Randall Duell

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Randall Duell (July 14, 1903 – November 28, 1992) was an American architect and motion picture art director who helped design many famous theme parks and films.

Early life and career
Duell was born on a farm in Kansas and moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1912. He studied architecture at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1925. He worked for the Los Angeles firm Webber, Staunton and Spaulding, helping design projects in the city such as the Avalon Casino on Catalina Island, the Frary Dining Hall at Pomona College, and Harold Lloyd’s Greenacres estate in Beverly Hills. He also helped design a Bel Air home inspired by the Petit Trianon.

Hollywood work
Duell joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the mid-1930s and became a full-time member of the MGM art department in 1937. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and is credited on 38 films, including Ninotchka, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Intruder in the Dust, and Singin’ in the Rain. He contributed to The Wizard of Oz without credit and retired from MGM in 1959. While at MGM, he also ran an outside architectural practice and designed notable buildings such as Casa de Cadillac (1948) in Sherman Oaks, an example of Googie architecture.

Theme parks and later work
After MGM, Duell joined Marco Engineering, where he helped design Freedomland U.S.A. in the Bronx and Pleasure Island in Wakefield, Massachusetts. He then founded R. Duell and Associates with his wife, Rachel Coleman Duell, in Santa Monica. The firm specialized in theme-park design and helped popularize the Duell loop, a circular guest-path layout used in many parks. Notable projects included Six Flags Over Texas, Marriott’s Great America, Opryland in Nashville, and Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita. At Magic Mountain, funds ran short, so a rear tunnel planned to complete the loop was never built.

Death and legacy
Duell died of a stroke in Los Angeles in 1992. He was survived by his wife, Rachel, and their son, Roger. He was posthumously inducted into the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Hall of Fame in 1993.