Jerome Pycha Jr. (1903-1971) was born in Saginaw, Michigan. He was educated in Saginaw and Chicago and attended high school in Gary, Indiana, and Detroit. Apprenticeships in the fields of architecture and engineering led to work as a draftsman, then as a designer, at architectural firms in Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Pycha began his film career as a set designer for Famous Players-Lasky in 1921. The bulk of his career as an art director, from 1933 through 1946, was spent with Columbia, where his credits include BROADWAY BILL (1933), THEODORA GOES WILD (1936), THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), and the "Blondie" and "Lone Wolf" series. Pycha headed the Art Department at Hal Roach studios from May 1946 to May 1947. His freelance credits include films at 20th Century-Fox and United Artists and a dozen Hopalong Cassidy features. After working on the television show KID MAGIC and the science fiction films PROJECT MOONBASE (1953) and RIDERS TO THE STARS (1954), he apparently left filmmaking. In the 1950s and 1960s Pycha's business ventures included design and building construction, supplemented by travels to Europe.