December 6 - Delmer J. Yoakum

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

On this day, in 1915, Delmar James Yoakum was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. Del's mother was an artist and her friends were artists, so, growing up he was constantly surrounded by them. In the late Thirties, he was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to spend four summers in a row studying at the Kansas City Art Institute under famed muralist Thomas Hart Benton. When World War II broke out, Del joined the United States Navy as an ensign. When fighting concluded, he relocated himself to Los Angeles, California. There he studied under cubist artist Henry Lee McFee, Italian artist Rico Lebrun and spent time taking classes at Chouinard Art Institute, Jepson Art Institute and the Roski School of Fine Arts at USC.

Starting in 1952, Del began a two decade career as a motion picture scenic artist. He created backdrops and dioramas for use in films like The King and I, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and the Mount Rushmore scene in North by Northwest. His work can be seen in several Marilyn Monroe films (like 1959's Some Like It Hot which was nominated for a Best Set Decoration Oscar). His creation of the city of Jerusalem for 1953's The Robe helped clinch a Best Set Decoration Oscar win for that movie.

Image copyright Disney

For the Walt Disney Studio, Del's artistry was used in a new medium. Walt hired him to paint the backdrops for several of the attractions built at Disneyland over the years. The most famous of these works can be seen from the Disneyland Railroad. The Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas are the result of Del and his team using over 300 gallons of paint to depict a typical day in that part of the world at that particular time. He also created portions of the scenery for Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion.

Throughout his life, even more so after his retirement from Hollywood in 1972, Del also created fine art in both watercolors and oil. He won numerous awards for his paintings and some of them can be found in places as diverse as the San Diego Art Museum and Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England. In spite of his obvious talent, Del once quipped "Painting became my life. If I had to do it all over again, I'd do the same thing, but I'd be better at it." Del quietly passed away on October 25, 1996. He was 90 years old.