Norman Bel Geddes

Norman Melancton Bel Geddes
Born (1893-04-27)27 April 1893
Adrian, Michigan, U.S.
Died 8 May 1958(1958-05-08) (aged 65)
New York, New York, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Theatrical Designer
Industrial designer
Notable work Airliner Number 4
Futurama
Mark I computer case
Spouse(s) Helen Belle Schneider
The insignia used by Bel Geddes in his published works

Norman Melancton ("Big Norm") Bel Geddes (April 27, 1893 – May 8, 1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer.[1]

Early life

Bel Geddes was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Adrian, Michigan, and raised in New Philadelphia, Ohio, the son of Flora Luelle (née Yingling) and Clifton Terry Geddes, a stockbroker.[2] When he married Helen Belle Schneider in 1916, they incorporated their names to Bel Geddes.[3] Their daughters were actress Barbara Bel Geddes [4] and writer Joan Ulanov.[5]

Career

Bel Geddes began his career with set designs for Aline Barnsdall's Los Angeles Little Theater in the 1916-17 season, then in 1918 as the scene designer for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He designed and directed various theatrical works,[6] from Arabesque and The Five O'Clock Girl on Broadway to an ice show, It Happened on Ice, produced by Sonja Henie. He also created set designs for the film Feet of Clay (1924), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, designed costumes for Max Reinhardt, and created the sets for the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End (1935).

A street intersection in the City of the Future; detail of the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Bel Geddes opened an industrial-design studio in 1927, and designed a wide range of commercial products, from cocktail shakers to commemorative medallions to radio cabinets. His designs extended to unrealized futuristic concepts: a teardrop-shaped automobile, and an Art Deco House of Tomorrow.[7] In 1929, he designed "Airliner Number 4," a 9-deck amphibian airliner that incorporated areas for deck-games, an orchestra, a gymnasium, a solarium, and two airplane hangars.[8]

Norman Bel Geddes. Cocktail Set. 1937. Brooklyn Museum

His book, Horizons (1932) had a significant impact: "By popularizing streamlining when only a few engineers were considering its functional use, he made possible the design style of the thirties."[9] He wrote forward-looking articles for popular American periodicals.[10][11]

Bel Geddes designed the General Motors Pavilion, known as Futurama, for the 1939 New York World's Fair. For that famous and enormously influential installation, Bel Geddes exploited his earlier work in the same vein: he had designed a "Metropolis City of 1960" in 1936.[12]

Bel Geddes's book Magic Motorways (1940) promoted advances in highway design and transportation, foreshadowing the Interstate Highway System ("there should be no more reason for a motorist who is passing through a city to slow down than there is for an airplane which is passing over it").

Model of teardrop-shaped automobile designed by Bel Geddes

The case for the Mark I computer was designed by Norman Bel Geddes. IBM's Thomas Watson presented it to Harvard. At the time, some saw it as a waste of resources, since computing power was in high demand during this part of World War II and those funds could have been used to build additional equipment.

Bel Geddes died on May 8, 1958, in New York, New York.[3] His autobiography, Miracle in the Evening, was published posthumously in 1960.[13]

Archive

The archive of Norman Bel Geddes is held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. This large collection includes models, drafts, watercolor designs, research notes, project proposals, and correspondence. The Ransom Center also holds the papers of Bel Geddes' wife, the noted costume designer and producer Edith Lutyens Bel Geddes.[14]

Legacy

References

  1. ↑ Dyal, Donald H. (1983). Norman Bel Geddes: Designer of the Future. Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies. ISBN 9780880665841.
  2. ↑ Pylant, James (2005). "The Midwestern Roots of Barbara Bel Geddes ("Miss Ellie")". GenealogyMagazine.com. Datatrace Systems. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Magill, Frank N. Magill (2013). The 20th Century A-GI: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 7. Routledge. p. 1319.
  4. ↑ Fox, Margalit (2005-08-11). "Barbara Bel Geddes, Lauded Actress, Dies at 82". New York Times.
  5. ↑ Ratliff, Ben (2000-05-07). "Barry Ulanov, 82, a Scholar Of Jazz, Art and Catholicism". New York Times.
  6. ↑ Works, Bernhard Russell (1966). Norman Bel Geddes: Man of Ideas (Thesis). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. OCLC 3116381.
  7. ↑ Tinniswood, Adrian (2002). The Art Deco House. New York: Watson-Guptill. p. 20. ISBN 9780823003150.
  8. ↑ Stephens, Ian (March 29, 2009). "Huge Aviation of the 1930s: The K-7 and The Bel Geddes #4". Fly Away Simulation. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  9. ↑ Meikle, Jeffrey L. (2001). Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925–1939 (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781566398923.
  10. ↑ Bel Geddes, Norman (November 1934). "Streamlining". Atlantic Monthly: 553–558.
  11. ↑ Bel Geddes, Norman (January 1931). "Ten Years From Now". The Ladies' Home Journal: 190.
  12. ↑ Wolf, Peter M. (1974). The Future of the City: New Directions in Urban Planning. New York: Watson-Guptill. p. 28. ISBN 9780823071821.
  13. ↑ Yannacc, Christin Essin Yannacc (2007). Miracle%20in%20the%20Evening%2C%20was%20published%20posthumously%20in%201960&f=false Landscapes of American Modernity: A Cultural History of Theatrical Design, 1912--1951. ProQuest. p. 128.
  14. ↑ "Norman Bel Geddes Theater and Industrial Design Papers". www.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  15. ↑ Hopper, Grace Murray (January 7, 1969). Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 (PDF). Interview with Uta C. Merzbach. Washington, D.C.: Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  16. ↑ I Have Seen the Future Exhibit at MCNY
  17. ↑ "Theater Hall of Fame members".

See also

External links

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