Harold L. Burrows: Mormon Artist
Harold Longmore “Hal” Burrows was a painter, illustrator, and etcher. He was born on November 28, 1889, in Utah, and was a close associate of Mahonri Young. He was one of the talented artists who left Utah to study art. His first formal lessons were at the New York School of Art and the Art Students League. He worked as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist for Life and Judge magazines.
After serving as a staff artist for the Stars and Stripes newspaper in Paris during World War I, and studying at the Academy Julian, he returned to New York and found a career working as an art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and he oversaw the production of movie posters, lobby cards, theatre displays, and advertising; some he created himself. He worked on such projects as Ben-Hur, Gone with the Wind, and The Wizard of Oz. He worked for MGM from 1923 until 1958. He also designed and executed some of the first moving electric signs on Broadway that used mirrors instead of electric lights during the World War II blackouts.
He also produced many pieces that came to be exhibited in 2008 in “Long Island Beach Life 1946 As Observed by Hal Burrows.” He had two one-man shows in New York, one in 1928 and one in 1944. He died on July 26, 1965.
