How a construction engineer turned the Great Depression into an animation empire

Art · Published 2 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: After losing his engineering job during the Great Depression, William Hanna found a new way to build. By pairing his precise sense of timing with Joseph Barbera’s wit, he pioneered a low-budget technique that redefined television animation and created some of history's most enduring characters.

William Hanna’s path to animation was born of necessity. Originally studying structural engineering, he was forced to drop out of college due to the Great Depression. After a brief stint as a construction engineer—which included work on the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood—and a period working at a car wash, he transitioned into the arts at Pacific Art and Title. By 1930, he had joined Harman-Ising Studios, the birthplace of the Looney Tunes series.

The true turning point came at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1937. While working as a director, Hanna met Joseph Barbera, whose talent for sketching and gag-writing perfectly complemented Hanna’s mastery of story construction and timing. Their partnership launched with the 1940 short Puss Gets the Boot, which earned an Academy Award nomination and paved the way for the legendary Tom and Jerry series.

When MGM shuttered its animation department in 1957, the duo founded Hanna-Barbera Productions. Facing the strict budget constraints of early television, they developed 'limited animation.' This technique shifted the focus away from fluid, expensive action toward character depth and witty dialogue. This efficiency allowed them to produce a massive volume of work, including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo.

The studio's impact was immense, producing over 3,000 half-hour shows for 150 series. Their work earned seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards. By the 1960s, their characters reached a global audience of over 300 million people, proving that even with limited resources, great storytelling could capture the world.

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