Anton Loeb

Anton C. Loeb (31 March 1908 – 10 December 1984) was a cartoonist, illustrator and theatrical animator. He illustrated children's books in the late 1940s, including a collection of Aesop's Fables in a book called Storytime Favorites. Loeb worked primarily as one of Paramount's lead theatrical cartoon Background Painters in the 1950s, and then moved on to TV animation in the 1960s. He worked for Fleischer Studios, which produced the Popeye cartoons, and did the illustrations for Allan Chaffee's version of The Wizard Of Oz, adapted from L. Frank Baum's 1900 classic original. This abridged version was published in 1950 by Random House. Loeb was born in Hungary and raised in New York City. When he was 15 he was a scenic designer for the Metropolitan Opera Company. He had already attended the Academy of Design in New York under the sponsorship of banker George Baker. Loeb also sang in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, moved on to Broadway and the lead in musical comedies, but laryngitis robbed him of his ability to sing. He died of cancer at the age of 76. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]