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Bel Geddes, Norman
Bel Geddes, Norman [né Norman Melancton Geddes] (1893–1958), scenic designer. Born in Adrian, Michigan, he studied at art schools in Cleveland and Chicago before his first designs were seen at Los Angeles's Little Theatre in 1916. Coming to New York under the auspices of Otto Kahn, he created the sets for several Metropolitan Opera productions before turning to Broadway, where his work was seen in, among others, a revival of Erminie (1920), The Truth About Blades (1921), The Rivals (1922), The School for Scandal (1923), Reinhardt's The Miracle (1924), Lady, Be Good! (1924), Jeanne d'Arc (1925), Ziegfeld Follies of 1925, Julius Caesar, The Five O'Clock Girl (1927), The Patriot (1928), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), Lysistrata (1930), Raymond Massey's Hamlet (1931), Flying Colors (1932), Dead End (1935), Iron Men (1936), The Eternal Road and Siege (1937), It Happened on Ice (1940), and Seven Lively Arts (1944). Although not an architect, he designed several theatres. Bel Geddes's interests were so broad that he eventually drifted away from the theatre, but in his earliest days he pioneered in abandoning the proscenium and foresaw the vogue for arena stages. He was an ardent modernist, so his 1920s' musical sets were masterpieces of art deco. However, his most famous theatrical achievements were his settings for The Miracle, Hamlet, and Dead End. Writing of the first, the Times's John Corbin observed, “The cathedral into which the Century Theatre has been transformed . . . is indescribably rich in color, unimaginably atmospheric in its lofty, aerial spaces.” His Hamlet made ingenious use of stairways and rostrums to suggest the various settings. Autobiography: Miracle in the Evening, 1960.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-BelGeddesNorman.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-BelGeddesNorman.html |
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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). |
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-BelGeddesNorman.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Bel Geddes, Norman." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-BelGeddesNorman.html |
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Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Bel Geddes , 1893–1958, American designer, b. Adrian, Mich. as Norman Melancton Geddes. He began his career in 1918 as scene designer for the Metropolitan Opera. He became known for imaginative designs both for the New York stage and for numerous industrial products. Geddes also designed several theaters and other buildings in the United States and abroad.
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Cite this article
"Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BelGeddes.html "Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BelGeddes.html |
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Geddes, Norman Bel
Geddes, Norman Bel (1893–1958). American designer, he became identified with the style known as ‘streamlining’, based on aerodynamics. He designed the General Motors Pavilion at the New York World's Fair (1939), and published Magic Motorways (1940). He was responsible for many interiors, designed the Toledo Scale Company Building, Ohio (1929), and produced a scheme of prefabricated housing systems for the Housing Corporation of America (1940).
Bibliography N. Geddes (1932, 1940, 1940a); |
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Cite this article
JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Geddes, Norman Bel." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Geddes, Norman Bel." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-GeddesNormanBel.html JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Geddes, Norman Bel." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-GeddesNormanBel.html |
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Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Bel Geddes see Bel Geddes, Norman . |
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Cite this article
"Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-Geddes-N.html "Norman Bel Geddes." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-Geddes-N.html |
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Geddes, Norman Bel
Geddes, Norman Bel, see BEL GEDDES.
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Geddes, Norman Bel." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Geddes, Norman Bel." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-GeddesNormanBel.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Geddes, Norman Bel." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-GeddesNormanBel.html |
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