Movies brought Art Deco into the American cultural spotlight

Our Dancing Daughters (1928) - set decoration by Cedric Gibbons

The United States had no official representation at the 1925 Paris Exposition, where Art Deco made its global debut. At the time, the nation still suffered from a colonial inferiority complex — the notion that true art could only come from Europe. MGM art director Gibbons was inspired by what he saw, and his film sets served as America’s first exposure to this “modern” style.

Cedric Gibbons (1890-1960)

Cedric Gibbons introduced Art Deco interiors to United States through movies. He started his career in 1918, when movies were still silent. He was nominated 39 times for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and won the Oscar 11 times, both of which are all-time records. Gibbons designed the Oscar statuette in 1928. By the end of his career at MGM (in the 1950s), he was credited as the art director for over 1,500 films - a staggering number that reflects the assembly-line output of Golden Age Hollywood. In the early days of film-making movies were almost exclusively filmed on movie sets or in controlled studio environments. This was due to the limitations of early film technology, which required consistent lighting and sound conditions that could only be achieved indoors. Sets were designed to replicate various locations, from city streets to exotic landscapes. In Hollywood, the push for on-location shooting grew stronger in the 1950s and 1960s, influenced by a desire to move away from the artificial look of studio sets and create more natural and dynamic scenes.