ANTON GROT (1884-1974) Anton Grot dominated Art Direction at Warner Bros. beginning in the twenties until his retirement at the end of the forties. In films such as Gold Diggers of 1933, Grot did as much to set the style of Warner’s musicals as did their more famous choreographer, Busby Berkeley. Grot came to the United States from Poland in 1909 at the age of 25, changing his name from Antocz Franciszek Groszewski. He had studied at the Cracow Academy of the Arts and then gone to Koenigsberg, Germany, Technical College to further his studies in interior design and illustration. His film career began in 1913 when he was hired to design sets for the Lubin Company in Philadelphia, and he continued there until the company closed in 1917, at the same time doing films for Vitagraph and for Pathé. It was during his years at Pathé he developed his design techniques, as an innovator, along with William Cameron Menzies, in the use of continuity sketches. Pioneering cinematographer Arthur Miller wrote: “Anton Grot was a gifted and talented artist who made beautiful charcoal drawings...of the set before it was completed. All his compositions showed a full shot of each set, with all the delicate tones and shadings that suggested ideas for lighting and, in general, were of great help to me as a cameraman.” Grot’s technique of presenting a sequence of sketches showing all of the film’s sets came into general usage among Art Directors, particularly William Cameron Menzies who assisted him on The Naulahka (1917). Grot came to Hollywood in 1922 to assist Wilfred Buckland with the sets for Robin Hood, and stayed on to design Mary Pickford’s Tess of the Storm Country (1922) and Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924). In 1927, by then well established in Hollywood, he signed a contract with Warner Bros., as “art director, artist, and designer,” where he remained to design 80 films before he retired in 1948. Collaborating with director Michael Curtiz on 15 films, beginning with th undefined

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