Designing modern America : Broadway to Main Street / Christopher Innes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Innes, Christopher, 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban, Joseph, 1872-1933--Criticism and interpretation.

Urban, Joseph.

Geddes, Norman Bel, 1893-1958--Criticism and interpretation.

Geddes, Norman Bel.

Design--United States--History--20th century.

Design.

Theaters--Stage-setting and scenery--United States--History--20th century.

Theaters.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 320 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From the 1920's through the 1950's, 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. The two men gave shape to the most quintessential symbols of the modern American lifestyle, including movies, cars, department stores, and nightclubs, along with private homes, kitchens, stoves, fridges, magazines, and numerous household furnishings. Illustrated with more than 130 photographs of their influential designs, this book tells the engrossing story of Urban and Bel Geddes. Christopher Innes shows how these two men with a background in theater lent dramatic flair to everything they designed and how this theatricality gave the distinctive modernity they created such wide appeal. If the American lifestyle has been much imitated across the globe over the past fifty years, says Innes, it is due in large measure to the designs of Urban and Bel Geddes. Together they were responsible for creating what has been called the "Golden Age" of American culture.

Contents:

Styling for the modern age

Egos at work

Theatrical fashions

Stage and screen

Society scenery

A century of progress

Riding into the future

The world of tomorrow

Car culture

Street scenes

Reaching for the sky

Suburban heaven

Lifestyle begins in the kitchen

Selling modernity

Afterword : then and now.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-311) and index.

ISBN:

9786611730352

9781281730350

1281730351

9780300129557

0300129556

OCLC:

923588731