ECCC Eddie Harris Redux

[captain_slinky]

As i was going through all the schedules and everything for ECCC, I just noticed that Eddie Harris (the guy who claimed to have been a lead Hannah-Barbera Animator that won an Oscar for the non-Oscar-winning 1970's animated film "Charlotte's Web") has had to cancel his appearance at Emerald City Comic Con this year.

I have extremely mixed feelings about this.

If I assume he was telling the truth and only misremembering past events (as a gentleman of his age could do), I feel terrible that I've essentially "Bullied" a nice old man away from a potential fan following that would love to hear his stories of working at HB during the tumultuous final days of trying to keep their animation here in the US.

If I assume he was telling a lie, trying to pull some sort of scam, then I feel like a HERO who has saved Emerald City Comic Con from some potentially embarrassing PR nightmares that could have ruined their reputation.

I'm pretty sure I'll never find out the truth, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the truth.

Comments

[aurora77]

I don't feel like we "bullied" anyone by asking that information be corrected. In my contact with ECCC, I just insisted that incorrect information be corrected, and I tried to make sure it was not seen as an attack on the guest. If anybody is to blame, it's Joe P, who should have 1) done his research and posted accurate info to start with (and checked the veracity of the guest's claims) and 2) not become so defensive about it so as to draw yet more attention to it.

We made it clear that we'd love to see Eddie, if he really did the work. Maybe Joe was pressuring Eddie into showing up for something Eddie doesn't really feel qualified to talk much about. Maybe Eddie is sick. We don't know.

If you want to do something about it, maybe contact the local car organizations he's associated with and ask them if they can pass a message on to him. Tell him we're interested in getting to talk to him sometime about his time at Hanna-Barbera and that we'd love to meet and buy him coffee, drinks, lunch or dinner locally at a place of his choosing. (Seriously, I'd be willing to do that.)