Joseph Urban(1872-1933)

Art Department
Art Director
Set Decorator

Renowned Viennese architect Joseph Urban was enticed to come to America in 1911 to design the elaborate stage sets in New York City for the Follies revues of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. Media bigwig William Randolph Hearst then brought him to Hollywood, in the 1920s,where he did art and set decoration for films starring Hearst's mistress Marion Davies. Urban's daughter Gretl helped out by making costumes for the actress as well.Hearst financed the construction of the Ziegfeld Theater, which Urban built. Urban's film work is mostly for the silents, as he died in 1933.

IMDbProStarmeter See rank

Photos1

Known for

Boomerang Bill

1.5

Art Department

1922

Zander the Great

5.6

Art Director

1925

Janice Meredith

5.5

Art Department

1924

The Bride's Play

6.1

Art Department

1922

Credits

IMDbPro

Art Department

Doctors' Wives
5.6
- sets
- 1931
East Lynne
5.7
- settings
- 1931
The Man Who Came Back
5.1
- settings
- 1931
Never the Twain Shall Meet
5.5
- settings
- 1925
Janice Meredith
5.5
- art director: settings by
- 1924
Unseeing Eyes
6.0
- set designer
- 1923
The Beauty Shop
- set designer
- 1922
Find the Woman
- set designer
- 1922
Sisters
6.6
- set designer
- 1922
Back Pay
6.4
- set designer (uncredited)
- 1922
The Bride's Play
6.1
- set designer
- 1922
Boomerang Bill
1.5
- set designer
- 1922
Just Around the Corner
6.1
- set designer
- 1921
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford
5.4
- set designer
- 1921
Proxies
- set designer
- 1921

Art Director

Zander the Great
5.6
- settings by
- 1925
Yolanda
6.3
- Art Director
- 1924
Under the Red Robe
5.0
- Art Director
- 1923
Little Old New York
6.4
- Art Director
- 1923
Adam and Eva
7.9
- Art Director
- 1923
When Knighthood Was in Flower
6.6
- Art Director
- 1922
The Young Diana
7.5
- Art Director
- 1922
Beauty's Worth
6.4
- Art Director
- 1922
The Bride's Play
6.1
- Art Director
- 1922
Enchantment
6.2
- Art Director
- 1921
Buried Treasure
5.6
- Art Director
- 1921
The Restless Sex
5.9
- Art Director
- 1920
The World and His Wife
- Art Director
- 1920

Set Decorator

Personal details

Born
- May 26, 1872
- Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Died
- July 10, 1933
- New York City, New York, USA(heart attack)
Spouse
- Mary Porter BeegleJanuary 1919 - July 10, 1933 (his death)
Other works
He designed the sets for several Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. productions, including several editions of the "Ziegfeld Follies", and the original 1927 Broadway stage production of Jerome Kern and 'Oscar Hammerstein (I)''s classic musical play "Show Boat". His sets were used again in the first Broadway revival of the show in 1932. This revival was also produced by Ziegfeld and would turn out to be his last production.
Publicity listings
- 3 Articles