[1] Menasco began his art career in the early days of Hollywood, when his "blood and thunder" posters enticed movie fans into theaters to watch the first silent pictures.
In 1925, he was the architecture and set director for the original film based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
Horsemen admired the richness and feeling reflected in Menasco's paintings, and his clients included John Hay Whitney, Isabel Dodge Sloane, President Ronald Reagan and Allaire du Pont.
One of his first large paintings was for Lucille Markey depicting nine of her horses at Calumet Farm, including Citation, Coaltown and others grouped in the track with exercise boys up.
A perfect example of this detail is apparent in Nashua, with Eddie Arcaro up, painted by Menasco at Hialeah Park for Leslie Combs II.