If we believe his official bio, cartoon mogul-director Joe Barbera is 95 years old today. There are animation historian people who claim Mr. B is a year or two older than that, and that decades ago he fudged a bit on the topic. Either way, March 24 does seem to be his birthday and that's good enough for us.
I had the pleasure of working for Mr. Barbera for several years. Even when we disagreed — and I'm not proud to say that was often — I respected him and found him charming. Ultimately, it was probably a more pleasurable experience to fight with Joe Barbera than it was to get along with some of the other cartoon producers who hired me. I found him brilliant and clever and ruthless and compassionate and…well, I'll tell you what. In honor of his birthday, I'll tell a quick Joe Barbera story…
I had an office on the west side of the Hanna-Barbera building — the side that faced Cahuenga Boulevard. Outside my window was a small forest-like area and sometimes, one might espy sexual activity occurring in those bushes. There was a prostitute who sometimes worked out on Cahuenga — we called her the Hanna-Barbera Hooker and talked about getting her a Wilma suit — and she was known to service her clients without travelling far. Eventually, she got tired of the security guards shooing her away and/or calling the police but for about a month there, she sometimes conducted business not far from my window.
Neither Mr. Barbera nor his partner stood on a lot of ceremony and they both worked long hours and with incredible energy. If something had to be discussed, they often wouldn't stand on the ceremony of summoning you to their offices. Bill Hanna would come to my office to complain that a script I'd written had too many scenes or so much action that it would go way over budget. Joe Barbera would come to my office to say that he loved the script I'd written and he only had a few tiny suggestions which would only mean rewriting every word of it.
One day, Joe walked in to talk about an outline I'd prepared for a proposed series. "It needs a bigger finish," he said.
Just then, I noticed shrubs rustling outside and knew what it was. I motioned to the window and said, "How about something like that?"
J.B. walked over, peeked out the window and said, "I like it but Bill will say, 'It'll cost too much to animate.'"