Charles Lisanby

Charles was born on January 22, 1924, in Princeton, Kentucky to parents Rebecca Hollingsworth Lisanby and Charles Alvin Lisanby Sr.[3]

Lisbany was interested in set design from an early age. Starting at the age of ten, Lisbany carefully constructed a model to scale of the Radio City Music Hall with nothing but an article he had read that included the plans of the stage.[4] After graduating high school in 1940 at the age of 16, Lisanby moved to New York to pursue art studied and an apprenticeship under the famed Broadway & Film Art Director, Cecil Beaton.[5] Soon thereafter, he was drafted into the United States Army to serve in World War II. Receiving an early discharge due to meningitis, Charles ignored his father's wishes for him to become a doctor and returned to New York to attend art school.

His brother was retired United States Navy Rear Admiral James Lisanby (1928–2012), a former Chief of Engineers.[3]

Charles Lisanby is currently the first and only Production Designer ever inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. As well as contributing spectacular scenes and set piece design for countless television shows and movies, Lisanby helped pioneer several key recognizable features of television. As color television developed, experimentation with colorful scenes and costumes was needed and developed. In 1957 he designed the first telecast in color for CBS, an episode for a show called "The Big Record".[6] One key feature Lisanby directly mastered was the use of neon lighting for shows. Early experiments with neon lights created a buzzing sound through the microphone system which was severe enough it could not be used. After working with engineers, lighting, and sound experts Lisanby was able to incorporate neon lights for the first time in television history - a skill for which his expertise was sought out. Lisanby also invented lighted steps as a feature of shows and was the first to implement large block letters which actors could sit on as a part of the set.

As well as influencing scenic design as it is known today, Charles designed the first ever mini-series on television in 1973–1974 with his Emmy-winning Ben Franklin series. He took scenic design to new heights with monumental set pieces such as his Parisian street set which created buzz across Hollywood and within the profession. Throughout his nearly 50-year career, Lisanby became arguably the most influential scenic designer as he pioneered early color television.

Lisanby's first solo professional commission was given to him in 1947 when the Friars Club in New York City commissioned him to paint a mural in the dining room of their headquarters.[7] Coincidentally Ralph Levy, who at the time worked for CBS, saw his work and asked him to design the experimental made-for-television ballet "Billy the Kid". His work gained the attention of the Theatrical Stage Designers Union who demanded he cease working for CBS until he took a test to gain entrance into the Union. Lisanby passed the test with the highest marks and met the influential stage designer Oliver Messel who offered him a job as his assistant working on the Broadway show Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia de Havilland in 1951.

After Romeo and Juliet, Lisanby continued to work in the same scene shop for a year until he was offered a job by Jim McNaughton at ABC. In 1954, CBS offered him a job for twice the salary which he immediately took and worked on The Jane Froman Show. He then worked for CBS for a number of years on such shows as the infamous $64,000 Question and Camera Three where he met Lewis Freedman, the future head of PBS and director of the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1958, Lisanby was asked to work with Ralph Levy and Bob Banner on The Gary Moore Show where he worked for six years on 234 shows and helped give Carol Burnett her television debut. After the series ended he went on to work on the Kraft Music Hall for Smith/Hemion; and in 1973 and 1974 he designed the Ben Franklin miniseries and received his first Emmy. Starting in 1979 he began annually working on Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular which he continued designing until 1996.

Working on everything from made-for-television movies, musicals, ballets and Broadway shows, Lisanby influenced nearly every aspect of scenic design in all mediums which he worked.

Lisanby met Andy Warhol at a party thrown by Bill Cecil in the mid-1950s in New York. At the party, Warhol was sitting alone in the corner not socializing with anyone, so he approached him to help him meet people. The two began conversing and ended up leaving the party at the same time. That particular night it was raining, so he and Warhol stood under the awning of a taxidermy shop where Lisanby pointed out that he liked a stuffed peacock in the window. The next day, the peacock was delivered to Lisanby's door and their relationship blossomed from there.

The two became nearly inseparable and began talking on the phone daily. They met every Sunday to do figure drawings and studies which influence both artists greatly as they matured in their respective careers. Warhol created an entire gallery exhibit (DETAILS) of the drawings he had done of Lisanby. Although his work had him traveling between the east and west coasts, he and Warhol kept in contact with regular phone calls.

In 1956, Lisanby and Warhol took a four-month-long trip around the world which greatly influenced both of their work and directly inspired Warhol's Golden Shoes. He came up with the title to Warhol's book 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, a book that granted the two their first copyrighted work,[8] and both artists frequently exchanged art and ideas into the early 1960s.

As Warhol gained more fame for his pop art, the two began to separate in their friendship. Warhol asked Lisanby to join him in the pop art movement and become a famous pop artist as well, but Lisanby did not wish to be a part of it. He was in favor of much more realistic art and he decided that Warhol's Factory was not his scene. Warhol even tried to give Lisanby one of his most famous Marilyn Monroe prints that he made specifically for him. He refused the print even though Warhol famously said, "Wrap it up in brown paper. Put it in the back of a closet. One day it'll be worth a million dollars."[9]

Warhol was infatuated with Lisanby and wanted to a have a romantic relationship with him but it was unrequited love, causing Warhol's heart to be broken.[10][9] However, the two remained "best friends for many, many years," according to Lisanby. Reportedly, he rejected Warhol's sexual advances but Lisanby said, "I don't think [Warhol] wanted to have sex."[11] "He said he thought sex was 'messy.' That was his word, it was too 'messy and distasteful.' He told me he'd had sex a few times, he had tried it and didn't really like it," Lisanby said.[11]

Lisanby donated his life's work to James Madison University in 2010. Two years later the new James and Gladys Kemp Lisanby Museum in Festival Conference and Student Center held an exhibit to highlight Lisanby's most important contributions to the arts of television and scenic design, as well as introduce his relationship with Andy Warhol. Mentor to an Icon: A Charles Lisanby and Andy Warhol Exhibit was on view from January 23, 2012 – March 2, 2012. The exhibit was drawn from the Madison Art Collection, part of JMU's College of Visual and Performing Arts and was curated by two James Madison University graduating Visual and Performing Arts students, Josh Smead and John Kimbriel. They spoke about the collection at their "First Friday Talk" on February 3, 2013.[6] The exhibit was accompanied by a free iPad app called "Mentor to an Icon" that allowed visitors to interact with and learn more about the individual works exhibited as well as view interviews with and videos of and about Lisanby.

Lisanby died on August 23, 2013, at his Los Angeles, California home of complication following a fall at the age of 89.[1] He was outlived by his lifelong partner Richard Bostard, his nieces, Dr. Sarah Hollingworth Lisanby, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Lisbany Bianchi, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Gladys Elnora Kemp Lisbany.

• Charles Lisanby at IMDb
• Charles Lisanby Collection homepage
• Lisanby Hall of Fame Induction
• Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Biography