McFadden, George A.
Biographical / Historical Note
George A. McFadden showed an early interest in design when, as a teenager, he created a mechanical store display featuring an Eskimo drinking for his parents’ drug store in Maine. Later he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where he studied design, particularly theater design. There he also met his wife Alyce, a costume designer who worked with him throughout his career.
Throughout his life McFadden pursued varied interests, as a jeweler, a metalsmith, and a creator of mechanical devices used by clowns in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He was also a faculty member at Emerson College from 1930-1931, during which time he served as the art director for several plays presented by Emerson’s Children’s Theater Company.
His designs included sets for the Boston Stage Society, the Brattle Theater, the Wharf Players in Provincetown, and the Repertory Theater, as well as window displays for such department stores as Filene’s and Jordan Marsh. Some of his store displays are still used in Boston.
After his retirement in the 1970s, McFadden began fixing and making clocks in his Winchester, MA home. While he worked with conventional clocks, he also made whimsical cuckoo clocks with quirky takes on traditional themes, some of which are now on display at local museums such as the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library located in Lexington, MA.