Skip Content
U.S. Flag
  
  

Featured Biography: Lily Spandorf


From 1960 to 1981, Lily Spandorf (1914–2000) worked for the Washington Star newspaper as a contributing artist, giving readers artistic interpretations of events such as the 1968 Democratic National Convention and White House Easter Egg Rolls.

Lily Spandorf said of her Advise and Consent drawings, "I combined the action on both sides of the camera with the setting of the U.S. Cpaitol and Washington. The images capture the events surrounding this unique filming-the only time the interior of the Capitol has been used as a movie set."

Spandorf's work attracted the attention of director Otto Preminger, and at his request the images were displayed at the Washington premier of Advise and Consent, at the Trans-Lux theater on 14th St., NW. When the movie was re-released in 1987, many of the drawings were again exhibited at the National Press Club.

Many of Spandorf's other works are showcased in Lily Spandorf's Washington Never More by Mark G. Griffin and Ellen M. McCloskey, which is a collection of sketches depicting Washington, DC neighborhoods and buildings. This work is particularly significant because many of the buildings illustrated in the book are no longer standing today.

Related Works
The Senate Press Gallery, Capitol
Don Murray, Henry Fonda, and Otto Preminger in the Senate Caucus Room, Russell Senate Office Building
Old Subway from the Capitol to the Russell Senate Office Building