“Hidden Talents”

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Fred Flinstone, designed & drawn by Ed Benedict

The whole world knows the names of Hanna and Barbera.  But what about the names Takamoto, Hazelton, Singer and Benedict?

Stumped?  Don’t feel bad.  Hardly anyone recognizes the names of these inspired animators who toiled beside Hanna and Barbera for decades, inventing and refining the television cartoon.

So join me as I tear away their veil of anonymity and blast the limelight on these Hidden Talents!

Meet Iwao Takamoto, head designer of Hanna-Barbera for over thirty years.  A Disney graduate whose mastery of design and layout has influenced every aspect of the studio’s work.  Television legend Fred Silverman once said of him, “As a designer, he’s simply the best in the business.”

Gene Hazelton’s story has intertwined with Hanna-Barbera’s for more than fifty years, ever since their  “Tom and Jerry” days at MGM.  That was Gene who created the initial storyboards for “The Jetsons” and designed the “Pebbles” and “Bamm-Bamm” characters for “The Flintstones.”

Ed Benedict celebrates six decades of animation wizardry, beginning with Disney, Tex Avery, and the earliest days at Hanna-Barbera.  He was the first designer of Ruff and Reddy, The Flintstones, and present-at-the-creation of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Quick Draw McGraw, and Pixie and Dixie.

Bob Singer was the inventor of the layout that allowed animators to use the same background for different scenes, thereby making television cartoons economically possible.

Four anonymous hard-working stiffs in the cartoon salt mines.  Four inspired artists inventing a new era in entertainment.  Four of Hanna-Barbera’s Hidden Talents.

“Hidden Talents”
Essay #10 (of 15)
Original essay written by Bill Burnett, Creative Director, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, 1993-1996