About Joseph Urban and Cosmopolitan Films

When Joseph Urban signed a contract on February 19, 1920, with William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions to serve as art designer, he was arguably the only designer working in United States films in that era whose name was a household word. Hearst had come to know Urban's work as designer for almost all of Florenz Ziegfeld's productions, starting in 1915, and as artistic director of the Metropolitan Opera, starting in 1917. Joseph Urban's stage designs have been celebrated in physical and online exhibitions here in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library where his archive is housed. But his film career has not been given its proper due and this online exhibition is created for that purpose.

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