(Films released from August 1, 1929 through July 31, 1930 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
- Hans Dreier, The Love Parade
- Hans Dreier, The Vagabond King
- William Cameron Menzies, Bulldog Drummond
- Jack Okey, Sally
- Herman Rosse, King of Jazz
And the Oscar went to ...
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| Herman Rosse |
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| King of Jazz |
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Yes, it looks absurd. But this is the direction in which the movie musical was going, and though the production designers for Busby Berkeley's musicals at Warner Bros. and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's at RKO would be more refined and sophisticated about it, Rosse helped create the template. Born in the Netherlands, Rosse studied architecture and design in London and at Stanford University, and worked on set designs for Broadway before coming to Hollywood for King of Jazz. A revue filmed in the odd pastels of two-color Technicolor, King of Jazz takes its title from the epithet journalists had conferred on Paul Whiteman and he had rather presumptuously adopted. He performs George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which he had commissioned and introduced, and the other artists featured in the film include The Rhythm Boys: Al Rinker, Harry Barris, and Bing Crosby. (It was Crosby's first feature.) It's a rather uneven mishmash of a film, and the color is sometimes barely there.
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