Frank Lloyd Wright [1]

It's a. Service of RC A. It is seven thirty five. In just a moment. Biography and sound. But first you can win a thousand dollars. Yes you can win a thousand dollars on the NBC Bandstand jingle jangle contest that it is easy to enter is writing your name just send a postcard with your name address and phone number to jingle jangle condé Garrett NBC Bandstand Box 5 15 New York 19 New York the only on NBC Bandstand every weekday morning for Teo. But right now don't delay be among the first to go by MC bird park. Not only for a biography and sound on NBC. There he is striding along the edge of an excavation beneath and there is a moving machine but still a figure of majesty. See the great cup of light hair high at the temples. They have a bland face. He

wears a flowing tie and cape. And if he were so at home among the bulldozers and the cement mixers you would guess he was a composer or a painter. But you know he's an architect and you won't have to go far to hear him called the greatest architect in the world. The National Broadcasting Company once again invites you to meet Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a repeat performance of a transcribed biography and sound originally broadcast last August 7. Our narrator is a veteran NBC correspondent Morgan Beatty. Frank Lloyd Wright the genius with a T-square has been called the pacesetter of modern day architecture the great compromiser whose buildings may startle or delight but always are true to his beliefs. We have this man's work three generations of us have and some of us have applauded and marveled. And others of us have wrung our hands and that use them creating monstrosities. Every time he has built a building we every man have

had something to say about it. When he built the lochan building in Buffalo we called it an eyesore but space waster. The Imperial Hotel we called just plain ugly. Some of its churches we called on Christian. And some of his home was. We said we wouldn't live in them for free. Not only what he has done on his master's drawing board but nearly everything he has done has upset us divided us made us like him or like him less. Like the hurricanes I had this grandfatherly man of principle and determination has been the center of an almost endless stream of controversy. It's the way of genius you say. Well maybe so but your man of genius had quite the built in pure aura of Frank Lloyd Wright. For instance. There was for lack of a better title the Milwaukee caper. The director emeritus of the late School of Art Miss Charlotte Partridge remembers that turbulent affair in 1930.

We have great enthusiasm I asked the Wisconsin chapter American Institute of Architects to co-sponsor this exhibition and lectern with a late night downing. And also frankly to help pay the bills because we had no money for it. By refusals interspersed with a much less polite remark surprised and shocked me. Why I wondered why I was stopped in the middle of the street by a gentleman architect who literally shook a finger in my face. Young woman. Don't you know what you were doing you were ignorant very ignorant. That we must have his exhibition. No walking I thought mean it and have it really good. Then again is that you the new architecture. And. Mishaps. For the like when they went off the building and the building was in darkness for two or three hours. Then a phone card. Don't worry Miss Partridge. But Mr. Wright has just been arrested because of some debt over money due extra alarm a street

right around that. Atmosphere can telephones there's a guy. Who's very active. But with the usual ability to rise above situations and friends at court he will be released just in time for my small dinner. The next morning. Just after I reach my office in Rotha Mr. Right. Will you please pay me now. Why don't you trust me. I was a. Policeman. To them that we owed them no money was much greater than their amazement. However the vision I have of the gallery legal matters have been settled and in his favor. Frank Lloyd Wright occasionally had the last laugh. But as you can see it has often been touch and go. One friend Mr Wright discovered a dozen years after the Milwaukee

incident it was the Midwest who wanted to build the Church of the future. Eyewitness to what happened. Well of Kansas City one of the leaders of the Community Christian church. They were. Married. So are you recommending noting that they didn't. Do it

quickly. But many of them and prove them in a. Committee granting a permit the Oratorio and they were going well and that. Meant the right to proceed with him without him. And that he didn't think the authorities would that would. Building very modern you. Know whenever you're getting the idea this man right. Well an individual if he's going is the common place the red tape the details the incompetence. He stays away from the crowd. Head of it usually. And when the crowd is composed of other architects he stays far

away. The architecture of the day the so-called modern architecture said Mr. Wright is served in significant refuse. Our last house. This is hardly the kind of talk to draw cheers from the American Institute of Architects group composed of practically all of the leading the square and Triangle man with the exception that is Frank Lloyd Wright. Things have never been too harmonious between Mr. Wright and the body professional. The president of the of the non-right practitioners. Some of the event and kind words to say about the individual is the problem the brave. And he not infrequently start to their direction. In 1949 there was a flourish to burying a badge of awarding its gold medal to Mr. Wright. The other day. We asked for some of the details from the man who then was president of the Douglas R.. We also asked Mr. Wright

himself for a few comments. We've taken the liberty of putting some of the gentlemen's thoughts side by side. Well never John because of they know what the right is always been alone. Well. He was not one given to joining associations and heads and agreement. And I gave it a go and I don't know whose And I told him frantically. Feeling that the architectural profession and the matter with architecture were going to die John. The proposal to award the gold medal to Mr. Wright. Naturally brought a difference of opinion within the profession. As to the form of architecture which Mr. Wright advocated. And as to his being at times critical of the procedures of the Institute. Oh I would do anything. Being foreign to join them to make. Harbor a refuge for the incompetent. Mr. Wright consider the US to a

very conservative body. Because I believe in less and less and professionalism is a good practice. I think it's a kind of refined gangsterism. And reduced in astonishment abroad who said Are you an old amateur and I was Mr Loose and the oldest. And that's the story and. That indeed is the story of the day. And if the sound of Mr. Wright's voice appeals to you if the measured needling of his words amuses you. If the outspoken sarcasm in Preview stand by there's more to come. There's hardly a topic on which the man doesn't speak up be it politics or art or philosophy. One of his favorite topics is the city. And from Los Angeles to New York easily offended people snarl when they hear the name of Frank Lloyd Wright for he doesn't appreciate their hometown Los Angeles. He has said is the great American common place. Miami and he spoke out are living in houses

pigs would be ashamed to live in Pittsburgh it would be cheaper he get to destroy it. But for New York Mr. Wright seems to reserve a special contempt. Probably because it's our biggest city and that contains the most of the worst. Frank Lloyd Wright thinks cities are all washed up. An essential culture. We couldn't have the culture we have today if we hadn't had the media it was the. Original it was founded by. The murder of his brother. If you read Genesis under the distributor it went out and found it. Well that's been murdering his brother ever since. Because there's no longer essential to. No longer essential but is Rivers in your foot on somebody because you're going to be coming on and have a.

Gun. Well you can get out of a taxi cab and walk on the tops and the roofs of the place where you're going just as you can get there. Advocate movement that would rotate the center. And it would be in them so that it would be absorbed into them and you now have a true marriage between country and. Town. Have all the benefits of it and the country. And all the benefits of the country and that. Because it is a bust of. Frank Lloyd Wright building that of a city. Well a lot of city dwellers disagree and you see he's gotten himself smack in the middle of another controversy. One of the people who think the city is anything but a busted flush is Williams second. He's the president of web unmap a multimillion dollar real estate outfit second Dark Age you with architect right

says Mr. Wright ought to come back to Earth or asphalt the area of running the city used to grow horizontally. And we don't have any Greenbelt areas. Wind up in the city of Los Angeles. For a case of. Extreme illustration. Where the fluid suburbia. From which there's no escape where you have repetitive conditions which is neither city in our country nor even really good suburb. I hear that Mr. Wright plans. To abandon the city. And run through how to get out all over the nation. Unplanned growth which is the only end result because there's no way of controlling a national population expansion just a dreamy eyed conception. Having no practical value whatever. I would go so far as to say that. Not only do I disagree with Mr. Wright. But I feel that unless we go completely the opposite of Mr. Right conception.

Of the human race may soon find itself in a position of a general psychosis. Arising from a form of boredom emanating from a lack of capacity to change pace. I believe Mr. Wright to be a great architect has made a tremendous and valuable contribution to his art. And I was inspired to do good things. But his ideas cannot. Survive. And will not. Be adopted. Not the reason for my own. But just because they don't make. Sense. And they're contrary to the needs of human nature What's it going to be. Frank Lloyd Wright's broad acres are WM's second Dark New York City. Controversy you want. Actually you don't have to get far from the architect Wisconsin home. Just go to the city where he went to school there the lake City of Madison where they're planning a Civic Center about the spring of 1954 and I think there was an increasing amount

of sentiment that Mr. Wright should be the architect for this project. The auditorium committee recommended on a vote that his name be put on the ballot to have the people off. The architect of the project turned down that recommendation of the committee. Saw the right people of medicines regulated patients and obtained them for referendum on whether or not Mr. Wright the architect and that ballot carried by a board about 14000 to twelve thousand eight hundred. Of all the people who stand. By referendum select the architect for a public structure. Couple of reasons why Mr. Wright was chosen one year you're the man. We have literally stably for.

Innovation new ideas in the field of architecture. And I think that the city the majority of people of the city want to have a rate designed a public structure in recognition of that. Frank Lloyd Wright working for the people of Madison on a public building at that. Bar let them best do his Milwaukee days when he probably couldn't have won the election the janitor the big new courthouse. Within the exhibit again. Best Buy could have an intelligent reporter followed him around. Asking questions and taking notes. Finally. What do you think of the new courthouse. Yeah. Why their dinners from a cultural standpoint. Now I use it in print. It's the truth. And so the present Milwaukee began a furious battle over the nine million dollar car house. The fact that no

longer has that and it also prides itself on being a cultural center. Could be to put millions into an outmoded building the courthouse. Did not make it citizens Tavenner Mr. Wright very popular. So emphatically for. Some time during walks trying way for him. If that isn't so important as the other thing that. It sounds like group against the world as a. Group they give the world. That was on his grandfather's family. And a good symbol of inverted sun's rays. His grandfather. A Unitarian preacher was one of the pioneers. The architect of America had deep roots here deep in the green pancake flat countryside of the Midwest. The story really started four score and seven years ago. I was born 30 miles away and said it was kind.

My father came here. He was a preacher and a teacher. My mother was a teacher and now of in academy. I met and I was the consequence and person. Which had never been able to fathom my mother wanted and I could. And she was going to have to be that I could do. So and I was gone in the room in which I was born. And of the wood engravings. And I think. So okay man doing to. You. I never had any other and I was to be an architect. And of course the word was. Well before the turn of the young right. Just short of graduation from the

University of Wisconsin. He had to be an architect and was wasting. To the forbidding metropolis of Chicago where the first rumblings of a new architecture were beginning to be. On and. On and so the. Triangle text editor and Sullivan when their own in moderns inside. They were considered. Revolutionary. And good for revolution I went. And I took some drawings with me and he looked at them and said All right. You've got a good. How much fun it was. When I was getting so that reading however I think at that time I was getting a feeling that I've been there about a year. And so I said to $5 a week. And he was to critical and said

Well. I guess we could fix that later. I go to war and I was there in seven of that time like a pencil in the master's hand. Sullivan was the only Frank Lloyd Wright ever called M.. It was 1888 and Adler and Sullivan were building the ancestors of our skyscrapers. It was new and daring and it was an education for the year. Another turning point 1888 the year he fell in love with Catherine Tobin the ballpark an impulsive teenager with serious thoughts occasionally narrowing her blue eyes. Within a year after they were married as Mr. Wright put it architecture was my profession. Motherhood became hers as a fast growing family a big busy talented brood that was destined to be abandoned later on by a young father who never took to serious fatherhood. One of that brood is now an Arizona businessman who lives in a circular house on the desert. His

father. Is the son of David Wright. I'm a third of a producer my father we had a curtain and a wardrobe operating. My recollections of him our very however. Find him more free in the bracken. And the Japanese. Development. Field.

At least. Are widely distributed. Cold in the back yard light have a fire effect in part and reversed back part of the bigger right. The mind then. Knew that there had been a talent for building cars whose factor as an architect could hardly be an objective. But we are very proud to be able to call him father. Elsewhere meaning shining brown the name of it was done in Homestead the scene of so much triumph and personal tragedy. After Frank Lloyd Wright left his family behind him. There was another woman that she perished as did six others it was murder and arson by a crazed

servant. Right just shrieked just as has been done for Frank Lloyd Wright. All there was was an aching empty this into his life marched Miriam no determined woman whose sympathy helped to fill the void. Eventually they were married but that union too had its tragedy. There were suits against him. Property seized vice charges jailed. Finally your voice Merriam Noel died soon afterward her mind and body shattered. Frank Lloyd Wright was the darling of a sensational press the raw material for big spicy headlines when he finally met the woman who stands beside him today as a big job Montenegro. They chance to meet at the ballet the beauteous Balkan Princess and The 57 year old boy. The drafting board in 1928 they press the Harrisons the basements the tragedies behind them and Mary had last Frank Lloyd Wright had found happiness professionally happiness was a long time in coming to fulfillment

recognition. They came to him deviously belatedly bought too many years he was a prophet without honor in his own land. The greatest appreciation for what we have done comes from. European countries and their end rather than from our own country. Whenever astronomers think things that occurred at home. It's always been there. People. Can blame them for thinking so. And that. I resented hearing about it in that sense. And then I understood and appreciated it. And sell it to the American people and I would like to take it early in life I had to choose between arrogant. People

critically and I. Chose honest arrogance and to change. Honest arrogance. Well perhaps it was the lesser of the weaknesses and perhaps genius maybe for given the choice it makes. They fight with Frank Lloyd Wright. They argue with him they sometimes feel as if they're up against the thought alone knows what he believes and seldom wavers. Those who know him though seem to get used to his honest arrogance and some of them almost enjoy it. Jeff Johnson one of his most faithful clients who presides over the Johnson Wax company in a penthouse office in raceme Wisconsin by Frank Lloyd Wright. Building and as I and I heard through the go I think there are white on the same thing. And if you brought in. Furniture that didn't get the rest of the building is out of sight. He designed the three legged

church here you know. And. I asked him why he didn't put a foreleg because many visitors. Come and they know it. For. More than a couple of days after. Having spent quite a lot of money for. Over two.

Frank Lloyd Wright a biography and sound will continue after a 10 second pause for station identification. I make you a MNF I'm a Chicago a service of RCA. Break Lloyd Wright has lived to see his name go into the textbooks and bound for some sort of immortality. He has lived to accept the honors of a grateful we're grateful for the beauty he has given us. But there were long and thankless years when his buildings were ridiculed or just plain ignored. About the time of the first world war is big break. And I decided to build two hundred and. Four to do serious obligations to its foreign guests and you sent a commission around the world choose a knock at the. Japanese architecture went with and I think there were three or four. Through San Francisco.

And it had America First I never would have heard of me. But they went around to Germany. And in German and heard my producer and when they got the country straight they came to tell you. When they saw the building that had been voting. And. Said not a toad Aves but would look so well in Japan. So the Emperor admitted come over and I went. And we decided to then climb into the building. The principle of the thing is to steal intention. I was in possession of the secret of that and then using it. The chance that you could exist. So why not make a fax of a building and that I want to know is rigid. And Conrad. There's a boat come through. And.

Visit the president of the Imperial Hotel Corporation and we were under you and. Him but He is under the can. The morning after the quake but didn't get the newspapers the

cables from Tokyo they said report the Imperial Hotel a shambles and. No. Doubt the truth from Tokyo as. It had been a bad news. People went around the world to find their architect just made a. Little bit roundabout. Bracing. So I went along. Like every other. Thought that we ought to have something. The.

Graph. On. The sign. And telling. Some of the buildings that we have in our community. Earth made me heart of. Pride and tell them back to work. And some clients never did get their buildings like Gerald Lowe But New York financier.