Biography: John K Interviews Bill, Joe and Friz Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the careers of great animators.

This is a continuation of an interview by John Kricfalusi with Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Friz Freleng. If you missed it, please see Part One of John K Interviews Bill, Joe & Friz

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FRIZ & BILL AT HARMAN-ISING

Noe Gold: You gentlemen worked together at one point, didn't you?

Bill H: Friz and I worked together in 1930 for a company called Harman & Ising.

Friz F: And that was the beginning...

Bill H: The very beginning... Leon Schlesinger engaged them as a company to produce cartoons for them. After about two or three years, he decided to produce them himself, and that is when Friz and I parted company. I stayed with Hugh and Rudy, and Friz went to work with Leon.



Click on the image to view a Quicktime Movie
of an early Harman Ising cartoon.
Friz F: I knew I had to make a choice. It was either MGM or Leon Schlesinger. But they started making pictures with Jack King and Tom Palmer, and when I saw what what they made, I threw up. I figured it would be a cinch to make pictures better than that. Leon Schlesinger said I could have my own crew. Warners loved what we were making- Bosko in "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" and all that. And when they got Tom Palmer and Jack King's pictures, they refused them. They wouldn't accept them.

Bill H: You know, I don't remember Tom Palmer.

Friz F: Worked for Disney... Jack King too.

Joe B: He came from Disney- screwed up.

Friz F: Anyhow, so I took the two pictures that Palmer had made. Everything was so slowww. He thought that made for good animation. So I took the two pictures and made one out of them, and added some new stuff of course. Warners accepted it and said, "Gee!" Schlesinger fired Tom Palmer right away.

Bill H: That would be interesting to see. Two of them became one? Only Friz could do that!

Joe B: You mentioned the problems the Disney guys, King and Palmer had turning out pictures...

Friz F: Well, they weren't Directors at Disney.

Joe B: Whatever it was, they weren't able to do it... Well, I found out about it in New York, because I ran into a Disney man, Burt Gillett. Did you ever hear that name? I later found out that anyone who ever left Disney, if you said "What did you do?", every one of them did "Snow White" or "The Three Little Pigs". Those were always the two things they did- their claim to fame. Burt Gillett started a studio in New York on that credit and it just didn't work at all.

Friz F: (To Bill) But you and Rudy went on to make some pretty good pictures. In color and all that...

Bill H: That was for MGM. But they were so slow in delivering, they cut Hugh and Rudy off and started their own corporation in 1937.



But going back to the early days of Harman-Ising... They had just one writer there- that English fellow- Bob Edmonds. He was the only writer per se that I can remember. (To Friz) You were doing your own stuff... I used to sit with Rudy 'til midnight damn near every night working on stories. Back then, I was running the inking and painting department during the day. Rudy would get to work at noon and stay 'til midnight. So nights, I would work with Rudy on stories.

John K: When you were writing for Harman & Ising, were you using storyboards?

Bill H: No, I didn't use storyboards. We just had little thumbnail sketches.

John K: Did you draw? I've seen you draw before.

Bill H: I'm not a good artist. Rough sketches- yes, but they're so rough hardly anyone can tell what the hell they are.

John K: But that's how you worked out the stories?

Bill H: That's right... I think Paul Fennell was the artist I worked with there. I worked with him at Harman-Ising pretty much the same as I did with Joe at MGM.


BILL STARTS DIRECTING, AND JOE JOINS MGM

Bill H: In 1935, I think it was, I started directing pictures there- "Old Mill Pond" and "To Spring". They ran at MGM and they liked them very much. It was just about that time when they decided to drop Hugh and Rudy and start their own studio. As a result of the success of the last two or three pictures I made there, they hired me on as a director. That was in 1937.



Click on the image to view a Quicktime Movie
of Harman Ising's MGM cartoon, "To Spring".
John K: So you got hired away from Harman and Ising when Fred Quimby wanted to open his own unit in house?

Bill H: Yes, this was when MGM decided to open their own cartoon department. Well, I did one- It had a bunch of frogs and they were black people. ("Old Mill Pond" / 1936) I think that's the first thing you and I ever made together, Joe.

Joe B: No, we did "The Swing Social".



Click on the image to view a Quicktime Movie
of Harman Ising's MGM cartoon, "Old Mill Pond".
Friz F: Joe came out to California when MGM started.

Joe B: ...in 1937.

Bill H: The Katzenjammer Kids was what they were doing. Didn't we change it to The Captain and the Kids?


JOE WORKS WITH FRIZ AT MGM

Friz F: Here's what happened... MGM had formed their cartoon studio with Harman and Ising...

Joe B: First, I was an animator. Then you asked me to come work with you. You don't remember that?


Friz F: Yes, I do. I was going to get to it.

Joe B: You never paid me!

I was an Animator, and I was in a room down the hall from Freleng. Somehow Friz heard I also did story. After about two weeks, he asked me if I would want to be a story man with him.

John K: Was Friz doing story himself too?

Joe B: Well, Friz was working in the style that Directors used to work in. He would settle on a story idea, then he would exchange ideas with the so-called story man. And the story man was supposed to furnish him with gags and ideas. Friz would sift it out- keep whatever he wanted, or reject it all. But it was like he said, a one man operation. The Director did it all. He was writing the story- He was editing the story- He was timing the story.

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We will be posting the next installment of this important interview soon. Bookmark us and check back regularly. If you missed it, please see Part One of John K Interviews Bill, Joe & Friz

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If you would like copies of cartoons like the ones in this post on DVD, I highly recommend...

Thunderbean's Attack of the 30s Characters

It includes great cartoons in terrific prints from eight major animation studios of the 1930s. The supplemental material includes a trailer for Fleischer's "Gullivers Travels" and still frame galleries of posters and original artwork.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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