{{Short description|New Zealand soldier and entertainer}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{infobox person | name =Pat Hanna | birth_name =George Patrick Hanna | birth_place = Whitianga, New Zealand | birth_date = 18 March 1888 | death_place = Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England | death_date = 24 October 1973 (aged 85) | occupation= Film producer }}
'''George Patrick "Pat" Hanna''' (born 18 March 1888 – 24 October 1973)<ref>p.230 Elder, Bruce ''The A to Z of Who is Who in Australia's History'' Child & Associates 1987</ref> was a New Zealand-born film producer. A soldier of the First World War, he entertained post-war audiences with the stage show Diggers, which was adapted for a film of the same title in 1931.
==Biography== Hanna was born to Patrick Hanna, a hotelkeeper from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland and an Australian born mother Mary Jane,<ref name="dnzb.govt.nz">{{Cite web | url=http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/alt_essayBody.asp?essayID=4H14 |title = Hanna, George Patrick}}</ref> Hanna's talent for art led him to a signwriting apprenticeship and cartooning for a Wellington, New Zealand newspaper. He enlisted at the start of the First World War as a private in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force where he participated in the Occupation of German Samoa.<ref>Online Australian Dictionary of Biography</ref>
In 1916 he joined the Otago Infantry Regiment where he was sent to Egypt, then France and Belgium. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in December 1916 and was promoted to lieutenant in December 1917.<ref name="dnzb.govt.nz"/> His expertise with hand grenades led him to be appointed a Bombing Officer.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mg_w-9pRRCEC&q=%22bombing+officer%22&pg=PA8 | title=The Training and Employment of Bombers| isbn=9781443783408| author1=Various| date=17 December 2008| publisher=Lightning Source Incorporated}}</ref>
Lt Hanna remained in the Army of Occupation following the Armistice becoming Entertainment Officer forming No 1 Entertainment Unit.<ref name="news.google.com">{{Cite web | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19500719&id=eho0AAAAIBAJ&pg=7022,3339200 |title = The Age - Google News Archive Search}}</ref> His orders were to "organise entertainment, lay on laughter unlimited and rollicking relaxation".<ref name="Fotheringham">p.40 Fotheringham, William ''Fotheringham's Extraordinary Sporting Pastimes'' 2007 Robson</ref> Hanna set up a concert party called "The Diggers" where he was the director, chief writer and performer.<ref name="Fotheringham"/> The Diggers toured in Germany, France and England. During this time he invented a scaled down version of badminton called "Batinton" that was played with bats on a smaller court.
Hanna posed for Jack Cato's photograph ''The Spirit of Anzac''.<ref name="news.google.com"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02591.001 |title=P02591.001 | Australian War Memorial |access-date=26 February 2010 |archive-date=26 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826000402/http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02591.001 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Pat Hanna's Diggers== After leaving the Army, Hanna reformed ''The Diggers'' as ''Pat Hanna's Diggers'' where they toured New Zealand, then Australia with several former Australian Diggers now in the group; numbering 25.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Theatre Collection - The Arts Centre - the home of the performing arts in Melbourne | url=http://www.theartscentre.com.au/discover/collections-and-research/performing-arts-collection-directory/theatre-collection.aspx?view=item&ID=2613 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721194451/http://www.theartscentre.com.au/discover/collections-and-research/performing-arts-collection-directory/theatre-collection.aspx?view=item&ID=2613 | access-date=2026-01-25 | archive-date=2008-07-21}}</ref> ''The Diggers'' featured a musical sister act of Jessie and Hilda Meadows. Hanna married Jessie the pianist in 1922, the couple having two children Ian and Pattie.
Hanna became renowned for creating a caricature of the Digger stereotype and another of an Army Chaplain. One of the Chaplain's monologues ''The Gospel According to Cricket''<ref>Pat Hanna Discourses on Cricket (Even Unto the Fifth Test Match) Regal G20759</ref> and Hanna singing '' Mademoiselle from Armentières'' became big sellers.
The Digger shows' popularity led to Hanna making his first film ''Diggers'' (1931) as actor and writer for Efftee Studios led by Frank W. Thring, the father of Frank Thring. ''Diggers'' was Australia's second talking feature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1302&dat=19310701&id=CV0RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P5YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6578,1161195|title = The Sydney Mail - Google News Archive Search}}</ref> Hanna argued with Thring over the position of his musical numbers in the film leading him to form his own film production company<ref>pp.91–92 Reade, Eric ''History and Heartburn: The Saga of Australian Film 1896–1978'' Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1981</ref> where he produced, directed and starred in ''Diggers in Blighty'' and ''Waltzing Matilda'' (both 1933) however the films were poorly distributed and not successful.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/australian-movie-stars/|title=Australian Movie Stars|date=August 18, 2019}}</ref>
==Later life== Hanna toured America billed as the "Down Under Will Rogers" and returned to Australia where he broadcast on 3LO.
Too old for active service in World War II, Hanna invented a detonation device for a petrol grenade and trained troops and civilians planning to be guerrillas against the Japanese in the use of hand grenades. Hanna encouraged having fun with grenades and combined his knowledge of grenades and entertaining. He published a book in 1941 ''Grenade Training by Recreational Methods''.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007JK5D6 | title=Robot Check| date=January 1941| publisher=Robertson & Mullens}}</ref> Hanna's son Ian served with the 2/24 Battalion posing for a drawing of Sybil Craig's called ''Soldier in a Digger Hat''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/ART28164 |title=ART28164 - Soldier in a digger hat (Private Ian Hanna) | Australian War Memorial |access-date=28 February 2010 |archive-date=26 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826000617/http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/ART28164 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Charles Chauvel considered casting Hanna as the lead in his ''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' film but was impressed by the younger Chips Rafferty who Chauvel cast in Hanna's place.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://aso.gov.au/people/Chips_Rafferty/portrait/ |title = Chips Rafferty portrait on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online}}</ref> One of Hanna's Diggers troupe, Joe Valli, reprised his Scottish caricature he played in the Diggers show in the film and Chauvel's ''The Rats of Tobruk''.
Hanna got the rights to some old films from Efftee Studios such as ''His Royal Highness'' (1932) and had success re-releasing them along with his old movies.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22239202 |title=Round Melbourne Shows... |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=5 June 1946 |accessdate=5 January 2012 |page=8 Supplement: The Argus Woman's Magazine |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Hanna and his family moved to England in 1961 where he researched the Clan Hannay's ownership of Sorbie Tower in Wigtownshire Scotland. Jessie Hanna and his daughter Pattie returned to Australia after Pat's death.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/oneofakind-theatre-lady-about-town/2008/05/05/1209839553612.html | location=Melbourne | work=The Age | first=Mimi | last=Colligan | title=One-of-a-kind theatre lady about town | date=6 May 2008}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://ozvta.com/troupes-digger-companies Famous Diggers] at ''Australian Variety Theatre Archive'' *[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2011/3195627.htm Laughing at the Front] ''Hindsight.'' ABC Radio National, broadcast 24 April 2011 *[http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090181b.htm Pat Hanna] at Australian Dictionary of Biography *{{IMDb name|0360228}} *[http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A9BB Pat Hanna] at AustLit (subscribers only) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120331065600/http://collections.theartscentre.net.au/paminter/imu.php?request=browse&irn=2041 Pat Hanna Collection] at Arts Centre Melbourne *[http://ozvta.com/practitioners-h Pat Hanna] at ''Australian Variety Theatre Archive'' *[http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4h14/1 Pat Hanna] at Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, Pat}} Category:1888 births Category:1973 deaths Category:New Zealand male comedians Category:New Zealand expatriates in Australia Category:New Zealand male film actors Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War I Category:New Zealand male stage actors Category:New Zealand people of Irish descent Category:20th-century New Zealand male singers Category:20th-century New Zealand comedians