Who’s responsible for this wonderful set design? Van Nest Polglase, supervising art director at RKO. Born in Brooklyn, he studied architecture and interior design in NY before moving into film design. Eventually he moved west to Hollywood where he joined RKO in 1932 bringing glamour to the beauty-starved audiences of the Depression. t’s interesting that stripes and plaids were generously used to decorate masculine quarters in many films from this era.