William Cameron Menzies — An Artist of Distinction (1925) 🇺🇸

When The Thief of Bagdad flashed its imaginative beauty upon the screen, the settings elicited more admiration than any film sets ever had before, and interest was immediately centered upon the young man, William Cameron Menzies, who had been responsible for their compelling fascination.

For eight years, Menzies has been engaged in designing motion-picture sets along the prescribed lines and it was not until Fairbanks [Douglas Fairbanks Sr.] gave him an opportunity to execute his original designs that his name came to mean anything, even in studio circles.

The son of a construction engineer, he received a practical foundation of training in architecture, completing his artistic studies in London. The cleverness of his magazine illustrations brought him an opportunity to translate his skill into screen settings.

He has designed the sets for “Rosita, “The Lady,” Cobra, and other notable productions and is now engaged upon evolving picturesque dwellings of the fourteenth century for Valentino’s [Rudolph Valentino] The Hooded Falcon.

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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, June 1925