Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1010570
C E D R I C G I B B O N S | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 1 The year was 1919 and the California Limited was making its daily delivery of travelers from the East Coast, all hoping to find fame and fortune in Hollywood's young and rapidly growing motion picture industry. On this train there was a dashing five-foot-eleven-inch, grey-eyed man, possibly a future matinee idol, fashionably tailored in a three-piece wool suit, with his hat, coat and bags in hand, he descended from the train ready to pursue his dream. This mercurial man was Cedric Gibbons, known to his friends and family as Gibby. Cedric Gibbons was loyal and immensely talented—a man full of mysteries, and an enigma to many who knew him. He was a pioneer of cinematic design and was to become Hollywood's most influential designer, not bad for a man who grew up impoverished and abandoned. He was often quoted as saying that "the only decent deal you get in life is what you give yourself." C e d r i c G i b b o n s : E N T E R T A I N M E N T I N D U S T R I A L I S T B Y T H O M A S A . W A L S H A N D C A T H Y W H I T L O C K A. OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS (MGM 1928), CEDRIC GIBBONS, SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR, AND RICHARD DAY, UNIT ART DIRECTOR. THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY OF GROUNDBREAKING ART DECO-INSPIRED MOTION PICTURES. B. CEDRIC GIBBONS IN HIS MGM ART DEPARTMENT OFFICE, EARLY 1930S. THE STYLE OF DECOR CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO HIS DESIGNS FOR THE GRAND HOTEL (MGM 1932). THE BRONZE STATUE ON HIS DESK WAS ONE OF A SERIES HE CREATED. B