The Man Who Designed the Future by B. Alexandra Szerlip

Author:B. Alexandra Szerlip
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Birth of a Classic, Death of a Beauty

January 1938

In our town, we like to know the facts.

—NARRATOR IN OUR TOWN

Somewhere between his ill-fated Hamlet and the fortuitous meeting with Sidney Kingsley, Bel Geddes had approached Thornton Wilder about acquiring something “modern.” The playwright, who’d seen a number of Norman’s productions (including Hamlet, which he liked), agreed that his next project would be something specifically for him, perhaps something in radical contrast to Norman’s reputation as a scenic wunderkind—something that required no scenery at all! Not that Norman hadn’t already done that, using only light and props. But he took it as a promise and a challenge.

A year later, Norman’s “obstinate insistence” on a modern piece still had Wilder stumped, though he remained intrigued.

“You are probably the greatest designer since the Baroque Age,” he wrote from New Haven in the fall of 1932. “But you start being creative too promptly after reading your text. You should count ten.”

That same year, Wilder wrote a British friend:

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