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Question: You left the Studio for a short time, what was it, maybe in the late ‘50s, after having worked for so many years on the Donald cartoons?

Jack Hannah: Yes, it was in ’59.

Q: I guess you went to work for Walter Lantz for awhile.

JH: [Shows leaving gift from Disney.] When I left this was given to me by Walt and Roy and it gives the date. Yeah, May 27, 1959, was the actual day I left and this was given to me by Walt and Roy.

Q: Oh, that’s terrific. And you said you went to work for Walter Lantz for a while and you weren’t real happy about it. You said you kind of missed something. Can you talk about that?

JH: I took the job with Walter Lantz mainly because animation was pretty much being phased out in the shorts end of it at Disney and I liked working with Walter himself very much. He was a very creative and nice guy, but also was very aware of budgets, which he had to be. He was one of the few that survived. So any discontent I had was at the situation of not being able to put all the personality and stuff in the shorts that you wanted to and felt was there, but it’s just a matter of gag after gag after gag. So I did feel just out of it in a way. When I left Walter Lantz, he understood. I explained why.

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