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. As a child, he did impersonations of movie stars including Betty Boop. When Ladd was in high school, he liked a radio program for children called ''Let's Pretend'', which dramatized children's stories, which would serve as an inspiration for him producing anime and for the American audiences. Ladd was also responsible for having various black-and-white cartoons for his company called Color Systems Inc. such as
Looney Tunes,
Betty Boop, and others to be redrawn colorized in
South Korea from 1968 to 1974. He died on August 3, 2021, at the age of 94 from natural causes. == Screenwriting ==