Fred Ladd

Who is Fred Ladd?

Fred Ladd, is an American television and film writer and producer. He is notable as one of the first to introduce Japanese animated cartoons to North America.

Ladd, a Toledo, Ohio native, graduated from Scott High School in 1945 and from Ohio State University in 1949 with degrees in radio and speech. Upon moving to the New York City area, Ladd got a year-long job at an FM radio station and then was employed at Cayton, Inc., an advertising agency that dabbled in film production. The agency acquired several nature documentaries, and Ladd was given the job of repackaging them into a feature film. Rather than an outright sale, the film was offered in trade to European distributors, in exchange for marketable local film product. The deal resulted in the acquisition of animated cartoons, and Ladd was given the job of repackaging and dubbing the films for the American market.

Ladd became the house specialist in the "Westernizing" of overseas animated programming. A 1937 German short film on the future of space travel Weltraumschiff 1 startet was acquired, and the special effects sequences were excised by Ladd. His re-edited footage was augmented by new animated sequences and became part of a series entitled The Space Explorers which was syndicated to local TV stations from the late 1950s through the early 1960s.