Charles Lisanby's brother was retired United States Navy Rear Admiral James Lisanby, a former Chief of Engineers.
18 Facts About Charles Lisanby
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Charles Lisanby is currently the first and only Production Designer ever inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
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One key feature Charles Lisanby directly mastered was the use of neon lighting for shows.
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Charles Lisanby invented lighted steps as a feature of shows and was the first to implement large block letters which actors could sit on as a part of the set.
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Charles Lisanby took scenic design to new heights with monumental set pieces such as his Parisian street set which created buzz across Hollywood and within the profession.
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Charles Lisanby's work gained the attention of the Theatrical Stage Designers Union who demanded he cease working for CBS until he took a test to gain entrance into the Union.
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Charles Lisanby passed the test with the highest marks and met the influential stage designer Oliver Messel who offered him a job as his assistant working on the Broadway show Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia de Havilland in 1951.
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Charles Lisanby then worked for CBS for a number of years on such shows as the infamous $64,000 Question and Camera Three where he met Lewis Freedman, the future head of PBS and director of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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In 1958, Charles Lisanby was asked to work with Ralph Levy and Bob Banner on The Gary Moore Show where he worked for six years on 234 shows and helped give Carol Burnett her television debut.
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Charles Lisanby met Andy Warhol at a party thrown by Bill Cecil in the mid-1950s in New York.
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That particular night it was raining, so he and Warhol stood under the awning of a taxidermy shop where Charles Lisanby pointed out that he liked a stuffed peacock in the window.
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Charles Lisanby came up with the title to Warhol's book 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy, a book that granted the two their first copyrighted work, and both artists frequently exchanged art and ideas into the early 1960s.
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Warhol asked Charles Lisanby to join him in the pop art movement and become a famous pop artist as well, but Charles Lisanby did not wish to be a part of it.
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Charles Lisanby was in favor of much more realistic art and he decided that Warhol's Factory was not his scene.
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Warhol was infatuated with Charles Lisanby and wanted to a have a romantic relationship with him but it was unrequited love, causing Warhol's heart to be broken.
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Charles Lisanby donated his life's work to James Madison University in 2010.
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Charles Lisanby died on August 23,2013, at his Los Angeles, California home of complication following a fall at the age of 89.
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Charles Lisanby was outlived by his lifelong partner Richard Bostard, his nieces, Dr Sarah Hollingworth Lisanby, Mrs Elizabeth Ann Lisbany Bianchi, and his sister-in-law, Mrs Gladys Elnora Kemp Lisbany.