"In the 1920s and ‘30s, Hollywood movies glittered with Art Deco sets, props, and costumes. Film audiences took it for granted that L.A. had been a “Deco mecca” since the decorative style’s 1925 debut in Paris…but they were mistaken. The road to its adoption here was slower, and the origin story of that road was deliberately clouded by one of its pioneers. Creative genius, egotism, astonishing projects both open and hidden, and a self-aggrandizing lie which nearly buried it all for 80 years…this is how Art Deco style in its first, golden age, truly arrived in the City of the Angels."

ABOUT THE PRESENTER:

A former board chairman of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles (ADSLA), Southern Californian historian Marc Chevalier researched, wrote, and produced The Oviatt Building, a 2008 documentary film about downtown L.A.’s first Art Deco skyscraper. During his research, Mr. Chevalier stumbled upon an unknown web of connections between that building and the trailblazing 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris: a discovery which led to 18 years of further investigation. This will be the first wholly public presentation of his findings.