About Fred Ladd
Just after the close of World War II, and at precisely the time when relations between the U.S. and Japan had dipped historically low, Fred Laderman, whose professional name was Fred Ladd, graduated with a degree in radio and television from Ohio State University. Shortly after, he left his native Ohio to move to New York, where his career in broadcasting began.
Primarily through the medium of television, he has established a solid cultural link with Japan by blazing a new trail in the West for Japanese animation—so much so that other professionals in his field refer to him as an icon in Japanese anime, and courses on animation, at universities such as M.I.T., include the study of his work.
Before Fred’s significant accomplishment in that area, anime was unknown in the Western world. His innovative contributions to this branch of broadcasting built a bridge where before there was none, and impacted American pop culture permanently and positively.
Earlier in his career, Ladd acquired and produced several international children’s tales and cartoons, writing the English scripts and hiring and working with actors for the voiceovers. These numerous productions include, among others, Little Norse Prince and Treasure Island (1963), Journey to the Beginning of Time (1966), Alice in Wonderland and The Wonderful World of Puss ‘n Boots (1969), and Pinocchio in Outer Space (1965), released for distribution by Universal Pictures and, like the others before, internationally successful.
A myriad of programs soon followed, including a series for the CBS Children’s Film Festival, Pippi Longstocking, and Journey Back to Oz, with the voice of Dorothy dubbed by Liza Minelli, one of many celebrities who worked with Ladd on that project. He was later hired by Ted Turner to produce a program called G Force, and NBC Enterprises acquiring a series of Japanese cartoons initially titled Iron Fisted Atom Boy,” sought out his expertise when they couldn’t figure out how to adopt the show for an American audience.
Retitling the program Astro Boy, Ladd translated, scripted, dubbed, and produced 104 episodes of what would become a nationally syndicated and highly successful show. He also brought from Japan to America the beloved program Kimba the White Lion and an animated show called, in Japanese, Tetsujin 28 (literally, "Iron Man 28"). Intrigued by that series’ main idea—that a child, with the help of an enormous robot he operated, could stop evil forces at work in the world, he renamed the show Gigantor.
Ladd was later the creative consultant for the animated series Sailor Moon. Throughout his life, he was productive, often in multifaceted ways. He organized a tribute to the comedian and actor Red Skelton, for instance, at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles in 1998.
In his later years, nearly up until his passing in 2021, he wrote original and masterful children's tales: ever the consummate storyteller.