Artist in Wonderland

Joseph Musil of Santa Ana will never forget the day his grandmother took him to the Strand Theatre in Long Beach. The year was 1941 and he was only 4.

Back then, movies were screened with live musical fanfare and lights that changed colors as they shined on the curtain.

That trip to the movies turned out to be a defining moment in Musil’s life. Now he’s a theater designer creating his own glamour and glitz.

“It took me many years to realize that I was a wizard and it’s OK to have glitter and ostrich plumes. My purpose is to make people feel like they’re having fun.”

Musil’s latest project? Designing five mock movie billboards to be displayed in the new California Adventure theme park, which opened in February. He accepted the challenge and got into the role, so to speak.

“They wanted me to create bogus advertisements that make you feel like you’re in the back lot of a movie studio,” said Musil, 64, who envisioned himself as a theater owner previewing a new movie as a way to focus his ideas. “That’s where the show really begins. My sketches show the excitement of those shows.”

Situated in the studio back lot and garden of the theme park’s Hyperion Theater, each of the 8-by-14-foot signs is a twist on movie musicals--Disney-style, of course. Mickey and Minnie Mouse are the stars of “Down Catalina Way” and Donald and Daisy Duck headline “Moon Over Monrovia.” The others feature stage shows with chorus girls, orchestras and even newsreels.

The billboard designs, rich with color and the “greatest” and “glorious” of superlatives, are a throwback to the ads that were typical in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s--the kind Musil grew up loving.

Born in Bell, a Los Angeles suburb, Musil grew up in South Gate and Long Beach. As a teenager he worked at historic movie houses, including the Fox West Coast, in roles ranging from usher to projectionist to manager.

He still works in a historic location: His studio is in the Santora Building in Santa Ana.

Dubbed the “Salon of the Theatres,” his 1,500-square-foot studio is lavished wall to wall with scale models of 19th century European theaters. The setting, complete with a rose-colored velour sofa, low-wattage mood lighting and vintage pipe organ music, is like entering a 1920s movie palace.

Musil built miniature theater models in a variety of architectural styles, from the rococo French curlicues of the Rialto Theatre in Chicago to the sleek lines of the Art Deco Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.

Musil has worked for Disney before.

In 1986, he designed the Crest theater in Westwood and served as art director and theater consultant for Disney and Pacific Theatres’ award-winning restoration of the historic El Capitan, which reopened on Hollywood Boulevard in 1991.

“My biggest concern when working with Disney is having the right ideas,” Musil said. “So I have to block out the grandeur and glamour of working with Disney.” Musil’s sketches are a hodgepodge of drawings on the back of a restaurant’s paper place mats, yellow legal pads and dozens of sheets of tracing paper.

“When you’re a designer, you’re on all the time--at breakfast, late at night as I’m falling asleep, or at 2 in the morning.”

Musil, who graduated from the former Chouinard Art School (now CalArts) in Los Angeles, pursued advanced studies in interior design and grand opera set design at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy.

For the billboard project, Musil wanted to recapture the feeling of excitement he felt being in the old theaters.

He sought the help of a friend--and a computer--to create bold colors and splashy designs. Graphic designer Brian White of Santa Ana brought the sketches to life with vibrant digital technology.

“I played with the patterns and designs, and knowing the computer and how it works, I knew how to adjust the colors and images so they’re most intense,” said White, 38, who works for a consulting firm in Irvine. The two met in June last year and realized they shared the same love for theaters.

White used a Corel Draw graphic software program to create the brilliant colors. The more he reworked details, such as Daisy Duck’s eyelashes or Minnie’s lips, the more it dawned on him who his employer was.

“I realized, ‘Wow, this is a big project I’m doing for Disney,’ ” White said. “I’ve never done anything this enormous before.”

When the billboards were unveiled at the Hyperion, Musil and White finally saw the fruits of their labor. As the theme song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” poured into the garden, the two artists stood in front of the billboards, so moved that they cried.

“To think millions of people will see this at the happiest place on Earth,” Musil said. “This is the pot of gold, I thought.”

White added, “We used every color in the rainbow to get there.”