Milton Menasco

Milton Menasco (January 22, 1890 – June 7, 1974) was an American painter and art director of silent movies.

Born in 1890 in Los Angeles, California, Menasco began his art career in the early days of Hollywood, when his "blood and thunder" posters enticed movie fans into theaters to watch the first silent pictures. He was commissioned to do mural paintings at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco for the World's Fair in 1915.

His vivid use of colors and graphics won him recognition in Hollywood, where he worked on 33 films—29 times as art director and twice as set director. In 1925 he was the architecture and set director for the original film based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. This film received accolades for its innovative art direction and special effects. To quote one review in the NewTimes: "And while Harry O. Hoyt is credited as director, a host of fellow auteurs must take credit for Lost World's still impressive thrills, especially the effects work of Willis O'Brien (who would later animate King Kong in 1933) and the wild set design from Milton Menasco." A complete list of Menasco's film credits is given here.

In 1925 Menasco went to New York City as art director for a film making company and turned to advertising. He also painted portraits and water colors of horses and ships during this time which he sold in the City's galleries. During World War II, Life magazine commissioned him to draw air and sea battles to chronicle the war in Europe and in the Pacific Theater.

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