UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Tilting at Modern: Elizabeth Gordon's "The Threat to the Next America" Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87m3z9n5 Author Corbett, Kathleen LaMoine Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Tilting at Modern: Elizabeth Gordon’s “The Threat to the Next America” By Kathleen LaMoine Corbett A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Andrew M. Shanken, Chair Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty Professor Galen Cranz Professor Laurie A. Wilkie Fall 2010 Abstract Tilting at Modern: Elizabeth Gordon’s “The Threat to the Next America” by Kathleen LaMoine Corbett Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Berkeley Professor Andrew Shanken, Chair This dissertation addresses the ways that gender, politics, and social factors were exploited and expressed in the controversy surrounding the April 1953 House Beautiful editorial, “The Threat to the Next America.” House Beautiful’s editor, Elizabeth Gordon, wrote and published this editorial as a response to ongoing institutional promotion of experimental modern residential architecture, which fell under the umbrella of the International Style, a term that came from a 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Gordon warned her readers that the practitioners of the International Style, which she deplored as “barren,” were designing and promoting unlivable housing. She specifically condemned German immigrant architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as well as French architect Le Corbusier. “The Threat to the Next America” was laden with terms and phrasing that exploited American fears of communism, which in that year were at a fever pitch due to the well-publicized “witch hunts” conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Gordon’s editorial provoked strong responses from architects, designers, and others. Some cheered her for standing up to institutions that many felt had deliberately excluded alternate threads of modern architecture and design from public promotions. Others damned her for endangering the careers of European immigrant designers by obliquely associating them with communism as McCarthyism swept the country. Many of the negative responses also revealed a high level of discomfort with the fact that a woman had inserted herself so vociferously into what had primarily been an internal debate in the heavily male-dominated field of architecture. Others were upset that a magazine so associated with mass consumption of household goods should speak out against architects who had carefully avoided the appearance of commercialization. Those who had roles in the controversy surrounding the editorial were some of the best known figures in American modern design at mid-twentieth century. They included Frank Lloyd Wright, Douglas Haskell, Lewis Mumford, Jean and Harwell Hamilton Harris, William Wurster, and many others. By framing the controversy and the roles of these individuals in applicable historic and cultural contexts, it is possible to better understand how “The Threat to the Next America” affected Elizabeth Gordon’s legacy, House Beautiful’s ongoing interpretation and presentation of modern design, and public acceptance and non-acceptance of modern housing in the United States. 1 For Eleanor Heidenwith Corbett i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Introduction vi Chapter One: The World and the Woman Behind “The Threat to the Next America” 1 Finding and Defining Consumer Taste 6 Women’s and Shelter Magazines: Placing House Beautiful on a Genre Continuum 7 The House Beautiful: A Voice in the Wilderness in the Age of Dens 11 Mass Consumption and the road to McCarthyism 15 Elizabeth Gordon: Life before House Beautiful 20 Chapter Two: Planting Her Flag in the Landscape of Modernism 31 House Beautiful Goes Modern, Not Modernistic 42 Troubles with Taliesin: The Split with Frank Lloyd Wright 61 Chapter Three: The April 1953 Number 85 Setting the Stage for ―The Threat to the Next America‖ 89 Comrades in Arms 90 Jean Murray Bangs Harris 91 T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings 93 Joseph A. Barry 96 Lewis Mumford 97 Promoting ―The Threat to the Next America‖ 99 The April 1953 Issue 101 ―The Threat To The Next America‖ 108 ―… some museums …‖ 110 ―… some professional magazines, some architectural schools, and some designers…‖ 116 Chapter Four: House Beautiful meets Dr. Edith Farnsworth 133 The Farnsworth House: Exploiting Gender in the Next America 137 Chapter Five: Knocking The Pretty Lady Off The Soapbox Beautiful 155 Letters to House Beautiful 157 Criticism vs. Statesmanship: Response in the Architectural Press 170 Including Everybody In: Architectural Forum and House and Home 177 Courting Mumford 182 Spilling Out Of The Field: Comment In The Non-Architectural Press 188 ii Chapter Six: Out of the Crosshairs and into the Aftermath 196 Conclusion 203 Bibliography 211 Appendix: Unsigned Letter to Douglas Haskell 226 FIGURES FOLLOW THE CHAPTER IN WHICH THEY ARE REFERENCED Chapter One: Figures 1–4 pages 28–30 Chapter Two: Figures 5–21 pages 69–84 Chapter Three: Figures 22–32 pages 122–132 Chapter Four: Figures 33–36 pages 151–154 Chapter Five: Figures 37–42 pages 192–195 Chapter Six: Figures 43–44 pages 209–210 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project began as a paper for a seminar on the Bauhaus taught by Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty in 2001. Her encouragement and guidance was one of the rocks upon which I stood as I transformed a term paper to a dissertation, as was her work on the Bauhaus. Despite our initial concerns that it was an ―Oakland thesis‖ (as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, ―there‘s no there, there‖), it turned out to be a bigger story than we had imagined. So, first and foremost, I owe a profound debt of thanks to Kathleen. The other members of my committee also deserve my heartfelt thanks. Andrew Shanken, who stepped in to chair my committee when Kathleen went on to emerald pastures in Dublin, has been in all ways generous, and having him on board has led me to produce a much stronger work. Professor Galen Cranz, in addition to providing a theoretical cornerstone of my understanding of this story, has been patient and ever cheerful, and I thank her for that. I also thank Professor Laurie Wilkie, who stepped in when another committee member resigned from the University; she is a great thinker, a writer I look up to, and a dear friend. Other present and past faculty at Berkeley have been supportive, patient, and generous as well. I would like to especially thank professors Paul Groth, Nezar AlSayyad, Greg Castillo, and Michael Johns. Other members of the Berkeley CED community were key to this work. Elizabeth Byrne of the Environmental Design Library and Waverly Lowell of the CED archives were both were very helpful at critical junctures and I thank them. It is entirely possible that I would not be writing this now had Lois Koch not shepherded me through all the paperwork and deadlines involved. I would also like to thank Joe Gouig, for his valuable assistance in keeping me and a great many other students sane. Margo Stipe and Bruce Pfeiffer at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation were utterly generous and helpful. My heartfelt thanks to them. Robert Wojtowicz helped me solve a riddle even though he didn‘t know me from Adam. Others who deserve my thanks include researcher iv Casie Kesterson at the Getty, AIA archivist Nancy Hadley, and the staffs of the archives at the Avery Architectural archives at Columbia University, the Alexander Architectural Archive at the University of Texas at Austin, and the intrepid staff of the periodicals division at the Denver Public Library. I have been fortunate in the extreme to speak with a few people who knew and loved Elizabeth Gordon, including the late Brooke Shearer Talbot, who was so encouraging as I stepped forth with this work. Brooke and her mother, Marva Shearer, helped me understand Elizabeth Gordon as a woman with drive and curiosity, and talent for identifying talent. Architect James Lamantia and his partner William Drummond knew Elizabeth in the 1960s, and speaking with them brought her to life for me; their tale of her driving down to Manhattan from Dobbs Ferry in her blue Cord convertible is an image I will always carry. I thank them for their time and James especially for his feedback on ―The Threat to the Next America.‖ Thanks also to William Langewiesche, whose parents were part of Elizabeth Gordon‘s circle, for taking the time to share his recollections. I have benefited from a huge cheering section, dear friends and family who supported me at all junctures. I cannot name them all, but they are my village. A few deserve special mention, though: Janna Goodwin, Avigail Sachs, Lynne Horiuchi, Erica Leak, Marie Cartier, and Don McIlraith, Mary Jane Ryan, and Ana Li McIlraith. Lastly and mostly, thanks to Bonnie Clark, my partner in life‘s grand adventure, who keeps me on course as much as any human could, and who read and red-penned and kept me fed and housed and walked Harry and Bessie when I was desk bound. Thanks also to my father, John Corbett, who listened and cared and helped to keep the wolves at bay. And finally, thanks to my mother, Eleanor Corbett, who knew better than anyone I have ever known what makes a good house a good home. She is ever in my heart, and it is to her that I dedicate this work. v INTRODUCTION In the Spring of 1953, as flowers began to bloom in Central Park, a very angry woman sat at a typewriter in an office high on Madison Avenue in New York and declared war on International Style modern architecture.