Urban, Joseph

Urban, Joseph (1872–1933), designer and architect. One of the greatest of all scenic artists, he was born in Vienna, where he later studied at the Art Academy under Baron Carl Hassauer and at the Polytechnicum. Urban first came to America to create the Austrian Pavilion for the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The Boston Opera Company brought him back in 1911 to design its sets, but it was his work on The Garden of Paradise (1914) that brought him to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld and launched his Broadway career. Although he designed sets for James K. Hackett's Shakespearean revivals and other plays, it was his work on musicals for which he became famous. Urban created the sets for all the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 to 1931, as well as such shows as Sally (1920), Sunny (1925), Rio Rita (1927) Show Boat (1927), The Three Musketeers (1928), Whoopee (1928), and Music in the Air (1932). He was the first major designer to carefully coordinate colors and to employ subtle lighting to enhance his color schemes. Typical of the work of “Unfailing Urban” was his opening set for Rosalie (1928), in which a brown arch framed a brown village rising to a bluish‐brown sea. His (and Ziegfeld's) favorite color was blue, and he gained fame for what became known as “Urban blue.” He also designed several theatres, most notably the egg‐shaped, boxless Ziegfeld Theatre, with its magnificent murals and gilt stage. Away from the theatre he served as architect for numerous homes and buildings and also earned a reputation as an illustrator of children's books. Biography: Joseph Urban, Randolph Carter, Robert Reed Cole, 1992.