Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? Ruh-roh, Randalstown!

RANDALSTOWN is not short of famous residents past and present, and now - zoinks! - the Antrim Guardian can reveal that a new connection has been made between the area and one of the world’s most famous animators.

In a twist that Shaggy, Daphne, Velma and all the gang in the Mystery Machine would be proud of, the link was discovered by the Clan Genealogist for the Clan Hannay Society, based in Wigtownshire, Scotland. Dr R. Keith Hanna was born in in Kilkeel but now lives in Wales.

The Clan Society is planning to visit the Randalstown area in late May with a group of 15 people from mainland Britain and five from America to have a Family History Event Day in the region, visiting historical sites related to Hanna/Hannah/Hannay families, of Scots origin, who started to come over in the 17th century.

This year’s half day event will include a visit to the Presbyterian Old Congregation Church in Randalstown, a stop off at the homestead which was the birthplace of the grandfather of William Hanna, the famous Hollywood cartoonist, a visit to the John Hanna Linen Works in Kellswater and then the old Hanna’s Town Clachan farming settlement in Cromkill Townland, Connor Parish before an evening meal in Broughshane.

According to Dr Hanna, the relatives of William Hanna, the cartoonist, knew that his grandfather, Peter Hanna came from Ireland with his brothers to Michigan in the late 1800s but they lost track of where the family were from in Ireland.

Because the family moved around a lot in America, they lost track of their Ulster roots.

Dr Hanna took up the story, saying: “About two years ago I tried to bridge the chasm and after several false trails I discovered that Peter Hanna was born in 1841 near Randalstown on a farm farmed by a group of Hanna brothers, who all left en masse for America such that the family surname subsequently died out in the townland completely by the early 1900s.

“I have shared this information with the son of William Hanna the cartoonist, David Hanna, in Los Angeles.”

Born in New Mexico in 1910, William Hanna joined a California engineering firm after studying engineering and journalism, but lost his job in the Depression.

As he could draw, he found work in cartoon production on the West Coast.

In 1930, he joined Harmon-Ising Studios, which created the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series.

In 1937 he joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a director and story man in the animation department.

Joseph Barbera was working as a bank accountant with the Irving Trust Company in New York City during the early 1930s when he started submitting cartoons to magazines; he sold his first to Collier’s magazine and decided to forsake banking for cartooning. He joined MGM as a sketch artist in the same year as Hanna.

Within a month, they had teamed up with and the greatest team in American cartooning was born.

At MGM, Hanna and Barbera created the Tom and Jerry characters and produced more than 200 films in the series between 1940 and 1957.

They won seven Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their cartoons between 1943 and 1952.

After MGM closed its animation division in the 1950s, Hanna and Barbera moved into TV, founding their own company - Hanna-Barbera and made a huge number of cartoon series for television.

The pair’s first production - Puss Gets The Boot won an Oscar nomination.

Three years later The Flintstones were born, before Hanna Barbera swapped the stone age for the space age with The Jetsons.

Many others followed: Top Cat, based on the Phil Silvers character Sergeant Bilko, Wacky Races with Dick Dastardly and his sniggering hound Mutley, Yogi Bear, The Hair Bear Bunch, Huckleberry Hound and Hong Kong Phooey.

They were derided for employing cut-rate, limited animation techniques, which allowed for the timely production of television cartoons, but they were praised for the quality of writing found in their most successful productions.

Their production company also produced the highly popular Scooby-Doo animated cartoon series.

William Hanna died just over 24 years ago. Cartoon Network, which screens many Hanna Barbera favourites, said: “William Hanna will be remembered as one of the all-time great animators.

“The cartoons he made are truly timeless and will continue to entertain generations of children and adults alike.

“His legacy will live on in the pantheon of cartoon stars that are enjoyed by millions the world over.”

Leading British animator Bob Godfrey, creator of Roobarb and Custard and Henry's Cat, said: “Tom and Jerry were really fantastic. They took a bit of stick for being sadistic - but they made people laugh and won Oscars and all that.

“I met him once. He was an old-fashioned cartoonist - a trace and paint man, shooting on film cameras, whereas now everything’s done on computer.

“They took the cat and mouse idea to its logical conclusion and they used soundtracks tremendously.”

And Steve Box, the director and an animator at Aardman Animations, which produced Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit also paid tribute to the characters created by Mr Hanna.

“They seemed to have been made just for me and I never felt patronised by them - they had their roots in more adult American TV shows,

“I thought they were converted perfectly into some of the best animated films ever made, not because they were economical and extremely well-written with great characters.”

Another famous William Hanna was the founder of Randalstown Rugby Football Club (RRFC) which celebrated its 75-year anniversary recently in 2022, the club having been founded in 1947.

Rev Hanna’s grandson, William D Hanna, William D. Hanna was born in Belfast and studied in Edinburgh, Limoges, and at the College of Europe in Bruges.

He was an Irish and European diplomat and served as EU Ambassador in Tanzania, Uruguay, Bangladesh and Ghana.