Watson Barratt was best known as a set designer, but he was also a talented cartoonist, painter, and interior decorator. He was born George Watson Barratt on June 27, 1884 in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he spent his childhood and graduated from East High School in 1903. After graduating, young Barratt traveled to New York City where he studied at the Chase School of Art for two years, and then began a ten-year career drawing cartoons and cover designs for such magazines as Life, Harper's Bazaar, Harper's Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post. He also illustrated several stories that were published in various periodicals.
In 1912, Barratt tried his hand at designing sets for “little theater” groups, and by 1918 he had designed his first Broadway set for Al Jolson in Sinbad. At about the same time, he became art director for J. J. Shubert at the Winter Garden, where he designed every show for ten years, then slowed down to several shows a year.
At 36, Barratt married Louise Rand Bascom, an author whose stories he had illustrated. After marriage, he continued working in New York for such entertainers as Al Jolson, Ethel Barrymore, and Florenz Zeigfeld, and in 1924, he designed the set for the debut of Sigmund Romberg's new play, The Student Prince. In 1932, Barratt was appointed art director for the St. Louis Municipal Opera, but returned to New York in 1934, where he stayed for the next seven years doing such shows as The Lady Has a Heart, starring Vincent Price, and The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Clifton Webb.
A late shift in Barratt's career occurred in 1938 when he became co-producer of the Community Playhouse at Spring Lake, New Jersey. He worked there on summer shows until 1940, but the following year, he returned to St. Louis to resume his position as art director, where he remained until 1951.
During his 50-year career as a set designer, Barratt decorated over 1,000 shows, both on and off Broadway, as well as abroad. He also decorated the interiors of several restaurants, such as The Latin Quarter, the Cafe de Paris, the Lanai on Broadway, and Michael Todd's Theater Cafe in Chicago. In addition to designing sets and interiors, he designed concessions for both the New York and Brussels World Fairs in 1940 and 1958, respectively.
On September 3, 1951, Louise Bascom Barratt died after 30 years of marriage. Watson Barratt died nearly 12 years later on July 6, 1962 at the age of 78. They had no children.
