...a few amazing set designs by Van Nest Polglase (RKO photos thanks to Google)

     Above are two of the London hotel bedrooms  invented for this classic musical comedy.   RKO Studio was at the forefront of sophisticated set designs during the depressed 1930's, and nowhere was this luxurious white-white fantasy more evident than in the series of seven Astaire-Rogers films.  The Big White Set, as these art déco-inspired inventions were known, took up the lion's share of the budget.  If you only had these film sets to go by, you might well be disappointed by the grandest of the grand hotels.

       Even by Hollywood standards, the reality-defying creation of a Venice luxury hotel was way, way over the top.  This type of set design gave new meaning to black and white.  It is said that for added contrast, the water was dyed black.

Telephones were --need I say-- always white

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  -o-