Bel Geddes, Norman

Bel Geddes, Norman [ Norman Melancton Geddes] (1893–1958), American scenic designer and a pioneer of décor in the American theatre. As early as 1915 he had the idea of a theatre without a proscenium, and in 1923 he won instant recognition with his magnificent designs for Reinhardt's American production of Volmöller's The Miracle. In 1931 he designed a complex of steps and rostrums for a pioneering production of Hamlet. Another of his successful experiments was the multiple setting for Kingsley's Dead End (1935). He devised art deco sets for such musical productions as Lady, Be Good! (1924) and Ziegfeld Follies of 1925. His plan for a monumental production of Dante's Divine Comedy at Madison Square Garden, for which he designed an immense circular stage, was unfortunately never carried out; nor was his scheme for a theatre-in-the-round in 1930. Nevertheless these and other seminal ideas had a great influence on the development of modern American stage design. His activity in the theatre was at its height during the 1930s, after which he concentrated mainly upon industrial design.

His daughter Barbara (1922– ) made a great success in Arnaud d'Usseau and James Gow's Deep are the Roots (1945). Among her later parts were Rose Pemberton in Graham Greene's The Living Room (1954), Margaret in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and the title-role in Jean Kerr's Mary, Mary (1961).