After the war, Day returned to Canada and attempted to begin a career as a commercial artist. In 1920, his father financed a trip to Hollywood in hopes that Day would find a job in the film industry. He was unsuccessful until a chance encounter with director
Erich von Stroheim in a hotel lobby led von Stroheim to offer Day work on the film
Foolish Wives (1922). Day served as art director on all of von Stroheim's films thereafter, apart from von Stroheim's only sound film,
Walking Down Broadway (eventually released as
Hello, Sister! in 1933). Day followed von Stroheim to
MGM, working there through most of the 1920s. In 1929, he left MGM to join
Samuel Goldwyn. He served as Golywyn's principal art director throughout most of the 1930s. During that time, he won Academy Awards for his production design for
The Dark Angel (1935) and
Dodsworth (1936). Other films during this period include
Dead End (1937) and John Ford's
The Hurricane (1937). He then moved to
20th Century Fox, where he was Supervising Art Director. He personally worked on selected films such as
How Green Was My Valley (1941), for which he won his third Academy Award. During
World War II, Day independently developed camouflage designs and
relief mapping techniques. He was eventually inducted into the
United States Marine Corps as a
Major. Day became a U.S. citizen in 1942 as a prerequisite to joining the Marines. Once in the service, he devised a technique to make relief models of assault landing sites out of mud and other available materials. ==Academy Awards==