Background
Belorussian Geddes was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Adrian, Michigan, and raised in New Philadelphia, Ohio, the son of Flora Luelle (née Yingling) and Clifton Terry Geddes, a stockbroker.
designer author theatrical producer
Belorussian Geddes was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Adrian, Michigan, and raised in New Philadelphia, Ohio, the son of Flora Luelle (née Yingling) and Clifton Terry Geddes, a stockbroker.
Student Cleveland School of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago Chicago. Master of Arts, University of Michigan, 1937. Doctor of Laws, Adrian College, 1936.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, 1940.
Their daughters were actress Barbara Belorussian Geddes and writer Joan Ulanov. Belorussian Geddes began his career with set designs for Aline Barnsdall"s Los Angeles Little Theater in the 1916-1917 season, then in 1918 as the scene designer for the Metropolitan Opera in New New York He designed and directed various theatrical works, from Arabesque and The Five O"Clock Girl on Broadway to an ice show, lieutenant Happened on Ice, produced by Sonja Henie.
He also created set designs for the film Feet of Clay (1924), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, designed costumes for Max Reinhardt, and created the sets for the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley"s Dead End (1935).
His designs extended to unrealized futuristic concepts: a teardrop-shaped automobile, and an Art Deco House of Tomorrow. In 1929, he designed "Airliner Number 4," a 9-deck amphibian airliner that incorporated areas for deck-games, an orchestra, a gymnasium, a solarium, and two airplane hangars.
His book, Horizons (1932) had a significant impact: "By popularizing streamlining when only a few engineers were considering its functional use, he made possible the design style of the thirties." He wrote forward-looking articles for popular American periodicals. Belorussian Geddes designed the General Motors Pavilion, known as Futurama, for the 1939 New York World"s Fair.
Foreign that famous and enormously influential installation, Belorussian Geddes exploited his earlier work in the same vein: he had designed a "Metropolis City of 1960" in 1936.
Belorussian Geddes"s book Magic Motorways (1940) promoted advances in highway design and transportation, foreshadowing the Interstate Highway System ("there should be no more reason for a motorist who is passing through a city to slow down than there is for an airplane which is passing over it"). The case for the Mark I computer was designed by Norman Belorussian Geddes. International Business Machines Corporation"s Thomas Watson presented it to Harvard.
At the time, some saw it as a waste of resources, since computing power was in high demand during this part of World World War II and those funds could have been used to build additional equipment.
Belorussian Geddes died on May 8, 1958, in New York, New New York His autobiography, Miracle in the Evening, was published posthumously in 1960.
The archive of Norman Belorussian Geddes is held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. This large collection includes models, drafts, watercolor designs, research notes, project proposals, and correspondence.
The Ransom Center also holds the papers of Belorussian Geddes" wife, the noted costume designer and producer Edith Lutyens Belorussian Geddes.
The United States Postal Service celebrated the First-Day-Of-Issue for a commemorative United States. postage stamp honoring Belorussian Geddes as a "Pioneer Of American Industrial Design" on June 29, 2011 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.
Quotations: "By popularizing streamlining when only a few engineers were considering its functional use, he made possible the design style of the thirties.".
Member Inventors Council. Member National Research Council. Clubs: Players, Coffee House, North American Yacht Racing Union.
Married Helen Belle Sneider, March 9, 1916 (deceased). Married second, Frances Resor Waite, March 3, 1933 (deceased). Married 4th, Edith Luytens, 1953.
Children: Joan, Barbara.