Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
36 M PS E . O R G the ornithopter, here's the shields, here's the whatever. He'd say that doesn't work; the direction should be this. So, let's pursue that idea … and if it failed, you'd pursue another idea with valuable knowledge having been gained from the effort. I never once had the fear of being fired with Denis because I saw that he respected and embraced the fickle nature of experimentation. He knew that I had been doing it for 50 years. I just needed the right direction and the right opportunity to find it, and it would be good. What directors think like that? SSS: Actually, none. Let's talk about what brought you to Hollywood in the first place, and how you got that job at Hanna-Barbera. MM: As a kid and in my teens, I loved making stop motion, Claymation, and paper cutout animated films on my dad's 8mm movie camera. I deeply was influenced by Terry Gilliam's animations in the Monty Python TV shows. In 1975, I saw the Academy Awards on television and it hit me; that's what I loved, making movies. That was going to be my career. Except for when I was playing guitar, making a movie was that rare time when I felt focused and inspired and time stood still. The next day, I told my parents I wanted to go to Hollywood. And I wanted to win an Oscar some day. I know that's crass … but I didn't want to win an Oscar to be famous. I wanted to be validated, a scarce commodity in a large Italian family with six brothers and sisters. Validation, right? That's one of the things I loved about the Oscars. It all seemed so possible. I saw people that looked like me, normal people; film editors, DPs, costumers, win awards. I got inspired. A couple months later, I packed my car and drove to LA, landing in the guest house of a friend of my dad's. I had zero game plan. I had $500 and no connections in Hollywood. I was a wandering idiot. I never bothered to call a studio to find out where to get work or find out how to train. I mostly floated around guitar stores and annoyed the salespeople. The whole movie career idea had bizarrely disappeared. One afternoon, I bumped into my dad's friend in the driveway, and he asked how things were going. I said, "Ah, not so good. I don't have any work and I'm running out of money." He said, "Well, what do you like to do?" and I said, "Well, as a kid, I loved to make animated films." The next day, he gave me the phone number of Art Scott, VP of Hanna-Barbera Studios. Art invited me for a general interview, and he said bring your portfolio, which scared the heck out of me, because I had no portfolio, no art skills … he thought I was an animator. We had a lovely general meeting. He told me that he didn't have any work (this was in May 1976), but if the networks ordered fall programming, they might. Sure enough, one month later, NBC ordered five hours of cartoons. Art called and said they had a training program in the sound department, was I interested? Duh. So, I went into a training program in the sound department, did well, and they offered me a job as a track reader, as an apprentice sound editor. Working at Hanna-Barbera was amazing. When I wasn't learning the difference between a boink and a bonk, I was meeting the greats of voice-over like Mel Blanc, June Foray, or Frank Welker. As with many things wonderful and rewarding in life, there is always a price to pay. In July of 1976, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were awarded a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. For some reason. the call came down to the sound department that they needed a bunch of us to dress up as the studio characters and prance around in costume while Bill and Joe were given their star. I volunteered, much to my chagrin. It was July in Los Angeles, hot and muggy and I was trapped in a character suit made of heavy fabrics and a giant suffocating head that had no breathing holes. That's me, on the right, in a Huckleberry Hound suit at the studio before we left for the event. Nonetheless, I loved the work as a track reader and, being a musician, I had a good ear so reading track, which required this very complex set of listening skills, came naturally. I would end up becoming the head of L-R: Fred Flintstone, Joe Barbera, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Mark Mangini (Huckleberry Hound), Bill Hanna c. 1976