ABSTRACT
Ben Washam (1915–1984) was born in Arkansas and moved to Los Angeles fairly early in his life. He was one of the key animators on the Chuck Jones unit during all his great Warner Bros. short cartoons. Chuck usually entrusted Ben with the final closeup of Bugs looking into camera and saying something pithy: “… And mud, spelled backwards, is dumb.” Ben followed Chuck out of Warner Bros. in 1963 to animate Tom & Jerry shorts for MGM, and then Chuck's famous TV specials, like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Ben was president of the Screen Cartoonists Guild for two terms. In his final active years, he would give animation instruction to young wannabe animators out of his garage in Laurel Canyon. All the young trainees at Hanna-Barbera knew about Tuesday nights at Bennie's Class. He did it all for free. I once asked him why he did not charge people, or work through a school. He said animation had been very good to him, and this was his way of paying it back.
