Harry Reeves

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history

Description:	One typed page including photograph; biography of Harry Reeves, Disney writer/animator. ABASH VALLEY WP R O F I L E SA series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history.Har r y Reevesith a dream of something more exciting than his father s career as a meat salesman, teenager and future Disney writer/animator Harry Reeves hitchhiked from his home at 1716 N. Third St. in Terre Haute for a short trip to southern California, where he fell in love with show business. After graduating from Wiley High School, William and Nettie (Epperson) Reeves son concentrated on honing his artistic skills at John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis for a few years before moving on to the National Academy of Design and Columbia University in New York. While serving as a barker at a Broadway theater in 1929, he met three animators from Pat Sullivan Cartoon Studios, producer of Felix the Cat shorts. He begged for a job. As a result, he met and worked under pioneer film animator Otto Messmer, creator of Felix. Messmer was a genius, but Sullivan was reluctant to allow him to make cartoons with voices. In November 1930 Reeves severed ties with Sullivan and joined Disney, who was beginning to earn a favorable reputation, where he earned $60 a week as an apprentice cartoon animator. In 1934 he was an animator and apprentice story writer. Finally in July 1937, he became a story director for three Donald Duck shorts: Good Scouts (1938), Donalds Lucky Day (1939) and The Autograph Hound (1939). With those productions under his belt, he was teamed with Homer Brightman and the pair had a series of successes during World War II: Saludos Amigos (1943), The Three Caballeros (1943), First Aiders (1944), Make Mine Music (1945), Canine Casanova (1945) and Canine Patrol (1945). In later years, Reeves wrote or co-wrote Plutos Kid Brother (1946), In Dutch (1946), The Purloined Pup (1946), Dumbbell of the Yukon (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948). Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Toy Tinkers and Cinderella, productions Reeves was working on when he left Disney in August 1948, credit him as one of the screenwriters. Good Scouts and Toy Tinkers were both nominated for Academy Awards. Reeves then amassed a large fortune as a real estate developer. On Feb. 9, 1971, a home he was building in Selmar was destroyed in the San Fernando earthquake. Though his family didnt yet reside in the home, he had established a studio of his Disney art and other memorabilia there. While sorting through the rubble to salvage his collection four days later, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 65. He was survived by his wife Kathleen; his daughter Joan (Gelms), who attended Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College; his brother Roy, a printer with the Terre Haute Tribune-Star for many years; his sister-in-law Edith (Bogard) Reeves; and his nephew Ron, recently retired as vice president for development and external affairs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.WTERRE HAUTE(812) 238-6000NATIONAL BANKAlways Close to HomeDate published: Dec. 14, 2000Filename: Reeves, Harry profile
Origin:	2000-12-20
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/573
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Reeves, Harry, 1906-1971 Animation Cartoonists Authors Famous Hoosiers People

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