Ed Love

Edward H. Love was an American animator who worked at various studios during the golden age of animation. He was born on May 24, 1910 in Pennsylvania and died on May 5, 1996. He is well known for animating Disneys' shorts: Mickey's Trailer and Fantasia. Love won the Golden Award at the 1984 Motion Pictures Screen Cartoonists Awards in 1984

The effects from The Great Depression caused Love to search for a job in 1931. He discovered an opening as a Disney cartoonist in the local newspaper. Love was interested, used a phone book to find an animator, and learned how to animate in the span of four months. Besides drawings as a child, his entire animation experience consisted of only those four months of learning. Love walked into Walt Disney's office, unscheduled, and showed him a stop motion animation sample of Mickey Mouse playing the violin. Walt Disney was satisfied and hired him to work at Disney as an animator that same day. Love was initially paid $18 a week and animated Goofy and Pluto more frequently than other characters. Disney gave their animators a lot of freedom by giving them the option if they want to add additional frames. Love worked with the effects manage but not with other animators. He participated in a strike with other animators and left Disney on November 14, 1941. At that time, Love was making $50 a week.

Shortly after Love left Disney, he was offered a job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (1941) and worked there with Tex Avery until 1946. At MGM, Love would animate as much as 5,600 out of the total 8,800 frames for a short film, which is about 4 out of 6 minutes of animation. Love was happy with MGM and did not feel guilty for leaving Disney. At MGM, Love and other animators were limited to only 480 frames a week. This limitation allowed MGM to provide openings for new animators. It also restricted the present animators from being paid more regardless whether or not they produce more frames. This created a fun, casual, and relaxing work environment for Love.

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