In the 1930s and 40s heyday of Hollywood studio art departments, strong art directors like Cedric Gibbons and Hans Dreier brought together more artists and artisans working on the same projects than any other enterprise in the history of modern American art.
This is the first book to trace the history of studio art direction. The origins of art direction in the early motion pictures, the organization of art departments, and the nature of art direction from the 1920s to the 1950s are covered first. Then each studio is discussed individually with a survey of its art department output through the fifties. Comprehensive filmographies (a first) provide films and release dates for 226 art directors.