Animator Spotlight: Laverne Harding
The great Laverne Harding (1905-1984) was an underrated talent and a true pioneer. Harding was the first woman to hold the title of animator at a Hollywood studio (Lillian Friedman, who worked at the Max Fleischer studio on the East Coast, slightly preceded her).
Harding received her first screen credit on the Walter Lantz cartoon Wolf! Wolf! in 1934, and she remained at the Lantz studio until 1960. Her longtime boss Walter Lantz said of her, “Laverne came to me with a beautiful portfolio, so I gave her the job. She became one of my top animators and was the only woman animator in the business for years. Most producers didn’t believe a woman could draw the exaggerations needed for action, and they could only handle birds and bees and flowers. They were wrong, of course.”
In her later years, Harding worked on the Pink Panther cartoons for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, and she animated Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Scooby-Doo for Hanna-Barbera. In addition to all of this, she created her own syndicated comic strip Cynical Susie, which she wrote and drew from 1933 to 1935.
Her peers all spoke highly of her, and she received the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in 1980. You’ll see why she was so respected when you watch this wonderfully wacky scene Harding animated in the Andy Panda cartoon Fish Fry (1944).
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) May 2, 2024
Despite being such a trailblazer, Harding was said to be quiet and humble in person. Her work was the most solidly constructed and three-dimensional of the Lantz animators, but she wasn’t afraid to go zany when the scene called for it. Harding’s favorite character to animate was that irrepressible screwball Woody Woodpecker, and she helped to nail down Woody’s character design. Here’s a great Woody scene Harding animated from Wet Blanket Policy (1948).
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) May 2, 2024
Harding’s draftsmanship was unmatched, but she doesn’t get enough credit for her command of cartoon acting. Look at this great scene from Bathing Buddies (1946): the way Wally Walrus stares in perplexed annoyance at that wire poking out of his drain captures such a specific and human emotion. Harding animated all of the Wally shots in this clip, while the Woody Woodpecker bits were handled by Paul J. Smith.
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) May 2, 2024
Harding was good friends with Tex Avery, and when Avery left the Lantz studio in 1935 to become a director at Warner Bros., he invited Harding to join him. She chose to stay at Lantz, but she thankfully got the chance to animate for Avery when he returned to Lantz in the 1950s. The cartoons Avery directed there are the funniest in the studio’s history, and Harding did some of her finest work on them. This scene from the Chilly Willy short The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955) is comedy gold, and the way Harding captures the polar bear’s increasing panic really sells the gag.
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) May 2, 2024
All throughout her career, Harding was a consummate professional and a fantastic artist. Directors Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy greatly respected her, and Alex Lovy trusted her instincts so much that he let her time out her own sequences (a task usually left to the director). To finish things off, here’s a standout bit Harding animated for the Woody Woodpecker short Termites from Mars (1952). It’s such a wonderfully bizarre, reality-breaking gag, but Harding’s characteristic solidity keeps Woody alive on the screen throughout it.
— Cartoon Study (@CartoonStudy) May 2, 2024
