Stephen Goosson(1889-1973)
- Art Director
- Art Department
- Additional Crew
Stephen Goosson was Columbia Pictures' supervising art director for 25
years. A gifted artist, he is responsible for some of the most
memorable sets in Hollywood history; from the oversized mansion
towering over Mary Pickford in
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)
to the fun house with its hall of mirrors in
The Lady from Shanghai (1947).
Goosson was an architect in Detroit before starting in pictures as art
director for pioneer film producer
Lewis J. Selznick (father of
David O. Selznick) in 1919. he went on
to work for Mary Pickford Productions, Frank Lloyd, DeMille Pictures as
well as Fox before being hired by Columbia, where he remained for the
rest of his career. From pencil drawings to final full-scale sets and
regardless of budget, his work was always extremely rich in details,
and always thoroughly researched and authentically built.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, Goosson won for his magnificent sets of Shangri-La for Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937). They collaborated on seven other pictures from Platinum Blonde (1931) to Meet John Doe (1941). Always a visionary, he was just as comfortable with simple authenticity (like the cabin in It Happened One Night (1934) where "the wall of Jericho" is erected) than with grandiose concepts (such as his - and co-art director Ralph Hammeras - futuristic New York City of 1980 in Just Imagine (1930)). It is next to impossible to imagine any of these movies without Stephen Goosson's exquisite contributions.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, Goosson won for his magnificent sets of Shangri-La for Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937). They collaborated on seven other pictures from Platinum Blonde (1931) to Meet John Doe (1941). Always a visionary, he was just as comfortable with simple authenticity (like the cabin in It Happened One Night (1934) where "the wall of Jericho" is erected) than with grandiose concepts (such as his - and co-art director Ralph Hammeras - futuristic New York City of 1980 in Just Imagine (1930)). It is next to impossible to imagine any of these movies without Stephen Goosson's exquisite contributions.
