Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street

by Christopher Innes

Book Overview

From the 1920s through the 1950s, two individuals, Joseph Urban and Norman Bel Geddes, did more, by far, to create the image of "America" and make it synonymous with modernity than any of their contemporaries. Urban and Bel Geddes were leading Broadway stage designers and directors who turned their prodigious talents to other projects, becoming mavericks first in industrial design and then in commercial design, fashion, architecture, and more...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300108044
• ISBN13: 9780300108040
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

The Creators of American Modernism

Modernism was the artistic world's response to the widescale destruction and carnage of the Great War. Although the United States came out of the War as the world's strongest economic power, it was late to join in the Modernist movement. As late as 1925, the United States was unable to find qualified craftsman or manufactures working in the modern spirit to attend the Paris Exposition. This Exposition was to serve as the high point of the Art Deco movement. Into this creative void, entered two American theater designers, Joseph Urban and Norman Bel Geddes. Sensing a need and market for new ideas, they left the Broadway theater and branched out into a truly astonding array of artistic ventures. Working seperately, they designed clothes, jewlery and fabric. In the world of architecture, they designed theaters, office buildings, houses and night clubs. They ventured into areas such as automobile, train and ship design. The two men became America's first and most influential industrial designers. Urban and Bel Geddes' creations dominated American material culture from the late 1920's to the mid 1950's. There are some very attractive coffe table books about American Design during this period. From such books as "American Modern", "Machine Age", and "American Streamlined Design", I knew they were important designers but I had no idea of the sheer scale of their creations. "Designing Modern America" does not have the beautiful pictures of the earlier mentioned books but for detailed information on the age and history of its two design giants, it is a superior book. Highly recommended.