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Edwin "Eddie" Imazu
Born	(1897-11-12)November 12, 1897 Yamaguchi, Japan
Died	May 29, 1979(1979-05-29) (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, United States
Other names	Edwin Imazu
Occupation	Art director
Years active	1927 - 1967

Edwin “Eddie” Imazu (12 December 1897 – 29 May 1979) was a Japanese-American art director and production designer, whose 50-year career in Hollywood included television and movie credits. A 1936 Academy Award co-nominee for best art direction on The Great Ziegfeld, Imazu worked with Hollywood luminaries including Spencer Tracy, John Wayne and Marlon Brando. He was born in Yamaguchi, Japan and died in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Imazu was born November 12, 1897 in Yamaguchi, Japan. As a teenager, he emigrated with his parents to Los Angeles. Employed as a houseboy while attending Hollywood High School, Imazu studied architecture and became the school's first Japanese graduate. Afterward, Imazu attended the University of California at Berkeley and majored in architecture. During his sophomore year, Imazu vacationed in Los Angeles and attended a party hosted by Sessue Hayakawa, the famous Japanese actor. While circulating at the party, Imazu met a supervising art director at the old Metro studios. This art director offered Imazu a job -- either being a cameraman or working in the art field. Because of his interest in architecture, Imazu chose the latter.

Imazu joined Metro studios as a draftsman in 1920. He remained at the studio until its merger with Goldwyn Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. In 1929, MGM promoted him from draftsman to art director.

During the early 1930s, Imazu met Aiko Kondo, a cousin of Mary Yuriko Kochiyama (nee Nakahara), who became a prominent civil rights activist. Because she was beautiful, Aiko attracted many suitors, mostly sailors whose ship had docked in San Pedro harbor. Aiko’s father didn’t trust these young sailors, so he asked a pre-teen Mary Nakahara to accompany Aiko on her dates.

Mary, later known as “Yuri,” recalled feeling awkward about her third-wheel presence but relieved that Aiko never showed the slightest irritation. Yuri also recalled that Aiko Kondo was a portrait artist from an artistic family. When Yuri and her two brothers visited the Kondos, the siblings ran straight to the wastebaskets. They would rifle through the contents to retrieve discarded art, which they would take home.

During the mid-1930s, Eddie Imazu married Aiko Kondo, creating a very happy, artistic union. In a 1947 interview with Pacific Citizen, Aiko Imazu said she preferred to make "rough sketches executed mostly in charcoal," whereas her husband created more complicated and detailed renderings. Aiko's brother Takashi “Teek” Kondo, an accomplished cartoonist, eventually became an MGM employee in the art department. Eddie and Aiko Imazu raised two daughters, Joyce and Darleen.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, purportedly for security reasons. The Order required all Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants to evacuate from the west coast and relocate at isolated, inland detention centers surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. To retain Imazu as an art director, MGM offered him living accommodations inside the studio. But the government required Aiko Imazu and daughters to report to the Santa Anita Assembly Center and later to the Jerome and Rohwer relocation camps. So Imazu chose to accompany his family into relocation.

After release from detention, Imazu returned home to Culver City in the Los Angeles area. The next day, Cedric Gibbons, supervising art director at MGM, wired Imazu to offer him his old job. Studio head, Louis B. Mayer, usually inaccessible to Hollywood VIPs, personally greeted Imazu back to work. Well-liked and respected by colleagues, Imazu worked at MGM Studios for 35 years.

During the 1950s, Imazu became a naturalized American citizen. An inside-page interview of Imazu, at age 50, appeared in the December 20, 1947 edition of Pacific Citizen, a Japanese-American newspaper. The headline reads, Hollywood Story: A Portrait of Eddie Imazu, Art Director at MGM Studios. And the byline reads, By Alice Sumida. In the 24-inch profile, Imazu describes how he works.

First, he reads the script. If the movie must be shot on location, Imazu travels to an appropriate area and selects a site. For a studio movie, Imazu spends one or two months breaking the story into sets, estimating costs, making layouts, sketching and drawing models, and consulting the director. Imazu lines up the sets needed to ensure they're built in the proper order. He does a "roughing out," followed by a drafting. After the models are drawn, the director studies them and may suggest changes. If the proposed budget is suitable and the director is satisfied, the set plans go from the draftsman's workroom to the mill, where the units are made. After they're built, the sets are assembled on the stage and set up. Lastly, each set is painted, dressed and made ready to shoot. In technicolor movies, the set's colors must beautifully offset the costumes, so wardrobe designers contribute ideas. Imazu's budget is 12% to 15% of total production cost, usually about $250,000. A studio movie costs at the very least $1.5 million.

In 1936, Eddie Imazu was an Academy Award co-nominee for best art direction on The Great Ziegfeld. Imazu's movie credits include: McLintock! (1963); The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962); The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956); Go For Broke! (1951); and Three Wise Fools (1946). His television credits include: "The Twilight Zone" (1964); Combat! (1963-1964); and The Thin Man (1958).

After retiring from MGM in the late 1960s, Imazu fell into poor health. He died May 29, 1979 at age 81 in Los Angeles, California. Aiko Kondo Imazu died in April 1983.

Filmography

Art Director

Film

Year	Title	Position	Notes
1966	Namu, the Killer Whale	Art Director
1965	When the Boys Meet the Girls	Art Director
1966	Hold On!	Art Director
1966	7 Women	Art Director
1965	Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion	Art Director	as Edward Imazu
1964	Advance to the Rear	Art Director
1964	Kissin' Cousins	Art Director
1964	Kissin' Cousins	Art Director
1963	McLintock!	Art Director
1963	Donovan's Reef	Art Director
1962	Escape from Zahrain	Art Director
1962	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	Art Director
1960	The Crowded Sky	Art Director
1960	Sergeant Rutledge	Art Director
1959	A Hole in the Head	Art Director
1957	Stopover Tokyo	Art Director
1956	The Teahouse of the August Moon	Art Director
1955	The Marauders	Art Director
1953	Things We Can Do Without	Art Director	Short
1953	Big Leaguer	Art Director
1953	Bright Road	Art Director
1953	I Love Melvin	Art Director
1952	Desperate Search	Art Director
1952	You for Me	Art Director
1952	Carbine Williams	Art Director
1952	Talk About a Stranger	Art Director
1951	It's a Big Country	Art Director
1951	Callaway Went Thataway	Art Director
1951	The Tall Target	Art Director
1951	Bargain Madness	Art Director	Short
1951	Go for Broke!	Art Director
1950	The Skipper Surprised His Wife	Art Director
1950	The Next Voice You Hear...	Art Director
1950	Shadow on the Wall	Art Director
1950	Stars in My Crown	Art Director
1950	The Yellow Cab Man	Art Director
1949	Challenge to Lassie	Art Director
1949	Tucson	Art Director
1949	Miss Mink of 1949	Art Director
1948	Trouble Preferred	Art Director
1948	Hills of Home	Art Director
1947	Killer McCoy	Art Director
1947	The Romance of Rosy Ridge	Art Director
1947	Second Chance	Art Director
1947	The Crimson Key	Art Director
1946	Three Wise Fools	Art Director	as Edward Imazu
1937	Espionage	Art Director
1936	The Three Wise Guys	Art Director
1936	The Great Ziegfeld	Art Director	Uncredited
1933	Day of Reckoning	Art Director
1927	California	Art Director

References

• Pacific Citizen, Saturday, December 20, 1947, Alice Sumida, "Hollywood Story: A Portrait of Eddie Imazu, Art Director at MGM Studios," Los Angeles, California
• The Mainichi, Friday, April 27, 1956, "French, Americans Shooting Films in Nara And Nagasaki," Osaka, Japan
• Fujita, Darleen (2011). "Correcting the Record" (PDF). Interviewed by Elizabeth Nakahara. Los Angeles. {{cite interview}}: Check |subject-link= value (help); External link in |subject-link= (help); More than one of |subject= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Kochiyakma, Mary Yuriko (2011). "Growing up with my Cousin, Aiko Kondo" (PDF). Interviewed by Elizabeth Nakahara. Los Angeles. {{cite interview}}: Check |subject-link= value (help); External link in |subject-link= (help); More than one of |authorlink= and |subject-link= specified (help); More than one of |subject= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)