Beginning with the dreams of Hollywood and ending in its lobbies and boulevards, A Journey through American Art Deco passes through a series of itineraries that include the most interesting examples of Art Deco, from Chicago to New York, from Denver to Phoenix, from Seattle to Los Angeles and Miami Beach. The most notable highlights of the journey are New York and Los Angeles, with their long list of Art Deco monuments.

At the great Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, American designers encountered the new style, then called moderne. Once in the U.S., European Deco turned into American Deco, utilizing clean, geometric lines and industrial materials such as steel, plastic, and glass, to adorn the interiors of hotels, stores, movie theaters, and transatlantic liners, and to give a characteristic stamp to building exteriors.

This new style came to symbolize the country with its combination of art and industry.