Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
V I S I O N A R I E S O F S I L E N T C I N E M A | P E R S P E C T I V E 9 1 Walsh, Menzies soon became lead Art Director on The Thief of Bagdad (1924). He won the first Academy Award for Art Direction in 1929 and received an Honorary Oscar for his color design work on Gone with the Wind (1939). Fred Gabourie (1881–1951), born in Eastern Ontario, was an Iroquois of the Seneca Nation. After moving with his family to Detroit, he left school early but excelled in mechanics and design. Starting as a stage carpenter, Gabourie met Buster Keaton on the vaudeville circuit and moved to Hollywood in 1916. He became Keaton's full-time Art Director in 1921, handling set design, props and location scouting. His creativity and love of baseball contributed to Keaton's comedies, and he oversaw production of 31 films during the 1920s. Charles D. Hall (1888–1970) trained in art and architecture in Norwich, England, began his career as a carpenter and scene painter with his brother Archer. After working with Fred Karno's music hall troupe—where he met Charles Chaplin—the brothers emigrated to Canada in 1911, then moved to Los Angeles in 1913, joining Hollywood's theater and film circles. Danny Hall became Chaplin's Art Director from A Dog's Life (1918) onward, while both brothers joined Universal in 1923, with Danny leading the Art Department and Archer heading construction. Danny Hall became a prominent designer of silent comedies and classic horror films at Universal. Una Nixson Hopkins (1869–1956), born in Denison, Iowa, was a widowed mother who studied art in Paris and became a respected writer and designer. A 1910 Herald Tribune article called her "one of the most successful women writers of the West." She published stories and articles on design in leading magazines and was known for her work in Art Direction, a field then dominated by men. During her career, Hopkins served as Supervising Art Director at Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company, led Reelart's department and managed Thomas H. Ince's Culver City studio in the 1920s. Harry Oliver (1888–1973) was a humorist, writer, painter, set designer, architect and Art Director. Raised in Hastings, Minnesota, he likened his childhood to "_Tom Sawyer_" and worked as a burro driver in his teens. Largely self- taught, Oliver became an early Goldwyn Studios Art Director, working on Ben-Hur (1923) in Rome and excelling at wilderness set design. He later collaborated with Carl Oscar Borg and was the Art Director for The Good Earth (1937), coordinating research in China and the logistics of sets and materials. UNITED ARTISTS STUDIO, 1922 (ROBIN HOOD SETS ON BACKLOT) SPARROWS, HARRY OLIVER, ART DIRECTOR, 1926 UNA NIXSON HOPKINS, CULVER CITY, 1923 EARLY IN-CAMERA MATTE SHOT, 1910S MARY PICKFORD WITH UA ART DEPARTMENT,1920S