If Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert have been the 2 stars of “Siskel & Ebert on the Films,” the intimate movie show set on which they shared their takes on movie releases new and outdated was the third. You’ll be able to thank set designer Mickey Loewenstein for that, a legendary scenic designer at Chicago’s WTTW-Channel 11 for 40 years who formed the look of tv’s most iconic movie assessment present. On August twentieth, 2024, he handed from pure causes in his Florida residence on the age of 90.
Loewenstein started working at WTTW in 1959 as a set designer, benefiting from the big budgets and artistic freedom that got here from the golden age of tv. There, he designed units for all the things from the live-music powerhouse “Soundstage” to the child’s puppet present “Kikla, Fran, and Ollie” to the Peabody-award-winning 1983 ballet manufacturing of “The Merry Widow. “
However arguably, his most well-known creation was the set for “Siskel & Ebert and the Films” (long-established, in fact, in 1975 when the present was initially referred to as “Opening Quickly … at a Theater Close to You”), affecting the look of a sprawling film home that belong solely to Roger & Gene. It was their playhouse, and it regarded like that they had the entire home all to themselves.
The kicker, and a part of Loewenstein’s manufacturing magic, was that the set was a lot smaller than it appeared on display. Modeled after the Highland Park movie show Loewenstein frequented rising up, the “Siskel & Ebert” set was truly a tiny tv studio set. He used pressured perspective to make all the things look larger: Screens, again rows, exit indicators, all of it was constructed to one-third scale. In actual life, Roger & Gene regarded like giants. On TV, they have been misplaced within the din of the theater.
It’s a design that might linger via the whole lot of the present’s run, as hosts and sensibilities and broadcast associates modified. By way of all that tumult, Loewenstein’s set loomed giant, even when it appeared small.
Born in 1933 to a father who labored in actual property and a bookstore-owner mom, Loewenstein constructed his bona fides early with a theater main on the College of Colorado and a two-year stint designing units for the leisure department of the navy, Particular Companies.
Loewenstein is survived by sons Dave and Tim Loewenstein, in addition to three grandchildren.
Those that wish to honor his reminiscence can attend a service October nineteenth at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. Or, they’ll simply head to the Chicago Historical past Museum, the place a group of his drawings and sketches are displayed.
Or, within the grand custom of Siskel & Ebert, you possibly can go to the films.
