Levitow collection goes to AMPAS

The family of the late ABE LEVITOW (left), director of Gay Purr-ee and The Phantom Tollbooth, has donated his collection of animation art to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.



From Variety:

The gift, from Levitow’s children Roberta, Judy and Jon, announced Thursday, features animation cels, backgrounds, storyboards, graphic art materials and related film prints. Along with the more than 500 pieces of original production art, the collection contains scripts and sound recordings.

Levitow began his career at the Chuck Jones unit at Warners, where he animated on a number of shorts including the Oscar-winning For Scent-imental Reasons. His work at UPA included 1001 Arabian Nights and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Later he worked in the Tom and Jerry unit at MGM. Levitow died in 1975 at the age of fifty-two.

According to the Hollywood Reporter:

All of the production materials may be accessed by filmmakers, historians, journalists, students and the public at the library, located in the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills. Many of the pieces in the Levitow Collection are available for viewing online through the library’s Production Art Database.