Dorothea Holt Redmond | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dorothea Holt (1910-05-18)May 18, 1910 |
| Died | February 27, 2009(2009-02-27) (aged 98) Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California |
| Occupations | Illustrator,production designer |
| Spouse | Harry Redmond, Jr. (1940–2009) |
Dorothea Holt Redmond (May 18, 1910 – February 27, 2009) was an illustrator and production designer noted for her work onAlfred Hitchcock films. Known as the first woman production designer, Redmond entered the industry in 1938. She worked on more than 30 films, includingGone with the Wind andThe Ten Commandments, as well as seven Hitchcock productions, among themRebecca,Rear Window andTo Catch a Thief.[1]
She was born inLos Angeles on May 18, 1910, to Mary and Harry Holt, who was a co-owner Western Lithograph Co. She attended theUniversity of Southern California, where she studied architecture and was awarded aBachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1933. She attended what is now theArt Center College of Design, and was awarded a degree in illustration in 1936, and later taught at the school.[1]
She was hired bySelznick International Pictures in 1938, making her what theLos Angeles Times reported that year as the first woman to work in the "heretofore exclusively male field" of motion-picture production design. Out of resentment, male co-workers demanded that she work in a walled-off area separated from theirs.[1]
Tania Modleski, a professor of English at the University of Southern California, emphasized how Redmond was responsible for influencing theGerman Expressionist aesthetic that Hitchcock was credited with, and that Redmond was widely considered one of the most talented illustrators in the film industry.[1]
Redmond's illustrations would be used by Hitchcock and hisart directors to define the tone of a scene for cameramen and other crew members. The 2007 bookCasting a Shadow described how her renderings of a sequence in Hitchcock's 1943 filmShadow of a Doubt were influential in adding suspense by adding an element of threat to a quiet town.[1]
Redmond's daughter recounted how "She just loved his personality and his taste" and that Hitchcock was "one of her very favorite people to work with". In 2008, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented an exhibit titledCasting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film, that showed how Hitchcock worked with the other professionals on the set in his movie, with details of how he collaborated with Redmond on seven of his films such as the 1940 movieRebecca, 1954'sRear Window and the 1955 filmTo Catch a Thief.[1]
On January 31, 2016, Dorothea Holt Redmond will be inducted into theArt Directors Guild Hall of Fame in a ceremony to take place at the 20th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.[2]
Redmond worked with the architectural firm ofWilliam Pereira andCharles Luckman. There, she did designs for interiors ofLos Angeles International Airport and theLos Angeles County Museum of Art.[3] She also helped to design theSeattle Space Needle.[4]
She was hired by what is nowWalt Disney Imagineering in 1966. There she helped design portions ofDisneyland and theWalt Disney World Resort, including a residence inNew Orleans Square intended for Walt Disney himself. The area was used as a gallery after Disney's death in 1966, but the space above thePirates of the Caribbean attraction was converted into an apartment called theDisneyland Dream Suite based on her original design that has been used by randomly selected guests at the resort since January 2008. She also designed many other aspects of the stores and eateries in New Orleans Square.[1]
She designedFantasyland atDisney World in Florida, as well as portions of Main Street and mosaic murals in the archway ofCinderella Castle that were implemented there and inTokyo Disneyland.[1]
In fall 2008 she was honored by the firm'sDisney Legends program, honoring her achievements on behalf ofThe Walt Disney Company.Marty Sklar described how "Her watercolor sketches were extraordinary place-making". An exhibit of her work opened at the company's Information Research Center inGlendale, California.[1]
Holt met her future husband,Harry Redmond, Jr., atSelznick International Pictures studio during the late 1930s.[4] She was designing the pre-production interior sets forGone With The Wind andRebecca, while Redmond was working forDavid O. Selznick on the set ofThe Prisoner of Zenda at the time of their meeting.[4] The couple married in 1940.[4] Together, they designed and constructed a home in theHollywood Hills based on a design that she completed with her husband after the original architect had died.[1][4]
Holt Redmond died at age 98 on February 27, 2009, due tocongestive heart failure at her home in theHollywood Hills.[1]
Her husband Harry Redmond, died on May 23, 2011, at age 101.[4]
