Design for Films

Tony Duquette was discovered for the films after Vincente Minnelli dined at Dodo and Jimmy Pendleton’s new house in Beverly Hills.  Seeing the creative table garniture and other decorations which Duquette had created for the Pendletons, Minnelli was inspired.  Going back to his set at MGM the next day, Minnelli told his art director that he wanted the next scene to look like Duquette.  The art director went away to do research and returned to confess to Minnelli that he had been through all the records, the library, and the research department and he couldn’t find a thing about Duquette. “You fool” cried Minnelli, “He’s an artist not a period, I’ll call him myself” and that is how Tony Duquette met Vincente Minnelli and started a life long friendship and a career in the movies. Liza Minnelli when talking about her father and Tony’s special relationship would say “Daddy and Tony are the only two people I know who can carry on an entire conversation… neither of them ever finishing a sentence… and both of them knowing exactly what the other one is saying!”