Dorothea Redmond

Dorothea Redmond
Background information
Fullname	Dorothea Holt
Born	May 18, 1910 Los Angeles, California, United States
Died	February 27, 2009 (aged 98) Hollywood Hills, California, United States
Cause of death	Congestive heart failure
Nationality	American
Alternate names	Dorothea Holt Redmond
Occupation	Designer, illustrator
Years active	1937-1974
Family information
Spouse	Harry Redmond, Jr. (1940-2009)
Children	Lynne Lee

Dorothea Redmond was an architectural designer and illustrator, who worked as an Imagineer for Disney during the 1960s and 1970s.

She was born in Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California, where she studied architecture and was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1933, and the Art Center College of Design where she was awarded a degree in illustration in 1936, and later taught at the school.

She was hired by Selznick International Pictures in 1937, making her the first woman to work in the "heretofore exclusively male field" of motion-picture production design where she worked on Gone with the Wind, illustrating scenes with ink and watercolor for the architects and decorators to envision what the set should look like. Redmond also worked extensively with Alfred Hitchcock providing the same art for seven of his films (Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Shadow of a Doubt, Rebecca, Saboteur, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief). Other films she contributed to included The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bishop's Wife, Limelight, Road to Bali, Sabrina, White Christmas, The Court Jester, The Ten Commandments, The Rainmaker, and Funny Face. She left Hollywood in 1956 and began teaching at Art Center, her alma mater, as well as worked with the architectural firm of William Pereira and Charles Luckman. There, she did designs for interiors of the Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Seattle Space Needle.

In 1964, Redmond joined Disney where she working Imagineering. Her first project was the transformation of Disneyland's Red Wagon Inn Restaurant into the sumptuously appointed Plaza Inn alongside John Hench. She later make contributions to New Orleans Square where she did many interior and exterior views of the area restaurants, shops and the Royal Suite, Walt's Disneyland apartment, now known as the Disneyland Dream Suite as well as Club 33. In Florida, she worked on designs for Fantasyland, Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, and Epcot's World Showcase. Her most significant contribution was designing the stunning mural in the walkway of Cinderella Castle. The mural is comprised of five, ten-by-fifteen foot panels and tells the story of Cinderella. The design was later duplicated for Tokyo Disneyland.

Redmond retired in June of 1974 and, in 2008, was honored as a Disney Legend. She passed away on February 27, 2009 at her home in the Hollywood Hills.

Gallery

External links

• Dorothea Redmond on Wikipedia
• Dorothea Redmond on IMDb
• Dorothea Redmond at Find a Grave
• Dorothea Redmond at D23, The Official Disney Fan Club
• Art Center magazine article