Randall Duell

Randall Duell (July 14, 1903 – November 28, 1992) was an American architect and motion picture art director. He designed Magic Mountain theme park in Santa Clarita, California, the original Universal Studio Tours in California, Six Flags Over Texas, Marriott's Great America theme parks, as well as Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee.

Career Duell was born on a farm in Russell County, Kansas, moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1912, and died of a stroke in Los Angeles, California. He received screen credit for his work on 38 films, among them Ninotchka (1939), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Intruder in the Dust (1949), and Singin' in the Rain (1952). Additionally he worked on a number of motion pictures without film credit, among them The Wizard of Oz, 1939. He retired from MGM in 1959.

During most of his career at MGM, Duell maintained an outside architectural practice and designed residential and commercial buildings in Southern California. Notable among his designs during this period is Casa de Cadillac, a car dealership in Sherman Oaks built in 1948 which is now considered a prime example of Googie architecture.

Theme park design Following his departure from MGM in 1959, he joined Marco Engineering, founded by C. V. Wood, who had supervised the construction of Disneyland; at Marco, Duell collaborated with Wood and Wade Rubottom in the design of Freedomland U.S.A. in The Bronx, the first of many theme parks he would design.

The following year, Duell left Marco Engineering and established R. Duell and Associates with his wife Rachel, a Santa Monica-based architectural practice which specialized in the design of theme parks. Marrying traditional architecture with stagecraft, the firm designed many theme parks in America. Most of the parks include what is now known as the Duell loop, first implemented at Six Flags Over Texas; the primary guest path forms a complete circuit through the park so visitors can visit each attraction.

+Selected list of theme parks designed by Duell Associates Park City State / Country Year Notes Six Flags Over Texas Arlington TX 1961 Project started by Angus Wynne and Tommy Vandergriff, who hired Marco Engineering, then convinced Duell to form his own company. Universal Studios Tour Universal City CA 1964 Six Flags Over Georgia Austell GA 1967 Wynne's second park AstroWorld Houston TX 1968 Duell's commission for AstroWorld led to Six Flags designing the Mid-America park by itself. Lion Country Safari Irvine CA 1970 Six Flags Magic Mountain Valencia CA 1971 Hersheypark Hershey PA 1972 Opryland Nashville TN 1972 Carowinds Charlotte NC 1973 Worlds of Fun Kansas City MO 1973 Six Flags Great America Gurnee IL 1976 Twin parks originally named Marriott's Great America California's Great America Santa Clara CA Bellewaerde Park Zillebeke, West Flanders Belgium 1980? Darien Lake Corfu NY 1981 Dunia Fantasi Jakarta Indonesia 1985? Parc Astérix Paris France 1989 MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park Las Vegas NV 1993

The Duell office employed the talents of a number of former motion picture art directors and theme park designers, among them Robert H Branham, Leroy Coleman, John DeCuir, John DeCuir, Jr., Roger Duell, Paul Saunders, Ira West, Harry Webster, Art Pieper, and Paul Groesse.

Duell was inducted into the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Hall of Fame in 1993.

Selected filmography Duell was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:

When Ladies Meet (1941) Random Harvest (1942) Blackboard Jungle (1955)