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Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons [1] studios and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the Golden Age of American animation. Career. He began his work with Walt Disney in 1922, working on Disney's early Laugh-O-Gram Cartoons.
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Hugh Harman was an American animator, best known for creating cartoons for Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Harman was also best known for his Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar nominee MGM cartoon "Peace on Earth" in 1939 and for his works with partner Rudolf Ising.
Disney/Winkler
Hugh Harman first worked in animation in the early 1920s at Walt Disney's studio in Kansas City. When Disney moved operations to California, Harman, Rudolf Ising, and fellow animator Carman Maxwell stayed behind to try to start their own studio. Their plans went nowhere, however, and the men soon rejoined Disney to work on his Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films. It was during this time, that Harman and Ising developed a style of cartoon drawing that would later be closely associated with, and credited to, Disney. When producer Charles Mintz ended his association with Disney, Harman and Ising went to work at Winkler Pictures' new animation studio. At some point during the production of Winkler's Oswald cartoons, Harman and Ising went to Universal to try and convince the studio to put them in charge instead of Mintz. Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Pictures, got tired of the internal politics and terminated Winkler Pictures' contract. This resulted in the two establishing Harman-Ising Productions.
Post-Disney
Harman and Ising began pitching an animated/live-action short film titled "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid" to various people. When producer Leon Schlesinger viewed the film, he gave Harman and Ising the greenlight for the Looney Tunes series. A sister series Merrie Melodies was created a year later (both titles being a parody of Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies). Harman and Ising had a fallout with Schlesinger in 1933 and soon departed for MGM, taking the copyrights to Bosko with them. There, he and Ising created another series that parodied Silly Symphonies again, Happy Harmonies. At MGM, 37 shorts were produced until 1938 when the series ended. After the series ended, MGM terminated Harman and Ising, who were subcontracted to produced cartoons for MGM, though they were hired to MGM's cartoon studio the following year. Harman still found some work as an animation freelancer, directing, for example, cartoons in the Silly Symphonies series for Disney in 1938. When Disney later reneged on a deal he had made for two other Harman-Ising pictures, the animators sold the cartoons to Fred Quimby at MGM. Quimby rehired Harman and Ising, but they no longer worked together. The following year, Harman's "Peace on Earth" was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as an Oscar. Hugh Harman left MGM to start a new animation studio with Disney animator Mel Shaw.
Death
Harman died from a heart attack on November 25, 1982, while in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.
1."Hugh Harman, 79, Creator Of 'Looney Tunes' Cartoons" - The New York Times Obituaries
May 19, 2024 · Mintz and Winkler targeted Hugh Harman, a young Disney animator who had worked with Walt back in Kansas City but had grown tired of his overbearing pressure. Harman jumped at the opportunity...
Apr 17, 2024 · According to a 1973 interview Hugh Harman did with Michael Barrier, Walt Disney essentially "taught" his workers animation by having them read books on animation from the library and by having them copy and trace from reels of Paul Terry's early Farmer Al Falfa cartoons, obtained in reels from a girl they knew at Bray Studios.
He began his work with Walt Disney in 1922, working on Disney's early Laugh-o-Gram toons. When that company went bankrupt, Harman and partner Rudolf Ising tried to start a new series based on the Arabian Nights, but were unable to obtain funding. Disney called them back when he began work for Charles Mintz, producing the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
- Hugh Harman
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Hugh Harman was one of the pioneers of animation. While not a great animator, (compared to co-worker, Rudolf Ising) he was present during the early days. He began his work with Walt Disney in 1922, working on Disney’s early Laugh-o-Gram toons. When that company went bankrupt, Harman and partner Rudolf Ising tried to start a new series based ...
Acting. Hugh Harman began work with Walt Disney in 1922 on the Laugh-O-Gram shorts. Harman and his partner, Rudolf Ising, then rejoined Disney for the Oswald cartoons, but stayed with producer Charles Mintz after Disney was let go. Harman joined Warner Bros., but left in 1933 for MGM where he and Ising found success with the "Happy Harmonies ...
