While fixing some glitches on this site today, I came upon this post which I put up here the evening of March 16, 2005 and I decided it warranted a rerun.
Joe Barbera passed away in December of the following year and I think this was the last time I saw him, In the few years before this, I would occasionally be invited to lunch with him at what was then his favorite restaurant — an Italian place on Ventura Boulevard not far from where the Warner Cartoon Studio had its offices. Mr. B, as a lot of us called him, was still working…coming in a few days a week to consult and work on cartoon projects.
Every so often, he'd turn to an assistant there and say something like, "I haven't seen Mark Evanier lately. See if he'll come out and have lunch with me." I never turned down one of those invites even though it was a bit uncomfy to see him in the condition he was in and to sit through him telling stories I'd heard many times. Joe was amazingly youthful and energetic well into his eighties. He absolutely didn't look his age…then something happened and he did. One person who was closer to him than I was said the transformation started in 2001 when Bill Hanna died.
He was really an amazing man and (arguably) the best "salesman" the industry has ever had in terms of pitching ideas to networks and getting them to buy what he was selling. He was smart. He was funny. Women seemed to find him most attractive and it wasn't his money, it was him. I'm very glad I got to know him and to work for him and that I quit at the right time. Better to leave when you're in love.
So here's a flashback to a memorable afternoon I spent. A lot of the other folks who were there are no longer here and are also seriously missed…
About 95% of the Los Angeles Animation Community gathered today at the headquarters of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood. The occasion was the unveiling of a wall sculpture honoring Joe Barbera and the late Bill Hanna. Most of us were invited to a birthday luncheon immediately after, as Mr. Barbera will allegedly be 94 years old a week from tomorrow. (I say "allegedly" because there are a couple of animation scholars who claim that Mr. B shaved a few years from his age many years ago and is actually older now than his bio says. In the nearly thirty years since I first met him, he has never looked anywhere near any claimed age…so I have no idea.)
Mr. Barbera, who is now confined to a wheelchair, seemed pleased with the wall sculpture, which joins similar tableaus of Walter Cronkite, Steve Allen and Burns & Allen. One section of wall nearby was covered with a drape which some of us peeked under. Beneath was a very handsome likeness of Jim Henson, surrounded by Kermit, Gonzo, Rowlf and other Muppets. It was in the same style as the one of Hanna and Barbera, perhaps even by the same sculptor, Richard Ellis. No unveiling date has been announced. In fact, we weren't even supposed to know it was there.
Speeches were given by executives of the Academy and Warner Brothers Animation, a representative of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, and the son of Bill Hanna and the daughter of Joe Barbera. Here's a photo that I took after the unveiling. The lady at right is Bill's widow, Violet Hanna. The gent at the center is Sander Schwartz, the President of Warner Brothers Animation. Between Sander and Jerry Mouse is…uh, I'm not sure. It might be Joe's doctor, whose name I didn't get. But the black guy is an amazing fellow named Carlton Clay who takes care of Mr. Barbera, driving him around and helping him get to work and such. Carlton was the Master of Ceremonies at the birthday party that followed. (And of course, that's J.B. in the wheelchair.)
I'm trying to remember everyone I saw there so here's a partial list in no particular order: Iwao Takamoto, June Foray, Roger Mayer, Phil Roman, Jerry Eisenberg, Fred Silverman, Earl Kress, Scott Shaw!, Karl Toerge, John Kimball, Sarah Baisley, Gordon Hunt, Phil Ortiz, Scott Jeralds, Andy Heyward, Gary Conrad, Don Pitts, Willie Ito, Lucille Bliss, Jerry Beck, John Michaeli, Linda Steiner, Christopher Keenan, Amy Wagner, Heather Kenyon, Marc Seidenberg, Rich Fogel, Tom Sito, Spike Brandt, Alan Burnett, Tom Tataranowicz and an awful lot of others I'm leaving out.
And here's a photo I took of three great voice actors who were in attendance. At left is John Stephenson, who was the voice of Mr. Slate on The Flintstones, Dr. Benton Quest on Jonny Quest, Fancy-Fancy on Top Cat and many more. In the center is Gary Owens, who voiced the title character on Space Ghost and The Blue Falcon on the Dynomutt show, and who also announced so many H-B programs. At right is Janet Waldo, who was the voice of Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop and many others.
The party was great, with folks telling stories about working at Hanna-Barbera, and a couple of great short films featuring H-B characters. I was more than a little amused at the end when they were passing out "gift bags" to everyone. Each contained, among other items, a copy of one of the recently-released DVDs of some H-B show, and all these grown men and women were scrambling to get one with their favorite program. One woman who found the Scooby Doo DVD in her sack quietly turned around and switched it with a Top Cat DVD in the gift bag of the man sitting next to her…without him noticing.
Anyway…a Happy Birthday to Joe Barbera. May he have 94 (or however many he's had so far) more.