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Bill Hanna was the ultimate boy scout
All those awards and he was most proud of being an Eagle Scout!
The more you watch cartoons, the more you realize there are a lot of Boy Scouts in the Hanna-Barbera universe. In Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and the Ant Hill Mob go undercover as Wood Scouts to evade law enforcement. In The Secret Squirrel Show, the Winsome Witch accidentally shrinks some Boy Scouts to the size of bugs. In The Jetsons, George chaperones Elroy's Boy Scout troop on a camping trip to the moon. Last but not least, The Flintstones has two scouting episodes, one of which Fred and Barney become scoutmasters of a local troop. Everywhere you look in the Hanna-Barbera universe, there are Boy Scouts!
Bill Hanna considered himself to be a personal ambassador of the Boy Scouts of America. Hanna joined the Boy Scouts at the age of twelve and worked his way up to the coveted status of Eagle Scout. In his autobiography, A Cast of Friends, Hanna said "The ultimate goal most scouts endeavor to achieve through the process of promotions and earning merit badges, of course, is to be made an Eagle Scout. (My friends) and I all became Eagle Scouts and the pride of that award, like our friendships, has lasted throughout our lives. For over six decades many of the original members of Boy Scout Troop 2 of the Watts District continued to meet every year for a reunion, and I have attended nearly every gathering."
While it is heartwarming that Hanna's Boy Scout troop held reunions for over sixty years, his commitment to scouting went much further than just meeting up with his friends. He also served as a scoutmaster to his son's troop and continued supporting the organization financially, in addition to featuring Boy Scouts in cartoons whenever he could. For Hanna, the Boy Scout Law became a creed he took to heart for the rest of his life, "The universally known Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared", was the essential theme of the organization regarding the life lessons it provided to boys. Preparation extended beyond merely insuring that we had our canteens and pocketknives available for camping trips. What the Boy Scouts endeavored to teach us were many of the character lessons regarding personal honor and service to others that prepared us to live sound, healthy, and constructive lives...The Scout oath was, in my eyes, a kind of bond between parents and their kids. In many ways, it was an equalizing pledge that challenged any generation to simply individually do the very best they could and to respect each other." We may never know how many children were encouraged to become scouts by watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but audiences were likely inspired by the Hanna-Barbera characters who lived the Scout Law like, Barney Rubble, Fred Jones, and Elroy Jetson.
Hanna was so committed to scouting that he considered it greater than any of his professional achievements "As proud and grateful as Vi and I are for the wonderful awards, including the later Emmys... one of our most cherished honors is the Americanism Award that was presented to me in 1991 by the Great Western Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Mother and Dad would have been proud." As a man with a record number of Emmy and Oscar-winning cartoons, in addition to being the co-creator of some of the most successful cartoon franchises of all time, being recognized by the Boy Scouts of America was his proudest achievement.
