Trivia

Under contract at MGM (1925-1926, 1934-1939); Universal (1927); Columbia (1928); Spent the bulk of his career at 20th Century Fox (1929-1933,1939-1953), primarily as art director for the studio's most prestigious colour musicals.

When art director Wright found that Universal planned a lot of location shooting on San Francisco's Grant Street for "Flower Drum Song," he noticed that local weather records showed that the area had numerous rainy and foggy days at that time of year. He convinced the studio to recreate the street on a sound stage at the cost of almost a half million dollars. A record was kept of the Bay City's weather over the course of the four week shoot, and Wright's shrewd decision ultimately saved the studio over $200,000 in lost shooting time.

When Wright used photographs he had taken in Britain to recreate the entire Soho district of London on the Universal lot for "Strange Bedfellows," it became the largest permanent set built by any Hollywood studio since before World War II.

Wright took postgraduate courses at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Wright redesigned the Santa Monica Civil Auditirium in order to properly showcase the annual Oscar presentation.

Wright was the first protégé of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and worked with the Master on such landmarks as Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.

While preparing "Oklahoma""" a full year in advance of production, Wright studied weather records for the location and discovered that they showed that the area was subject to horrible spring floods. Over the objections of budget-conscious producers, he insisted that $15,000 be spent on constructing a dam. The floods ultimately came as predicted and saved over $250,000 worth of sets.