Business & Tech
Work by Animator Abe Levitow Donated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Items were donated on Thursday from a collection belonging to the director of "Tom and Jerry."
A collection of animation cels, storyboards, scripts and other materials from the career of famed Hollywood animator Abe Levitow, known for directing various "Mr. Magoo'' and "Tom and Jerry'' cartoons, was donated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Academy announced today.
The donation was made by the late animator's three children -- Roberta, Judy and Jon -- and will be housed in the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive.
"We are honored that the Levitow family has entrusted the preservation of their father's legacy to the Academy's archivists,'' Herrick Library director Linda Mehr said. "And you really can't go wrong when Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are in the mix, can you?''
Levitow began his career with Leon Schlesinger Productions, working on cartoons released through Warner Bros. and working with Chuck Jones on films in the 1940s and 1950s -- including "For Scent-imental Reasons,'' featuring romantic skunk Pepe Le Pew.
He moved to UPA in the 1950s, directing the animated feature "Gay Purr- ee,'' featuring the voices of Judy Garland and Robert Goulet, "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' and "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.'' He went on to work at MGM, directing various "Tom and Jerry'' cartoons.
Levitow died in 1975 at age 52.
- City News Service
