LORANT’S PITTSBURGH Michael Hallett Stefan Lorant at his home in Lenox in 1994. photo: Abe Aronow. ‘What is the use of a book’, thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations.’ Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland, 1865 For Bruce & Gail Campbell who had the tenacity to complete and publish the millennium edition of ‘the Book’ The Michael Hallett Archive The Stefan Lorant Collection is part of the Michael Hallett Archive deposited at the Library of Birmingham (LoB). Now some of the primary material is published by Michael Hallett under his own imprint, CrabApple Publications. The crab apple is a versatile fruit indigenous to Worcestershire Published by CrabApple Publications, Worcester. U.K. Designed with Pages using Helvetica Neue fonts. Copyright © 2020 Michael Hallett All rights reserved. The scanning, uploading and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. ISBN see back cover First edition / v1.2 / October 15, 2020 The author can be contacted at [email protected] Stefan Lorant (1901-1997) Hungarian-born Stefan Lorant became a legend within his lifetime. His work as a visual and literary editor allowed him to pioneer and develop the genré of picture based journalism at a period in time that saw the emergence of modern mass communications. Internationally he became a guiding force, disseminating his ideas and political knowledge throughout Europe in the late-twenties and thirties by working in Germany, Hungary and England, eventually spreading his sphere of influence to America where he introduced the concept of the pictorial biography. His innovative layouts, his ‘exclusive’ interviews and thirst for knowledge became a familiar part of millions of everyday lives, largely through the pages of his own creations, and in particular the legendary media icon Stefan Lorant with Picture Post. His vision of photography as John F. Kennedy in 1957 a documentary medium inspired Life and Look magazines in America, and paved the way for the eventual emergence of the television documentary. For this he became recognised as ‘the godfather of photojournalism’. He edited the Munchner Illustrierte Presse in Germany, Pesti Naplo magazine in Hungary, and created and edited Weekly Illustrated, Lilliput and Picture Post in England, publishing the work of the early photojournalists. In America he wrote successful pictorial biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt as well as a book on the American presidency called The Glorious Burden. His story of Pittsburgh is a continuing pictorial biography of a city. He became a historian and Lincoln scholar. He was acquainted with political figures of the twentieth century including Hitler, Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, and knew Marlene Deitrich, Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe amongst others. OF PEOPLE AND POWER Michael Hallett reflects on Stefan Lorant’s urban biographical opus Pittsburgh, the story of an American city with photographs by W. Eugene Smith. ‘The Book’ was the title Stefan Lorant used when referring to his monumental history of Pittsburgh to its citizens, and this form of endearment was embraced by them. Why Lorant had this relationship with the city and its well-endowed inhabitants is another of Lorant’s favoured stories. ‘The Book’ was opportunist. On the surface, as Lorant was at pains to admit, the story was simple and straightforward. The idea came from Lorant’s rich friend Edgar Kaufmann who suggested he write a publication on Pittsburgh, on the surface an uninviting, dirty, industrial city. It was a notion that could be easily discounted. The idea that such a book could be produced by a foreigner and stranger to the city was deemed equally ludicrous by some. But it did happen and there had to be some other reasoning beyond the obvious gesture. Lorant was always particularly good at gestures and the publication in 1955 of his shortened illustrated biography, The Life of Abraham Lincoln is a good example; inside, the dedication reads ‘For Edgar J. Kaufmann in friendship’. In return Lorant thrived on the rare and unexpected privilege of power this afforded him. The rich could become famous in Pittsburgh but only Lorant could offer them permanent immortality by inclusion in ‘The Book’. He basked in the glitz and glamour that permeated his lifestyle every time he visited the city. He began to realise ‘The Book’ would give him a prize beyond that of money and friendship; on a cerebral level it provided him with an authority and esteem which he retained for the rest of his life. Lorant had become accustomed to the view from his farmhouse in Lenox. Moving to Pittsburgh he looked for a replacement in a city rich with spectacular views. Initially he had an apartment on Grandview Avenue on the top of Mount Washington, overlooking the Monongahela River from the Golden Triangle down to The Point. Here was an urban extravagance matched only by the likes of the rural expanse from his farmhouse on the hill overlooking the meadow and the mountains beyond. Later, when he became a prodigal son rather than just a frequent visitor to Pittsburgh he preferred the status of the penthouse suite of the Pittsburgh Hilton. He had exchanged views. Instead of looking down from Mount Washington to the tip of the Golden Triangle he looked up towards his original overview on Grandview Avenue. ‘The Book’ is the history of the visionaries who re-shaped and endowed the City, and although employment was provided for the workers this book is not essentially their story. It charts the proud pedigree of what was once the steel capital of the world evolving into a major high tech centre; it is the story of change, of Renaissance to Renaissance II; it is the story of social reform at the cutting edge, particularly through health and education and of sustenance for the body and soul through the power of sport and culture. ‘The Book’ is only eclipsed by Lorant’s story of the book. The idea for the book germinated during his visit to Edgar Kaufmann in Palm Springs. They had been friends since meeting in Saratoga Springs during the war. He visited him often in his home at Bear Run and they met frequently in New York. In 1954, having read Lorant’s Lincoln, Kaufmann was enthused by it and suggested Lorant should do a similar illustrated book on Pittsburgh, presenting the city’s history from its beginning to the present. Lorant did not take the suggestion seriously having visited the city only once a decade earlier and what he saw repulsed him. ‘The skies were black at noon and one was hardly able to breathe because of the heavy grime and the smog.’ He fled the city and never had the desire to return. Eventually Kaufmann persuaded him otherwise. ‘Edgar was waiting for me at the airport. As his chauffeur Jones drove us to Bear Run, Edgar, who was sitting in the front turned towards me and for an hour and forty minutes—until we reached “Fallingwater” (1) —he kept on elaborating on “his” project. “You have done biographies on Lincoln, and on Franklin D. Roosevelt. Why not try your hand on a biography of a city? You would have a great time with it.”’ ‘So for the next three days I explored Pittsburgh with Jones as my guide. I saw hot steel poured, glass blown, nails made, soups canned, appliances manufactured. I climbed the hills and rode the inclines. We drove to Shadyside where Jones showed me the spacious homes of the well-to-do, then to the Hill District where I looked at the congested quarters of the poor. We went to Carnegie Tech and watched the students rehearsing a play; we stopped at the Mellon 1 ‘Fallingwater’, otherwise known as the ‘Kaufmann House’ was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in 1936-37. Institute watching researchers at work. We floated down the Monongahela on a coal barge and up the Allegheny in a motorboat.’ Before his trips were over Lorant was as enthusiastic about Pittsburgh as Kaufmann and the idea of the book came to fruition. Lorant persuaded Harper Brothers, the publisher for his Lincoln book, that he wanted to do a book on Pittsburgh. While not over-enthusiastic they gave Lorant a contract but for only 5,000 copies. Lorant planned to finish the work in no more than two years; not anticipating that it would take ten whole years before the book was complete. Lorant began the pictorial research from scratch; he glossed over the volumes of the early pictorial weeklies (including Harper’s Weekly, Leslie’s Illustrated, Every Saturday) looking for illustrations on Pittsburgh. He visited members of the old families and asked them to let me see their albums. He engaged W. Eugene Smith to picture the city as it was then, and he rented a house on Grandview Avenue where he interviewed many people. Then a few months later in April 1955, Kaufmann died in his sleep in Palm Springs. Lorant thought the project would come to an end. That it did not was due to Theodore Hazlett, Mayor Lawrence, Park Martin and the heads of the Pittsburgh Foundations who decided to offer their help so the book could be finished. Harper’s began to have grave doubts about the success of the book and required subvention money for the plates. Their representative came to Pittsburgh for a meeting with Mayor Lawrence, who stipulated that in order that Pittsburghers could afford the book it should not sell for more than $10. This posed another obstacle.