Jerry’s picture reminded me.
Endpaper from The World of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons
Jerry Beck’s quick snap and reflection on the Hanna-Barbera building facade in Los Angeles reminded me of how great it felt to work in that place and what it meant to me.
When I first started traveling to LA in the late 70s I’d get a chill going past the building, wondering what kind of magic went on behind the concrete screens. Just the name in plain black type up top screamed out to me. Working there in the 90s we worked like hell to make the building special; putting up those giant posters of the classic characters was a great rush. One of the happiest days of my life was when Bill Hanna came into my office (originally his) and exclaimed, “Wow! It really looks like a cartoon studio now!”
The last picture I have of the renovated Hanna-Barbera building, 1994-95.
(Of course, that was before the neighborhood association threatened to sue, not to mention the purists in the building who wanted to keep the original post-office-beige color.)
A vital city needs to keep changing, as does a industry and its architecture, and most studios completely disappear, but props out to Jordan Reichek for all the hard work he did to keep it up. It’ll still be nice to get a sense memory of the place, more than we can say for a lot of other homes of great work in the town.
Cartoon Network’s got a little tour of some of the classic moments inside the studio. And here’s a couple of post-cartoon views of the building before it’s latest, and last, renovation.
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On April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
In 1966, Bill Hanna responded to a letter of mine and invited me to visit the studio and meet he and Joe Barbera. Well, California was a “far piece” from California for a 14 year old, so I didn’t get there until 1971.
Mr. Hanna was away so I didn’t get to meet him until 1976 (I didn’t meet Mr. Barbera until 1994!) but I got a wonderful tour of the studio by a very kind man named Art Scott.
He took me all through the building that I had seen in the half-hour promo show for Magilla Gorilla called “Here Comes A Star.”
I sat in on a recording session for “Harlem Globetrotters” that featured the great Don Messick doing one of his Professor voices.
They hadn’t really started building up for the television season yet, so I was struck by the number of empty animation boards (and more struck by the fact that they locked all the animation discs up in a closet to keep people from stealing them (a little dose off reality in a magic place). The room with the animation stands (my mind tells me there were nine of ‘em, but it may have been less) and the cutting rooms in the basement particularly stands out…
Before I left, Art Scott asked me if I had been to Disney. Well, I didn’t think I could get in there, but he got me in, and the next day I took a taxi to Burbank and met Ollie Johnston who showed me pencil tests from “Robin Hood” and a tour of the animation building by another very kind man named Andy Engman, who Art had called. For some reason, it never occurred to my 19 year old mind that all these people knew each other.
Sidetrack, but with a point. The Hanna-Barbera building was really kind of plain looking in 1971, but the people inside were wonderful.
I went back in 1976 and spent about an hour with Mr. Hanna, which was wonderful.
I visited again a couple of times in the 80’s, but didn’t really spend any time in the buildings until 1994-95, after Fred had become President. We were selected to do a “What A Cartoon!” short called O. Ratz, and I made quite a few trips to the West Coast, and got close to what had been a dream of mine when I was a kid - to work at Hanna-Barbera.
Fred jazzed up the building. He had all the doors painted bright colors, and put those banners up and painted the buildings “cartoon hues”. The weird thing about “Hollywood” is how unglamourous it was/is from the outside, and that included the cartoon studios. Fred was the one who wanted people to KNOW when they drove by, WHAT they were driving by.
I for one, loved the “jazzing it up” including the new addition and the really cool “Hanna Barbera Cartoons” sign. Sadly, it didn’t stay perched up there for long, but things change.
What did not change, whether it was 1971, 1976, the 1980’s or the 1990’s, was how warm and friendly and helpful the people who worked in that building were. That’s where the magic really was.
I type fast and there are a lot more things I could say, but “have mercy” comes to mind, so I’ll quit while I’m ahead.
On April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
That was a great post. It would be nice to get more of these “Behind the Toons” type stories from people. Keep them coming.
On April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Wonderful story Brian. Thank you.
On May 16th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Wow, that photo of the building at night is really something!
Wish I could’ve seen that!