out at WB, in competition with Avery's (and Clampett's) and ran amok with at Lantz.

What fascinates me is that Hardaway kept pursuing his heavy-handed path, while other writers and directors continued to refine the zany character in animated cartoons.

I re-read portions of Culhane's memoirs last night, and refreshed my memory of how much the director disliked Hardaway's writing. So did co-storyman Milt Schaffer. Culhane describes story meetings in which Hardaway kills himself with his lengthy puns, while Schaffer just rolls his eyes toward the ceiling...

I really wonder how Hardaway was able to have such influence in the animation world when his work was so checkered. Perhaps Lantz liked him personally, and wanted to give him steady work?

Anyway, thanks for responding to my mini-essay. As I said earlier, Hardaway is a troubling figure in animation history--yet he played a fairly influential role in it.

Lonesome Lenny~

Not wanting to belabor anything... Interesting essay.:) Actually Hardaway's cartoon career goes all the way back to Iwerks' Flip the Frog cartoons and we can credit him with a lot (if not all) of the lovably strange and weird humor in those cartoons:flip:. His hiring and influence at Schlesinger's is definitely attributable to Friz Freleng. Ben's gag-influence during his six plus years at Schlesinger's really only became recognizable when he graduated up to director and particularly the second time around. Honestly his writing there (or story-editing) is SO submerged into the "omelettes" that the directors and two story crews created that a person can't really detect a clear "Hardaway cartoon mindset" until he took the director's chair.

Whether Ben had any contribution into "Porky's Duck Hunt" is and will remain unknown since the story-crews alternated and the cartoon bears no story credit. As such we really can only credit Tex Avery with Daffy's creation (and Tex always sat in with the story crew so regardless which crew helped with the cartoon, the demented duck had to have been Tex's baby). HOWEVER as well documented, Hardaway loved the idea of Daffy being a looney-tooney character and latched onto it with the oft quoted line "I'm going to put that duck into a rabbit suit". And THAT is where Ben's weakness is most obvious as he and the crews came up with some fine and funny gags in his and Dalton's two rabbit cartoons, but he showed NO understanding of HOW to create a LIKABLE character. His rabbit is not just looney but patently obnoxious in those cartoons.

Hardaway's subsequent demotion back to storyman at Leon's and then his quitting to freelance opened the way for him to pack away the idea of a completely insane character for immediate reuse elsewhere... (The reality that he lifted the insane-character idea from Tex Avery's Daffy is always generously ignored).

The fact that the first Woody Woodpecker cartoon ("Knock, Knock") was directed by Lantz (with animation layouts by Alex Lovy) from Ben's free-lance story assured almost undiluted Hardaway. And Ben's subsequent lack of co-storymen at Lantz's assured us getting a more negative view of his writing since that meant a lack of 'other points of comedic view' (aside from the director acting as story-editor or in Lundy's case a non-editor). But Lantz DID like him as a storyman very much (to the eternal consternation of Shamus Culhane:p ).

Regardless, Ben Hardaway remains a fascinating character in cartoon history and was actually responsible for a LOT of laughs, even if incongruous to a character (plus was responsible for Woody Woodpecker:woody: ).

[J Lee]

If it's any consolation, Hardaway seems to have kept most of his biggest liabilities safely packed away during his brief return to Warners in 1949 after Lantz shut down operations (No awful puns in "A Bone for a Bone", and Ben may have had a little to do with the 'wackier' Bugs in "Rabbit Every Monday". Both arefree of awful puns, though Friz may have had a lot to do with that).

[SEATTLECHEF]

"Ben Hardaway is, to me, one of the more troublesome figures in animation history.
Hardaway had a great idea, but I don't think he really knew what to do with it.
Hardaway deserves credit for creating, in its rawest form, this cartoon archetype
Hardaway had a raw, unpolished gift for wild comedic ideas and characters
Hardaway is a fascinating figure in classic animation--half visionary, half cornball. I'd be interested to know what other TTTPers think of Hardaway, or of my ideas about him. Like Woody, Hardaway is an odd bird". (paraphrased)

I agree with much of what you say, I probably don't know enough to really disagree with the rest.
I will remind you that Hardaway was one of the pioneers of the industry. His history and career were at the crest of the wave of change from the print medium to the moving picture. He was as involved in the Golden age of animation as one could possibly be. He worked with as many of the greatest directors, executives,and animators as anyone(Disney, Iwerks, Sclessinger, Lantz, McKimson, Thorsen etc. etc.). He is also credited with recruiting Carl Stalling. His contributions must have outweighed his, "ponderous sense of humor" or he wouldn't have been around long enough to contribute as he did.
One of the posters said that his drawing was crude. I think differently, for example http://bugshardaway.blogspot.com/